Walk the roof of a cruise terminal with no columns, no steps and no closing time
Free, open all night, the whale's back
The roof of the Osanbashi International Passenger Terminal, rebuilt 1988 to 2002 to a competition-winning design by Foreign Office Architects. The whole surface is a continuously folded deck of timber and grass, ramped throughout. Residents call it kujira no senaka, the whale's back.
Why it's unique
There is no other passenger terminal built on this structural idea, and it is the reason architecture students come to Yokohama. The roof is a single folded surface with no columns and no steps: every level change is a ramp.
It is also free and open around the clock, confirmed by the terminal itself, which makes it the one place in the city you can stand outdoors on a large open surface at 3 a.m. with the whole Minato Mirai skyline in front of you.
Before you go
The two sides give different pictures: the Bay Bridge side for the harbour and the bridge, the Minato Mirai side for Landmark Tower and the Cosmo Clock in one frame. The deck is Brazilian ipe, deliberately left unsanded, and the terminal warns that a fall drives splinters in, so no bare feet and no running.
There is no shade at all. It is brutal in midsummer and superb at dusk. If a ship is sailing, the rooftop send-off is the best free thing on the waterfront.