April 24, 2023 Yokohama, Japan turnaround day

Today ended the first 14 day cruise around Japan when Westerdam docked at 6:30 a.m. The second 14 day cruise to Seattle via Alaska officially started when we left the ship to explore more of Yokohama. With the steward’s help, we moved our luggage down the hall to our new stateroom 10 staterooms closer to the front, which should be quieter as it is under the Casino rather than the Rolling Stone Lounge, an evening rock music venue.

The dining room was open for breakfast from 7 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. About two thirds of the passengers were leaving the ship starting just after 7:30 a.m. About 200 fewer passengers are expected for the northern Pacific crossing. Rather than leaving at 7 p.m. this evening, Westerdam is staying an extra day due to the cancellation of the day in Kushiro, Japan. There is severe weather predicted there for Wednesday, our scheduled day there, with strong winds and high waves. We should leave Yokohama at 5 p.m. on Tuesday instead. Hopefully the ocean will not be too rough.

The sky was cloudy, not much wind and the temperature was 13° C. Our new room key cards were delivered yesterday. We used the old stateroom key cards to get off the ship. There were trucks unloading supplies to re-stock the ship as we left the ship to go to the Osanbashi Yokohama International Passenger Terminal. We bypassed the area where the departing passengers’ luggage was ready to be picked up. In the terminal the wi-fi was fast for uploading the photos from the past two days. There was an information desk with three agents to help people.

On Mondays a lot of museums are closed. We walked over to Yamashita Park on the waterfront, passing the Old Customs House. On the sidewalk there were single embedded tiles and groups of them. At Yamashita Park, there was a viewpoint with a good view of the NYK ship Hikawaumaru, which is now the NYK Maritime Museum which we plan to visit on Tuesday. Then we walked over to the Landmark Tower which took about 15 minutes. On the 69^th floor is the Sky Garden that gives a 360° view of Yokohama and today to the north Kawasaki and Tokyo. We could see the small cruise ship Silver Muse at the newer cruise terminal and the Westerdam at her berth. The mountains were just visible in the south, but there was not the crystal clear visibility needed to see Mount Fuji. There was a café where the tables were separated by aquariums with different kinds of fish and coral in the tanks. The elevator travels up or down at a maximum speed of a smooth 750 meters per minute. It only took 40 second to go from the 2^nd floor to the 69^th floor. They promote it as the fastest elevator n Japan. We looked around the Landmark Plaza shopping centre after the tower visit before walking to the Red Brick Warehouses.

The Red Brick Warehouses are former storage warehouses that now house cafés, restaurants and shops with good quality wares. Then we walked back to the Osanbashi Yokohama International Passenger Terminal and used our “In Transit” card to bypass the check-in counter and go to the Customs check point, through the security checkpoint to board the ship. There was a slight delay when our photos did not appear on the security scanner immediately. It was 1:15 p.m. when we arrived in our new stateroom.

We unpacked our suitcases, but the clothes on hangers had been moved on the hangers so they were already out away. As we unpacked we listened to the compulsory Safety Video on the television. To keep track, the staff does not unlock the other television functions until the safety video is viewed. We climbed the nine flights of stairs to the Lido buffet and were joined by Marguerite and John from Denver who had got on the ship today. Then we went to the Welcome Reception, for three, four and five star Mariners in the Rolling Stone Lounge, on Deck 2. People were treated to glasses of Prosecco and small jars of peanuts. We were joined by Bev and Barry from South Australia. Their town is between Melbourne and Adelaide. Rather than go to Happy Hour we climbed to stairs to the Crow’s Nest on Deck 10 for Carmel Lattes before dinner.

We didn’t need to check-in at the Lifeboat Station since we had done it on the first voyage on April 10, but we decided we would. It was a good thing since our photos did not come up on the crew member’s screen and we were advised to go to Guest Services, on Deck 1, to have our pictures taken. There was a line, like there always is on embarkation day. The Guest Services person took our pictures and issued us new key cards, with fainter printing, which won’t interfere with getting into our stateroom or getting on and off the ship since the barcode was quite clear. It is what is scanned when we leave or return to the ship. Then it was back to Deck 2 for early dinner at 5:15 p.m. We were joined by Fran and Walt from Toronto and Hatsu, born in Japan, and Daniel from Texas. They were interesting table-mates especially the conversation between Walt, who had served in the Canadian Navy for seven years, and Daniel, who had served in the American Navy for 26 years. Some of Daniel’s service was on the USS Midway aircraft carrier which is now a museum in San Diego.

There was no ballroom dancing hour or show this evening.

Total steps today were 16,674 and 21 flights of stairs

We leave Yokohama tomorrow afternoon and will not have internet until at least May 2nd in Kodiak, Alaska so no posts until then at the earliest.