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  • TravelerJapan - April 2019
    Day 3

    Mt Fuji! (Shinjuki)

    April 11, 2019 in Japan ⋅ 🌬 13 °C

    Jumping on the metro to Shinjuki, we headed for the Tokyo local government building, which has a free observatory on the 45th floor. From here, the view of Mt. Fuji was absolutely stunning - we had planned to visit yesterday but the weather put pay to that. Today however, the striking blue skies beyond the mountain, and the grey chaos of the skyscrapers below made for a spectacular photo. On the way out, a film crew was recording a scene just outside the building, although for what we have no idea! I did however manage to get a quick pic of my favourite metro warning poster on our return journey 😊Read more

  • TravelerJapan - April 2019
    Day 3

    Akasaka Palace

    April 11, 2019 in Japan ⋅ 🌬 14 °C

    The final stop for the morning was the Akasaka Palace - something like Versailles crossed with Buckingham Palace. After a false start (getting off a station too early on the metro) we walked the cherry blossom lines footpath towards the palace.

    En route we overheard a band playing and decided to investigate...turns out we gatecrashed a freshers fayre! A quick photo stop at the palace rounded off the morning before heading back to the hotel to collect out kit and journey to the port where we would meet the ship.    Read more

  • TravelerJapan - April 2019
    1
    Day 3

    The Diamond Princess

    April 11, 2019 in Japan ⋅ 🌬 14 °C

    Our metro tickets got us a good way out of Tokyo but not to the cruise port. So we had to get off at Meguro metro and buy a train ticket to Nihon-Odori. Annoyingly we would actually be getting back on the same train on which we'd arrived; it apparently became a 'train' rather than a 'metro' at Meguro. However finding how and where to buy tickets from became a bit of a mission. Whilst the ticket machines have English options, tickets are sold by distance travelled rather than by station travelling to...argh! Google was great at giving us the route and getting us this far but this was another matter entirely. After trying to converse across a language barrier, we eventually found a map on which the cost of each station was noted and we took a chance on the ticket we needed.

    At Nihon-Odori, having managed to get out of the station with our tickets, we walked to the port and boarded the Diamond Princess, along with 2,800 other passengers. Throwing the luggage in the stateroom, and watching the dodgiest safety video ever (where the safety instructions were sung to the Love Boat theme time) we headed upstairs for sailaway. Impressively, we sailed under a bridge with just two metres clearance, whilst the cruise director and staff danced joyously to Gangnam Style underneath.

    The evening was Ben's time to shine - music trivia. 20 tiny snippets of song introductions, from which the goal was to name the song and the artist. We/he scored an impressive 26/40 but sadly not enough to win the champagne. So we headed off to dinner where we avoided talking to the tables next to us, enjoyed a lovely meal and then headed back to the room to read.    Read more

  • TravelerJapan - April 2019
    Day 4

    Matsushima Bay

    April 12, 2019 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    After much deliberation, and a very rough night on the seas, we decided the cruise ship's $159pp trip to Matsushima Bay was more than we could countenance. So instead, we disembarked after breakfast and caught the shuttle bus into Ishinomaki. This port town was devastated in the 2011 tsunami but seemed to have worked hard on its recovery - the very industrial port clearly in heavy use and the town incredibly welcoming to tourists. It is famed for its association with Manga, with a former resident being the artist of Cyborg 009.

    We followed the route past tourist information (staffed by a guy from Rochester...really) to the train station from where we could get to Matsushima Bay ourselves for ¥1000 return (about £7). The forty minute train journey took us last JASDF Matsushima Air Base, home to the Blue Impulse where we saw a couple of F-2Bs taking off.

    At Matsushima Bay, the temples and mausoleum are all famed for their relation to Date Masamune, Samurai ruler and founder of Sendai. We first visited the Zuiganji Temple, with its beautiful black lacquer and gold leaf wall panels, surrounded by manicured gardens with the remnants of snow. The path out was lined with wall caves and carvings used for religious and funeral services.

    Over the road, the red bridges to the Gogaido pagoda made for a quick stop, albeit one teaming with coach-loads of tourists one group tours from our ship. En route back to the station, the Entsuuin was a mausoleum and gardens for the the grandson of Date Masumune.    Read more

  • TravelerJapan - April 2019
    Day 4

    Ishinomaki

    April 12, 2019 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C

    On our way back to the ship, we climbed the big hill (as is our cruise tradition) in Ishinomaki up to Hiyoriyama Park. The park overlooks the shore of Ishinomaki where the tsunami hit. Today building on this devastated land is considered too dangerous, so it remains barren with plans to turn it into a memorial park.Read more

  • TravelerJapan - April 2019
    Day 5

    Mt. Hakodate

    April 13, 2019 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C

    After a far calmer night, we arrived into Hakodate on Hokkaido greeted by a local girls school dancing on the pier. The ship's shuttle bus dropped us at the station and after a shaky start (couldn't find an ATM, the bus we hoped to catch not running), we started to yomp towards Mt. Hakodate. Through the Morning Market and past the red brick warehouses and up the lower slopes was the Hakodate Ropeway, a cable car up to the viewing points at the summit. The view from the top is supposedly spectacular at night, but looked equally impressive in the daytime.

    Back at the base, we walked to the historic centre of Hakodate. Sadly the Public Hall was covered in scaffolding but the old British Consulate and similar buildings gave a strange ecletic mix of architecture to the town. Crossing the Hachiman-Zaka slope afforded great views over the port down this steep road (albeit not as steep as Lombard Street!).

