Japan Intensive Live -Take 2

[uktog]

I have so enjoyed @debcip comments on their cruise I’m going to pick up the baton prompted by some who wanted another of my sort of live journals. 
 

This time I’m going to focus more on the off ship experience as Japan is quite a challenge for many guests so as much I hope this can also be useful to future cruisers as we are doing some different excursions to Debbie. 
 

Japan excited and terrified us so we opted to use ship excursions more and also added the Azamara provided pre cruise 2 day tour. This add on did carry quite a premium to diy but it did make our two days much calmer logistically and enabled us to combine elements of sightseeing we wanted. 
 

We arrived at HND at 7 am. We had followed all the instructions and got QR codes before leaving home. I had also screenshot them in case I couldn’t get onto the airport WiFi. In the end the WiFi was so easy and quick to connect to that we didn’t need the pictures but it gave peace of mind. HND is huge and British Airways was parked a 15 minute walk to immigration!  After a long flight overnight I’d recommend a wheelchair assisted arrival (easy to set up) if that bothers you. 
 

No one asked anything about whether we were carrying medications it was a case of two checks of our passports and codes one at immigration and one at customs and through we went. 
 

Azamara provided our transfer to the hotel - the New Otani - and a white gloved driver with large car, WiFi hotspot and plenty water greeted us. 
 

I wouldn’t recommend that hotel to independent travelers. It’s a conference type hotel and though it has beautiful gardens

 

 

 

 

 

its not very individual in the service it gives. It certainly works from the tour perspective with plenty space for buses etc but it’s very inflexible. We arrived before 10am and whilst we did not expect our room to be ready we asked could we be called when it was. No was the answer, your room will be released to you at 3pm. We’ve noticed quite a bit of inflexibility since arriving (more on that in later posts) though a rules based system does mean a clean, tidy running to time experience   

[uktog]

Day 1 tour

 

The previous evening we met the other six guests whom we would travel with over dinner. It was a weird dinner - set menu no choice all low quality western food in a restaurant that focused on local cuisine. Whoever signed off that included dinner should be shot but everyone was jet lagged tired and were keen just to eat and get to sleep so the firing party is stood down. 
 

We met our guide in the morning and headed to the station to experience a Shinkansen trip of 30 minutes to Odawara. Short but we got to experience it. 

From there, we had a larger bus to spread out in for the day where we visited the Open Air Sculpture park 

 

We had a pretty mediocre cafe lunch there but starting to get Japanese food!  
 

We then headed to the ropeway to the volcanic area

And were treated to a view of Mount Fuji. 

We arrived back in Tokyo late afternoon. 
 

Our guide was so so - very accented but also not communicative other than to constantly thank us - it got quite annoying eg when the coach was in a little traffic jam we were thanked for sitting on the coach during the jam!  
Unfortunately over the two days with her, we learned nothing about the history of Japan or Tokyo or anything meaningful about the country which for first time visitors was a big let down.

 

We asked the guide about seeing cherry tree illuminations but she didn’t know but fortunately the hotel concierge did and we jumped in a taxi - easy they all take cards - and headed to Chogi park. 
 

The blossom season is late so not everything was out but lots of work groups were having parties sitting or standing on plastic sheets or newspaper on hard ground. Shoeless off course!!

 

 

Tokyo is certainly a spotless city and we felt very safe walking about and finding a taxi back. The taxi fares were quite reasonable for the distance travelled 

[uktog]

Day 2 reaching the ship

 

It took a little to fully understand the luggage logistics from our guide - in the end our luggage did come on the coach with us and although most of us had not had tags included in our pre cruise material it was absolutely no problem at the pier. 
 

The sightseeing today involved a lot more walking than maybe we had anticipated and the guide didn’t make it clear at each stop. I learned (painfully) a few minutes can be over 10 minutes and as we were in crowds at the temple many of whom have no spatial awareness re their umbrellas it wasn’t a pleasant experience. 
 

We did see the Imperial Palace

the crowded Sensoji Temple 

 

 

and surrounding streets 

 

The high spot was a tea ceremony for the 8 of us with the most delightful informative guide who spoke perfect English. 

