June 26, 2013

We have just made a brief visit to Japan for boat repairs while en route to Canada, visiting only Tannowa (Osaka) and Wakayama (see details of each stopover below).

Originally we only went to Wakayama Marina because Tannowa does not have quarantine, so had to call there first. At Tannowa, immigration would not grant my wife a visa, as she has a South African Passport (I am British), so I had to sign a form confirming that she must not leave the boat (in practice the marina or boatyard). Very badly handled by the official who would not explain anything, no information that we could appeal, so all very upsetting for my wife.

Tomoko of Wakayama Marina got to hear about this and she contacted the immigration in Wakayama, explaining the circumstances of our emergency visit for boat repairs and appealed to their supervisor. She was told we could re-apply and would be granted 90 days. So, the following day she collected us from the Osaki Ship Yard and took us to immigration, a round trip of 80 km. Our initial application was refused but on immediate appeal, three hours later, my wife had her visa. So of course after our repairs were done, we went to Wakayama, where we were made so welcome.

Tannowa

The yacht harbour here is NOT free for the first week. We paid Y2100 per day.  The Manager there is very helpful, but that is all. Tannowa is a tiny village with no facilities, apart from a small supermarket, post office with ATM and train station, which is entirely automatic, so impossible for a foreigner. Therefore no reason to visit.

Wakayama

The Wakayama Marina City Yacht Club is highly recommended. Not free, but only Y1000 per day. WP 34deg09.7N 135deg 10.5E. Manager M/S Tomoko Koura and staff were extremely helpful. Could not do too much for us, ordering and delivering supplies for us, taking us shopping and entertaining us for meals. They even took us on a day trip to Kyoto. They get very few cruisers, maybe three a year, so made a huge fuss of us. They gave us a barbeque on our last night, with most of the staff and families plus friends. A great send off. Almost embarrassing how much they did for us.

Manager M/S Tomoko Koura: t-koura@marinacity.com

General: yacht@marinacity.com

Facilities: Laundry and free showers. A very modern marina and a separate visitors wharf, so will always be space for visiting yachts.

Boat Repairs

Osaki Ship Yard, which despite the name is a tiny family run yard. High-quality painstaking work but at a price. We needed fiberglass repairs and we could not have done better. WP34deg 07.8N 135deg 07.9E. We do not have any contact info. and their English is very limited anyway. Best to contact them through Wakayama.

Marinas closer to Osaka

Other information our friend in Hong Kong gave us of marinas closer to Osaka is as follows. We cannot confirm the accuracy as made no contact with anywhere else.

Shin Nishinomiya Marina (home of Kansai Yacht Club)

Latitude: 34 42′ 31.31″N

Longitude: 135 19′ 49.73″E

Berthing Mooring Options: Shin Nishinomiya Yacht Harbor, Nishinomiya Port, Hyogo Prefecture, Email: webmaster@sinnisi-yh.co.jp, Tel: 0798 33 0651, Fax: 0798 33 2411.

Websites: www.sinnisi-yh.co.jp,

http://www.nishi.or.jp/homepage/foreign/index-e.html

Ashiya Marina

+34° 42′ 36.86″, +135° 19′ 12.06″

Kaiyo-Cho, Ashiya City, Hyogo 659-0035

Tel:0797-35-6662 Fax:0797-35-6663

ashiya@bellport.co.jp

New Marina 2009. Located between Kobe and Osaka, Ashiya Marina is a recently opened full facility marina that is owned and operated by BellPort Japan. 30amp/100v & 50amp/200v shore power. Fuel Dock. Haul-out facility, and a maintenance yard. French restaurant.

Suma Yacht Harbour

34 38 497N; 135 07.857E.

TEL 078-735-7968

FAX 078-735-7969

Hokko Marina

34 40′ 30N, 135 24′ 30E

2-13-18, Tuneyoshi Konohana-Ku, Osaka 554-0052 JAPAN

TEL/FAX: 06-6461-3119

Harbor Office;06-6468-3710

Contact us: hokko@ohyc.gr.jp

http://ohyc-yacht.com/e-hyousi.html

Smaller than Shin Nishinomiya it has all mod cons and welcomes foreigners, but local yachties do complain that it can be subject to the wake of passing ships, located as it is in the heart of Osaka’s dockland. Hokko was mentioned by Osaki Ship Yard as a good option.

Dejima (Sakai) Marina

34 34′ 30â€? N, 135 27′ E

www.op-yachts.com;

e-mail nozaki-k@op-yachts.com or kosuke@op-yachts.com

The location is not inspiring a large highway flyover serves as the backdrop and the pontoons are a bit rickety, but the location is exceptionally well-protected and it may be possible to negotiate a much lower price here than at other marinas. No showers; public bath (sento) close by. Haulout possible: a crane visits every two weeks or so. The marina is also a working boatyard, run by Japanese yachting legend

Katsuichi Nozaki and his son Kosuke. Very friendly, helpful people with good English.

Other info.

Tax-free fuel is not available in our experience. We made inquiries but were told it was not possible.

Channel 16 is used as everywhere else, with endless chatter.

SIM cards are not available for foreigners.

Only the post office ATM can be used for foreign cards.

Comment on your website

We were at sea with no internet access when we decided we had to call into Japan. We had taken the precaution of printing out your Japan info. but we found it all fairly useless in making contact with anyone or knowing where the marinas listed were. Like most cruisers we have email, so all entries should have an email address and waypoint.  We had to email shore-based friends in order to get the information we needed.

Alec and Cherry Yarrow

Yacht Rainbow Gypsy

www.yarrowgypsies.weebly.com [BROKEN LINK]

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