Blair's Japan Adventure December 2019

After 4 hours of waiting we were allowed to leave the ship. At least the view was great!

We were finally allowed to get of the ship as the sun was setting. With few options we shopped at a near by center and explored a bit. I also enjoyed one last sushi snack. It was a fun evening...

We had our second and last formal evening which meant all you can eat lobster night!! Yum.

We also enjoyed a “light opera” show at the theater which was actually enjoyable and well done! Generally, the entertainment this time around has been a bust but we haven’t minded as we’re usually too tired to watch or listen.

We woke up this morning, full steam ahead towards Mt. Fuji. The crew was excited about the sunny day as the last time they were through it was cloudy and they missed their opportunity to see Japan’s icon. Our first view of Fiji emerged mid morning and by lunch it was in our face. It truly is a beautiful sight!

Before I share our past day’s activities I want to finishing telling about our blessing from Jehovah the other day as it didn’t end in the port of Kagoshima. As you know, when Jehovah decides to answer a prayer, he does so both thoroughly and generously!! I didn’t share with you that when we parted ways with the friends in Kagoshima, they told us that “April” was on our ship, she is a sister too and we should watch for her. Brian and I smiled, said thank you, but both knew that the likelihood of finding April would be slim to zero as other than her first name, we knew nothing about her. In addition to that, there are over 2600 passengers on board and we were heading to a city of 3.6 millions where we would all be dispersed for the day.

In Busan we decided to ride the the hop on, hop off bus in hopes of seeing more of the city. Brian has already shared a few of his impressions of S. Korea with you. In our opinion, the people here are more Westernized, forward yet still warm and friendly. The city surroundings did more than “function”, they were pleasing to the eye, which we find enjoyable in such a large city. Busan is the second largest city in S. Korea. They call it the summer capital of the country because of it’s pristine beaches. There was of course a strong military presence here too that we couldn’t help bit notice. We thought about getting off at several tourist attractions but we were nervous because it took the bus an 1 hour and 50 minutes to complete it’s loop. We didn’t want to have the day slip away and find ourselves very far away from our port. We chose to get off the bus at Taejongdae Park (pronounced Tay-young-day), Busan’s most scenic coastal park and premier tourist destination. We spent several wonderful hours here meandering our way to the oceans floor and laboriously making our way back up! The waves crashed violently against shore and we explored amongst the rocks which were ribboned in shades of green, black and white. We saw birds we were unfamiliar with, a lighthouse, women selling live sea food and asian style picnic tables were people could enjoy the day’s catch.

When we got back up to the top of the park we were going to ride the park tram back to our City View bus stop. When the tram arrived, it was jam packed with people so we opted to leisurely walk just over a mile back to our bus stop, through the park. As we were coming out of the park, we could see our bus at the stop. We decided to run even though we were still quite a distance away, because it was getting late in the day. As we ran, we were laughing and remarking to one another that we couldn’t believe it hadn’t left yet. We made it and got on the bus to over hear a woman conversing with the bus driver about the distance back to port. She was concerned that she might miss the ship. We passed by heading to the upstairs seating and I said to Brian,”Do you really think we’ll miss the ship?” He pulled out the time table and said,”No, but I should let that woman know. She is very worried...” As he left to go down stairs I jokingly said to him,”Maybe her name is April.” We both laughed. Before, I knew it, he poked his head back upstairs and said,”You’ve got to come down here, this is April!” We were astounded as it was a needle in a haystack chance of running in to her!! Jehovah never ceases to amaze us! We had a nice visit back to the ship getting to know each other. She is traveling with her husband Eric and friend Megan who happens to work for Princess cruise line in Alaska during the summer months. It’s nice to know other friends on board!

We made it back to the ship without trouble. With the full moon and light of the city it was a stunning sail away!

Raising 3600 feet out of the bay, this volcano dominates the landscape of the city of Kagoshima. Kagoshima is a sub-tropical city of 600,000 inhabitants who have grown accustom to living under the threat of eruption. The people of Kagoshima use city provided bags to clean up ash everyday and school children often wear safety helmets to school as a protection from falling debris. Many state of the art safety precautions are in place and the volcano is closely monitored the volcanos frequent eruptions.

After a bit of the transportation confusion we’ve grown accustom to, we decided to set our aim on one attraction for the day, Sakurajima Island Geo Park. The island park just sits off the coast of Kagoshima in the bay and can be accessed by ferry.

The island is actually now a peninsula as of 1914 (when the last great eruption occurred) when a large lava flow connected it to the mainland. Sakurajima preformed as expected with several dramatic eruptions of smoke and ash through out the day...

