Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

June 24, 2023

These last three ports are new to us and are in the northernmost island of Japan, Hokkaido. Here are some shots of our arrival.  It was rainy but cleared up as soon as we left the ship.

Our tour was to the Onuma Quasi National Park. Our guide was Yuku.  She gave us information about this area of Japan.  Sapporo was the site of the 1972 winter Olympics and it gets 16 feet of snow a year.  There is a lot of skiing in this area.  It is known for beautiful nature and the fishing industry.  

Mount Hakodate rises 1100 feet on the southwest of the city.

Yuku told us about the many brown bears in the area which are much bigger than the black bears in other parts of Japan.  They are kind of like the grizzly. She gave us a little quiz about what to do if we encounter a bear (while assuring us that we would not!) You are supposed to make eye contact with the bear and slowly back away. Children wear bells on their backpacks because the bears really don’t want to encounter humans and the bells warn them away.  I guess. .

There is really no specific rainy season here, it can rain at any time but it doesn’t last too long.

The park is really beautiful.  It consists of 126 islands that are formed by the lava from the eruption of Mount Hokkaido.  It forms a spectacle like a traditional Japanese garden, created entirely by nature. 

We hiked on two trails. The first one was the island hopping Shimaneguri-no-Michi trail which takes you on 7 different islands connected by lovely bridges.  We saw some birds but no other wildlife.  No bears for sure. The second was the Oshima-no-Michi Trail which includes A Thousand Winds monument.

After our hike and some shopping with  coffee for Norm and some local specialties to eat, we took a boat ride on the lake.  What a serene place.

We went back to Hakodate and experienced the Morning Market which was another amazing fish market.  Hakodate  is surrounded by the ocean on three sides and the fish in every restaurant is always fresh. The specialty is squid which comes in a variety of forms from raw and wriggling to deep fried  and even as ice cream which we saw people eating at the snack bar.

We found a restaurant for yet another ramen lunch.

The market had a place where you could fish for squid then eat it raw.  We did NOT do that but we saw someone catch one.

The crabs were enormous and so were the apples, melons and peaches.  We bought an apple at the park and a peach at this market.

Yuku also sang to us on the way back to the ship. She was sad for us that the ship was leaving at 3 PM because she said Hakodate has one of the three most beautiful night views along with Naples and Hong Kong and we will leave too soon to see it.

The local people waved goodbye as we left.  Another beautiful Japanese port. It makes me want to come back to do a land trip throughout Japan.

June 23, 2023

Here is our view when we sailed into port at around 9 AM.  We were met by local people who gave us these origami figures with sayings inside.  Mine said “excellent luck”.  And indeed, we are lucky to be in this beautiful port. 

It is a bit rainy for sail in but cleared up soon after. The temperature is 68 as we arrive.  Beautifully cool. We were greeted by dancers and flag wavers who were accompanied by drums and other music. We watched them from our balcony before we left the ship.

Today we had a tour to Neputa Village and Hirosaki Castle.  Our guide was Tomohiko and he asked us to call him “Tom”.  Here he is showing us his uniform. He told us he was born in 1955 and is retired from hi s job but is now trained as a tour guide. He told us that 90% of the people who live in this city are native to here.  Trading, banking and agriculture are the main occupations. We are on the northernmost island in Japan now and it is cold in the winter, they get 1 – 2 meters of snow each year.  The water and the rice are excellent so there are many sake breweries.  During the cherry blossom season they get 3 – 4 million visitors for the one week festival. They are also the biggest producer of Fuji apples in Japan.  More than half of the 760,000 ton crop is raised here.There are 50 apple pie restaurants and you see apple everything!

Aomori means blue forest although it could possibly be translated as “green forest”. The area is lush with greenery and many forests.

Our first stop was the Tsugaru Neputa Village where we saw a local show.  The ticket itself is a work of art!

