Kannai Walking Guide — 7 Spots Through Yokohama's Music Town, from Cafés to Jazz Bars

Around Kannai Station there are 7 walking spots, ranging from a café and a long-established tonkatsu restaurant to a jazz live restaurant and bars open until late. The fun of this area is how it changes by the hour: pressed sandwiches and 1927-founded tonkatsu by day, record bars and soul bars in Yoshidacho by night. Prices span a wide range too, from a ¥680 cream soda to the ¥2,200 katsu set.

Suggested route: start at [LANDER](/en/spot/6837a162-9c66-49b9-bb1b-0505a07422d3) in the daytime, eat early at [Katsuretsuan Bashamichi Main Store](/en/spot/c4d7f227-c146-4eef-9097-0fa0556a49fb), then head to [BarBarBar](/en/spot/c6273a82-044f-4245-85bc-8b468b68bc22) after dark, continue through Yoshidacho with [GESAN](/en/spot/e009e877-c707-4853-aa12-5ff35d6c9ecf), [LISTEN](/en/spot/17fc7bc4-0071-4856-9e1f-a69ec6051e88) and [Essence](/en/spot/bff67baa-476a-4562-9260-0d7db6fca950), and finish at [Bar Discus](/en/spot/631ddf0a-fb9f-47a6-982e-bd056046e878).

LANDER

A Kannai café on the 1st floor of the TAISANEN Kannai Building at 1-1-5 Aioicho. Skaters gather here, and the signature item is a pressed sandwich recreating a taste the owner ate in the United States. The chili cheese sandwich is ¥1,500 and the cream soda ¥680. A good place to fuel up before the walk.

Katsuretsuan Bashamichi Main Store

A long-established tonkatsu restaurant founded in 1927. The signature dish is the Katsuretsu set with fillet cutlet at ¥2,200. Inside hang works by the woodblock artist Shiko Munakata, who also created the lettering of the restaurant's name — something to look at while your food arrives. The address is 5-58-2 Tokiwacho, Naka-ku.

BarBarBar

A jazz live restaurant at 1-8 Onoecho, Kannai Arai Building B1-8. For more than 40 years it has carried on the scenery of "Yokohama, the music town," and its neon-sign door is the landmark. Stepping down into the basement is itself the switch into the night half of the walk.

GESAN

A café bar at 5-1 Yoshidacho, room 206, with an interior built around water and green tones. The dessert menu is well stocked: the Twin Peaks banana split is ¥1,200, and the house fruit sour, whose fruit changes with the season, starts at ¥750. It opens at 18:00 (17:00 on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays); check the closing time on Instagram (@gesan_yokohama).

LISTEN

A record bar that opened in 2023, on the 2nd floor at 3-9 Yoshidacho. It uses an interior handed down from a jazz kissa, so the room itself carries the previous era forward. It is a place to face music straight on, across eras and genres.

Essence

A soul bar at 71-2 Yoshidacho where the dancing does not stop until dawn. Its appeal is the sound made by JBL speakers, and drinks start at ¥800. Come here after sitting and listening at LISTEN, when you want to swing all the way over to moving.

Bar Discus

At 4-52 Tokiwacho, Bunnoya Building 101. A bar open until late, known as just the right place for a drink after filling up at Keika Hanten. Good for quietly bringing a long day down.

Tip: 4 of the 7 spots — GESAN, LISTEN, Essence and BarBarBar — open in the evening. Building the walk in two parts, LANDER and Katsuretsuan by day and Yoshidacho by night, keeps it easy.