A Japanese cherry blossom cruise.

[drron29]

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[drron29]

That night it was the Welcome dinner for the group.Western menu of course.French wine but pretty ordinary.We turn out to be amongst the youngest 25%.

Next morning it was an early breakfast.The restaurant opened at 0630 and as all 90+ of us had coupons for the 1 restaurant we were in the queue just before 0630.We were meant to have the luggage down by 0730 and to leave for a bus tour at 0800.Quite a few had very little breakfast.Naturally at 0815 a couple were still in the room and later on another couple realised they had left their passports at the hotel.Ah the joys of group travel.

Will we survive the next 12 days?

But for now the fun starts as we leave Osaka by bus for Kyoto.Fortunately the itinerary was known so we had not visited the temples that were part of the trip today.We were on the Blue bus.I did prefer the description of our Korean guide later to whom we were the Brew group.Sounded right to me.

So first stop was the Ryoanji temple famous for it's rock garden.We did come here 32 years ago and we were by ourselves for the visit.I still remember the feelings I had.Today was very different with lots of tourists including the 90+ of us.A few of the other westerners were ignoring local customs and there was certainly not the tranquillity of our first visit.Added to which were the comments from fellow travellers-"cant see the point"."what the hell does it mean"."boring".

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[drron29]

Some shots inside the temple-

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[drron29]

And now the main attraction the Hojo garden.Simplicity.Stunning.Serene.But first the model-

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[drron29]

Time to walk back to the bus.The outer garden was also beautiful-

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[drron29]

And now to a temple which we missed lst time as it was closed,Rokuon-ji temple.The Golden Pavilion.Now this was very crowded.

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According to our Japanese guide this tree was more than 300 years old.

It is spectacular-

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But sometimes nature does a great job in the beauty stakes-

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Then it was back in the bus for lunch.Two groups went to a French restaurant whilst we were heading for an Italian one.As we crossed the river the hanami parties were in full swing-

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Turns out our restaurant was near Maruyama Park.Being a Sunday the crowds were very large-

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Those 2 just stood there posing for everyone.

[drron29]

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At the restaurant there was a wedding reception going on.The bride and groom entered to drumming and then it was the wedding photos.We were all encouraged to take photos after a little discussion with both families-

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We both felt the food at lunch was very good.Italian with a hint of Japanese.Some in the group though thought it should have been more western.Oh dear.Back to the bus and this was likely to be a geiko with an apprentice-maiko.

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This next photo sums up the trip in a lot of ways.The bad.We are following the blue lollipop.But the good.I took this shot of the young women in their kimonos and realised one was special.She is with her sister with the camera and 4 cousins.They were stopping taking photos of each other so when I caught up as usual I offered to take a photo of them all.Very grateful and as I had murdered Japanese they were happy to use their English hence finding out their story.These interactions with the locals are priceless.

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[drron29]

A major traffic jam getting out of Kyoto but OK after that.Finally arrived at the Caledonian Sky and boarded.A bit haphazard the service but soon shown to our cabin by our room attendant.We were in a deluxe balcony suite chosen because it had a balcony and a bath.Here are the pictures-

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The last is the walk in wardrobe.The bathroom was good with a nice sized bath.All in all we were pleased with the cabin though the low ceilings and aircon that remained on the cold side no matter what temperature it was set at or how many times you were told it was fixed were of concern.Whilst unpacking this ship went by-

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The lifeboat drill was standard.Internet wasn't worth it at 12 GBP per 100 minutes for a very slow service so we went internet free.Was annoying that everything was in GBP although it is 50% owned by APT and this was a charter by another APT outfit Botanica.Also supposed to be all inclusive but only wine,beer etc with lunch and dinner and predinner or after dinner drinks + minibar are charged-even soft drinks.Also when getting a drink there was no pricelist,no description of wine other than chardy,sav blanc when ordering in the lounge as well as signing a blank chit.

[drron29]

So it came to dinner.The dining room was a disappointment.Staf were disorganised-sometimes it was left to main course before you were offered drinks.Service generally slow.Meals were OK but certainly nothing special.A few times offered Japanese dishes-they shouldn't have bothered.So pics of the first night's dinner-

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Vegetable stack with parmesan crisp,pork and a citrus tart.All quite average.

Monday and we had cruised overnight to Uno Ko.Now I had envisaged we come here when in Kyoto to take a ferry to 1 or 2 of the Inland Sea islands for the trienniale art festival they have here so this was a bonus-our tour information had us coming to Okayama-but that is inland and this the port.We awoke to fog and rain.Docked at 0815 and fortunately the weather started improving-

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On to the bus and an hour later we reached Koraku-en Gardens.One of the top 3 gardens in Japan-

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Okayama castle overlooks the garden-

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Married couples were out being photographed with the cherry blossoms as background.This couple astounded me.Rather than being upset at intruders they actually invited anyone who wanted a photo taken with them to come and their photographer used the "extra"guests cameras to take pictures.mind blowing-

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So the last of the Korak-uen gardens.Yet another bride-..

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[TLCOhio]

Appreciate your wonderful postings, Dr. Ron!! Did some quick checking and saw lots of fun cherry blossoms and other Japan settings that look very special and interesting.

 

For us, our higher priorities are doing SE Asia, China, etc. Have not visited, yet, in those key Asian areas. Japan is not quite as high up on our to-do listing, but we hope to get their in the future, if my money and time do not run out first.

 

THANKS for sharing and doing these details postings on these boards! Enjoy!

 

Terry in Ohio

 

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 201,545 views.

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

[drron29]

So to lunch-

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A nice bento box lunch but pretty westernised with the meat being roast beef on potato salad.Despite that several comments were heard on how it was hoped we did not have to put up with too much of this Japanese rubbish.Oh my.

After lunch it was a walk around the canal and the restored warehouses and cotton mills.Plus of course cherry blossom and photo shoots.But first for thse cat lovers this place seemed to have a soft spot for them-

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Once again unbelievable how courteous the Japanese are allowing strangers to crash their photo shoot-

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The Art Gallery.Apparently one of the mill owners had a thing for Spanish art-

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That's how the trees get their shape.Really labour intensive.

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Back on the bus and back to the ship-

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I had time to walk around the port area where there were 2 of the sculptures from the art triennale-

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Edited August 3, 2016 by drron29