The local artists performed on the large drums and on the string instrument that we have seen in other ports, the shamisen. Neputa means “sleepy” and there is a huge festival, the Aomori Neputa Matsuri which takes place in early August.  It is a fire festival and attracts more than 3 million visitors. We saw many of the 80 different fan shaped floats and images of warriors that parade through the town during the festival. The parade is accompanied by flute and taiko (Japanese drum) players. Neputa is said to have originated from the event Nemuri Nagashi, a traditional event to banish the invisible sleep demon who makes people drowsy during the summer when farm work is at its busiest.  The use of lantern and light is a hallmark of this festival. Three large drums called Odaikos are the highlight of this festival and the sound is so profound that viewers feel the vibration to their core.  We certainly jumped when the first one was struck.  Then some of the audience members, including one of our passengers, were invited to participate.

These are the Chinese year symbols.  Norm is the Ox and I am the tiger.

These are all made of a strong paper.  The small picture is a model of one of the floats.

Wearing a mask!

I have mentioned the many vending machines here.  You can get cold coffee and hot coffee from the same vending machine.  Norm got to be fond of the coffees and had many of them while we have been in Japan. I loved the ice cream and had apple soft serve here.  It was delicious. We bought some cookies made in an iron mold and one of the apple cakes. 

The grounds around the village were beautiful and we had time to savor the sights.

This craftsman was making beautiful chopsticks.

We got back on the bus for a trip….across the road!  We were wondering why we didn’t just walk, but Tom said  he wanted to take care of those who had trouble with walking. A very Japanese response.

The Hirosaki Park is a large beautiful park and the setting of the Hirosaki castle. The park is 121.5 acres in size and contains 2600 cherry trees. The Cherry Blossom festival here is said to be the best in Japan.

The castle was originally built in 1611.  It was opened to the public in 1895 and designated as a Historical Site in 1952.

There is a lot of construction going on and the castle is actually on a temporary site. It is a 5 story castle (the Japanese castles are pagodas of uneven numbers).  The original castle was struck by lightning and burned to the ground in 1627. The present castle was completed in 1822.  We enjoyed the grounds and could go into the castle and up to the second level.

There are actually tree doctors that take care of all of the trees but especially the cherry trees.  This old tree was knocked over in a storm and is now staked up.

Tom also pointed out this area where the trees form a heart.  He took our pictures there.

While in the garden, Tom pointed out a tree that is in a twisted shape – he had a prize for whoever could guess what it represents.  Norm guessed it!  A crane.

The next wall of rocks was next and I guessed a turtle.

Here were our prizes.  Tom seemed surprised that I guessed the turtle.

On the way back to the pier, Tom asked if he could sing “bus karaoke” and he entertained us with Japanese songs and in English – White Christmas!

These local young men were waving us goodbye when we returned.

With this post, I am finally catching up on my blog after so many busy port days. It feels so good to have a day at sea to catch up (and I won the blackjack tournament)!  It is a wonderful 68 degrees and my walk on the deck was actually refreshing.

Our tour yesterday was the Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens and the Tokyo Tower.  We were hoping that the gardens would be first so that we would be OK to leave the tour when we got to the tower, and make it in time for my 11:45 nail appointment.  When we got to the bus and the guide we were told that we were going to the gardens first.

We traveled through the city with its many green spaces.  They are generally not as big as parks in the US and some other countries, but they are very beautiful and serene.  The one we visited was originally built by the founder of the Mito branch of the  Tongagawa clan in the early stage of the Edo period, 1629. Its style is kaiyu (circuit) style with ponds and manmade hills centering on the pond. The word Korakuen is derived from a Chinese text meaning “Worry before all worries in the world and enjoy after all enjoyments in the world.”

There is a plum orchard, seasonal flower beds (right now iris is in season and we did see a few balloon flowers which will bloom soon.) There is also a rice paddy field which is to symbolize how important rice is to Japanese people. There are many water lilies.

