Our next Japanese port was Yokohama which is also close to Tokyo. It was pouring when I got off the ship to take the shuttle into town to the department stores. Our ship was cleared at about 3:00 pm and there was not much to do in pouring rain and so late in the day. My tour to Tokyo was the next day. Yokohama is the second largest city in Japan; Tokyo the largest. Both Yokohama and Tokyo have vast numbers of high rises. The Ferris wheel is also the largest clock in the world..

The Shinto Temple was the first stop the next day. Fortunately we had great weather and it was quite enjoyable walking in the park-like setting. The Shinto Gates leading up to the temple are meant to purify your mind and you go through a ritual of bathing your hands and mouth as they are the two parts of the body that get you into deep doo doo. At least that is my interpretation of what the guide meant. On the way to this beautiful shrine we saw these saki barrels where they actually stored saki.

I was disappointed that we couldn’t go to the Imperial Palace and Gardens. Apparently that is taboo and we could only look at the gardens from outside and I don’t even recall being able to see the palace.

After another wonderful Japanese lunch we went to a Bhudist Temple and this was truly disappointing as it was covered for refurbishing. The only interesting sight here was that a Shinto shrine was also on the same grounds as the Bhudist Temple.

I know it sounds like I was not happy with Tokyo and Yokohama and that is not the case. I was just a little unhappy with the tour. Tokyo and Yokohama are marvelous cities overall and we were treated with a wonderful drum band at our sail away. I love “ sail aways “and they are even more spectacular when we have local talent and good weather which was the case on the second day in Yokohama.