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Published: June 26th 2017
Geo: 35.47, 139.62
After a refreshing night and delicious breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and left our luggage with the bellman. The ship was not going to be ready for boarding until 2:30 for our grouping so we had several hours to spend in Yokohama.
It was an easy walk from the hotel to the Minato Mirai Manyo Club to visit the onsen, a traditional Japanese spa. We went for Dr. Fish, but they didn't have it anymore. On the website I saw that they offered the treatment which is the tank of tiny fish that eat the rough, dead skin off your feet. We had seen that on a couple of travel shows, and it looked like a fun thing to try. When we got there, we found out that they no longer offered Dr. Fish. I had a hard time explaining what we were there for. Fortunately, I had printed the onsen information from their website and had to show the pictures to the attendant before he understood what I was asking for. We spent a little bit of time using the foot bath on the roof, but it was too hot to enjoy it so we didn't stay
Rain and Fog
Just for a short time, we saw rain and fog outside the window early in the morning, It cleared out quickly.very long.
Next, we went to the Pacifico Convention Center to view the woolly mammoth exhibit, Yuka. We had identified the convention center as we looked out our hotel window the night before. However, we did not know how to find the right part of it, and the hotel concierge didn't seem to know where to look either. When we got to the convention center, Philip asked one of the traffic guards, using Japanese, where it was. Fortunately, we had picked the right part of the complex and only had to cross the street and go inside. We bought tickets and entered the exhibit.
The descriptions were only in Japanese so Philip had a good time deciphering some of them for us. During the time at the exhibit, we saw no other Westerners. The almost perfectly complete woolly mammoth was discovered in Siberia earlier this year and has just started on its tour of exhibitions with Yokohama as the first stop. It was a wonderful exhibit with many more things to look at than just the woolly mammoth, including a few interactive pieces. The exhibit described the evolution of mammoths and elephants and their movement around the world.
After the exhibit, we
Emergency Supplies
The hotel elevator was quiet and quick. Standing in the corner was this emergency supply container. I don't know if emergency supplies are the norm in Japanese elevators, but I had never seen them before. That just made this elevator my favorite one ever. still had some time left so we walked through the Landmark Tower Plaza shopping mall. We do like to see what is for sale in other places when we travel. This seemed like a good time. The first store Philip saw was a Tabio sock shop. It is one of our favorites, but we had never been to one in Japan. (The store is a Japanese business with branches in the UK.) The prices are much better in Japan than in England. We looked for a Hello Kitty store, but never saw one. Philip wanted to take something back to one of his coworkers who was covering part of his work while he was away and who is a Hello Kitty collector.
We stopped for pizza for lunch at Capricciosa which is an Italian restaurant in Queen's Square adjacent to the Landmark Tower Plaza.
Next, we found the Krispy Kreme, and wanting to try any unusual flavors they had, even though we had just finished lunch, we stopped in. We chose the mango and the green tea as well as a glazed one. The glazed one was exactly like the ones at home. Mango was good, if not a little sweet. The
Another High-Tech Toilet
Looks like it could take care of any possible need. green tea was okay--not much flavor, but still sweet.
After spending the morning and early afternoon out, we headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and get a cab to the Osanbashi cruise ship passenger terminal. In typical Japanese fashion, the check-in at the terminal was orderly and quick. The only waiting we did was for about fifteen minutes after check in since we were that much too early for our timed admission slot.
It was easy to find our stateroom; this is the third cruise we have taken on the Sun Princess. It's an older ship accommodating about 2,000 passengers. We chose it for the interesting itinerary and the schedule that fit within my time off work. We were on the Aloha Deck just like we were on the previous cruises. The elevators announce each floor by the name of the floor. So we heard "Aloha, Deck 11" every time we got out of the elevator. The other decks with staterooms: Baja, Caribe, Dolphin, Emerald, Plaza, were just not as much fun. The luggage arrived quickly, and Sommkhit, our room steward, stopped by to introduce himself soon after we got there. Everything was still going smoothly.
This ship continues
to have traditional style seatings for dinner, and we requested and were assigned to the early seating. When we got to the table our tablemates were already there: Rich and Sybil, a couple from Phoenix, and Margaret and Louise, a mother and daughter from Perth, Australia. Very nice folks!
It was an early night for us. We were still jet lagged, not terribly bothered by it, but still wanted to rest.
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