Yokohama

26-04-24

Sea Day

Cruising from Hakodate back to Yokohama makes for a pretty relaxing day and some time to just sit around and relax (P:- Evidently I don’t “do” relax very well)! for a while. We spend some time in the Explorers Lounge at the front of the ship on deck 10. At 11.30 we head down to the Lido to check out the cakes for “Cake Away Day”. Some lovely looking cakes, Black Forest, carrot, red velvet, pancake stack, salted caramel and more. We are going to lunch with Philips Gym mate so don’t need cake first. We meet Fred and his wife Carolyn at the main Dining room and wait to be seated. We share a very nice lunch and it’s lovely to put a face to a name when Philip talks about Fred. Unfortunately they head home to the USA tomorrow when we dock in Yokohama so we won’t see them for the rest of the Cruise. (P:- Had some great conversations with Fred, USAF Interceptor ( twice the speed of sound) and in latter years American Airlines Boeing 777 Captain and Flight Trainer) I am guessing it will be twice the distance in half the time on the rowing machine without Fred to chat too)!

After lunch it’s snooze time before a wander around the decks to give us some exercise.

We are booked into the Pinnacle Grill this evening and Philip is already salivating about the Bone in Rib Eye that he wants to have. Luckily it doesn’t disappoint. The whole meal is delicious, crab cakes, lobster bisque, we share the Rib Eye and Baked Alaska for dessert.

The last time we were in the Pinnacle Grill for Morimoto Seafood dinner we were greeted by the hostess, Aurora. During dinner we discussed that she seemed familiar so when we got back to our room we looked at some old photos of our Amazon trip and sure enough we had a photo of Aurora and a couple of other girls. Tonight as Aurora ushered us to our seats Philip asked if she had been on the Veendam on the Amazon Trip and sure enough it was her. We showed her our picture and she remembered us taking it. Big hugs followed, she was so excited to see the pictures, Our waiter was moved on as Aurora took it upon herself to personally look after us!

27-04-24

Yokohama

No tours today. It’s change over day and there are only 600 passengers staying and we get another 1200 newbies join us here. We dock early around 6.30 and disembarkation for those leaving will be done by 9.30am. We enjoy a lazy breakfast before heading ashore about 9am. We haven’t really got anything planned so pick up a tourist map and booklet as we leave the cruise terminal. Our plan, when we make one is to walk up to the Silk Museum and then wander our way along the waterfront walk and see where it takes us.

The Silk Museum was a great little museum. Lots of info on how the silk was produced from silk worms to spinning to weaving and some beautiful Kimonos on display. Quite a hands on museum with weaving looms, spinning apparatus, feeling the silk worm cocoons and more. Very easy to spend a couple of hours here.

We wandered back down to the water front and discovered a small fashion display with free entry so we wandered in a looked at the displays and listened to some ladies play the xylophone. They were very good.

Then further along we found a German Beer Fest with beers and food and music. Almost lunch time so we find a stand we like with tasting plates and grab one to try. Sausages, steak, chips and prawns. All very yummy. Japanese people selling German food don’t look or sound quite right but there are hundreds of people checking the stalls, eating and drinking and enjoying the atmosphere.

(P:-An “October fest” in April in Japan? As expected the whole place was immaculately clean, the food was full of flavour and very much German flavours, BUT the brat and brocwursts were bite size in typical Japanese style. Was a fun experience.

All around the park and roadsides are masses of azaleas in varying shades of pink. They are stunning and certainly brighten a dull day.

Later we find the Nissan Global Headquarters where they had a free entry gallery. Inside and beautifully displayed are some old and new cars. This Is right up Philips alley and we enjoyed the next hour looking at vehicles. Sure is a day of diversity from silk to vehicles. (P:-Noted that Judith took a liking to a particular car, sitting in it increased her liking! Fortunately for our bank account that model is not imported into Australia)! Back outside we wander along the footpath past Pia Arena where there are lines of young people, mainly females. We guess they are waiting to buy tickets or go to a concert of something, (P:- Google tells us it’s a “girly band” hence the female line up). Further along we come to the Nippon Maru Sail Training ship which was built in 1930 to train sailors. By the time it was retired it had circled the globe 45 times , travelled 1.83 million kilometres and trained over 11000 sailors. The engine has been in use for 54 years and two months, the longest time for a marine engine. It has 29 sails and has unfurling days 12 times a year. Would be a pretty impressive sight with the sails up.

From here we walked back towards our ship, through an area with fun rides, roller coasters and a huge Ferris wheel. As the has cleared we decide to ride the Ferris wheel to get an overview of this part of the city. The Ferris Wheel was built in 1989 for the Yokohama Expo and takes 15 minutes to complete a full circle. In the centre of the wheel is a huge clock that can be seen across a huge area. This is the largest clock in the world. This was beautifully lit at night and brightened the view as we departed from Shinko Pier.