JohnCA

Consider flying out of the airport on the Brazilian side (IGU) and connecting to the USA in Sao Paulo (GRU). There are more flights from there than from Buenos Aires, and they are usually cheaper and better timed. In particular, there are several 1-stops to cities in California (including daytime flights) and a nonstop to LAX (12+ hrs on LATAM). Use flights.google.com and search for IGU-XXX.

You can book dayrooms at Hilton hotels directly on their website or app: just use the same date for arrival and departure. They have a hotel opening in Yokohama in September. The one at Narita is quite cheap. Beware that a dayroom usually requires you to be out by 5 or 6 pm. Japanese hotels are usually strict about checkin times, so don't book a hotel for the night and expect to check in early, except maybe at airport hotels. I did once get off a cruise and checked into the Yokohama Intercontinental at 11am, but there were dozens of cruise passengers sitting around who were not so fortunate (I think it helped that I had "Platinum Status" and also could ask for early checkin in Japanese).

I took a tour from Rio to Petropolis in June 2015 with Riomaximo. They picked me up and dropped me at my hotel (the JW Marriott Copacabana), with the pick up at 9:30am. There were 22 people: me, 4 Mexicans (speaking Spanish) and the rest Brazilian (speaking Portuguese). The guide spoke fluent English and I had no trouble understanding what was going on. We made a photo stop at the casino, then went to a chocolate "factory" (mainly for the toilets, I think), then to the Emperor's Palace. There are 44 rooms and we examined each one. I would have been happy with 4. Then a late lunch by Santos Dumont's place (this was my main interest and there was time to explore it on yout own), then back to the bus and visits to the Cathedral and the Crystal Palace and back home by 6:30pm. It cost 100 BRL plus 40 for lunch. I thought it was well organized and enjoyable.

Since the ship doesn't seem to be providing much destination advice, you may find these links useful. Standard guide to Japan: http://www.japan-guide.com JNTO pdf brochures: https://www.japan.travel/brochures/eng/index.php Japanese cruise ports: https://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/cruise/ and https://www.whatsinport.com/Japan.html