Yokohama - 12 September

We arrived in Yokohama at 7:00 this morning. It was a rainy, nasty day and everybody was disappointed that the fantastic weather we’ve had for the last 10 days didn’t extend itself to Yokohama. At 9:00 am we were all called to the Union for the welcoming ceremony from the Yokohama city officials. Apparently, this is the first time the MV Explorer has used Yokohama as a port so there were speeches, plaques, flowers and effusive compliments. After that was out of the way, some musicians set up their drums entertained us with ancient Japanese music. There was one drummer who was extraordinary. It was amazing to watch him perform. He was also the lead dragon when they performed that piece. It was fascinating and a wonderful way to begin the visit. It was also an excellent way to pass the time since we didn’t get off the ship until 1:00. Aaarrrggghh! Clearing customs always takes so long, and this port was longer than usual. It’s incredibly frustrating to sit at the dock and not be able to get off.

Once we got off the ship, we stood in line to go through security where the officials x-rayed our bags and checked our pass ports. We were finally clear of the customs rigmarole and into the city of Yokohama. I was part of a group that was headed to Tokyo so our main goal was to find the train station. Of course, we had to make things more difficult by finding the ATM machine and getting money for the trip. In Japan, the best ATM to use for foreign debit/credit cards is in the post office. Fortunately, it was right across the street from the train station. Unfortunately, we lost some people along the way who decided they didn’t want to stick with the group but neglected to tell anybody that. Grrrr! Also unfortunately, I had a brain freeze and couldn’t remember my pin number for my debit card and couldn’t get any money. $#@%$&! I was lucky that I had gotten money ahead of time for all of the countries we would be visiting and had approximately $25 in yen. At least this would get me into Tokyo.

We finally got on the train to Tokyo and thought we would have an efficient commute to our destination. We were oh so wrong! The Tokyo train and metro system is a labyrinth of confusing lines of tracks that is impossible to comprehend. After 3 hours and a gazillion transfers to different tracks we finally arrived at the Yasukuni Shrine at 4:20 pm. It was a beautiful park and the entrance to the shrine was very impressive. It is a very controversial war memorial because convicted war criminals are commemorated in this shrine along with the 2.5 million soldiers and citizens who died in WWII. The museum also has a unique perspective on the war that doesn’t address the atrocities of Japan’s actions against other countries. The museum has offended its neighboring Asian countries with this viewpoint.

After we absorbed the museum et al, we made our way back to the infernal metro system and spent another half life on it traveling to another part of Tokyo for a specific tempura restaurant. Our guide, Sara, had lived in Tokyo for three years and was an alleged pro at navigating the streets of Tokyo but after following her around for the day, I would have to question her expertise. We took some detours that took us to some unusual, but interesting, streets!

At the tempura restaurant, I ordered vegetable tempura (thank god for menus with pictures on them!) and had a hasty lesson in using chopsticks from one of my dining companions. Let me say now that I have absolutely no skill in using chopsticks and am highly doubtful I ever will. My grip on the chopsticks was painful to watch and even more painful to do – I developed a chopstick blister. However, I managed to grasp the bits and pieces of tempura long enough to dunk them in the broth (drop them?) and then sort of get them into my mouth. The food was excellent but it took me forever to eat it.

After dinner, we got back onto the metro (AGAIN!) and made our way back to the one of the main metro hubs called Shebuya where we had left our backpacks in the lockers. It was about 9:00 pm and the group split up and we all went our separate ways. I was with two women, Alexis and Lara, who were spending the night in Tokyo too. We decided to walk around a bit and explore the area for a little while. It was mind boggling. I was gawking at everything like a rube from the backwoods. Tokyo at night is dazzling with all of the neon lights and billboards.

We walked around for about an hour until exhaustion set in and we got back onto the metro. I had made a reservation at a hotel only a couple of stops away and Alexis and Lara were determined to find a capsule hotel to stay in (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:CapsuleHotel.jpg). They had found a description in one of the travel guides and wanted to give it a try. So I left them on the metro and agreed to meet with them the next day at the Imperial Palace. The photo is me and Alexis near the Shebuya metro station.

After getting off the train, I got lucky in finding the correct exit for my hotel. The Tokyo metro centers are a rabbit warren of passages taking people to other metro lines and have multiple exits. Fortunately, they do a good job of including English in their signs. I made my way out of the metro and managed to find my hotel with absolutely no difficulty and quickly went up to my room. It was an itsy bitsy room by American standards but quite spacious by Japanese standards. It had a double bed and a western style bathroom which was all I needed to be happy. I played with all of the various buttons that were in the bathroom - let me just say that I’m in love with their toilets and leave it at that : )

I watched a few minutes of Japanese television which consisted of a channel of a panel of dour looking men talking very seriously about something (I found out the next day that the Prime Minister of Japan had resigned that day), a sumo wrestling match, two channels of Japanese soap opera, and one channel each for CNN and BBC with Japanese voice overs. Given that my knowledge of Japanese is limited to konnichi wa – which I didn’t hear at all while watching any of the channels – I quickly grew bored with the television and went to bed.