Day 10 -- Yokohama

The first part of the cruise is over and many people left. We had a full day here. We left the ship at about 9 am intending to take a circular hop-hop on tourist bus, but at the bus stop we found out that this first bus was at 10:15 so we decided to walk. We walked through downtown Yokohama to a famous shopping street called Motomachi, a long street full of stores, many upscale. Most did not open until 11am, but some were open and Bo managed to buy two dresses. Yokahama is a very pretty, modern city. After Motomachi, we wanted to get to Yokahama station, which is also a large shopping area and go to our favorite store UniQlo. Yokohama station is on the opposite end of the city and we tried to ask people how to get there, but nobody spoke enough English to give us directions. Finally we found a bus stop and a nice lady who studies at the University of Oregon in Eugene who not only told us which bus to take, but also where to find UniQlo. We did find it and bought a lot of clothes. Then we ate in a local restaurant where the menu had pictures of the food. In all the restaurants we saw menus were only in Japanese. Some have pictures, and some have plastic displays of the dishes they offer by the entrance. We then took a subway back to the port and bought 2 bottles of wine to have in our room. We went back to the ship to drop off our purchases and quickly went out again to a little island in the harbor which has the oldest warehouses in Japan now converted into upscale stores and cafes. There is also a Cup of Noodles Museum there and a museum of Japanese Overseas Migration. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time left for any of the museums because he had to be back on the ship by 4:30 pm. Internet on the ship is so slow that we can’t post pictures…