Cruise Ship Asuka II in Yokohama

I love harbors and I love big ships and if there is one place to really see them up close it is at the International Port of Yokohama, the Osanbashi Pier. Last year I saw the gigantic MS Asuka II (飛鳥II) at port. It is the largest passenger vessel in Japan right now, at 241m. It has a crew of 545 and can take 960 passengers. I usually use this site to track the position of large ships but I already knew that the Asuka II is currently in port at Hakata/Fukuoka on the north coast of the island of Kyushu, in southern Japan, where it arrived about half a day ago.

The ship was launched in 1989 and is currently sailing under Japanese flag (which is unusual in this day and age of “Flag of Convenience” maritime traffic.

Yokohama and Osanbashi

A couple of weeks ago while in Yokohama I took these photos of the fantastically colored sky and the city. It was a once-in-a-decade sort of sky, very cool. I also visited the international pier at Minato Mirai, the Osanbashi. Easily one of the most interesting landmarks of Yokohama, and one of the rare examples of perfect modern architecture. A must visit!

Costa Victoria in Yokohama Port

Visiting Yokohama with friends last week I just had to take a detour to one of my favorite Yokohama landmarks, the Osanbashi and the International ship terminal there. Sort of blocking our view though, was the biggest ship I have ever seen, the simply gigantic Costa Victoria. The name might ring a bell if you remember the more unfortunate Costa Concorida that capsized of the coast of Italy earlier this year. The Costa Victoria really towered above the usually quite huge Osanbashi, even though we missed out on the view of Yokohama Minato Mirai, we were impressed by the ship instead. Funny thing was, on the other side of the pier, another huge ship was resting at anchor, but I forgot her name (last photo of the blog post). I wonder if anyone on these ship reads this blog?

Cute Girl 1 – Osanbashi

Spent a very hectic weekend mostly in Yokohama and Kamakura, still had time to get the camera out during the few well deserved breaks I could muster. I was at Yokohama’s Osanbashi (previously blogged about here) when I saw this wonderful father/daughter couple. The father, who I must say have a very interesting photography technique tried in vain to get his daughter’s attention. I however, had better luck! How cute is she! Courtesy of my fantastic 135mm f.2 lens.

Just in case you think I am going “soft” I’ll throw in a sunset shot (obligatory when visiting this spot) of the Yokohama skyline. I know I have done it before, but every sunset is unique, so here goes! Nikkor 20mm f2.8.