My friend is taking a Viking cruise that skirts around the coast of Japan. She is wondering how long it would take to get to central Tokyo when the ship is docked at Yokohama.
Our ship docked at Tokyo Bay, not sure about Yokohama, but we flew into Narita airport and took the Narita express to our hotel, near Tokyo Station (in central Tokyo). We joined a group of cruisers and had a transport company take us to the port. It was on a Sunday with light traffic, but it still took 45 minutes.
If you are contemplating doing Tokyo on your own, you need to research where you want to go and determine how you are going to do that. We took a tour of the city (found it on Viator) and the sites that we wanted to see were on the tour. We traveled over a lot of the city. There is no way you can walk Tokyo and do it on your own, except perhaps go to Tokyo Station and then walk to the Imperial Palace grounds.
If you or your friend Google the rome2rio website using Yokohama port to Ginza in central Tokyo, you will see various modes of transportation and times.
I've used the train between Tokyo and Yokohama (and many other cities in Japan) and trains are quick and fairly easy to use if you do your research online beforehand. Definitely do not choose a taxi! The Japanese are very helpful and your friend will likely find someone of assistance if needed. Not everyone speaks English (especially taxi drivers) but the younger folks usually do.
The Shore Excursions staff on cruise ships are usually very helpful (although I have not traveled with Viking myself).
We just returned from a trip to Japan, where one of our stops had us staying in a "business" hotel right beside one of the Yokohama train stations. The trip to Tokyo seemed very short - about 30 minutes, depending on your destination (Tokyo is huge and has five major centres).
Taxi would be slow and expensive.
caveat: there is more than one train line, and buying tickets is not always straight-forward. Try to do your research online, beforehand. Not all ticket kiosks include English, but most of the on-board announcements in Japanese were followed by the same announcement in English. Tokyo is gearing up to host the Summer Olympics next year, and seemed very tourist friendly.
45 minutes sounds about right
Thanks, everyone. I’ll tell my friend to read your responses.
The trains are always on time and not too$$$. Japan is HUGE but so amazing...google cheap eats...on Trip Advisor! Try the 100 yen stores for souvenirs :)