You haven't done Japan until "Udon" Yokohama!!

The only thing greyer than our arrival in Yokohama was my grey roots that were in dire need of tinting…  Although we are a white ship, we seem to be the only splash of colour in the harbour.  The forecast was not great with about 90% chance of rain, though not quite sure where that 10% was, as didn’t see it all day.

The Osanbashi Cruise Terminal was another terminal to make us green with envy.  Its grass-covered roof was built to ascetically blend in with its surrounding parklands. Whilst waiting for our guide we explored its displays, tried to log into their free internet, and were not impressed with the exchange rate given on the foreign currency ATM.

 Just like everyone else who we had met in Japan, our guide Yosuke was a friendly, kind and gentle soul and did his best to ensure we had a good day despite the adverse conditions.

Taking an alternate route into Tokyo to avoid traffic worked very well and we really didn’t hit the same sort of traffic snags we encountered in Beijing.

We arrived at the district of Asakusa, but unfortunately so did the rain.  The Nakamise Shopping Street is the first official shopping street in Japan.  On entering through the first gates there is an avenue of small stalls selling souvenirs and trinkets that the Japanese just love.   

The next set of gates take you into the square that fronts the Senso-ji temple, one the oldest and most popular temple, it is visited by over 30 million people a year.  

 Catering for visitors and worshipers, for a couple hundred yen you can select a fortune-telling stick. Pay your money, pick a stick, match the number and have your deepest and darkest questions answered. As long as it is a fairly general question you will be assured of a correct answer.

Walking back through the side streets, it seemed many of the vendors were not in a hurry to open their shops due to the inclement weather.  For us, it was a bonus as many of the closed shutters had beautiful murals painted on them.  

 As part of this walk, we also passed Stars Plaza. Just like in Hollywood, their boulevard of handprints, Japan has immortalized its stars in the sidewalk.

Post Boxes are so cute

Yokohama's Busiest intersection, not so busy today!

 Driving through the different districts of Tokyo included Ginza, home to the Rodeo Drive of Japan, a street where electronics feature and over to the Harajuku area taking in Takeshita St, the birthplace of young fashion trends and culture.  We must have looked a little out place in our cargo’s, comfy shoes, rain ponchos and umbrellas.

Close by was the Meiji Shrine.  A shrine dedicated to the Emperor Meiji, the father of modern Japan. In what resembles an oasis in the middle of Tokyo’s concrete jungle, the Shrine is surrounded by a dense man-made forest of over 100,000 planted trees.  Each year offerings are made to the enshrined deities in the form of Sake in straw wrapped barrels, and as Emperor Meiji moved them from the old to new, barrels full of wine also adorn the entrance to the temple. 

Sake Barrels 

Wine Barrels

For 500 yen you can hang a votive tablet with your special personal prayer and gratitude towards the deities around the divine tree. Each morning at the Mikesai ceremony your “supplications” are conveyed by the priests.  At this stage, the only supplication we wanted was for it to stop raining.

All I can say is lunch was to die for.  Given the choice of Udon and Ramen noodles, the latter was the most popular given that after Hakodate, I could not look at another Udon noodle without the thought of heaving.

Everything about our meal was delicious, the noodles, meat and the hot soup…  The menus, another excellent example of point and eat ordering.  The venue was small… so small that once you placed your order, the waiter would just shout it to the kitchen from the end of your table.

  Still wet and miserable outside, Yosuke decided that visiting the top of the Tokyo tower may not be a good idea because of the low visibility. Instead, we opted for a visit to the Takashimaya Department store with a food court to rival any David Jones store in Australia.  Every type of food prepared and packed to perfection, ready to take home and serve.  Seafood being the most popular, and if not for the price tag I would have brought home a presentation pack of a selection of different flavoured Kit Kats.  With their generous tastings of the things you were game to try, the girls always tried to encourage you in their very broken English.

What I should have mentioned was parking.  As you enter the underground car park you are constantly directed by staff until they finally point you straight into a vacant spot. They will even be there to help with ticketing and payment when you finish.

Heading back with a little time to spare in Yokohama we gave the open-air Chinatown a miss and headed over to Yokohama’s Red Brick Warehouse complex.  Just as expensive as those in Hakodate, but browsing was cheap.  Not being able to stand the miserable weather conditions anymore we headed back to the terminal where this time we successfully accessed the free internet and managed to spend a few of our leftover yen.

Cold, tired and with the onset of our subsequent colds we did head up to the deck to get some final pictures as we sailed out on our next sector.  Passing out under the Yokohama Bay Bridge we swore that we were going to hit it, a sense of a much smaller clearance than that we experience with our own harbour bridge.

Now we readied ourselves as we have eight straight days at sea.

And so it is “Sea La Vie” from the beautiful Sun Princess.