What we did discover is Japanese inflexibility today. First let’s be positive the tempura lunch was lovely

At lunch seats were very low style something my non functional knee can’t do. This was a showstopper met by initial indifference by the guide. Then a solution that DH and I ate at a different part of the restaurant alone was proposed which we declined. We couldn’t get them to understand all I needed was a “ normal” chair and I could easily lean down to the food. Eventually we achieved this but it was awkward. We’ve since discovered talking to Land Discoveries on other things that the found tour operators have little sensitivity to “adapting” especially for less mobile guests even simple things are difficult. We will be watching to see how this develops during the cruise. I have a non functioning knee and spine/balance issues. Some days I’m a racing snake others a limping tortoise with no warning. I’m now using a cane far more than I like. 
 

We reached the terminal at 1430 virtually the last to board so it was a very quick and easy embarkation - safely home to the mother ship. 
 

The two day pre cruise served its purpose quite well- with a different guide it would have been so much better 

[debcip]

Re:  the Japanese guides. Overall, I think I would say they were equally divided between excellent, very good, and ok. About 2/3 had very good English and were easy to understand, and we struggled some with the remaining 1/3 

[uktog]

2 hours ago, debcip said:

Re:  the Japanese guides. Overall, I think I would say they were equally divided between excellent, very good, and ok. About 2/3 had very good English and were easy to understand, and we struggled some with the remaining 1/3 

I think it was unfortunate that for the higher tariff 2 night tour they hadn’t secured a better guide. She just wasn’t fully engaged in maximising sharing useful information. (She did repeat three times the aging population and declining birth rate data but never explained what was meant by the Samurai, Edo etc or when Tokyo was created) 

[uktog]

Aomori 

Ship Life

 

We had a pleasant low key sea day before reaching Aomori. There were lots of activities going on and a brunch including Dim Sum. There was a far more extensive array of food than we saw last month on Quest - perhaps higher numbers onboard allows them to have a greater range of offerings. 
There is one enrichment lecturer Dr Craig Benjamin- he’s excellent doing 50% history plus 50% next port of call. It was standing room only even after the extra white chairs were deployed. 
 

Shore experience 

 

Aomori had no shuttles we were parked at the start of the Main Street. We heard guests enjoyed the town visiting temples and being helped by friendly locals. We had our first welcome! 

We did a shore excursion to Hirosaki Castle and Nebuta Village - 5.5 hours 

 

There were many buses going but they had staggered timings and routes so it wasn’t crowded. There were 39 on our bus which had spacious legroom. We had a ships escort as well as the guide. The guides English was excellent and her explanations were very helpful. 
We discovered that this is an exceptionally snowy region, we say the vast number of apple trees for which the region is famous (so famous even all the roadside barriers mark this!)

and the many rice fields were ready for planting.

Our first stop was at the interpretative village- some local children were there with their teachers welcoming a local dignitary they were so sweet.

The displays of lanterns used in the annual Nebuta festival in August were amazing - so many photos taken. 

We were then treated to a shamisen and drumming performance before walking over to Hiroski castle. The cherry blossoms were still not out, I imagine they will be amazing. The locals obsession with blossom really is something else. In the park we saw a TV crew and intensive close up filming of trees. Our guide explained this film would be part of that nights news program as there are scheduled slots for these reports that are “peak viewing” until the season starts. 

Being blessed with a beautiful day the views were amazing. 
 

The excursion was over lunchtime and we had been made well aware that lunch was not provided. However, this seemed new to some of the passengers and there was a slight delay because some of them had tried to order food during the free time we had at the castle. We had brought our bottle water and found a beautiful apple snack bar in the shop, which we enjoyed under a still to flower cherry tree.   Hopefully people will read the clear information ahead of future tours and not assume what may or may not be provided. 
 

This tour showed us having one mile of walking I would say from what my App told me we were walking for about two hours and probably covered nearer two Miles with relatively flat surfaces. It’s certainly the case and Japan to date that you have to have a reasonable level of physical fitness to engage in the various excursions.  I’m coping! 
 

We return to ship to discover that they had managed to get some local universities students to come on board and do a Shamisen performance they were great, a nice contrast to hearing solo playing earlier. 
 

 

 

This was one of the first Japanese cultural extras that they speak about that we are going to enjoy on this intensive tour. Of course in the evening we had much talked about Apple pie where Azamara had bought 60 kg of these expensive Aomori apples and had made them into an extremely delicious dessert ably overseen by the ever present Ryzard .

