Diamond Princess in Japan 2025: First day in Japan

Wednesday 17^th September, 2025

Tonight we are going to a Japan Major League baseball game and this morning we had planned to meet up with the man who helped us get the tickets, but sadly, he had to cancel. We might catch up with him before we leave. We still went to the café that we were going to meet at, Gooz, bought some food and brought it back to the guest lounge in our hotel to eat.

Knowing that it could be a late night, I thought we’d take it easy and not push too hard through the day. First challenge today was to get to where we wanted to go by train. The lines are all named and numbered so it’s fairly straightforward to figure out, she says early in the day when not hot and exhausted! There were 3 things on the list for Shibuya. The statue of Hachiko, a very special and loyal dog; the world famous Shibuya scramble; and Loft, a department store famous for Japanese stationery.

Hachiko was easy to find, just look for the queue of people waiting to have a photo with him. I’d read that if you see a queue you should join it, it’s probably for something good! I’d also read of a place called Mag’s Bar in the Magnetic building overlooking the Shibuya scramble where for around 800 yen entry (including a drink) you could go and get a good view. Must have been old information because it was actually 1800 yen! Oh well, it had a/c, a cold drink and a clean loo. We went to long way round to get to Loft as the buildings interfered with google maps! Lots of lovely things over 5 floors but didn’t buy anything. Shopping day will be when we get back from the cruise, unless we see something really outstanding.

The baseball game didn’t start till 6pm and gates didn’t open till 4.30 so we still had a lot of time, time enough to go to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and up to the viewing floor, complete with café and gift shop! And also a/c! On a clear day, it’s possible to see Mt Fuji, but not today. Really not feeling hungry in the heat, but feeling more like it after spending time in the cool of the TMGB and seeing a half sized serve of ramen, we ate that.

The baseball game was between the Yakult Swallows (home team) and the Yomiuri Giants. Our seats were up high, under cover and slightly to the left of home plate, great seats. There are young women who are employed to wander the stadium, selling beer that they carry in a keg on their backs. They were absolute athletes, probably moreso than the baseball players! Don’t know how much the beer weighed but they also literally ran up and down the stairs and squatted to pour the beers so as not to obstruct anyone’s view and all dressed in brightly coloured uniforms, coloured depending on the beer they sold. Flouro yellow for Kirin, green for Heineken, black for Sapporo, pink for Asahi, orange for Yebisu (never heard of that one), red for Coke and a paler yellow for a lemon squash type drink with gin. I had to try that one! They were balls of sweat within an hour or two.

It was entertaining to watch the fans getting set up their ‘camp’ for the game, you can tell they’ve done it many times before. 2 men sitting across the aisle from us in the row had the balcony rail to use and they hung all they needed from metal hooks.

A lady sitting in the row behind us gave us Swallows merch fans to use and they were an absolute lifesaver. She didn’t want to take them back but when we were leaving, we had no use for them and didn’t want to take them home. She was lovely and I don’t know if she realised how much we appreciated them. A young man in the row in front of us put me on to the lemon and gin drink. We haven’t crossed paths with anyone who didn’t want to help us if we looked like we needed it.

After dark, there is a light show projected onto the TMGB and we wanted to see that and only plan to be in Tokyo after dark tonight, so it was now or never. Took a bit of finding but it was worth it. There’s a big patch of artificial grass that you can sit or lay on, as well as a few chairs and benches.