Land Ho, Ho, Ho

Over the next 14 days we will only touch land three times before heading across the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea making landfall in Vancouver.  First stop is Hakodate, a smallish city located on the southern end of the northern Japanese Island of Hokkaido. Our first view of the city was not a particularly scenic one.

The cruise ship dock is located  in an industrial area some distance from town so the city provided a regular schedule of buses that run back and forth from the dock to the downtown.

From there you can travel on older electric trams that get you to or near to, all the city's scenic attractions.

Our main goal in Hakodate was to experience a Japanese onsen (hot spring/spa/ bathhouse).  We were headed to the Yunokawa hot springs area where we could find a number of public and private bathhouses fed by the hot springs.  So armed with bathing suits and pool towels from the ship, we jumped on a tram that would take us there.

The first spa we tried was closed for the season, the second one was down for maintenance, the third one didn't open till 3:00 pm, the fourth would only let us in if we were guests of their hotel and a fifth one, we never could find. Weather started to close in so spa-less we jumped back on a tram and headed downtown to see some of the Hakodate sights.

Goryokaku Park is home to Goryokaku Fort, the star shaped, western style fortress built about 150 years ago. Sadly, due to the weather, we opted to do a drive by. Tsk, tsk, tsk. In our defence, we have toured numerous star shaped fortress's all over the world.

Hakodate market had some of the freshest snow crab you could ever hope for.

While we missed the cherry blossoms in the south of Japan, the blossoms in the north were just coming on although there are considerably less trees in the north.

The next day we woke up in Muroran, a major port city for the island of Hokkaido.

Once again we found ourselves docked in an industrial area and again the city provided free buses that ran a circular route around the city providing access to all the city had to offer.

There is not much to offer in Muroran and the big ticket excursion was a trip to the city of Sapporo, approximately 3 1/2 hour round trip from Muroran. We chose to pass as we would spend almost as much time on a bus as  we would visiting Sapporo.

While Nonie stayed on the ship, I ventured out to do a little souvenir shopping for the folks at home. Perhaps it was the cool moist weather or the signage prominently displayed over much of the city, that kept Nonie on board.

Departing on time, we were serenaded by a large group of local students and a full symphonic orchestra. If anything, the folks in Muroran were very nice and accommodating.

Pampered, Spoiled, Coddled and Indulged

With a successful visit to Yoyogi Park and Harajuku under our obi, we made it back to Tokyo Station, found our luggage and headed to Yokohama for a 4:45 boarding of the Celebrity cruise ship, the Millennium.   Our return to Vancouver and home was to be a slow and leisurely trip.  For the next 15 days we would be pampered, spoiled, coddled and indulged. As good as that sounds, it does come with a price.

Our arrival in the afternoon and check in was quick and with out incident. By coming at our suggested assigned boarding time, we avoided the huge crush of those who ignored their times and came early. Reportedly making boarding a real gong show.  We did miss that first lunch and did not make into the dining room for the early seating, so had to make do with a meal in the cafeteria.  Ohhh, the trials and tribulations of cruising.

Day 17, we were up early for a return trip to the Nippori Fabric Street. The national holiday was over and Nonie fully expected to find all the fabric shops opened and to hit them all before returning to the ship. With an evening departure, we wanted to give ourselves (Nonie) plenty of time. Making it back to the ship on time, we skipped the dining room and had dinner on the back deck as we sailed out of Yokohama.

Our room was on the lowest (2nd Deck) passenger level of the ship and approximately mid ship.

The perfect spot to ride out any storms that we might face crossing the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. While there were some rough days, none that caused us any discomfort.

So for the next 15 days we would be meeting new people,

lazing around the hot tub waiting for the first drink of the day.  The pools were not heated as I quickly discovered when I tried to do laps and only succeeded in seeing the boys disappear for several hours,

and of course eating numerous 5 course dinners which included a bromance with our wine steward who never made a bad recommendation.

We achieved our goal of not using an elevator during the entire trip, which meant lots of stair reps over 15 days staving off that cruise weight gain.