So our first full day has been very successful

[takemewithyou]

It seems like the shipboard activities were plentiful and I love that you had a dim sum brunch!  Love the live reports!

Thank you! 

[oddjob16]

Sounds like the ship is now "working" under Ryzcard. He is the hardest working HD. A pleasure to sail with.

[crzrr]

5 hours ago, oddjob16 said:

Sounds like the ship is now "working" under Ryzcard. He is the hardest working HD. A pleasure to sail with.

Sounds as though it is.  We had the tale of two cruises - one without him and one with him.  What a difference!   The first HD definitely needs more training.  Ryszard is the best!

[Anchor Light]

Yes, he's amazing. It should be noted that he was trained by the 'old guard' who unfortunately have moved on.

[crzrr]

47 minutes ago, Anchor Light said:

Yes, he's amazing. It should be noted that he was trained by the 'old guard' who unfortunately have moved on.

Yes, it's very apparent that the "new" ones are not getting the training they so desperately need.

[tango9]

Thank you, Uktog, for this wonderful blog of your adventures .  I am just off of Journey a few days and enjoying  your posts, remembering an equally great time on Journey.  And , yes, Ryzard  worked hard at making each day memorable.

[gymfreak]

3 hours ago, crzrr said:

Sounds as though it is.  We had the tale of two cruises - one without him and one with him.  What a difference!   The first HD definitely needs more training.  Ryszard is the best!

Our experience exactly! We were lucky enough to have Ryszard on our Japan intensive last year where he went way above any expectations and quickly sorted any issues. Highly visible and approachable.

Compare that to our transatlantic in November on Onward . Never saw the Hotel Director , cruise was well below par to previous cruises. What a huge difference someone like him at the forefront makes. Have one more Azamara booked in July which is also on Onward so fingers crossed we shall have a better experience 

[uktog]

It’s not only training it’s the right training. Needs a hotel school or equivalent programme as part of the process to get the external view on good hotel leadership. The old guard had it as does Ryzard, new recruits some have virtually no hotel experience. 

Edited April 6 by uktog

[uktog]

Akita

Ship Life

 

All going fine. One small change that caught us out, certainly on Journey they no longer call you before bringing breakfast, that was a no cost thing we really liked and we got caught out this morning as our breakfast was brought 10 minutes before the start window! 

The ship extras continue each night our onboard extra is accompanied by a delicious sake based cocktail. 
 

Our extra was a Hemage drumming display. 

Shore Excursion 

 

We went on the Historical Akita tour. This had been highlighted through extra letters as being very strenuous. We decided to risk it. In the end it was no worse than the previous trips. 
 

First a visit to see the Kanto Festival lanterns (no real walking here) and watch the athleticism of those who carry them, not by hand but by balancing the 30ft poles on their heads arms or even waists. 
 

We got to try carrying them - but shorter poles and two hands only! 

Then to the town park to see temples

 

Viewing  the city from the watchtower (this was a nickel and dime by Azamara we had to pay 120 yen - about a dollar to do this. Given the excursion cost it should have been included)

 

 

We did however find a local exercising his beautiful Akita dog 

and some flowering cherry blossom.

It’s coming but I think we are just going to be in the wrong place at wrong time 

 

In the end it was a two mile walk and only a few slopes and one steep flight of stairs so ok. 

The cruise shuttle dropped guests off at the cross on this map. We might have managed this trip on our own but the bus between the various parts was a godsend. Our guides English wasn’t great he was just reading a script but he was understandable 
 

 

 

 

[uktog]

Niigata

 

Ship experience 

 

The staff seem to be coping very well with a full ship. Tonight’s little extra was three delightful Geisha girls (two apprentices and one Geisha) who came onboard.

They did a short performance and then answered a few questions that had been gathered by the Cruise director.  Perhaps our perceptions about what a geisha girl was had been very wrong and this was a very good opportunity to understand a lot more about them.  

As always, saki cocktail was served for start, but at the end, we also had the saki ceremony with appropriately dressed officers breaking up in the barrel.   

Shore Excursion 

 

Today we paid the 5 hours 45 minute excursion Watanabe Tei and the saki brewery, which was something that I think given distances would have been very very difficult to have put together ourselves. It was $149 each and was an excellent trip.

