Board the only surviving pre-war Japanese ocean liner
Chaplin's suite, original 1930 diesels
The NYK Hikawa Maru, a 1929 cargo-passenger liner moored permanently at Yamashita Park since 1961. She ran Yokohama to Seattle and Vancouver from 1930, served as a hospital ship from December 1941, and is a National Important Cultural Property.
Why it's unique
Her owner, NYK, describes her as the only surviving cargo-passenger liner built in Japan before the Second World War. Every other ship of her class was sunk; she was one of only two large Japanese passenger ships still afloat at the surrender.
You can walk her from wheelhouse to engine room, about seven storeys. The Art Deco interiors are by Marc Simon, then France's leading ship-interior designer, and the first-class special suite where Chaplin stayed in 1932 has stained glass with Japanese botanical motifs. Kano Jigoro, the founder of judo, died aboard in 1938.
Before you go
Most visitors do the first-class rooms and leave. Go down instead: the engine room still holds the original 1930 Burmeister & Wain diesels. Two details almost nobody notices are the small shrine on the bridge, holding talismans from Hikawa Shrine, the ship's namesake, and the cloud emblems worked into the central staircase handrails, that shrine's sacred symbol.
Buy the combined ticket with the NYK Maritime Museum rather than the ship alone. Allow one to two hours. NYK has been surveying the hull and large-scale repairs are being prepared, so check access before you go.