Photo/Illutration Negishi Forest Park is one of the most beautiful spots in Yokohama. The large area can accommodate a range of activities and people with different interests. It is always crowded around cherry blossom season. (Photo by Lisa Vogt)

Where can one spread out and have a nice picnic in the Yokohama area? The Negishi Shinrin Koen with its wide open spaces. Hmm, come to think of it, how do you say shinrin in English? Maybe it’s forest grove. Walking around the vast park, I came across a few places that could be called a grove, but I’m not sure about the forest part. Oh well, I’ll stop dwelling on such semantic detail.

In a country where many parks prohibit walking on lawns and the only place to relax is on small benches (which usually aren’t made with comfort in mind), this park is an oasis of vast expanses of grass where adults can lounge about, and children roll or run around to their hearts’ content. In the springtime, people from all over come to enjoy the delicate pale pink blossoms of cherry and plum trees.

If you were to take a bird’s eye view of the park or jog around it, with its surface area of over 184,000 square meters, you’d notice its oval shape. The reason? It was Japan’s first permanent Western horse-race course, constructed in 1866, next to the Yamate residential district where many Westerners lived. When built, it was intended for foreigners, but Emperor Meiji frequented the races, which subsequently led to the popularity of the sport among Japanese elites.

The Negishi Grandstand ruins within the park grounds are today surrounded by barbwire. In 1942, the government banned horse racing, and the Imperial Japanese Army used the structure as a printing house and the stables for housing Australian POWs.

After the war during the occupation, General Douglas MacArthur used the printing press to print capitulation documents, and it became the allied communications headquarters. Thereafter, the entire area was transformed into a residential district for the influx of G.I.s and their families. In 1977, it was returned to Japan and the city of Yokohama created this huge park.

The Equine Museum of Japan, predictably, has all the information you ever cared to know about horses and the history of horse racing. There’s a Pony Center for kiddies where you can ride or feed carrots to horses.

This is the perfect place to idle the day away — lay on the grass with a good book, meditate or do yoga, explore the grounds and museum, and rejuvenate away from all the hustle and bustle. You can’t beat the entrance fee to the park — it’s free.

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This article by Lisa Vogt, a Washington-born and Tokyo-based photographer, originally appeared in the Jan. 22 issue of Asahi Weekly. It is part of the series "Lisa’s Wanderings Around Japan," which depicts various places across the country through the perspective of the author, a professor at Meiji University.

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