June 18, 2023

Our tour today was “The Glory of Mt. Rokko”. Our guide was Nobuko –she said to call her Nobi. The cable car takes you 900 meters high.

As you can see, the view from the top would normally be lovely but it was too hazy to see much. The area at the top was really pretty – lots of greenery and flowers.  I wish we would have had more time in the gift shop.  I did buy a pair of earrings and just after I bought them, Nobi came with a certificate for 150 yen discount ((Yen is very undervalued here and that would have been just about $1).  She felt terrible that I didn’t have the certificate and tried to get the clerk to give me the discount in cash which didn’t work, so she took money out of her own wallet and gave it to me.  I protested of course, but she wouldn’t hear of taking it back.  We just added it to her tip at the end of the day.  Here in Japan, tipping isn’t expected and sometimes even considered rude but our guides accepted it even when they seemed confused by the gesture.  The people are unfailingly polite.

Our second stop was the Hakutsuru Saki brewery and museum where we saw the process of making sake. The brand was established in 1743. It was a self guided tour through a very well maintained display of the old tools used throughout the company’s history. Here are just a few pictures of the 10 step process. 

After the tour, we sampled three kinds of sake.  I liked the lemon flavored one and bought one bottle for us and one for a friend who didn’t go on the tour.  I was surprised that they had a sake ice cream and they also sold this Blue Moon beer!

Our ship left today at 3 PM so we didn’t do anything else after the tour.

Back on the ship, our around the world ambassadors, Carolyn and Paul, held a pub night in Martinis with a sing along.  Very fun and just as crowded as the last one.  Then we had dinner with Bruce and Karen and several other tables of friends who joined in for a Father’s Day dinner.