We got back to the tower, walked to the nail salon where I had a meticulous gel manicure (they do not do dip powder here in Japan). The manicurist spoke English and did a great job.  It looked like the salon was attached to her apartment and her cat was in the next room so she takes one client at a time.  I was lucky to find her.

After the manicure, we took the train back to the Tokyo Station where we found Ramen Street and yes, had another ramen lunch. 

This area also has a character street where almost any kind of children’s toy can be found.

After another exhausting day crisscrossing Tokyo, we again took the train and the monorail back to the ship.

We had dinner in Polo and had a great table at the aft of the ship.  Here’s the marine museum that is shaped like a ship and the cruise terminal as we left Tokyo.

And this was on the reception desk when we got back after our exploration of the city!

June 20, 2023

Before we arrived in Tokyo, we realized that the Tokyo Tower was listed as one of the places we would visit on both days – the first day was “Panoramic Tokyo” which included the tower, and the second day was “Tokyo Garden and Tower”. I don’t really know how we missed that info, but I guess planning excursions for 6 months might be some excuse!  It turned out to be helpful because I still needed to find a place to get my nails done and now we had a specific location   (near the tower) to look.  The city is huge and while I had lots of names of places, we had no idea where they were.  So I found one, she had an English website with a scheduling app and I was able to make an appointment for our second day in port – walking distance from the tower.

Here is our arrival in Tokyo.

Today our guide was Muchi. 

She told us that Tokyo has 14 million population out of 126 million in all of Japan. Edo was the original name of Tokyo. Tokyo means “Eastern Capital”.  The early days were ruled by the Shogun and were feudal times.  Emperors replaced the Shoguns and Japan still has an Emperor who is a symbol of the state but has no political function and is ceremonial.  The leader is a prime minister.

We passed the Diet which is the parliamentary building, and the Imperial Palace grounds.  The Emperor resides at the palace and while the surroundings are open to the public, the actual palace is only open two days a year – January 2 and the Emperor’s birthday, February 25. There is a grove outside the palace with 500 pine trees.   We visited the palace grounds on our last visit to Tokyo.

The Tokyo Tower is a broadcasting tower that was designed to look like the Eiffel Tower.  It was built in 1968 and is 333 meters high. We went to the observatory at 150 meters.  Again, it was pretty hazy and hard to see very far.  But what was so interesting was the groups of school children carrying packs with note taking areas who were at the various viewpoints taking notes.

I would say that you see about half the people here wearing masks. They are not mandatory and some people wear them all year around because of the sun, pollution and also germs.

You see many cemeteries close to city buildings.

Again, the rest rooms are very clean, modern and interesting.  They have seats for children right in the women’s stalls too so they are safe while their moms are using the toilet.

These are wooden hearts and towers that people write their wishes on and hang on this board.  You see these in many places.

In every city we see this poster that warns you, as a foreign tourist, about the high cost of Japan’s medical system of you have an accident or need care.  They are in the train stations and cruise terminals.

After the tour, we told the guide we wanted to leave the bus and get back to the ship on our own.  We are here overnight, so we wanted to explore, so we let our guide know and set out.  We wanted to see where the nail salon was so that tomorrow we wouldn’t have to search around too long. I have to mention how incredibly polite and helpful every single person we met was.  In fact, they were willing to miss their trains to help us.  A young woman led us to the salon which we were close to, but might have gone around and around the block if she hadn’t shown us exactly where it was.

We bought a 2 day subway pass (about $8 US) and went to the Tokyo Station where we had thought we would meet Erin and Mui for a ramen dinner.  But it was way too early and we didn’t know if we would be there too late, so we had a late lunch instead. food you ordered.

Pat figuring out what station we wanted. 

The station from the outside.

The underground station is HUGE and not always easy to navigate, but we found a nice place and had our ramen.  You push the button for what you want (pictures and in Japanese – some have English too), pay and get a ticket, then they take you to your seat and bring the

The food was so delicious and filling that I had ice cream for dinner.  Yes, just ice cream.

