Japan/TransPacific Cruise Day 1 Embarkation Tokyo to Yokohama “Herding Cats” or “How Many Suitcases can Twenty-four People Have?”

I finally got a good night’s sleep. I woke up and thought that it had to be at least 8:00 am, it was 6:20. Nice to finally sleep well. I was not that hungry at breakfast but I knew that we were going to be going on the ship and I would get lunch there. In the room we are doing the last minute looking for items. I have moved everything to one end of the room and now we just have to stuff it all into suitcases and we are set. We have time before we need to meet so we have time to play a couple of games of cribbage. We are meet in the lobby at 10:45 for the bus to the cruise terminal. Luckily Seth overheard us talking about this and told us to bring our suitcases down to the sidewalk then wait in the lobby. I made one more trip to the ice machine for our water bottles. This is not easy because the water bottle is too tall to fit under the dispenser. I just cup my hand around it and aim it into the water bottle. Time to head down to the lobby. Oops, I went to the basement instead of the street level. Seth is out there to guard the suitcases. We line ours up with the rest on the sidewalk. Barry is standing out there to help guard everything. Back to the lobby to check out and to wait for the bus which comes very quickly. Seth has a whole system for us to follow. Identify your suitcases then you can board the bus. We are near the front, yay. People board quickly and everyone is happy. Oops, there is not enough room under the bus for all of the luggage. There are 24 people going on a 30 day cruise. That is a lot of luggage. We start to load suitcases onto the bus. Luckily most suitcases have wheels so we so they can just be rolled down the aisle. Robert stacks them in the back and there is room for everything. There is a car behind the bus that has honked a couple of times. These are narrow streets and the bus is wide. Bikes and people can get past the bus, a car, no way. The car behind us now lays on the horn and will not let up until we finally move. Some people have just come in and Seth welcomes everyone. I guess that people complained about the tour the other day, it was way too much walking. Seth is explaining what we will do in Kobe and Yokohama. There will be walking with both of them. In Kobe we will be taking the Bullet Train. To get to the Bullet Train we will take a subway to the bullet train to a bus. We will have to keep up and once we are part way there you will not be able to turn back. He pointedly looked at a few people to make sure that they understood. For Yokohama it will be similar to the Tokyo tour. That one will be in two weeks. That will give me plenty of time to stretch my calves and to work the knots out of my legs. Seth asked me to make sure that I could do both of them. Yeah, I am tough. We arrive at the port and are told to sit still until the luggage is unloaded from the bus. People start to roll the suitcases stacked in the back. Amazing how people can cooperate. We get off, find our suitcases and roll them to the luggage people. We are then free to enter the terminal. Japan has a lot of regulations. They make the petty functionaries in South America look loosey goosey. We have our passports out and the boarding passes ready to be scanned. I point out that a woman from our group needs a wheelchair. I have the feeling that she thought that I would be assisting her the entire way. Nope, I have to steer my husband through this process. We are directed to the passport readers. Slide passport in, look into the scanner. Yup, face matches passport, on to the next barrier. We go to another table. They need the copy of our passport. We were told to bring two photo copies of our passport. Rob pulls out both copies. They woman looks at them, shuffles them around and hands us back two of the copies. Um, does someone else want these copies? Should we keep them out? We are pointed to continue. Oh, this is where they take the goofy photo of you with the fake background. Wait, are we ready to board? We stop for pictures. We normally do not stop for photos but we do this time. I know that the photographers get a bonus for every photograph taken. We will not buy any, but this does help them. On the ship we get scanned in and are set free to go to our room. I have to orient myself to figure out which was aft and which was forward. We find our room. BRRRR, it is cold in here. I adjust the thermostat knowing that it is easy to overshoot. We are not really ready for lunch so we unpack what we have in our back packs. I find the safety video on the TV. Usually that is running when we enter the room The rest of our luggage will come when it comes. Our cabin steward comes in to introduces himself and to find out what we need. He tells us to make sure to watch the safety video, we already have and to go to muster. You cannot do that until 2:30. We are set, off to lunch. Those are our suitcases on the luggage trolley in the elevator lobby. Well, they will be waiting for us when we arrive back in the room. We wanted to eat in the dining room but it is not open for lunch. Off to the Lido. Ooh, seafood curry, yum. I am not terribly hungry so I limit what I get. It is too easy to overdo on a cruise, you learn. There is a welcome reception for 4* & 5* members at 3:00. We meet a nice couple and chat with them. They keep brining sparkling wine and mimosas to us. I had one mimosa then wonder how long it will take for my blood sugar to go back down to normal. At one point the other woman had three empty glasses when she got a fourth glass. She had the server take her three empty glasses saying that it was really not a good look. Our time is ending so we need to head back to the room. Anne and Robert arrive. Oh, the 3* Mariner reception is at 3:45. This is much batter than the time that they had 3*, 4*, & 5* all together. I was waaaaay too crowded. Anne is excited, this cruise puts her over the 4* level. Time to unpack. I always start out so neatly when I pack but it tends to deteriorate. It is fun to find the surprises that got dumped in at the end. Rob is unpacking and finding the surprises that I slipped into his bag. Hey, he did tell me that he had room and weight for more stuff. I took him at his word. One of the things was the massage gun. Bwahaha. We know that we will always have room for everything in the closets, the question is are there enough hangers, who gets which closet and what shelves? We do not have anything until 7:00 when there is trivia. Mike, Mary, Sue and Mark are playing with us. We grab a table and hope that everyone can find us. We do pretty well and in fact we win. The host is offering us free drinks. Um, we not only have a drink package but we need to get to our dinner reservation. Mark and Sue have already eaten so we head off without our free drink. The first night is always “interesting.” You have new staff and new passengers and things are a bit behind. Instead of being seated we are standing around in the lobby. I see other people from our group so I wait with them. Brandon has been told to keep us out there until Seth tells us to come in. I keep telling Brandon that this is like herding cats. People start to head into the dining room so we all follow. Brandon just shrugs and follows. Seth has set out our name cards and backpacks at different tables. We are at a table with Mark and Sue, who have already eaten. Seth moves us to another table. There is a woman who just joined the group and a couple from St. Francis, WI. We have a great time telling Milwaukee stories. Long day, time for bed.