 

it was a one hour journey to the first stop on during that time, and throughout the day we kept passing through Miles and miles of paddy fields ready for spring planting as far as the eye could see

First, we went to the beautiful traditionally statehouse of Watanabe Tei which was from the samurai time, and also had beautiful. Japanese gardens,

 

 

The explanation of life in the houses and how they were organised gave extremely useful background for us for the future understanding of what we were going to see along the way in future ports

We then headed to the local brewery, where we were involved in a very generous tasting of some sake, plus a tour of the production facilities although as advertised no production was actually an operation at the time. It was still a really good overview.  We bought some sake at the factory shop which really seem to be reasonably priced.  

our final stop was at the Fukushimagata Lagoon where we were so fortunate to see the canola flowers -the rape seed flowers in full bloom. It was a Sunday and many local families were out because it was so special that it had just brust into flower and they were also enjoying the time there and a picnic. 

 

I would certainly recommend this excursion to anyone who is on this intensive Cruise in the future

 

As always, we were sent away last from Niigata with a  sendoff ceremony by the locals

[uktog]

And it happened, cherry blossom burst out for us when we arrived at Kanazawa. Later will describe what we did today on our DIY attempt for the first time in Japan. It was successful but have to quickly share with you now the beauty of what we saw today

 

 

 

 

[uktog]

Kanazawa

Ship Life

 

Another lovely welcome at the port. And tonight’s destination experience was two of the guest relations staff being dressed in Kimonos by professional dressers. It takes 20 - 30 minutes to do the outer dressing and the girls said they could hardly breathe in the dresses. Maybe explains why so few wear them. 

Ashore 

 

No excursion we worked out we could do it ourselves. We took the shuttle to the railway station. Walked through the immaculate station to the bus station. For 800 yen each we got all day passes which includes the tourist loop hop on hop off shuttle (no commentary but stops announced in advance in English) 

 

So we visited the Castle

The Kenrouken gardens across the road (for some reason signs saying no charge to enter today - maybe due to the cherry blossom festival it’s normally 300 yen each. 

Then we found the samurai houses

And the geisha tea house district but no geisha today. 

Another cute send off this time from an after school baton troupe all quite young. It was lovely 

So our view ok you need to familiarise yourself with maps but Kanazawa is an easy DIY. 

[debcip]

Great seeing all the different things you’re experiencing on your trip! I may have to return!

Ryszard is the best!

Wasnt the apple pie amazing? 
interesting that you are having all the different sake cocktails!  Did I miss them on. Y trip?

Your on-shore and on board entertainment is also different than ours!

The long hours of walking did continue for us—we walked almost 4-5 miles every day

[uktog]

Sakiaminato

 

Nothing to highlight about ship life. It’s going on at a pace and everyone is curious to take part in everything Japanese. The lunchtime specials in Windows based on Japanese food have been great. 
 

Shore Excursion 

 

We went for an easy excursion - the panoramic Matsue because we wanted to see Matsue Castle. Glad we did this because there was quite a drive and there were very few taxis available. We also discovered that the town itself had very little. We really need to get out of town and it was torrential rain so the panoramic drive was the solution.

 

That said the timing of the three stop was not right. We have 30 minutes to eat, but the castle needs 50 minutes at the last stop probably 10 minutes. We also didn’t have the most fluent guide. 

so it was up the stairs in the rain at Matsue Castle 

a stop to go to the top of a bank building for the view

Actually the peace and orderliness of the customer banking hall fascinated me more! 

Then on to 30 minutes in a parking lot to look at a steep bridge

 

Im not sure this excursion delivered full value but even though there’s a shuttle to  Sakaimnato town there’s nothing there. If you need a port day on the intensive cruise this might be the one for you 

 

We all had to complete exit border procedures (involved going to the terminal and getting our passports stamped) - very quick but a bit of a walk in windy weather 

[uktog]

Busan
 

The immigration procedures worked very well, and we were all very quickly clear to go ashore showing our passports as we went in the terminal and then either off on our own or an excursion. The ships shuttles were provided which took people to the Stanford hotel, which is in the middle of the main shopping district. 
 

We opted to do the excursion coastal treasures of Busan with lunch

 

This was a seven hour tour highlighted as being strenuous, and indeed the first part was as we visited the Haedong Yoggungsa temple, which is said to be the most beautiful temple in Korea. 