    We walked back through the red brick warehouse district for some shopping, taking in the local glassware specialities, before stopping off in the Hakodate microbrewery to try the local brew. Ordering could only be done on an iPad (even for drinks), continuing our experience of the weirdness of Japan - massively technological in some ways yet we've never struggled more to find places that accept credit cards!

    Back on the ship, we spent a happy and relaxing afternoon in the hot tub under the sun and on the sunbeds reading.    Read more

  • TravelerJapan - April 2019
    Day 6

    Niigata

    April 14, 2019 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    Niigata port was a new stop for the ship we are on...and we weren't entirely sure why as it didn't seem to have a lot going for it. After some free WiFi research on the dockside, we decided to get the shuttle bus to town and give it a go.

    From being dropped at the station, we headed out towards the Bandai Bridge which is apparently an attraction due to its sweeping arches. On the way, we passed the Media Ship building and took advantage of the free 20th floor observatory. They also had a local market on which sold interesting trinkets and jewellery, as well as a clown for the kids!

    The Bandai Bridge, over the Shinano River, took us to a beautiful riverside walk, covered in cherry blossoms and tulips. We walked about a kilometre north to the old customs house, before returning and walking a further kilometre south to the Hakusan Park where Arts Mix Japan festival was taking place. The weather was pleasant enough for a walk but with the sun out and the sky clouded over it was rather muggy. Nonetheless, along the length of the riverbank, Japanese families were out picnicing under the cherry blossom trees.

    The Hakusen Park was teeming with people. There was a dance troupe on entertaining both the locals and the vast number of tourists from our ship. At the top of the park, food stalls offered octopus, dough balls, noodles and candy floss in the shade of the Hakusen Shrine. The slow jostle to the shrine itself through the crowded stalls gave us a chance to see the drumming display on inside, before popping on the free shuttle bus back to the station, to get our shuttle back to the ship. A worthwhile visit despite our reservations!    Read more

  • TravelerJapan - April 2019
    Day 6

    At sea

    April 14, 2019, Japan Sea ⋅ 🌧 13 °C

    After returning to the ship yesterday, we triumphed at trivia before dinner! Today was a chilled day at sea - eating too much, reading lots and sleeping. We did take a class in learning Japanese calligraphy in the morning with a lovely mother and daughter volunteer showing us how to write our names and other phrases. After lunch, we enjoyed the hot tub before some afternoon trivia in which we were not so successful.Read more

  • TravelerJapan - April 2019
    Day 8

    Busan

    April 16, 2019 in South Korea ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Early arrival into South Korea today. Once off and through immigration, we used took the great metro tour of Busan...meaning we spent a lot of time on the metro and achieving little! Largely because we realised too late that many of the metro stops were too far from the temples that we hoped to visit. So we headed out east, popped briefly to the beach before heading back into the centre to see the UN cemetery for those killed in the Korean War.

    The cemetery itself is a large and peaceful space in this city of skyscrapers. We spent some time walking around the site, looking at the different monuments erected by each nation to their fallen before heading through the park to the Busan Museum. Packed into this museum was millennium upon millennium of the history of this area and made for an interesting detour.

    Back on the metro to the west of the city and the markets, we stopped by the Gukje Market and the undercover shopping market for some souvenir hunting, although came back empty handed. Our last metro journey took us back to Busan Station where a quick stop at Dunkin' Doughnuts used up the remainder of our South Korean Won currency before heading back to the ship for a formal night.    Read more

  • TravelerJapan - April 2019
    Day 9

    Mt Sakurajima and Kagoshima

    April 17, 2019 in Japan ⋅ 🌧 13 °C

    A somewhat lackadaisical start to the day - we had to wait to be called for Japanese immigration but we were group 10. We waited for the best part of an hour after docking and they were only at group 5 - so we thought 'sod it' and headed out anyway.

    We got the ship's shuttle bus into town from where we bolted for the Sakurajima ferry. Sakurajima is an active volcano on almost it's own island in the bay of Kagoshima, although cloud was so low today it was difficult to distinguish that from the smoke. The island's sightseeing bus was just across the road from the port and toured up to the highest viewing point through windy country roads. The sightseeing route was pleasant enough from the bus but with low cloud and a bus only every half hour, we decided to stay on for the whole route and enjoy the scenery.

    The Sakurajima visitors centre had lots of interesting information about the volcano and also monitors current volcanic activity. The last major eruption was 1914 when the flow actually joined the volcano to the peninsula. This year, there has been 58 eruptions, of which 33 were 'explosive eruptions'. The resulting fertility of the soil apparently makes Sakurajima famous for its production of giant radishes, the biggest weighing in at 31kg with a model provides in case you needed one!

    Heading out the back of the centre and aiming for the lava trail, we came across a public foot bath and had to have a go - shoes off, socks off, feet in, feet immediately out followed by lots of swearing and laughing at the immense heat! It took us a good five minutes to be able to keep our feet in, to the amusement of the locals. When we eventually got our, we had beautiful bright pink shins - akin to a third degree scald!

    Briefly afterwards we took a jaunt along the lava trail, looking at the huge lava rocks left from previous eruptions and looking over the bay to Kagoshima before returning on the ferry to the city itself.

    Here, we took just a brief shopping trip in the downtown area. We were heading initially for the Meiji Restoration Museum but time got the better of us.

    Our final day at sea tomorrow before we dock in Yokohama on Friday. A final day of relaxing!    Read more

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