We arrive nearly on time in the early morning in Yokohama, Japan, despite yet another weather system that requires the ship to make a huge detour. Rough seas for a while but then it becomes smooth sailing and we really get on a head of steam to make up the time. The Yokohama port terminal is a remarkable clear-span building with a lawn and running track on its rooftop. A band comprised of drums and gongs welcomes us on the pier to Japan.

I am bus leader for one of the day trips to Tokyo on this first day in port. (There are discounts for staff who lead trips, so I will be doing a bunch of them during the voyage.) It’s a good tour, even though we spend a lot of it looking for ATMs for the students and restrooms for the adults. I take photos of the Hamarikyu Garden in central Tokyo, one of the many ferris wheels in Japan (nearly every large city seems to have at least one splendidly lit example) and some of the new experimental vehicles at the Toyota headquarters showroom. It is late when we go up to the observation deck of the Tokyo Tower, the world’s tallest self-supporting steel tower, where I try for some photos of the bright lights that reach out over this immense city in every direction.

We get back to the ship to discover that the port authority will not allow the ship to use its satellite Internet network and connection, which puts many of us in difficult straits for finishing up travel plans and communicating back home. I am very lucky to have received a couple of reservations for hard-to-book ryokans and minshukus in my email that arrived while we were getting off the ship to go to Tokyo and before Internet access went away. There is, of course, Internet access throughout Japan (although it can be hard to figure out the keyboard) but there is also a lot of demand on the available machines.

View from the Tokyo Tower.