Fukuoka

Today we are docked at Fukuoka. Try saying that 3 times fast.  The tour today was to the nearby Kokura castle and gardens.  Becky was not feeling well, so I went on the tour alone.

The castle has really put everything into the tourist angle and they have guys dressed as Samurai warriors directing the buses in the parking lot.

The castle has no moat, but is surrounded by a japanese garden. 

Inside, it's a museum, with lots of neat touristy things, there was a mirror/screen thing which superimposed a geisha outfit onto you if you stood in front of it.  

After the castle we went to the local market, but I did most of my shopping in the castle gift shop.

Back onboard, I joined my team for afternoon trivia, but without Becky we didn't win.  Fukuoka is our last stop in Japan, so everyone, including Becky,  had to get off the ship to go through departure immigration.  After that, Becky went back to bed and I had a qick snack at the buffet on my own.

Nagasaki

Today's excursion was to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum and Peace Park. It's obviously a common destination for school trips.

The visiting students donate origami cranes the have made in memory of the dead.

Outside, in the Peace Park, the cranes are hung up in shrines.

There didn't seem to be a lot else to see in Nagaski, so after another ice-cream (this one specially shaped to look like a rose), it was back to the ship in time for trivia. We won both quizzes this afternoon.

Kagoshima

There wasn't anything really interesting to see in Kagoshima itself (more shrines and castles maybe), so Becky and I were booked on a brewery tour instead.

We had a very interesting ride on a small bus up into the mountains to the Hioki brewery, where we sampled the local spirit called shochu.  Shochu is like sake in that it starts off with fermented rice, but after the first fermentation they add sweet potatoes to the mash to add flavour during the 2nd fermentation. 

First we donned our special hairnets and footwear to walk around the brewing area. Then we returned to the tasting room to sample 3 of their products. Some of  these spirits were 41%, so I was pretty squiffy afterwards.  

Back on the bus the guide tried to sober us up by plying us with rice cakes and crackers, cookies, caramel corn, etc.  Our next destination was a pottery making Satsuma wear, so I  guess she didn't want us stumbling around and breaking stuff.  We watched people making the pottery and visited the kiln and a pottery museum before exiting via the shop, where I got Becky a birthday present.  

We did the quizzes back on board in the afternoon. The weather wasn't great as we left port, but that didn't stop the locals from seeing us off with a school  marching band, a very bad singer and a woman with balloon animals blowing bubbles. It's the thought that counts.

At sea

Short entry today with no photos, as we spent the day at sea. We spent most of the morning in the hot tub and solarium. After a very nice lunch of duck teriyaki and a lot of alcohol, we finished the day off with a few trivia quizzes. We were the only team who'd even heard of Kiribati, let alone knew that it was the only country in 4 hemispheres. 

Hiroshima

Today I was supposed to go on an excursion to the memorial, but for some reason it was canceled,  so I ended up joining Becky on her excursion to Miyajima instead.

Miyajima is an island just off the coast from Hiroshima,  that is famous for its floating tori gate and a floating shrine.

It's also famous for its oysters and conger eel.  We went into a nice restaurant for lunch and had a proper Japanese meal. I had wagyu beef, Becky tried the conger eel and I had a taste and was pleasantly surprised. I always thought eel would be squelchy, but this was grilled and quite crunchy.

After looking around the island we had deer poop ice cream. Basically, this was an ice cream cone with small chocolate beans on it. Yes, there were deer on the island, but unlike Nara these deer are not considered sacred, so they ask you not to feed them.

Kochi

Today we are docked in Kochi, where our excursion was called "highlights of Kochi". We started out with a visit to Kochi beach, which was very pretty.

After that there was a trip to Kochi castle, which is the oldest castle at 400 years old. There are many castles where there has been a castle on the site for longer, but most castles are made of wood and end up being burned down and reconstructed. For example, Osaka castle was most recently reconstructed in 1931.

Then we had free time at Kochi market. However, it being before 11am, many shops were not open. We ended up having take away food from a convenience store and sitting in the main square to eat.

Finally, we visited yet another shrine.  I'm starting to feel the same way about shrines as I did about foss (waterfalls) in Iceland.  It was novel on the first day, but by the end of the trip I was thinking "not another bloody foss".

Oh Deer

Today's excursion was to Nara. Nara has a park with many temples and shrines, where deer roam free. The deer are sacred as they are seen as messengers of the gods.

We started at the Todai Ji Buddhist temple, which houses the biggest Buddha statue in the world.

After that we had some free time to feed the deer. You can buy deer "cookies" which are made from rice husks and wheat, but the deer were not shy, and if you didn't feed them fast enough they were happy to take a nibble of your clothes instead.  I have no photos of me feeding the deer because I freaked out and threw all my cookies on the ground and ran away when this happened to me.

After the Buddhist temple we went to a Shinto shrine.  The deer here were a lot more polite and bowed at you, but I had no cookies left.  

We were then dropped off in Naramarchi to go shopping. Unfortunately, it was Sunday,  so not much was open.  For the 3rd day running our guide was telling us something was made out of ooder, which I assumed was some sort of new fangled construction material rather than a mispronounced version of the Dr Who species the Ood.  Turns out they are saying "wood" in a very strange accent!

