April 17, 2026

Tokyo, Japan

Last night was a long and restless night. Quite a bit of tossing and turning. Finally staying in bed was no longer an option so at 04:30 it was out of bed and into the bath. The hope was that a nice warm bath would help sleep return. Unfortunately, it didn’t work.

Breakfast is downstairs just off the lobby in the Marble Lounge, adjacent to the St. George’s Bar beginning at 06:00. We have roughly a three and a help hour tour of Tokyo today. The pre-departure assembly will be in the Sakura Lounge on the third floor at 09:10. In Japan they have what is called “gofun-mae kō dō”, or five-minute-early action rule. Here it is the cultural norm for people to arrive at meetings, appointments, or work at least five minutes before the scheduled time. Arriving exactly on time is considered “late,” while being five minutes early shows respect, ensures punctuality, and allows everyone to be relaxed. The Falk sense of teutonic efficiently and precision will work well here.

By 05:30 I was bathed, shaved and dressed. Mary was stirring even at this early hour. I went downstairs to the lobby to get uis a place in line for breakfast while she was finishing up getting dressed. By the time I got to the lobby there was already a line for breakfast forming. They opened on time following the “gofun-mae kō dō” culture. Mary joined me just as I got to the front of the line to be seated.

The breakfast buffet is very complete. Lots of fresh fruit, yogurt, meats and cheeses, an omelette station, fresh bread and well as traditional Japanese fair, miso soup, rice, and various fish dishes. They even made a very nice cappuccino. They had machines to make the cappuccino but the “waiter” made them behind the bar, and they were good. We tried the one from the machine and it was very bad. About 06:30 Mike and Maddie joined us.

There are a number of signs that is going to be a difficult cruise. The plane being late, the late arrival last night, and the very early morning. On top of that Maddie has apparently injured her arm. She had gone to the doctor just before they left, but they weren’t able to complete the diagnoses before the cruise, so she put it off. It is no wonder her and Mary get a long so well.

After breakfast we returned to the room to wait for the tour departure at 09:10. Being fidgety I went down to the Sakura Lounge on the third floor about 08:55. There were already a number of people in the lounge, and they tour staff were handing out tokens for the buses. I managed to get us four tokens for bus number 2. It wasn’t long after that the others joined me.

The tour today is three-and-a-half hours. We are going to Odaiba and the Tokyo National Museum. We’re going to have about forty-minutes at Odaiba and about ninety-minutes at the Tokyo National Museum. The remainder of the time is spent getting from one place to another. TripAdvisor suggests Odaiba is worth visiting for a half or full day. The Tokyo National Museum suggestion is about the same. Hey, this is a pre-cruise tour, can’t really expect more.

We board our buses and head out for the forty-minute drive to Odaiba. Odaiba is an island located in Tokyo Bay. It was originally built in the 1850’s by the Tokugawa Shogunate to hold eleven cannon batteries (daiba) to protect Edo (Tokyo) from foreign naval attacks. Only six of the cannon batteries were built between 1853 and 1855. Japan formally opened its borders to the West in 1854, ending over 200 years of isolationist policy known as sakoku. U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Tokyo Bay in July 1853 with a fleet of warships demanding trade relations. This was finalized by the Treaty of Kanagawa on March 31, 1854. At the beginning of the 20th century most of the batteries were removed to improve ship navigation and integration into the Port of Tokyo.

Odaiban was transformed in the 1990s from a neglected industrial area into a futuristic leisure hub.  Now it is a major tourist destination featuring shopping malls, parks, and attractions connected by the Rainbow Bridge. There were a number of superlatives lobbed at the Rainbow Bridge during the tour, but it was difficult to see anything but a bridge. Yes, it is 798 meters long (about a half mile), it has two decks, and apparently at nighttime it puts on a light show.

Our stop here was at the Fugitive Broadcasting Center (aka the FGG Building).  It is a 27-story complex, with a total height of 123.45 meters (405.0 ft). Somehow this building is a landmark that is supposed to symbolizes Odaiba. The structure consists of an office tower and a media tower connected by three enclosed footbridges. The exterior is cladded with salt-resistant titanium. There is a mall with various theaters on the first floor, a rooftop garden is on the 7th floor, and Mezama Sky is on the 24th floor.

The Hachitama Spherical Observation Room was our goal today. It is located on the 25th floor and is supposed to provide great views of Tokyo Metropolis. We started by taking covered escalators from the ground floor up to the 7th floor where we board elevators to the observation room. Unfortunately, much of the room was under construction for a special event and was closed. We did get to see a good 200-degree view of Tokyo from the sphere.

The sphere allowed us to take in several popular waterfront attraction featuring the Replica Statue of Liberty, DiverCity Tokyo Plaza, the life sized Gundam statue, the Rainbow Bridge and multiple man-made beaches, although we would learn later the beaches aren’t for swimming due to commercial ship traffic in the harbor. From my very limited prospective there was a large city full of people and buildings. Nothing with any real character on interest. The whole Amine thing is lost on me but apparently is very popular here.

We either didn’t have sufficient time to see anything important, or there wasn’t anything important to see. The Rainbow bridge? Nothing special as far as we can see. A miniature replica of the Statue of Liberty? Really? Yes, Tokyo is “clean”, at least cleaner than any American city, especially New York. Yes, there are homeless here, but somehow, they are neat. You can see the tents and boxes under the subway bridges. Not everywhere like San Francisco, but sill there. However, no trash on the ground – like anywhere.

We rode back across the Rainbow bridge and stopped at the Tokyo National Museum. The TNM is the oldest national museum and largest art museum in Japan. While they focus on ancient and medieval Japanese art they have a comprehensive collection of Asian art along the Silk Road. There is also a large collection of Greco-Buddhist art. The museum actually consists for several different buildings.

The Honkan holds the Japanese Galley, the Heiseikan and Hyokeikan are used for special exhibitions, the Toyokan holds the Asian art galley, the Gallery of Horyuji Treasures holds important relics. There are restaurants, food trucks, and shops within the museum complex. Here again, we are given about ninety-minutes to see the museum. The bus parked a few clocks away and we walked to the entrance gate. Unfortunately, Mary took a header on the way. She “tripped” on a tree square in the middle of the sidewalk. She was ok, but we took the time to make sure and get her some ice to reduce the swelling.

Mary didn’t get to see much of the museum. I did get a glimpse of a small part of the first floor. Sculpture in stone of various gods and guardians, a few of the swords and a few pieces of lacquerware. The neatest thing I got to see was an example of armor (Dōmaru) from the 15th century. We went outside to a coffee cart near the Asian art gallery and had some tea while we waited for the rest of the group to finish up the tour. Mike and Maddie joined us and then they went for a walk in the museum garden. After that we met the group by the main gate and walked back to the bus.

From there it was a bus ride back to the Hilton. We got back just before it had gone 13:30. Lunch service ends at 14:00 so we made a bee-line to the second floor to see where we could have lunch. Based solely on availability we ended up at the Metropolitan Grill on the second floor. Mike and Mary ordered the hamburger and Maddie had a shrimp salad. It was a steakhouse, so I ordered the A5 Wagyu Beef Filet. It was the best beef I have ever eaten.

After lunch we headed back to our rooms. We spent the remainder of the day and night in our rooms just napping and recovering from the flights.

Buonanotte e Ciao,

Enrico e Maria