We were at sea in the morning, so normal activities continued – bridge and a lecture by Joe Kess about the cities Kyoto and Tokyo. Good info shared, just too quickly and a little random.
Some quick facts about our next port – Yokohama. It is on the largest of the four islands, Honshu. Yokohama is an old city, but because of the 1923 earthquake and the damage from WWII, it has had to rebuild – and so now it has a lot of modern buildings. In the 800s it was a farming village of 350 people, but now there are 4 million people in the downtown area.
We arrived in Yokohama around 2 p.m. in rain and very cold weather. We were docked at the International Osanbashi Passenger Terminal. There was a band playing as we arrived plus many others on the pier welcoming us. They have a great pier center for people to say hello and goodbye – plus it is a park on the top level.
Since we had an excursion to Tokyo the next day, this was our only chance to see Yokohama. So, we were one of the first out the door to catch the courtesy shuttle to the train station – about a 20 minute ride. We thought we would be near Chinatown – but we were given bad info, so we were closer at the pier! So then we decided to do the on/off bus around the city since it was raining. We went with Barb and Charlie, but it was easier to go back to the pier to pick it up. So, it was a bit of a wasted trip except to see the huge train station – and it is only one of many.
The on/off bus started pretty poorly since it was packed – standing room only – and the windows were fogged so you couldn’t really see out! Oh well . . . Doug and I got off at the stop where the red brick warehouses are located – which are now shops and restaurants. We walked around there for an hour or so until we caught the last bus back to the pier. It would have been nice to relax with a cup of tea inside but we didn’t have that much time, so had to rush. However, the ride back was not crowded at all, so we were able to see much more of the city. We wish we had more time so we could have seen their Chinatown – the largest in Japan – but it would have been pretty unpleasant in the rain.
We didn’t get back to the ship until about 6:45 p.m. so we went to the Lido to eat. Had dinner with Arlene and Duane (bridge partners) and their friends from the Seattle area. They were really interesting, and we learned about Goodwill Guides in Japan – mainly retired people who volunteer their services to show you around the city. The only cost is their transportation and any entry fees. So, these four people had seen a lot of Yokohama with this nice elderly man! After dinner, we saw the two electric bikes this other couple had purchased in Shanghai. They took up a lot of their room space, but they were pretty neat. It cost them about $260 in China, while it would have been about $2,000 in the USA.
We went to hear the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center play. We were supposed to hear them in China, but they couldn’t get Visas or something, so they were able to get to this port. But instead of 4, there were 3. The feature were the violin and viola duets with the piano player in the background. They were extremely talented, but we didn’t especially care for their musical selections.
Before going to bed, we took some pictures of Yokohama at night!
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