drron29

last night was the Captain's welcome. must be a resurgence of those liking formal nights as most did wear formal outfits. One notable exception a fellow thinking a puffer jacket was an acceptable jacket. But when going past the line of Butlers we saw probably the best butler we have had in the line, Naia. She however is a senior butler. She swung by our room and we had a talk. Turns out the Muse and all the larger ships have 2 Senior butlers. One is on duty on the floor in the morning the other in the afternoon/evening to supervise the butlers. The time that they are not on the floor they are teaching the butlers and evaluating performance. When he heard that we knew Naia our butler was obviously happy and said she is a wonderful person and a very good teacher. Now the Whisper and smaller ships only have one senior butler. Naia was originally posted to the whisper but as it was her first contract as a senior butler she asked to be on one of the larger ships hence joined the Muse on 25th September. The good news for us is that she will be on until the ship reaches Manilla so will be onboard when we join the Muse again in Bali. The 4th consectutive cruise of ours that she will be on. So confirms our like of Silversea as they do actively support their crew and reward merit.

Previously the ship would provide a shuttle to Kanazawa station and a very good JR bus service does a loop around the major tourist sights. But @Port Power the weather is cruel. Perfect by this afternoon.

Well we hhad dinner with the Manager WHO Is Ukrainian and her Portugese deputy. A very enjoyable dinner but unfortunately probably not going to solve the problem. She was honest and said staff on the ships have very little power to make changes now and things are dictated from head office not only on excursions but as has been reported before on menus and wines. She did agree with you @canderson and will forward the complaint on to Head office so we will see.

As we missed today's excursion in Yokohama I wanted to rebook it when we call again in April next year. Fortunately mine turned out well. The excursion we were booked on has disappeared whilst the one I wanted had a banner -recently added. So win win. But i do wonder when they would have told us about our previously booked excursion that was no more. And @canderson we are having dinner with the Shore Concierge manager tonight and i will bring up my experience and yours.

So a little after the last post she complained of a left sided headache and nausea. She has a history of migraine but it had been well controlled for many years by Inderal she was put on for her SVT. The night before then sounds very like an aura with added brain stem symptoms. She did have the fall in Singapore last december hitting her head and knocked out. Everyone felt the headache she had then and the memory problems then were due to the head injury. As the symptoms when she came to back then are the same now it almost certainly the same problem. We had our usual light lunch in Kaiseki. And for those that said the rolls were all prepared this time I took shots of them being made when ordered.

Yes she is much better this morning,thinking clearly but upset at the 9 hours where she has no memory of at all. We called off our going out on excursion and just have a quiet day.

Definitely not the buffet. A hopefully temporary loss of memory similiar to December last year in Singapore but that was after a fall with a couple of minutes of being unconscious and a fractured shoulder. Nothing like that this time.

There may be a pause in transmission. Rojaan not very well tonight. Have had the doctor . I feel so useless.

Will do.

Indeed it was at the IC Tokyo Bay and it was one of the best buffets we have ever had. The sushi, sashimi and tempura were of very good quality. The roast beef was excellent.

A little problem o the Muse. With our TV off we can listen to BBC news as they have it on in the adjoining suite. Will become a major problem if they have it on late into the night. So have notified the butler so we will see how good he is.

I have already met the CD and told him Card from Perth said watch out he’s a shifty fellow. 😀😝

She has several aliases.

Need a sad icon. I had a walk planned for this morning ending at the gin stalls. So just went to the gin stalls. Only one open. Fortunately the one I had planned to buy from. Certainly walking there and back I doubted the hotel would get it’s umbrella back undamaged. Weatherwise the worst day we have had in Japan. Indeed the whole trip.

Another example of social distancing at a traffic light. I wondered though why they can be so good at it and then on a train, an elevator or shopping mall when it really counts they try and sqeeze as many in as possible. Just like the mask situation. More common with youngsters and not so much with the elderly. And at least 95% are simple surgical masks. Lower Ginza. Another little shrine. Beautiful footpaths. And some more Shinkansen watching before I got back to the hotel.

i love watching these birds. so patient. More old cherries. And that is the finish. I really love Jaanese gardens.

Once again the care of the trees is inspiring. Now this tested out my balance. But it was worth it.

These gardens were started in the 1600s as an area for falconry for the Shoguns. It was not until 1654 that the new Shogun decided to build his residence here. One building has a display of the falconry times starting with a net they used to catch wild ducks.

Old cherry trees. Duck hunting blinds. Quite a few tea houses.

The Flower garden. An old shrine. Plum trees and spider lillies. The water taxi entrance which hasn't reopened. And one of the major sluice gates.

And then my first plate for breakfast the next morning. Then I was off to Hama -rikyu Gardens. First via a river cruise terminal. Next to it was where they started their campaign to clean up the river and bay so ffish would return. They were successful as this school of flathead mullet shoes. It was obviously garbage collection day as neatly arranged garbage was out. This lot from one apartment block. There was an obvious need for a tree to be removed from the moat walls. Now into the gardens. Now a 300 + year old pine demonstrating again how the Japanese look after and revere trees.

And the rest of my meal. Hokkaido ramen salad and a few appetisers. Tempura. Mains. And my sushi being prepared. And Rojaan's then my dessert plates. I think we got our money's worth.

The sushi, sashimi bowls are done as you order and were very good quality. My sashimi bowl.

Although we don't do buffets the dinner buffet at the moment is an Autumn Hokkaido menu with a focus on seafood particularly salmon and crab so we decided to give it a go. cost 7000 yen -$A75. But for Americans a steal at $US47. So the selections.

I will enlarge all my photos and see if I can see the wave, 😉 PS. I can actually see 2 balconies on deck 6,1 on deck 8 and 1 on deck 10 where someone is out on their balcony.