{This page describes the somewhat frustrating process of booking the tickets. It was more tortuous than expected due to disorganization/incompetence on the part of the booking company. Feel free to skip ahead to the voyage if this doesn't interest you.}


I soon found a match with my location and timeframe at a company called NSB Reisebüro. They have some relationship with another company called Hanjin shipping. I'm unclear exactly the arrangement, but it seems that perhaps one company owns the ship, and the other operates it. In any event, the German company was handling the passenger arrangements. I was offered passage on the MV Hanjin Athens, departing from Osaka on March 2nd, 2009, and arriving in Oakland on or about March 17th, with a stop in Long Beach. It was perfect for me, as I knew I could get a ride to Osaka port from one of my students. I requested the voyage, and was sent a large folder of documents to go over. There were payment forms, insurance forms, health declarations, and information about shipboard life and ports. Payment was to be made by electronic bank transfer, which turned out to be a hassle because of limited bank hours in Japan and also the language barrier. The price of the voyage was calculated based on the estimated number of days it would last, plus overhead fees which included 'port fees' (I think to pay the crew agent who would meet me and get me to the ship), 'deviation insurance' (to cover the loss if the ship had to go out of its way to get me to shore, in the event of a medical emergency), and bank charges. Specifically: Here's the e-mail I was sent:

Dear Angus,

many thanks for your request. NSB (Niederelbe Schiffahrtsgesellschaft mbH & Co.KG, Buxtehude) is one of the largest shipping companies in Germany.
NSB is currently managing about 100 container ships on different routes all over the world. All of the modern container vessels have few passenger facilities, all air-conditioned outside cabins with private WC/shower.
Most of the NSB managed container vessel run the german flag and many have german captain and always philippine crew.

As per todays schedule (subjest to change!) we would be able to offer a passage from Osaka on/about March 3, 2009 via Tokyo to Long Beach, CA on MV HANJIN ATHENS. The duration of this voyage is approx. 13 days. At moment the single cabin would still be available at a daily fare of Euro 85,00 plus port fees Euro 85,00 per trip and deviation insurance Euro 105,00 per trip and bank charges of Euro 15,00 per invoice. Total fare would be Euro 1.310,00 incl. all meals.
Please find attached our vessel information for MV HANJIN ATHENS (word file).

For travelling on a freighter a valid machine readable passport would be required and a valid int. travel health insurance incl. 24-hours emergency number of the insurance company. Further a medical certificate to be completed and signed by a doctor not more than 30 days prior to vessel departure.

Payment to us would only be possible in currency EURO into our bank account. Deposit of 20% would be required upon booking and final payment four weeks prior to vessel departure.
....
....


So 1310 Euros total. I sent the 20% deposit in and went about getting the required insurance. They required the insurance to include '24 hour emergency ship-to-shore evacuation coverage'- so if I was seriously injured in the middle of the ocean, a helicopter would come out to fly me to a hospital. I went through a place called travelinsurancecenter.com, and the cost was $115.00.

I exchanged e-mails regularly with my contact at NSB from the end of July until the beginning of September, sorting out details and making sure I had everything taken care of. We then did not communicate until January 4th, 2009, when I sent him an e-mail asking about locating the terminal at the port and reaching the ship once I got there.

In preparation for my departure from Osaka, I had gone with a friend to Osaka Port, located on an island in the bay. It was a rainy day, and we walked with umbrellas from the nearest train station, guided by a map I had photographed in a convenience store, looking for terminal C-1. We eventually reached a chain link fence that guarded thousands of metal containers.

C-1 was at the end of the street. A guard's station stood just inside the driveway. But the chain link fence closing the driveway was ajar, and the guard's station appeared empty. We walked in and knocked on the window, but no one came. The TV was on, and it felt as though the guard must have just stepped away for a moment, but after several minutes he still hadn't returned. Knowing Japanese people's aversion to getting rained on, we decided that perhaps he had gone out to check something without his umbrella and gotten pinned down when the rain started. Was he huddled under some awning somewhere, unable to return to his post?

We walked up to the building marked 'Hanjin Shipping', hesitantly at first, but with more and more boldness as we started to realize there were just no people anywhere on this huge lot. The front door was unlocked. We walked in, into a short hallway leading to a door and a stairwell. The door was unlocked, but the hallway it led to was dark. We went upstairs. On each floor, there was an unlocked, deserted office full of computers and cubicles. There was no one to answer my questions about getting on the ship. We went outside, and looked at the towers of colorful containers, stacked 4 high and grouped into blocks divided by alleys, like a perfectly geometric city.

When we had been on our way there, we had joked about how, in movies or TV shows, there are scenes taking place at ports and container terminals, and characters, bad or good, just walk on as though it's open to the public. 'What an absurd conceit of fiction', we had agreed. 'Surely such areas are locked down and guarded, so thieves or terrorists can't get in'. It turns out the TV had it right all along. We could easily have walked among the containers, and I'm sure it would not have been too difficult to open one of the containers with easily obtainable tools.

