Thursday, October 26, 2017; Yokohama, Diamond Princess Embarkation

Thursday, October 26, 2017: Yokohama and Embarkation for the Diamond Princess

We didn’t need our alarm clock because with the jet lag, our bodies were awake at 4:30am. The sun came up at 6:15, so we hung out in bed, posting pictures and updating our travel blog.  We headed out the hotel lobby at 7:00AM to scout out the route to the Osanbashi Passenger Terminal where our ship was docked.  

Our first stop was a 7-Eleven store between the Rose Hotel and Minatomirai Chukagai Station to get some cash Yen to replace those lent to us by George.  It’s funny that in Japan, a key financial resource is the 7-Eleven chain because most ATM machines in Japan do not accept US credit or debit cards.  Only 7-Eleven and the Japanese Post offices have ATM’s that accept US credit and debit cards.  The post office ATM’s are subject to limited business hours.  It was interesting to see all the different kinds of Japanese convenience foods, and in addition to corn dogs, they have katsu and a variety of steamed buns.  

We then went down into the Minatomirai Chukagai station to find a PASMO machine to put some cash into our PASMO cards.  Audley Travel gave us cards with 1500 Yen on them.  500 Yen is a refundable deposit.  We put an additional 5000 on each, which should allow us to use the PASMO cards to get around Tokyo after our cruise is over.  We saw a number of young Japanese men and women heading off to work all dressed formally.  There were a few people wearing surgical masks, but not a lot. 

We then headed towards the waterfront, and walked right past the New Hotel Grand, which is just across the street from Yamashita park.  It was easy to spot the Diamond Princess at the Osanbashi Pier from the park.  The Diamond Princess looked like it might be a bit larger than some of the other Princess ships we have sailed on.  The weather had turned lovely with blue sky and temperature around 60 degrees.  

We walked through Yamashita Park, seeing the statue of the little girl with red shoes.  This relates to a famous Japanese poem describing a somewhat sad story about a little girl who is taken away from Yokohama by missionaries, never to return to her home.  There are other statues in the park from San Diego, which is Yokohama’s sister city in the US.  There were lots of Japanese people with quite a variety of dogs walking in the park.  

It was an easy walk out onto the Osanbashi Pier to the hall where Princess passengers were being herded off the ship and into awaiting transfer buses.  It only took about 20 minutes to walk back to the hotel.  

Most of the restaurants around the hotel and in Chinatown were not opening until after 11:30AM, so we decided to just eat at the Hotel’s breakfast buffet.  The Cafe Brasserie Molly La Foret ended up having a very nice buffet with western and Asian items, including steamed dumplings and buns, congee, miso soup, bacon, eggs, grilled fish, and pastries.  It ended up being 4200 Yen for the both of us with a 20% discount for being hotel guests.  It was easy, relaxing, and we met a Kiwi couple who were going to be boarding the Diamond Princess later in the day as well.  They had originally been booked at the New Grand Hotel, but had to be moved to the Rose Hotel for some reason, and they had to scurry through the rain last night from the New Grand Hotel to the Rose Hotel.  

We checked out at 10:55AM and walked down to the Osanbashi Pier with our luggage by 11:15AM. We dropped off our luggage and then walked around the park on top of the Pier, which had nice views of the harbor and the Diamond Princess. We also learned that because of tropical storm Saola, forming in the Philippine sea, our Kagoshima port of call is being cancelled.  We will receive a $50 refundable onboard credit for compensation.  We won’t be charged for the Kagoshima shore excursion we had booked.  However, including today, this will make 6 consecutive days at sea, which will be the longest stretch of blue water we have cruised to date.