Travel Chapter 25- Japan 2

Pictures for this chapter can be seen at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/Japan20091?feat=directlink


After a pleasant day at sea between Kobe and Yokohama, we arrived early in the morning into Tokyo Bay. This bay extends from Tokyo to the Pacific some 60 miles inland. It is a huge natural harbor and thus very protected. We were heading for a berth in the Yokohama port. Tokyo itself has a huge area and a population of 12 million people. As the city extends continuously to Yokahama, the greater Tokyo area has a population of around 35 million people or 25 percent of the total population of Japan.

After passing under the huge suspension bridge of Yokohama at around 7 am, we executed an elegant 360 degree turn before sliding smoothly into our position on the passenger dock of Yokohama. This is by far the most functional and beautiful passenger terminal we have seen on this trip. It is huge and can park 4 ships on the pier. The pier itself has a huge arrival and departure terminal with all the floors done beautifully in solid teak planking. Even the roof of this terminal can be accessed by persons awaiting the arrival of ships as the roof which has a lovely curve in it has been laid out with grass, teak floor and benches so that persons awaiting ships are almost at the level of passenger decks of the ships. The morning we came in there were some 100 persons there to greet us, This included a number of our own students who had made their way to Tokyo on their own the night before and were looking forward to getting on board for breakfast and showers. The port terminal had a wonderful boarding machine similar to what one sees at airports. This meant an easy transfer from the ship to the terminal by a sky walk.

After minimal formalities as we had never left Japanese territorial waters, we were cleared to head ashore. I had laid out three goals for the day in order to give the day a sense of adventure. First, I had an address in Tokyo to which we had to go to pick up my new American Express card, find some foreign language newspapers and magazines as we had 10 days ahead of us at sea and find a sim card for my phone.

So we came off the ship by 10 am and consulted with one of the nice ladies at the reception desk. She showed us where the Amex offices were and gave us instructions requiring getting on 3 different subway and rail lines to arrive at our destination. Armed with this information, we headed to the local subway station, figured out which tickets to buy to get to the Yokohama transfer station, changed subways and purchased new tickets. Got to the main Tokyo station, got new tickets and boarded the third line for our destination. Nowadays this is a little easier as they show the station signs not only in Japanese script but also in roman letters. After 75 minutes of travel, we arrived at our destination station. The problem was to find the address of Amex which we had been given. I was once again amazed at out little English is spoken in Japan. It took me 5 people before I found one who understood what I was looking for which I written on a sheet of paper and who knew in which direction to send us. Japanese street addresses read as follows: 3.56.49. I presume the numbering system means something and I hope one day someone will explain it to me. But at any rate, the numbers do not appear on the buildings so I am not sure how much use it is to anyone anyway. So we found the Amex offices and sure enough, within 10 minutes of our arrival and of my producing my credentials, a nice lady appeared with my new card and we were on our way.

I had reserved 3 tickets on the 1.40 pm Tokyo tour bus. We had to get to the World Trade Building which was on the other side of town. So we reboarded the metro system and headed to the assigned station. We got there in time for the bus which we boarded and off we went to visit Tokyo. The tour took us to the Imperial Palace of which we saw only the outside wall and then on to the Tokyo TV tower which is similar to the Eifel Tower in Paris and a little higher than the French one. The view of Tokyo from the observation deck showed a city which extends as far as the eye can see in every direction. It is quite amazing how the Japanese can keep a human element in such a large city but the little side streets are always clean and with flowers, trees are everywhere. We lucked out again as the Cherry blossoms were still in full bloom in this city. The tour visited the large Asakusa Kannon (built in 645) temple and dropped us off near the Ginza area. I asked the tour guide where we could have good sushi and he pointed to a little place just under the Japan Rail tracks headed into the Central Station. As it was only 5 pm we decided to walk to the Ginza street which is the main shopping street of Tokyo. It is a huge street lined with every trademark company stores from Rolex, to Gucci to Burberry and many more. We stopped in a sidewalk café and had a nice coffee while watching the population walk by. We then headed back to the sushi restaurant and sat down at the counter. A little belt goes around the counter with plates with different plates of sushi come by and one picks the ones one wants. Each type of sushi comes on different colored small plates. After the meal, the bill is prepared based on the number and color of the plates. We sat there and had a good meal. Emmett hat a great meal as he ate 15 different plates saying sushi was and is his favorite meal and he showed it that night!

We then headed back to the ship in Yokohama which took us a good 55 minutes on fast trains and Yokohama is considered a part of Tokyo. When we got back to the ship, the lights of Yokohama were in full force and were very beautiful. They love their lights in Asia.

The next morning we joined a ship organized trip to visit Mount Fuji and Hakone which are both about 50 miles south of Tokyo. The drive through the country certainly gave a different view of this country from what one sees in the big cities. It is a mountainous country in which only 13 % is arable and 73 % is mountainous. But the countryside is beautiful with high mountains and large valleys between them. We got to Mount Fuji which is about 2 hours from Tokyo along great highways but without views as there are sound barriers almost everywhere on Japanese freeways. But the drive up Mount Fuji to the fifth station at 3000 feet was really quite pleasant. The station had only opened a few weeks earlier and there were about 4 feet of snow still around. The views of this mountain are quite spectacular and more impressive than what one sees on postcards. The mountain is closed all year round except from July 1 to August 30th when the Japanese are allowed to climb the mountain. The views from station 5 into the valleys below were quite spectacular. We again lucked out with a clear sunny day so one could see the lakes which have formed from previous volcanoes around Mount Fuji. It looks very much like the Swiss alps albeit not quite as high. There is no skiing on the mountain which is considered sacred and is located in a national park.

After spending an hour we reboarded the bus and headed for Hakone which is locate on the range some 30 miles away from Mt Fuji. There we took a cable car which provided a further great view of Fuji as well as lake Ashi which itself is at about 1000 feet altitude. We all enjoyed the afternoon and after a short boat ride on the lake we headed back to the ship.

There the whole ship company had to disembark again and go through Japanese exit formalities which meant having our passports stamped by an emigration officer. This took an hour for most people and delayed our departure to 9pm. With 3 toots on the horn, we pulled away from the Yokohama pier and headed south out of the Tokyo Bay. As I do often, I stayed for well over an hour on the top deck watching our progress down the west shore of the Bay in a clear and full moon night. It was nice to be at sea again although it was the last we would see of Asia on this trip, we were now heading for home. We have 10 days at sea, including 2 Easters as we cross the date line. This will take us to Honolulu where we have 2 days before heading to our last port in Guatemala. Being at sea is nice and the sea routine settles back into place with classes and other activities. I will be working on my presentation to the student body scheduled for April 15th when I will be the morning speaker at Global Studies. I have been asked to talk about the World Bank, Japan and the Global crisis. All this in an hour presentation. I guess I will have to speak quickly to cover that much ground in the time available. More on that next time.
Cheers