videos & Yokohama videos
My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
August 13, 2025
I was so excited to see my friend, Kotoha, who I worked with on the Diamond Princess.
She no longer worked on ships and was living in Tokyo. She asked what I wanted to do, suggesting some of the more touristy options that were in my presentation. I told her I wanted to see her Tokyo. She had no idea what I meant by that, so she sent a few ideas – when I saw the description of Kawagoe (which didn’t make it into my presentation), I knew it was totally my jam. She was working nights, so she graciously sacrificed some sleep to meet me in the small town north of Tokyo. Lucky for me, there was a train from Yokohama that took me directly there.
As I waited at the train station, I tried to look for some kind of marker to send her so she could find me. Then I realized that, as the only American standing there waiting at the station, I was the marker! But how would I recognize her? Luckily she still looked the same 😉.
Our first order of business: lunch!
We took a local bus to a shrine. We bowed upon entry.
I was so appreciative to have my Japanese guide back! We washed our hands in the dragon fountain.
There was a small stream of water – we made wishes and put them in the water. If they passed a certain point, our wishes were heard. I’ll put the video on facebook.
We walked through the town, which was still reminicent of another era.
We stopped at a candy shop where Kotoha bought me some candy she loved as a small child. When we saw a place where we could make our own chopsticks, I jumped at the chance! I selected my wood and Koto cheered me on as I shaped my chopsticks. I took a timelapse video, which I’ll post on Facebook.
We also had to stop for ice cream, of course.
Koto invited me to join her and her new fiancé for dinner – of course I wanted to meet him!
Returning to Tokyo, I was relieved to follow Koto, tapping my Suica card (a Japanese transportation card in my Apple Wallet) without having to navigate the station changes on my own.
Koto’s fiancé is a sommalier who works at a large brewery (if I remember correctly), so I was delighted to have him select sake for me.
Last summer Koto was so fun to hang out with and she had a job on the ship where she had more time to explore, so I was always happy when she was my port buddy. This summer, I was navigating Japan like a tourist. Not only did I adore the chance to catch up with my friend, but I was extremely grateful that she taught me little things about her culture that I would have missed on my own. Hopefully I’ll be able to align my vacation with her wedding next summer!
On the subway heading back to Yokohama, I got a message from Victor – he was in Tokyo with Taiki, who had rented another car! He told me to turn around and come meet them.
Up to that point, I’d had no trouble navigating the subway when I followed my route from point A to point B. But when I recalculated in the mid-journey, I got turned around at the stations, couldn’t follow the numbers and the colors, and ended up getting on the wrong train twice and had to get off, cross the street, and turn around to go back the other way. I argued with Victor, saying not to worry about me and that I’d just make my way back to the ship in Yokohama- but he wouldn’t accept that and insisted they would wait for me. I relented and joined them much later than I intended.
After this, according to Victor, Steven, and Michele, I lost my reputation (unfairly, in my opinion) as someone who can navigate foreign transportation even when I occasionally navigated better than they did.
Finally, I found them, and we explored some sketchy Japanese nightlife (my favorite) on the way to the car. We returned to a place I’d been during the day:
And of course, we stopped at Daikoku– the fancy car meet up – on the way back to the ship.
The next day was our last day in Yokohama.
If we’d had more time, I would have checked out the nightlife in this park right by the port:
I would have gone to the Cup Noodles Museum, more thoroughly explored the Red Brick Warehouses, and some of the hidden gems. Instead, we went in search of lunch.
After assessing our options and compromising on our different desires, we ended up at a burger place. Inside, it had an American theme. At first I started scolding our choice – why travel all the way to Japan to eat at a restaurant trying to be American? But then I realized we were the only white people there – everyone else was Asian. Now this was awesome! I’d been to Japanese restaurants in the US (and Japanese restaurants in Japan) but how cool was this to see what Japan though was American?
The decorations were hilarious, and the burger was huge, but the rest of the portions were closer to a recommended serving size than an American one. I liked being in what Japan thought was American.
After lunch, we swung by Don Quijote, and while we waited for our Uber back to the ship, we watched a scuba diver cleaning tank. That was so fun – I’ll post that video on Facebook too.