Precious Memories: Yokohama and Tokyo

Tuesday, July 4, 2023

Yokohama and Tokyo

2023 Spring Asia Cruises I - Holland America Westerdam Singapore to Yokohama

March 13 & 14, 2023 (Monday & Tuesday) - Yokohama and Tokyo, Japan

Yokohama

After another sea day, Westerdam arrived at Yokohama early in the morning. As I was watching the pilot boat leading us into the harbor, it felt unreal that we are finally leaving the ship today after 16 days of sailing around Asia. Osanbashi Cruise Terminal is a familiar place for us. We have been here many times, embarking and debarking different ships in the past, so it felt almost like coming home.

We were all ready to debark the ship even though it always feels sad to be leaving, and they called our group pretty much on time. It didn’t take long for us to be out and found our luggage. Then got in line for the taxis to the hotel. We needed two taxis for the six of us. Fortunately, we got the taxis soon enough before a long line building up behind us.

Pilot right next to our ship as we sailed into the harbor.

It's always fun sailing under a bridge. This time the Bay Bridge in Yokohama.

The hotel was not ready for us but we got to leave the luggage there and started our exploration. We walked over to the Cup-of-Noodle Museum because World Porters was not opened either.

Cute!

We started our walk towards the Landmark building area but not much is opened yet. It was very quiet and certainly beautiful near the Nippon Maru Memorial Park.

Nippon Maru Museum was still closed.

Beautiful cherry blossoms

I think this is the Landmark Building.

After we walked around a little, we waited for the mall to open and then got in. We found the revolving sushi place still there so we decided that’s where we want for lunch. It turned out to be more expensive now and I don’t think we enjoyed it as much as before. They are actually do the ordering using an I-Pad, no more food coming around on the conveyer belt.

After lunch it rained, and rained, and rained some more. We had to wait it out until the rain was gone before walking back to the hotel, check-in and rested for the afternoon.

Then we got up around 4 and took the minatomirai train to Chinatown. First, we walked to the Gundam Factory area where Christian got to go in for a Gundam show. He also got a model with his ticket. We were so cold out there waiting for him to come out. He said it was very good! The Gundam show will continue for another year until March 2024, I was told.

Westerdam was still at Osanbashi Pier.

Gundam Factory

Then we went to the Mega Donki place and got some sushi, sashimi, bread and stuff for breakfast tomorrow morning. Then we walked to Chinatown but it was kind of quiet and stores were already closing down.

Chinatown at night

We then went back to the hotel, put our stuff down and then went out for dinner at the fried pork chop place, rated as #1 in Yokohama. It was good but to me, not the best. Anyway, a good dinner to end the day and we were ready for bed.

March 14, 2023 (Tuesday) Yokohama

How often do you get to have sashimi and sushi for breakfast?

They were so good!

Today, we plan on going into Tokyo for the day. We took the very crowded train to Ueno, then walked in the park with thousands of people who were enjoying some of the early blossoms. There were quite a lot of people and the weather was excellent!

No, we were not on this one but it looked impressive!

The very crowded train station.

Entering Ueno Park

We walked around the park a bit then then walked to the nearby Ameyoko Shopping District to see what's there.

A very busy and touristy place.

With lots of inexpensive goods and food available.

We found what we wanted for lunch--Korean BBQ.

Good lunch for a cheap price.

Next, we took the subway to Asakusa. This is a busy area, always, but we want to check out the view from a different angle this time. We went up to the observation deck up on the top floor of the Asakusa Culture Tourist Information Center. Here we had the birds-eye view of the whole place down there.

Tokyo Skytree on one side.

and Nakamise-dori Street right underneath.

Well, we just had to go with the crowds.

It was definitely very crowded!

As for myself, my energy ran out and I just wanted to sit and people-watched.

After Asakusa, we figured that we should head back to Yokohama before the afternoon rush hour begins. I have heard horror stories about how crowded the subway could be and we are in no position to fight the crowds. After we got back to the hotel and freshen up a little, we headed out to find dinner. We decided to just let everyone choose and pick their dinner at the World Porters mall. We ended up at the food court there and enjoyed a 'huge' bowl of ramen with tons of vegetables. Neither of us was able to finish our food.