Back onboard we won 2 rounds of trivia, before trying out the main restaurant for the first time. Becky had the beouf bourguinon and I had chicken roulade. Then it was off to bed for yet another early night.

Osaka Castle and Dotombori

We were up early as usual. The ship wasn't docking at Osaka until after 11am, so we spent the morning in the solarium hanging out in the hot tub. There's  also a very nice coffee shop onboard that opens at 5.30am and has become our goto place first thing.

Our excursion today started at the Dotombori shopping district . It was exactly what I'd imagined a Japanese shopping street to be like, and I bought too much stuff.

After that, we went to Osaka Castle. The main tower is 8 storeys tall,  so it was a long way to the top. The weather here is pretty hot, so after all that climbing we found a nice rooftop bar at a nearby building and had an ice cold drink, sitting in the breeze.  The castle complex was lovely, but I wish we'd had more time to look around.  

The hot day really took it out of us and we didn't have the energy to stay awake for the Taiko drumming show and went to bed at 7pm.  Party animals aren't we?

A Cloudy Day at Mt Fuji

Today we are docked at Shimizu, which is the closest port to Mt Fuji.  Our excursion took us to Hongu Shrine first.  This is a Shinto shrine.  The gate (which looks like a bird perch in shape) is called a tori, ans you should bow before walking through it.

After that, we went to the Mt Fuji World Heritage Centre. The building is designed to look like an upside down version of the mountain. Inside, you walk up a spiral ramp to the top, where there is a viewing platform. Unfortunately,  the mountain (who is female) is shy and is often hiding behind a bank of cloud. That was the case for us today. So we had an ice cream in the cafe to make up for our disappointment. 

Despite missing out on the view of the mountain, I found it really interesting to see the ordinary Japanese houses along our coach route.  The areas around the airport and the cruise port were very industrial and all modern high rise buildings. They have so many earthquakes here that there aren't a lot of older buildings.

Back on the ship, we took part in a couple of trivia quizzes but didn't win.  There are more Aussies on the ship than Americans, so the competition is a lot stiffer!

All Aboard Celebrity Millennium

 We were up early this morning,  about 4am to be exact.  After taking the hotel shuttle back to the airport we managed to locate the Celebrity rep and took our private car transfer to the port at Yokohama.  The car was very luxurious and our driver was called Nishio. 

Boarding went quickly and efficiently and we started with a celebratory cocktail. I had an appletini

We'd made sure to pack our swimsuits in our hand luggage, so we were able to spend the afternoon with the hot tubs to ourselves

Having been up since 4am we were completely knackered and ended up going to bed at 6pm. Yes, you heard that right. We're really pushing the boat out.

Arrived in Tokyo

This is just a short update to tell everyone we've arrived safely in Tokyo.  Had a nice overnight stay at Vancouver airport and it was a lovely morning as we waited at the gate for our flight to Tokyo.

It was a long flight and it took us almost as long to get through the queue at immigration when we landed. It reminded me of the queueing system at a Disney ride: you'd think you were getting close to the immigration desk and then it would veer off again and take you in a big loop somewhere else.

We were so knackered by the time we got to hotel that we just ate in the coffee shop and went to bed at 7pm.  We've now been up since 4am. It's quite hot here.

Didn't see much of anything except the airport yesterday,  so I don't have any photos of Japan except for this nice one of our high tech loo at the hotel. 

We should be meeting the cruise rep this morning and then heading to Yokohama to board the ship. 

Off to Japan

 Setting off for Japan tomorrow for a cruise, followed by a week in South Korea. Check in here for daily updates.

Wibbly Wobbly bridge and Sky Garden

We made our way over to Monument station this morning and walked along the Thames Path towards the Millenium bridge.  There was a lone Egyptian goose hanging out on the side of the river.

The Millenium Bridge, more affectionately known as the Wibbly Wobbly bridge is a pedestrian bridge across the Thames that was opened in 2000 and closed just days later due to its alarming wobble.  Apparently the sideways steps of large crowds matched the natural frequency of the bridge causing a feedback loop.  The bridge was closed for 2 years while dampeners were fitted to control the movements. 

Becky and I walked across the bridge to the South side of the river where the Tate Modern and the reproduction of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre stand.  Got some nice photos from the centre of the bridge of the views down river.

Then we took the Thames Path again on the south bank before walking back across Southwark bridge. 

By this time we were withtn 30 minutes of our lunch reservation, so we made our way over to the Walkie Talkie building.  

The Walkie Talkie, officially known as the Fenchurch building, hosts London's highest public garden: the Sky Garden.  It's free to get in, but you have to get tickets online and queue first. However, if you happen to have a reservation at one of the 2 restaurants up in the garden, you get priority and don't need a ticket or to queue. We've tried several times to get a lunch reservation,  but the restaurants are usually booked up well in advance. This time I booked back in November and finally managed to get in.  

We went up early and had some great views from the top of the building before a very nice lunch at the Darwin Brasserie. Its a good thing we went up early as it started snowing during our meal and you couldn't see anything after that.

After our late lunch and some more perusing of the gardens we headed over to Picadilly for some shopping before spending the evening in the hotel bar again.