PORT OF JAPAN
Merchant houses in the rain, Sakata

Home / Sakata / Your day / Route

When it rains · Sakata

Merchant houses in the rain

Wet days — the cluster keeps the dashes short. Timed from the gangway and back.

Any hours door to door4 stopsA wet day
Open the route in Maps
Photo: 掬茶 / CC BY-SA 3.0
Door to door
Any hours
From the gangway and back
Best for
A wet day
Wet days — the cluster keeps the dashes short
Room to spare
Flexible
Built in pieces — take as many as your stop allows.
What it costs
~¥6,300 pp
With the ¥2,000 joint Homma ticket (¥6,700 without) — four roofs, three of them gorgeous.
Booking
Book ahead
At least one step needs booking before you sail: the steps below say which

Timed from the gangway with the port's official timetables · updated · Takumi Yamada

Numbers follow the route below. Pins are the places themselves; walking lines are not drawn because the best way between two stops can change with the tram, the tide or the weather.

The route

How the day runs

Times are from the moment you step off, not from the scheduled arrival. Everything shifts if your ship is late; the order does not.

  1. +0:00
    Shuttle → Homma Museum & Kakubuen

    Open daily · the garden reads beautifully in rain

    What you will see hereFull guide: Homma Museum of Art & Kakubuen
  2. +1:30
    Somaro — interiors and the dance

    Closed Wednesdays except cruise days · only the regular 14:00 show can be booked ahead (2 or more people); on cruise days the shows are sold at the counter on the day, so check somaro.net the night before · the lacquered stairs alone justify the ticket

    What you will see here
    Somaro maiko performance, Sakata
    Photo: さかおり / CC BY-SA 4.0
  3. +3:00
    Kaisen Ichiba — late market lunch

    Indoors, casual, excellent

    What you will see hereFull guide: Sakata Kaisen Ichiba
    Kaisen-don at Donya Tobishima, Sakata
    Photo: Ocdp / CC0
  4. +4:00
    Homma Family Villa, then shuttle

    Tatami, screens, and the sound of rain on a rich man’s roof

    What you will see here
    Homma Museum & Kakubuen, Sakata
    Photo: 掬茶 / CC BY-SA 3.0
The margin is not optional. This route ends an hour before all-aboard on purpose. If you are running late, drop the last stop, not the hour.
What the day looks like

Sakata, along this route

Real photographs of the places above and the streets between them. Every one is credited.

Sankyo Warehouses, Sakata
Sankyo WarehousesPhoto: kiwa dokokano / CC BY-SA 3.0
Sakata Kaisen Ichiba
Sakata Kaisen IchibaPhoto: 運動会プロテインパワー / CC BY-SA 4.0
The Sankyo warehouses and their zelkova avenue, Sakata
The Sankyo warehouses and their zelkova avenuePhoto: さかおり / CC BY-SA 4.0
Wonton-men, the Sakata bowl
Wonton-men, the Sakata bowlPhoto: Guilhem Vellut from Annecy, France / CC BY 2.0
The Homma family villa garden, Sakata
The Homma family villa garden, SakataPhoto: 掬茶 / CC BY-SA 4.0
Mt. Haguro, Sakata
Mt. HaguroPhoto: Raita Futo from Tokyo, Japan / CC BY 2.0
Different hours, different day

The other routes in Sakata

The merchant quarter on footNeeds a 4.5-hour call · ~2.5hShort calls — everything flat, inside a 10-minute-walk clusterWarehouses, seafood, and the maiko danceNeeds a 7-hour call · ~5hThe signature Sakata day — if you reserved Somaro before sailingThe full merchant storyNeeds a 9-hour call · ~7hLong calls — MSC and Westerdam’s usual patterns fit
Pick your own stops instead →Back to the Sakata guide
Everything in one pageThe complete Sakata guide: berth, into town, your hours, tours that fitOpen the complete guide →