We celebrated two Mondays when we crossed the International Dateline. Disturbingly, both days were quite similar.  Get up, breakfast in the cafeteria, take in a presentation, lunch in the cafeteria, coffee in the bistro, dinner in the dining room, take in a show, got to bed. Repeat

There are three stops to break up the first week of our cruise. Two on the island of Hokkaido Japan and one stop in Petropavlosvk Russia on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

10 Reasons Why You Don't Need a Window on a Trans-Pacific Cruise

Day 3

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Day 13

Day 14

A Bridge To Far

Day 16, our last day in Tokyo. We had been given a boarding time late in the afternoon, in Yokohama so, this gave us some time to explore a little more of  Tokyo.  Leaving a little late from our hotel, we once again had trouble finding a storage locker at the train station. Thanks to the kindness of strangers we were directed to the bowels of the train station where they had set up a temporary luggage storage area complete with a long line of luggage holders. Once again we were not inconvenienced as those efficient Japanese kept the line moving with no standing around.

Our goal today, was a visit to Yoyogi Park. Yoyogi was a sidebar on my bucket list after I saw a video many years ago of the interesting and intriguing groups who frequent the park.  Living space in Tokyo is at a premium and the park is used as a meeting place for many different clubs, musicians, bands and groups of people with similar tastes.

Leaving the subway at he Harajuku station you will find the Harajuku Bridge and the entrance to Yoyogi Park. It's here on the bridge where the Lolita's hang out. My research found that this is a fashion sub-culture which has developed in the last 20 years. There are a number of distinct  categories for the Lolita's, such as the Sweet Lolita's, Goth Lolita's  and Black Lolita's. Each category has a dress code. A Goth Lolita can where white, frilly lace trimmings while Black Lolita's cannot. Goth or Black, you be the judge.

Another fashion sub-culture found in the park are cosplayers.  Cosplayers wear outfits and costumes of their favourite Japanese anime characters.

Sundays are there big day where they hang out near the Meiji Shrine entrance located at the north end of the park. This Shinto shrine is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife Empress Shoken.

Today, it was my hope to see the rockabilly gangs.

Complete with poodle skirts.

Elvis style hair and dancing to 50's tunes. We were not disappointed.

The area to the east of the park is called Harajuku and is one of Tokyo's fashion centres. The main thoroughfare is Takeshita Street. A busy place on the weekend where shoppers can find the latest teen cultures and fashion along with vintage and second-hand clothing stores. Well worth a visit. Plenty of interesting places to see and eat.

Didn't find the shirts I was looking for.  Perhaps it is a generational thing.

Time to head to the ship.

A Full Day in Tokyo

Day 15 was going to be a full one and what better way to start then to visit another palace. The Imperial Palace in Tokyo is current residence of the emperor of Japan, Akahito. The palace has been home to Japanese emperors since 1867 when the imperial residence was moved from Kyoto. See previous post.

And of course every palace needs a moat.

And every moat needs a boat.

And what's a palace without a garden.

Where even the trees stand on guard, row on row.

Needing a break from palaces and gardens, we headed off to Odaiba Island. Odaiba Island is a popular shopping and entertainment district situated on a man made island in Tokyo Bay. I needed some dressy shirts to wear to dinner on the cruise so some shopping and entertainment was in order.

To get to the island you must travel over the  Rainbow Bridge. Impressive during the day, at night, the white towers that support the bridge are illuminated in red, white and green light using solar energy obtained during the day. The picture is compliments of Wikipedia, I could never do it justice.

Besides shopping, there were two places on the island, I wanted to visit. First on the list was the National Museum of Immerging Science and Innovation or as it is known in Tokyo, the Miraikan. The Miraikan is home to Asimo, the grandfather to all bi-pedal robots in existence to day. He can walk, talk and kick a football although cannot "bend it like Beckham". He can recognize human expressions and interact with them. When asked what he thought about President Trump, he immediately shut down for maintenance.

The Geo-Cosmos is a huge globe that hangs over the museum. It has high resolution displays presenting near real-time events of global weather patterns, ocean temperatures and vegetation cover.. Very cool. We noticed that Penticton was having a particularly cloudy and cold day.

Then it was off to the Mega  Web. MW is home to all things Toyota. Here you can find all the latest and future Toyota products. You can arrange a test ride in all the latest models on their private track. Did I mention that it was a national holiday in Japan. There was a minimum 2 hour wait for even the basic models, so I had to make do with a stationary test drive. Vroom, vroom!




But, I did find a serious design flaw. The steering wheel was on the wrong side of the car.

After some shopping and dinner we went to watch the sun set over the Statue of Liberty. Yes, you heard it, an 11 metre tall replica of the real thing. Oddly, it is not the only replica in Japan as there are two others. It was put up temporarily in 1998-1999 to celebrate the French Year of Japan and after huge popular demand, it was re-installed in 2000.

In fact there are dozens of replicas all over the world.








Tomorrow we head to Yokohama and board the cruise ship and our home for the next 15 days.