There is a city bus that takes you to various interesting stops on the island where you can hop on and off. We enjoyed walking a scenic lava trail and dipping our toes into Japan’s longest, mineral rich hot spring foot bath...

We had just enough time to enjoy this outstanding experience and then ferried and taxied our way back to port where we were given a special blessing from Jehovah...

Two weeks is far too a long time for us to be away from our spiritual activities. We thought we would see more friends in port and enjoy occasional upbuilding association but we have learned that unlike the United States, metropolitan cart witnessing is not a feature of the preaching work here. Perhaps it is not culturally agreeable. I had prayed to Jehovah in the morning to please help us find friends and he heard my prayer... We were so happy to meet a group of sisters and one brother, informally witnessing in port! They were equally happy to see us and one sister told me that she had the same prayer that morning. After, visiting and hugs, we parted ways with teary eyes and heart full of gratitude. It felt like such a blessing to run into one another!! Jehovah is a great hearer of prayers!

We had a very special dinner on board this night. I booked our cruise when there was a sale and we had some onboard credit that I used to make a reservation at Sabatini’s Italian restaurant. Most food is included in the cruise but you can eat at upscale restaurants for an additional charge. This was the first time we ever tried one of these venues. It was excellent! After several delicious appetizers, Brian enjoyed a steak and I had rack of veal.

The desserts were to die for... A special sort of decked out Tiramasu and Hazelnut praline yumminess. Last night, we were sound asleep shortly after 9pm... so tired!

We are heading farther south so it has been warmer, usually sunny and 60. Kochi is the wettest place in Japan and is often the recipient of Typhoons and cyclonic storms. It is located on Shikoku, the smallest of Japan’s four main islands. It’s a nature lovers paradise with gorges, caves and waterfalls. We had originally hoped to hike the Nakatsu Gorge but once here the reality set in, once again, that the distances were way too far and expensive to cover. Kochi was already a short port. In view of our time constraints, and setting our disappointments aside, we decided to walk around and visit local attractions instead. Frustratingly, the local highlight is another castle, Kochi Castle. With little other options open to us, we decided to go with an open mind and happy we did! We had an enjoyable day at Kochi Castle. It is much smaller than Hemiji but also one of the 12 to survive in it’s original form. Kochi castle is 300 hundred years newer than Hemiji, constructed in 1603, and it felt “newer”! The gardens, lay out and architecture are very different than Hemiji. We spent several enjoyable hours walking around Kochi Castle...

We definitely entered the land of the Samurai... who do you think won??

After touring about the castle and walking the grounds, we headed to Hirome Market to sample a local specialty called Katsuo.

Katsuo is Bonito (tuna family), briefly flame seared, sliced and served. The residents of Kochi boast the highest consumption of Katsuo in Japan... it was delicious. We washed it down with a bowl of ramen and before we knew it to was time to head back to the ship. Surely, this authentically local dining experience made up for our equally tasty lunch at Subway the day before (no shame!)... AND that was no ordinary Subway! They call combo meals here “sets”. Our 6 inch sub set included yummy potato wedges and creamed corn chowder (also, very popular in Japan).

There are always activities, music and shopping back at port when boarding the ship. The locals intensely desire that we leave with a lasting good impression of the home area. There is often free origami stands. Brian has been working on his as you see... ;) (on left—in case you wondered)

I thought this was amazing... Some women spent their entire day, free of charge, dressing passengers in Kimonos so that they could have this unique and special experience. Even though I didn’t do it myself, I told one of the girls that what they were doing was very special and kind and I gave her a little gift bag of American candy from home. I have been caring some of these gift bags to give as gifts to people I meet who are kind and helpful. This is a Japanese tradition of sharing gifts from home called Omiyage. Inside my omiyage is a contact card. When they receive such gifts they are intensely grateful. This sweet girl began crying and told us that she would never forget us. Very heart warming!

No castle would be complete with out its own mote and gardens. The gardens at Hemiji were the most paradisaic we had ever encountered. They were near perfection. Our hearts were moved as they caused us to reflect on our future paradise hope found in prophecy in God’s word the Bible...

The gardens were abundant with bridges, ponds, waterfalls, koi fish, flowers and bonsai galore! The atmosphere was peaceful and serene, truly lovely!!

We will never forget our time at Hemiji Castle. We walked along the mote back to the train station with the sunset fast approaching.

Follow me...

Who stole he swords??

Littlemen with little sciccors, trimming...

