In March and April 2010, I went on a much anticipated return trip to Japan. As well as doing the usual things like seeing the temples and shrines of Kyoto and the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, I also did a bit of tug spotting. This is a brief photo log of some of the tugs that I saw on my trip.

On my second day in Japan, I travelled from Tokyo down to Yokohama for a few days. I worked in Yokohama for two months in 2005 at the US Army's North Dock base, so I already knew the waterfront area quite well.

These US Army "Large Tugs" of the LT-80x series berthed at North Dock, Yokohama my be familiar to UK tug spotters. They were at the US Army base in Hythe on Southampton Water around 2003 to 2006. While they were there, they had a major modification done where the original wheelhouse and upper accomodation deck were removed and replaced with a large wheelhouse lower down to lower the VCG (Vertical Centre of Gravity) and improve sea-handling. I worked on a couple of the vessels at Hythe, though the base shut down and a couple of the tugs were removed before the modifications were completed.

Yokohama is home to Japan's tallest building, the 295.8 metre tall Landmark Tower. One of the excellent things about Landmark Tower is that its 69th floor is a viewing platform that offers a 360-degree view of the Yokohama area, including the port, from around 275 metres up in the air. An ideal place to see what ships and boats are in harbour.

From high up in Landmark Tower, I spotted two typically Japanese looking tugs moored at the North end of the harbour.

This tug is the Eitai Maru.

The second tug at the North end of Yokohama harbour was the Kamakura Maru.

Slightly further South in the port of Yokohama, near to the Japanese Coastguard vessel berths, was a group of five tugs of a similarly Japanese style to the Eitai Maru and the Kamakura Maru.

This is the Japanese tug boat Kurogane moored in the port of Yokohama.

The tug Chokai Maru in the port of Yokohama, Japan, 2010.

The Japanese tug Kongo Maru moored in Yokohama Port, Japan.

Rather than just viewing these tugs from 275 metres up Yokohama's Landmark Tower, I decided to head down to the waterfront for a closer look. By the time I got down there, three of the five tugs moored near the Japanese Coastguard berths had sailed but there were still two there for me to get a close-up look at.

This is the tug Kashima. As you can see, it's yet another typically Japanese-looking tug.

The tug Tachibana in Yokohama Port.

A bit further along the waterfront, I found the tug Akashi. Again, it has a very blocky superstructure that's typical of all the Japanese tugs that I saw in Yokohama. It's curious that, for a country so itent on style and technical innovation, the Japanese appear to go for such a straight superstructure design and have a wheelhouse that looks like a conservatory sat on top of a portacabin.

A week after visiting Yokohama, I took the shinkansen (bullet train) down to Hiroshima via Kyoto. While I was staying in Hiroshima, I decided to take a day-trip down to the shipbuilding town of Kure to visit the Maritime Museum. Kure is the town where the mighty World War 2 battleship Yamato, the largest battleship ever, was built and the museum is quite heavily dedicated to the ship.

Just down from the Maritime Museum, I spotted these two tugs. From the grey paintwork, I'd initially assumed that they were military, however, I don't know what military facilities are now in the area apart from the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force. Their design makes them look like they may have been built in the 1960's and I actually think that they look more attractive than the boxy ones that I saw in Yokohama.

After the end of World War 2, Kure vowed to regenerate its military port facilities into commerical ones. They did a very good job of this and Kure Shipyard, where the mighty Yamato was built, now builds huge container ships that spread commerce around the World..

The Kure Maritime Museum itself is definitely well worth a visit if you're in the area and features an amazing 1/10th scale model of the battleship Yamato that measures 26.3 metres in length as well as a host of historical information about the town of Kure itself.

Since the primary intention of my trip to Japan hadn't been tug spotting, I'm quite pleased to have got a few photos to keep me going. I didn't see any evidence of the "next generation" Japanese tugs but, then again, I never got close enough to the busy container port in Yokohama. Perhaps the newer tugs were down there and just the older ones were up near Landmark Tower. All in all though, an interesting trip.

Jason Webb