Tokyo / Yokohama Cruise Port Guide

My Tokyo Day – A First-Person Account

Arriving at Yokohama's Osanbashi Pier feels like stepping into a living chronicle of Japan's journey into the modern world. This magnificent port has been welcoming travelers since 1894, when it opened as Japan's first modern international trading terminal – over 160 years of ships finding harbor here, and the reverence with which everything is maintained shows in every polished railing and spotless walkway. On a clear morning, I stood on deck watching Mount Fuji emerge from the dawn haze sixty miles distant, Japan's highest peak and most sacred mountain rising like a prayer made solid. The volcano's perfect snow-capped cone seemed to bless our arrival, and I understood immediately why this sight has stirred souls for millennia. Tokyo/Yokohama is the highest-rated Asian port outside Singapore (4.9–5.0 stars), and within moments of docking, I felt the unique energy that earns those stars.

My perfect day begins with the bullet train or ship shuttle to Tokyo Station, then straight to Tsukiji Outer Market for the freshest sushi breakfast of my life, followed by TeamLab Borderless or Planets digital art museums that bend reality itself. But it's Shibuya Crossing that captures Tokyo's dizzying essence – standing at that intersection as thousands of pedestrians surge in choreographed chaos through blazing neon, I felt the pulse of humanity's most perfectly organized beautiful madness. From there to Harajuku for crepes and cosplay, then into the serene forest surrounding Meiji Shrine, dedicated to Emperor Meiji, the first emperor of modern Japan. The contrast stuns me every time: ten minutes from neon and noise, I'm walking gravel paths through towering cedars to a shrine where silence feels sacred. That same ancient-meets-future magic repeats at Asakusa's Senso-ji, Tokyo's most revered Buddhist temple, where incense smoke rises before structures that have witnessed centuries, while just blocks away, digital billboards flash in languages I can barely track.

If you have two days or book an excursion before the cruise, Mount Fuji calls irresistibly. Tours to the 5th Station take you halfway up the mountain where the air thins and the view expands to infinity, or make the pilgrimage to Chureito Pagoda – those 398 steps reward you with the most unobstructed, iconic view of Fuji framed by cherry blossoms in spring or blazing maples in autumn. Back in Yokohama itself, I discovered treasures that deserve their own day: Gumyoji Temple, the city's oldest, its main hall completed on March 10, 1044, standing witness to nearly a millennium of prayers; Iseyama Kotai Jingu, revered as "the Ise Jingu of the Kanto region," where I watched families in traditional dress celebrating life's milestones. Then there's the brilliant Cup Noodles Museum, Minato Mirai's Cosmo Clock Ferris wheel glowing against the harbor at twilight, and Chinatown's soup dumplings that make you close your eyes and forget the world exists. Lunch is always ramen or katsu curry, afternoon wanders through Nakamise street for matcha everything, and sunset from Tokyo Skytree. Cherry blossom season or autumn leaves make it even more unreal. Japan is polite, efficient, delicious, utterly addictive – and somehow balances thousand-year-old temple bells with robot restaurants without breaking a sweat.

Getting Around

Larger ships dock at Osanbashi (Yokohama) – 10-minute walk to Chinatown roughly 9 football fields, 32 blue whales in a row, or 704 emperor penguins in an improbable stack or train to Tokyo (30 minutes). Daikoku/Osanbashi shuttles to stations are seamless. Get a Suica or Pasmo card for effortless train travel.

Depth Soundings Ashore: The famous Japanese efficiency and crowds are simply the city's way of giving you the most perfectly organised adventure – embrace the flow and you'll see more magic in one day than most places offer in a week.

Frequently Asked Questions