Entertained, but defeated in our goal, I returned home, where I sent this e-mail:

Now that there are only two months until my trip, I'm trying to get a feeling for how the departure will be done. A few months ago I went out to the dock in Osaka port, but couldn't find anyone to talk to. I'd like to take the opportunity to see the area I'll be leaving from and figure out the luggage situation. I have certain questions, like:
If there's a change in the ship's schedule, how will I learn of it? Is there a place I can bring my luggage before the day of departure? How early can I bring it? Can people come to see me off? When can I go to the dock and expect to find people there? Only on days when a ship is due in to port? I went on a Sunday last time, and the whole place was deserted, though the gate was open.

In response, I received the following e-mail, excerpted:

Unfortunately I have some bad news regarding your booked voyage from Osaka to Oakland on MV Hanjin Athens. This vessel (as well as the other three vessels in the same service) will change service and will not call at any Japanese as well as US ports in future. The charterer has just changed schedule for some vessels and we are very sorry about this change in schedules.

As an alternative we would like to suggest the following voyage to you: MV HANJIN MADRID from Yokohama about March 3, 2009 via Prince Rupert / Canada - Vancouver - Seattle, WA/USA. Disembarkation would be possible in all three before mentioned ports (Prince Rupert / Vancouver / Seattle). Please find attached vessel information and duration sheet for MV HANJIN ATHENS for your information.

Please let me know if you would be interested in this voyage instead. If you would not be able to accept the alternative voyage we would cancel your trip free of charge.


Cancellation of or changes to the ship's schedule was something I had been warned might happen, but I assumed that if it happened, they would take the initiative to tell me! Finding out just 2 months before the trip, only prompted by an inquiry I happened to make, seems unprofessional. What if I hadn't inquired about anything? Would they ever have informed me? Fortunately, the alternative itinerary still worked, though leaving from Yokohama was not as good as Osaka would have been.

I was confused by one thing: the .pdf attachment the agent had sent me contained a bunch of wrong information: the wrong ship name, the wrong ports- even a departure date that had already passed! I inquired if perhaps he had sent me the wrong passenger's document? He had.

One additional frustration was the following:

We would like to point again that only normal luggage would be allowed to carry on board (no removals etc.) and only cabin luggage up to 1 cbm only! As the port agent is not an NSB agent and not responsible for passengers in first line it would most probably not be possible to send luggage to the office of the port agent before the arrival of the vessel!


One cubic meter is a lot of luggage. That's great! But 1 cubic meter is more than any person can carry by themselves. Door-to-door delivery is a very common service in Japan, cheap and convenient. When people go on vacation within the country, they often don't carry their suitcases with them, but have them delivered directly to their hotel. The driver comes to your door, you pay cash, and the next day your package is delivered to any address in Japan. So I was surprised and dismayed to be told that I couldn't do it for my luggage when going to the ship. Although it's true that the ships are cargo ships, and the passenger service is a very minor side business, the fact remains that they are offering and selling a passenger service, and some arrangements to facilitate passenger boarding would be appropriate.

The new itinerary was 3 days shorter than the first one, making it about 255 Euros cheaper. Since my deposit was already taken care of, I had nothing further to do but wait, and hope the itinerary did not change again. Four weeks before the ship was to sail, I was also to get a medical certificate signed by a doctor, declaring I was fit to travel. At that time, I was also to transfer the balance of the payment, and it was then that the disorganization of the agent showed itself again. I received the following request in an e-mail:

Please fax or e-mail copies of the following documents as soon as you would have it ready:
- copy of passport
- copy of visa for China
- copy of Yellow Fever vaccination
- copy of medical certificate

What? I immediately fired off an e-mail:

My itinerary shows a voyage lasting 12 days, with ports of call indicated at Port Rupert, Canada, and Vancouver, Canada, after the departure from Japan. By my reckoning, we will not be going to China on this segment. I have therefor made no inquiries regarding a visa for China or a yellow fever vaccination. Perhaps another passenger's records were confused for mine?

And in response:

thank you and sorry for the confusion and my mistake. You are absolutely right, no need for Chinese visa and Yellow Fever vaccination for the ports on your route.
Sorry again.


With that sorted out, I got the medical certificate taken care of quite easily. A Japanese friend of mine arranged for his (non-english-speaking) doctor to sign any form we put in front of him. And with that sent out, I was finally ready to board.

Getting to Yokohama from Kyoto, carrying all my baggage on the train, was not fun, but I had a nice sendoff at the Kyoto shinkansen terminal.

Once in Yokohama, there was more difficulty on the morning of my departure due to there being a special immigration office for the port, which I didn't know about, but once I was met by the crew agent, everything went smoothly.

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