The final day of our cruise landed us at the port near Tokyo. The morning was busy as we prepared to abandon ship. The night before, we put our luggage in the hallway for the crew to transport to the dock. Debby, Nancy, and I made our way to the International Café for one last breakfast before disembarking. Instead of 3,000 passengers cramming to the exit door at the same time, the crew had given us numbers, dividing everyone into smaller groups. When our number was called, we made our way to the door where we exited for the last time, retrieved our luggage, and headed to the ground transportation area.
The seven of us made our way toward the exit, where we waited in a long line of tourists needing ground transportation. The people in charge of taxi service were very efficient, and the line progressed quickly. When it was our turn, the seven of us—with a ton of luggage—were given free taxis to take us to our hotel.
Our hotel was about 40 minutes away. Morning traffic was busy. The taxis straggled a bit but managed to get us to our destination within about 10 or 12 minutes of each other.
We checked in but were not able to access our rooms until approximately 3:00 PM. They allowed us to leave our luggage until we could check in, which was very helpful.
After deciding what we were going to do, we headed up the street following our GPS map. The streets were busy with people and vehicles. We kept forgetting to walk on the left side and often found ourselves spread out across the street, having to move out of the way of oncoming traffic, bicycles, delivery vehicles, and pedestrians.
We ended up in an area I will call “Little Times Square.” The gathering area was outside a large subway entrance and was crowded with many people. The tall buildings projected video screens of various advertisements and images, similar to what one would see in New York’s Times Square—although on a smaller scale and probably just as expensive.
We found very little to do except people-watch. We managed to find places to sit and recover from the long walk. Walking at our age is not always that much fun.
Eric and I went into an outdoor store called Arc’teryx. They are known for quality outdoor clothing, hiking gear, and backpacking equipment. We went inside just to see what they had and check it out. We found $1,200–$1,600 jackets, $800 shoes, and $400 T-shirts. It seemed a little excessive! The narrow store footprint had multiple levels. We ventured up three or four floors before deciding to leave. Nothing we saw was within our price range.
We walked around the corner and checked out another store that sold almost everything electronic. Eric bought a couple of things while I browsed around. Back on the street, we found our group and decided to go check in to our hotel.
Eric made reservations at a Kobe beef steakhouse, and I decided to go with him. It was about a 15-minute walk toward Times Square.
Kobe beef is a premium type of Wagyu beef from Japan. It is a very high-quality beef, renowned for its exceptional tenderness, rich flavor, and impressive marbling. Apparently, it comes from a specific certified animal—a certain breed of black cattle. I suspect these cattle receive daily massages and foot rubs, soak in natural hot springs, and probably get counseling as well. That must be why Kobe steaks are rare and expensive.
In case you are interested, our dinners were a little over $500. Yes…we know.
After dinner, Eric and I walked down into the heart of the bright lights, video towers, and wall-to-wall people on the streets of Times Square. It was impressive to see at night. There were many more people than during the day, and the lights were beautiful.
The next morning, about 10:00, our friend Oki arrived to show us around town. It was raining and cold that day—in fact, it rained all day and into the evening. This made our sightseeing a little damp.
Oki managed to find shortcuts through subway stations and underground walkways that helped keep us drier. One of our visits was to a local Japanese garden. It was large and well kept. Not many people were visiting that day, probably because of the rainy weather. It was miserable, but we were determined to see the sights.
We visited a few coffee shops, mainly just to sit down and rest. Each time we warmed up enough to dry out. For lunch, we visited a food court in the basement of a large shopping facility. You name it—they had it. Mike Pinkerton had some spicy Korean food. I had a Big Mac from McDonald’s. Everyone had what they wanted since almost everything was available. The only challenge was finding tables where we could sit together.
Following lunch, Eric and I ventured upstairs and visited the huge Apple Store. It was spacious and well lit. Devices of all types were on display for folks to try. Appointments were necessary for demonstrations and closer inspections. Prices seemed a little higher than in the U.S. The iPhone 17 we looked at was about $1,400 U.S. I don’t know its exact specifications, so I can’t really compare it to the U.S. version.
After everyone had looked around the mall and gotten their fill, we visited the Japanese garden and then stopped at another coffee shop. We also went into a stationery store to check out pencils and paper clips. After all, this is why we came to Japan.
That evening, Eric, Debby, and I had dinner with Oki and his mom. She invited us to a Japanese-Italian restaurant. We had oysters, mussels, scallops, vegetables, and who knows what else. It was all good. We especially appreciated her generosity and the time we spent getting to know her better. She was a very nice lady and seemed to like us as well.
She is having some eye and vision problems. They aren’t sure what is causing her condition, but it is reducing her vision and causing dry eyes. I showed her one of my handheld magnification devices. She was amazed that she could see so well with it. I’m glad it helped her. When we left, I gave her that little device to help her read medication bottles and other small print. She was very thankful.
Oki escorted us back to our hotel by taxi. He came over the next day as we checked out to make sure we had rides to the airport. Once again, we had three taxis for about a 40-minute ride. These taxis cost about $150 U.S. Nothing is cheap in Tokyo.
We checked our luggage and made it through immigration to exit the country. We were plenty early, but that’s the way we like it.
The nine-hour flight to Los Angeles was long but not too bad. We were served a couple of meals on the airline. We flew Delta to Los Angeles and then American from LA to Tulsa.
We had intended to stay the night in Tulsa but decided to drive on into Arkansas. We were ready to be home.
Thinking back…what a great trip we had. Debby and Nancy planned the whole thing, and it all went smoothly. We had a lot of fun and got to see things and places we had only heard about.
I also got to revisit Vietnam again and satisfy that long-standing curiosity.
Now I’m satisfied.
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