Tasmania to Tokyo – At Sea – Day 64 can be found here.
The final Chronicles of our voyage can be found here.
47 days ago we boarded the Silver Moon in Melbourne – and today we disembark in Tokyo. How time flies. At some point in the not-too-distant future, I will do a full post-mortem to explore what worked and what didn’t. But today we have to get off the ship – so let’s get on with that, shall we?
They want us out of our cabin by 8 am, but we mostly prepared yesterday so we tempt fate by setting alarms for 7:30 am – and we meet our deadline with at least 15 seconds to spare. I jest, I jest. My wife set an actual get-out-of-room alarm and we had 2 minutes.
Not everyone got the memo, it seems – a fellow passenger is heard muttering to herself, “‘Take my time’, he says, but you want me out of my room in five minutes…” What can you say? Breaking up is hard to do.
Packing wasn’t as bad as we had feared. I had perhaps one drawer where absolutely everything had exploded everywhere, and it took a while to sort through the Chronicles and remove all the valuable paperwork. But we don’t have a flight to catch for more than a week, so that meant that we can forego weighing our luggage until our time in Kyoto.
Off to La Terrazza for breakfast this morning, and they are unsurprisingly jammed. We enjoy our last leisurely breakfast and bid fond farewell to some of our friends – we are among the self-departure group which does not leave until 9:30 am, so we have some time.
But that time passes quicker than you’d think – and we soon abandon the dregs of our complimentary cappuccinos and chai lattes, and disembark before the final flood of guests snap up all the taxis.
Incidentally, my wife did finally figure out how to make a proper chai latte aboard a Silversea Ship – they are supposed to add a pump of cinnamon syrup to each latte, and it often gets missed. Pro tip for those who’ve faced this issue in the past!
During our brief window in Dolce Vita, however, I discover it’s impossible to order a taxi to the Harumi Port area via the Go app. It’s considered a taxi stand, so you have to just wait for a taxi to show up.
This is challenging as a single taxi will definitely not hold all of our luggage – but there’s also no way that we’re spending 22,000 yen (USD$140) for a 15 minute cab ride to our hotel, which is what mesm had previously quoted. Silversea had quoted about USD$250. So we’re rolling the dice and taking our chances.
But now that we’re actually here and we are in the midst of disembarking, that choice is starting to feel somewhat short-sighted. And did I mention it’s raining? Hmm.
Unlike the expeditions ships, there is no long line of expedition guides there to bid fond farewell. Just a few staff members, some seemingly chosen at random. I do get that they have an all-but-entirely-new roster of passengers coming on board but it is another noteable difference between classic cruising and expeditions. (A mere almost-30 people are continuing on from the previous voyage, according to Reception.)
No shuttle to take to get the cruise terminal, just roll the bag along the tarmac and head through immigration. We already cleared in to Japan so it’s all quite perfunctory. While passing though I spot an information desk and ask them about taxi vans. The gentleman there says, “Hmm. Maybe you’ll get lucky.” Not entirely helpful – but they give our daughter a sticker, which is kind of them.
Out of the cruise port we go, flung free of Silversea’s careful grasp. We wind around the taxi line-up and explain our situation and – they call two taxis, and we’re on our way. No muss, no fuss. I even get to say: “Follow that cab!” like I’ve always wanted.
I don’t think we even lose sight of my wife and daughter the entire time – it’s that easy.
We pull up outside the mesm shortly afterward. The total cost for two taxis? 3,600 yen or roughly USD$22. We pat ourselves on the back for that one – as much as I am willing to pay extra for seamless transfers, a sevenfold price increase is more than I can stomach. And I expect we will have no trouble spending that money in Japan.
The bellhops have already collected our bags and handed me a slip, and we are being whisked up the elevator to the 16th floor. The transition is so quick that I’m finding it hard to believe we’re already at our hotel.
And what a hotel it is:
Photo Credit: Mesm Tokyo – planning to take some photos of my own as time permits
The clerk regrets that our rooms are not yet ready – unsurprising, considering it’s only 10 am – but that they should be available for us at noon.
There’s a bit of sticker shock at the price, as it’s been a long time since I’ve looked over all of our travel documents and I did not realize that both service and tax were excluded from the big bold number on our invoice – but it’s also a five star hotel in sakura season, so it’s not unreasonable.
We now have some extra time available to us, so we elect to visit Miraikan, the Museum of Emerging Technologies and Innovation.
This time we are able to use the Go app – and it works as well as it did in Kochi. Every bit as easy as Uber, but with the extra regulations and safety associated with a taxi company. Seems like a win-win to us.
During the cab ride, I remember that we still haven’t booked our shinkansen (bullet train) tickets to Kyoto so I start looking into it – and I finish paying for it as we’re walking toward to the museum. Shinkansen trains leave roughly every 10 minutes, so there are plenty of seats – but we wanted Fuji-facing seats in one of the more upscale ‘Green’ cars so choices were limited.
Soon we’re walking through the doors of Miraikan:
The second floor display includes some interesting sections on robots, and how they are seeking to better respond to and mimic human behaviour.
A robotic ‘child’ becomes increasingly excited the more stimulus it receives:
While a robotic yeti responds to sound and motion:
And who doesn’t want an emotional support fur seal:
But then it starts to get truly interesting indeed, particularly once we enter the Quantum Computer Disco:
From Miraikan:
In this exhibition, you’ll first grasp how quantum computers perform calculations through a DJ experience. What makes them different from modern “classical “computers? How do they utilize “quantum mechanics” as the source of their powerful computational abilities? And what can they achieve? After the DJ experience, we’ll explain through short movies, comics, films, and games. Imagine the future that quantum computers—once only science fiction—will bring to reality.
