Arriving in port is always exciting. It means a new adventure of exploring is about to begin. As we pulled into Tokyo, I thought about what a stark contrast it was compared to arriving at Qaqortaq, Greenland back in August. Qaqortaq was a remote fishing village with less than 1,000 residents. Tokyo is the world’s largest city with a population of over 37 million! I guess that’s pretty much going from one extreme to another.
We had visited Tokyo for a couple of days many years ago and had fond memories. We were excited to be back for a couple of more days, although we knew we’d only be scratching the surface.
Since this was our “port of entry” into Japan we had to first clear customs and immigration, which was a pretty quick and painless process. We had booked a shore excursion through the ship that was listed as “Best of Tokyo” It was scheduled to last approximately five hours, which as you could imagine in a city this size was a pretty ambitious undertaking.
Our first stop was at the Meiji Shrine. The shrine is dedicated to the former Emperor Meiji and his wife. While the shrine itself was impressive, the setting was spectacular. It was located in a 700,000 square meter park that was covered by over 120,000 trees (the Japanese are honorable people so I didn’t bother counting the trees myself). Although busy, there was a peaceful calm and quietness it the park. This same ambiance extends well beyond the park boundaries. The roads and sidewalks of the city were busy, but yet it was quiet and orderly. I only recall hearing one car horn and everyone spoke in a hushed tone….pretty cool experience in and of itself!
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| A prayer of peace, health and happiness |
The Tokyo Skytree Tower is the world’s tallest tower
The tour was nice even if our guides English was somewhat broken. As the bus made its way back to the port, she apologized profusely (which wasn’t necessary). She said she hadn’t had much experience as a guide and was expecting a group of around 10-12, but when she arrived she was given a group of around 45 people…..who had spent the previous 8 days at sea.
The Tokyo International Cruise Terminal, which opened in 2020 is really nice and conveniently located near a park, beach, shops and restaurants. We enjoyed a late lunch/early dinner at a Ramen Food Court in the Aqua City shopping and entertainment complex. Ordering was a little complicated, but with a little help we figured it out. We were soon enjoying a nice meal at an outdoor table overlooking a waterfront park with the Tokyo skyline as a backdrop.
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| The Tokyo version of the Statue of Liberty was near the Aqua City Shopping and Entertainment District |
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| You place your order in the machine at the Ramen Food Hall…… |
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| We were very happy with our order! Delicious Pork Ramen, extra noodles and dumplings. |
Afterwards we strolled along the waterfront and enjoyed watching the sun set over this magnificent city and the buildings, bridges and towers lit up the night sky. It was very romantic, but holding hands in public isn’t culturally acceptable so we kept our hands to ourselves and quietly enjoyed the view!
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| Tokyo sunset! |
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| As the sun went down, the city lit up! |
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| The Tokyo Tower…..it resembles a more famous tower in Paris |
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| The Norwegian Jewel |
Day 2 in Tokyo started like most days start when we’re on a cruise, coffee, hot tea and a muffin while enjoying sunrise. This morning we also had a fairly ambitious plan to navigate to the downtown area using the metro. Moving a large portion of the 37 million residents around takes some ingenuity and planning, something the Japanese are known to excel in. With a little helpful information from some fellow passengers who we met, and the tourist information desk, we were soon on our way. Thankfully most signage was in both Japanese and English and the journey was relatively easy and very inexpensive. It’s something that I would recommend any visitor to Tokyo consider trying. You’ll be amazed at the volume of people moving in an orderly manner through clean stations and on clean trains. Making it even more impressive is that it’s all done so quietly you could almost hear a pin drop while in the metro cars. No one utters a word to each other. Just pure silence.
Our destination was the Shibuya Crossing ( think Times Square on steroids). It’s the world’s busiest pedestrian intersection, where every 2 minutes up to 2,500 people quietly and orderly make their way across the intersection of multiple major roads. It’s a sight you have to see to believe. We were not there at rush hour so we were limited to a few hundred crossing at
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| Waiting on the signal for pedestrians to cross! |
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| A quick wave and keep moving! There are plenty of YouTube videos of the crossing at rush hour or check out the Bill Murray movie “Lost in Translation. |
We made it back to the ship unscathed and without getting lost. We’ve had lunch and are going to roam a bit this afternoon before we set sail at 7:00 PM local time. Neither Beth or I consider ourselves “big city people”, but we’ve loved our time in beautiful Tokyo, the world’s biggest city!
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