We’ve visited castles and palaces in Europe and we were curious to see what an Asian castle would be like. It truly took our breath away... Welcome to Hemiji Castle...

Known as the “White Heron Castle” Hemiji Castle was built in 1333 and in 1993 was registered as Japan’s first World Cultural Heritage Site. The whole castle culture here is interesting... Japanese castles were seats of political power, designed to be true defendable fortresses yet objects of magnificent beauty. Due to power struggles, a 1615 law ordained that there could only be one castle per Province so the government decided to destroy many of its castles. Therefore, most of Japan’s castles now lay in ruin. Only 12 maintain their original keeps (main structures). Hemiji Castle has survived wars, earthquakes and fires and stands intact in its original form.

The castle is full of defense features including the various shapes opening in the fortress walls.

We also got to see a demonstration of the famous Mikimoto pearl diving women.

As you can see, due to the expense of these world renowned pearls we kept the souvenirs to a practically non existent minimum. Can anyone see the price tag on this necklace?? Take two zeros off and there you have it in US green backs...

Cutting it close, we literally ran back to port to catch our water taxi back to the ship. Great dinner and a show last night! Filet mignon and shrimp with a tasty popover potato... and check out the dessert... chocolate, hazelnut delightfulness...

We had another brilliantly sunny day but with the high only being in the 40’s and a stiff breeze there was a distinct chill in the air. This was what is a called a tendered port which means that the ship is anchored in the middle of the bay and small water shuttle takes us to land. This was our first time experiencing this process. It was a fast and fun jaunt on the choppy bay.

We decided to hit the Aquarium first. The Toba Aquarium boasts having the greatest number of species of the aquariums in Japan. It’s claim to fame is having a live Dugong in captivity...

We thought perhaps this word was pronounced as spelled, but we heard many people, young and old, excitedly pointing and yelling “ding dong”. The juvenile side of us couldn’t help but laugh. The Dugong is a type of sea cow and was hunted to near extinction in the 18th century and is believe to have been the creature that was often confused for the mythical mermaid. We couldn’t quite see the resemblance ourselves. The Toba Aquarium has all the things you’d expect to see at an aquarium. We also enjoyed an extremely entertaining sea lion show...

The big surprise came at the Walrus show...

Would this happen in the States?? I’m not sure what kind of tasty treat they had in their training buckets, but they had this behemoth creature scooting around, doing everything from playing soccer, bowing, clapping, playing a harmonica and blowing bubbles. At the end of the show the audience was invited to come and interact with the beast. There was a young British mother whose out of control children (so unlike the Japanese) were stepping into and playing in the walrus’ walkways. She said to them, “Children, you shouldn’t be there, you could slip.” I kindly pointed out to her that perhaps the greater danger was being run over by a more than 3,000 lbs. walrus. Needless to say I’m so happy Brian did not allow me to talk us out of this event! We ended up loving it!! After all, it may be some time before we get to pet a walrus again! ;) BTW, his feet felt really cool!

Hot dog anyone??

Perhaps this will appeal to you...

All I can say is there have been plenty of unappealing options as well!

Someone asked if we have seen any insects and we truly haven’t until yesterday...

The trip from Narita to Yokohama only took 1 1/2 hours. Once at the cruise terminal, embarkation took one hour and before we knew it we were on board the beautiful Diamond Princess by 1:00pm. That was record breaking time!! It’s nice to be on board as we always enjoy visiting with staff and meeting other friendly passengers from all over the world. After dumping our luggage and having a bite to eat at the buffet, we decided to explore Yokohama. We could immediately tell that we LOVE this city and it is more our speed. Unlike the sprawling megalopolis of Tokyo, it’s smaller with a San Francisco feel in my opinion, and a nicely clustered downtown area. Despite the gray, rainy weather we decided to take a walk in the near by port side park. This was by far the cleanest, most meticulously manicured city park we had ever experience! Enjoy a stroll with us through Yamashita Park Yokohama...

The park was loaded with rose gardens, fountains, little shops and locals walking their canine companions....

Sail away was at 5:00pm. Yokohama looked beautiful in her evening twinkling splendor!

We when got got back on the ship we had dinner in our formal sit down dinning room. Brian had a fish dish prepared in an Asian style. I new I should not pass on the prime rib as it probably will be offered only once this week. The rest of the evening consisted of unpacking, settling in (that translates to OCD room cleaning in Lanie Blair speak), and doing a little laundry... not exciting, but necessary! By 10:00pm we were fast asleep, eagerly looking forward to waking up in a new destination.