Despite my degree in computing science, I still have a tenuous grasp of quantum computing – but essentially quantum computers use qubits which exist in “superpositions” of 0 and 1 instead one actual state. They then use interference to make more useful solutions likely to appear.
Confused yet? Good. Me too.
The DJ booth simulates this by letting you conduct quantum operations on a series of songs.
Each of these operations affect which songs are selected, the probability that a song be played and where it is spatially:
So you as the programmer can use these operations to hone in on the song you want to experience. And when you’re ready, you hit ‘measure’ – and potentially the right song (the right solution) is delivered to an actual dance floor, er, user.
I’m glad the kids are starting with this now because it’s going to take them til adulthood to come close to grasping these concepts.
We then move over to a display on aging:
They both use technology to help us better understand what the aging process is like:
Anyone for a rousing game of Elderly Shopping Simulator?
And to show how techonology might make aging less difficult:
This wheelchair can be controlled with slightly leaning in the direction of travel – helpful both for those without use of their hands, and for those who want to use their hands while moving
We then go to a special exhibit where one visitor tries to draw something that humans will guess, but which AI will not guess – this is extra challenging given that none of us speak Japanese:
On another challenge, every single one of us guesses fox – but the real answer was wolf
Here Google Translate’s camera feature becomes invaluable, letting us translate the words on the screen in real time.
We then go to a simulated city of the future where we have to solve a mystery by speaking to residents:
The city consists of actual physical spaces to visit, which makes it quite interesting. The exhibit does a good job of balancing off the positives and negatives of technology:
And soon were are invited into the digital mayor’s office. There’s even a simulated waiting room:
And we are congratulated for solving the puzzle:
Time for lunch. The museum’s cafeteria has surprisingly good food – including more fried chicken:
And earth-themed donuts:
We then head up to the Frontiers exhibition:
They have some fascinating individual stories exploring the future use of stem cells, as told by individuals facing health problems – and in which you have to make a difficult ethical choice at the end.
Specifically – given a list of risks and rewards would you as a diabetic choose to have a transplant of a stem-cell kidney (grown inside an actual pig) to transplant into you so that you no longer require regular dialysis? Each step in the process was clearly explained and the commentary from the actual person leading up to you making the selection was great. (“Well, I’m a butcher, I kill pigs all the time – but this is creepy.”)
There’s also an immersive theatre in which you get to visit Fiji and see the challenges posed by rising sea levels firsthand. (Theoretically there’s videos targeting other climate change problems but despite trying twice we both got Fiji.)
Lastly, the ground floor exhibit has an interesting display on synthetic, lab-grown meat:
But soon it’s time to grab another cab and head back to mesm – where our rooms are ready, as promised.
And what do you get for an arm and leg? Quite a lot as it turns out.
But first – for those of you who were curious as to what the partition wall looks like:
This is very cool indeed – it looks like these panels fold back into the wall when they’re not in use. But when out, they essentially block off the portion of the hallway for two rooms, as you can see in the next shot:
The door frame from the partition wall is just visible in the right of the shot – this means we have private use of this section of hallway as well as the two rooms, which means we can block doors open and wander around in bathrobes. Well worth the USD$350 total extra cost for five nights!
The rooms themselves are no slouch either:
Ignore the ‘bed angel’ our daughter made on the right-hand bed the moment she walked into her room – despite being told roughly 3,295 times in advance that I needed to take photos first
It’s been a long time since we last stayed in Japan, but we still remember how tiny the rooms tend to be. These rooms are cavernous by Tokyo standards.
You know a hotel is confident about sound proofing when they give each guest a piano
I’m still not sure I get the exposed bathroom trend in hotels, but thankfully it’s easy enough to close various blinds and sliders.
And the adult’s room:
Some nice touches here, including a pour-over coffee set and a complimentary mini-bar – sadly without wine, but I now apparently have a four-beer-a-day allowance
My wife then calls across from our room, “Did you know our room has a demon?”
A what now?
Ah, yes – a creepy doll:
But not just any creepy doll. This one reacts to light! (Or camera flashes, to be exact.)
Okay – that is something special. I take back the creepy part. I am very happy about our room’s very cool, not-creepy, light-changing demon doll.
Our bags are waiting for us when we arrive – all except two of our backpacks, which we dropped off at the front desk just before we left for Miraikan. The backpacks then arrive just a few minutes later.
We take a bit of time to chill out, then we elect to head down to mesm’s casual restaurant – Whisk – for dinner tonight.
I try a Japanese India pale lager:
It’s very good – and a welcome change from the limited selection aboard the Moon.
My wife has the porcini pasta:
Our daughter and I have the pasta bolognese:
While our son has the margherita pizza:
We’ll be more adventurous tomorrow, I promise.
Speaking of adventurous – I venture out to attempt to pick up a few odds and sundry after we looked at just ordering a bottle of wine to the room and discovered a bottle of Cloudy Bay would set us back close to USD$100.
As was the case at the museum, Google Translate’s camera feature proves invaluable – though confusing. I attempt to find a tea for my wife, when I come across a product labelled “Shall I live?”
Turns out it was a particularly spicy kind of wasabi. (In case you weren’t sure, the packaging adds – “The scent stands out.”)
We also elect to pick up some breakfast supplies as the hotel buffet breakfast runs to roughly USD$40 apiece. I manage to track down some fruit, milk and yoghurt, but granola and cereal escape us.
I’ll do one more run early tomorrow in search of bread and / or pastries but we might just have to bite the bullet and do the buffet breakfast on later days. I’m capable of many feats but noodles for breakfast is rarely one of them.
Back to the room to enjoy this absolutely spectacular view:
Along with a complimentary can of Japanese beer.
Then we are off to bed – we’ll need our rest for our day-long tour with our guide Masahura tomorrow.