It was very busy because it was a national Holiday and many local people had come to the temple

The temple is perched on a cliff top which requires you to go down over over 200 quite steep steps to reach it,

but it’s worth it when you get there.

 The lanterns  which are offerings from the worshippers to the gods are a beautiful colour and

 

 

 

the Buddhas are quite impressive.

The pagoda at the top is also a very popular spot.
 

After this trip we went to the APEC Noori Maru house, which was designed to symbolise Korean design and has been used as the venue to host world leader conferences

We then walked around the island which gave some beautiful views back to modern Busan,

including the building that is 102 stories high

We went for a Korean lunch which was served family style. I think everyone managed to find something they liked although if you were not partial to chilli or bones in your fish, you had to be a little careful in your choices.  

I found  the barbecued meat to be delicious.  Koreans eat with metal chopsticks, which are a lot harder to use than more traditional wooden chopsticks.
 

After lunch, we went to the fish market and saw the amazing array of dried fish and seafood and watched the stallholders prepare and deal with the catches using extremely sharp knives

And the fruit displays are something else! 

 

We were then free for about an hour to wonder through one of the large shopping areas and see what everyone was doing today on their holiday. It seems to be the key holiday activity is shopping!

We thought this was a very good excursion for anyone who wanted a good overview of Busan without necessarily doing any logistical arranging themselves. There was a lot of walking, (c 12000 steps) but it was manageable.
 

We had the amazing evening which I will post about separately, but just to say instead of a send off by people, I think it’s fair to say the rainbow bridge that we passed under gave us a beautiful sendoff as did all the lights of Busan.

 

It really is rather good city, and that if I was cruising in this region again, I definitely want to go to. 

 

 

 

[uktog]

The azamazing evening was held on boardship, and I know it’s something that there are very many mixed views about. The shows were at 6 pm and 9 pm, which I think gave quite a few people problems trying to work out when to eat.  It certainly challenged the dining room who had to cope with guests for both shows around 7.30 but they did well. 
 

However, there was a bonus in the show being on ship, because at the last minute they had managed to secure a group of local youngsters who were experts in Taekwondo who came on board and gave an absolutely breathtaking display ahead of the actual amazing evening for late guests and immediately following the first show for others 

 

 

 

I don’t think the ship’s safety officer had checked this little add on, the amount of wood flying into the first few rows but no one was hurt! 
 

The evening started with a local drink being served, which I think was very much an acquired taste, but never mind!

 

It then had three sections of dance and music culminating in the legendary fan dance which was breathtaking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

However I think the impact for many was lost because the sight lines in the Cabaret Lounge aren’t great. This alone is a reason Destination Celebration has to be more than a local drink and some albeit pretty professional performances (where you can see them). 
 

It was a very pleasant evening but having enjoyed so many special additions this cruise involving local culture the impact was a little lost. 

 

We overheard some who weren’t happy about the combination of Taekwondo and graceful art on the same program but I could see it as a view of all things Korean 
 

 

[Mrs.Dukes]

Thank you @uktog for sharing your wonderful trip with us. Really enjoying following along.

[uktog]

Kitakyushu 

 

Ship life

This morning was immigration to get back into Japan. It was very well organised, documents to be completed and guidance on completion were sent to your room in advance and clearance was run by deck number. 
 

In the evening we had two special performances (no cocktail) at 5pm. First a demonstration of Kembu that combines sword play, fans and dance

 

 

 

Then students from the local high school gave a karate demonstration 

We also had a surprise fireworks send off. 

Shore excursion 

 

We didn’t do one, we got really brave as did many onboard (safely in numbers and all that!). There was very little to do where we were docked but the “town” had a beautiful station about 400 yards away. 

We invested 280 yen each way from this station (Mojiko) to Kokura which we used our suica cards for, others went to the booking window and bought tickets there.
 

Once in Kokura it was so easy to walk to the Castle

 

and the market

(and the more adventurous made it to the Toto Toilet Museum which is free of charge, we failed on that one!)

 

The town was so well signposted everyone was so friendly and it was so nice to bump into so many fellow guests who kept each other on the right tracks. 
 

There were lots of shopping opportunities 

 

We didn’t find these pasta heads so helpful with directions!  

 

So a very inexpensive day and one you can easily manage on your own 

[Grandma Cruising]

Thanks for your informative & interesting posts. Your Destination Celebration looks fantastic, what a varied and interesting programme.