We did some more exploring – Japanese Iris is also in season now.

Before heading back to the ship, we stopped for a snack and a drink in the Shinjuku section of the city which is known as the entertainment area.  There are lots of bars and restaurants and there are designated smoking areas on some streets. There are “smoking patrol” officers  walking around to be sure no one smokes anywhere else. We took the subway and soon realized that there are three transit systems and our ticket was only for the subway- which turned out just fine.  The routes are in different colors and the stops are numbered making it easy to follow once you know where you are going!

We took the subway back to the monorail station that takes you to the new international cruise port where our ship is docked.  It was not built in 2019 when we were last here and it is beautiful. 

Here is the nighttime view.

At night we had a movie and popcorn! And we will be ready for our second day in wonderful Tokyo. 

June 19, 2023

Shimizu is considered one of Japan’s three most beautiful ports.  On a clear day, you can see Mount Fuji but our day was not clear enough to spot it. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is 10,000 meters high.  The last eruption was 300 years ago.  It is the snow covered picture with cherry blossoms in the background that is on most tourist brochures.

Here are some pictures of our sail in.  It seems every city has a ferris wheel! We arrived at noon.

Our guide today was Sitsko and she said the meaning of her name is “prudence”. She talked a lot about the aging of the society and concern for the future. Our tour today is to the Kunozan Toshugo Shrine and the Kashinoichi Fish Market.

The fish market was the first stop on the tour. The area supplies half of all the tuna in Japan, the number one haul in the country.  Other local delights are the sakura shrimp (a small, crunchy variety found only in the area) and young sardines called shirasu.

The market, like everything in Japan, was spotless.  All of the cut fish or fish for sale was wrapped.  There was no smell at all.  Here are some of the beautiful displays of fish, oysters, shellfish, etc.

This is the shirasu. Norm tasted it and offered it to others.  I passed on that one.  He said it was salty and crunchy.

After our walk through the market, we went to the restaurant upstairs and enjoyed a wonderful meal. You could choose to have sake if you wanted it.

Our next stop was at the Kunozan Toshugo Shrine.  We took a cable car down the mountain to the shrine.

The shrine itself was built in 1617 for Ieyasu Tokugawa to be enshrined by the order of his son Hidetada.  The shrine includes the main building which was designated as a national treasure, as well as 13 other buildings designated as important national cultural properties. Some of the buildings are beautifully painted with lacquers and decorated with gold foils.  They have remained since they were built and the wooden materials including pillars are original. They have been repainted every 50 years to preserve them.

Interesting that Sitsko said that the temples are mostly historical sites, Japanese people are generally not religious.

There is a carved picture at the front of the main building.  It depicts the ancient Chinese story of Shiba Onko, an ancient Chinese politician that is called “A story of broken pot.” When Shiba Onko was a child, he was playing with some of his friends and one fell into a large pot full of water.  Although he knew that his father treasured the pot, Shiba Onko broke the pot with a stone to save his friend.  Later the father praised his son, saying “you can buy another pot with money but you can’t buy your friend’s life.  The story can be interpreted as a message to tell us that there’s nothing more important than human life.

The father, Ieyasu, was buried according to his will farther up behind the main building of the shrine.

The white papers hanging from the rope (made of rice fiber) are made to look like lightning to signify the importance of rain to their main food, rice.  You see them at almost all temples.

All of the sites we visited are very lush and green, and it is hydrangea season so we saw a lot of beautiful flowers.

When we returned to the pier, there was a character walking around and a narrator asking us to say hello. And we saw a dog that looked a lot like our “granddog” Echo.  The owner let Norm hold her.  There are many small dogs here, some in strollers.  We even saw some with visors on.  There are also many pet stores.  Large dogs are not allowed in the cities.

The next port is Tokyo.