Our departure from Yokohama on the 31st of March was the start of our cruise. A quick train back into Tokyo to pick up our baggage from storage and we headed to the cruise terminal. Our time in Tokyo and Yokohama was awesome with so much to see and do even with cool and wet weather the first few days didn’t slow us down to much. We are starting to figure out that the warm weather in Japan doesn’t really start until May. Thinking it would be warmer gave Karen a reason to get some shopping done for appropriate clothing. As there isn’t shortage of retailers willing to accommodate her needs prior to leaving port.
Our cruise ship operated by Norwegian Cruise Lines called the Jewell awaited us. It will be nice not having to pack and unpack and moving from hotel to hotel for the next 11 days. The cruise ship has about 2400 passengers of which 1/3 are Americans another 1/3 are Australians and the remaining being made up of about 19 other countries with about 75 Canadians on board. Recently renovated in 2022 the ship has lots of restaurants, bars and lounges. We have some areas that are a bit quieter and have set up in the Spinnaker lounge at the front of the ship with great views when coming into and out of the ports we visit.
Departure from Tokyo at 7:00 pm the next morning we woke up in Nagoya. We had breakfast and headed to the Toyota Memorial Museum only to find out that it was closed on Mondays. It was then back into a bus and then another train bus to reach the Nagoya Castle a world Heritage Site it was very busy and too tell you the truth we have had our fill of Temples and Pagodas dating back hundreds to thousands of years.
BulletTrain Museum
Wanting to see some more recent history we stopped in at the Japan Rail Museum where the history of the Bullet Train was on display, along with many displays of Japans rail history. We have seen many large train stations but Nagoya is the second busiest and the largest train terminal in Japan again. We are finally getting some warmer weather but the forecast isn’t looking great. Back to the ship diner and catch a show in the ships theater with some really good entertainment. I spoke with the piano player in one of the lounges and he was from Cochrane and has been working on these cruises for the past 8 years. If you see a line up on the ship there is usually a buffet or a restaurant and the end of the line.
Day three we were expecting to visit Kochi but due to low tides we were diverted to Wakayama for a short stop of about 5 hours a city with limited history and sites to visit. But we able to finally able to see the cherry trees in full bloom.
Back into the ship and the next morning (day 5) we arrived in rainy but warm Kagoshima home of an active volcano that blows off some steam 5-6 times per month. Unfortunately with low cloud cover the Volcano was invisible to us. After a train ride and a ferry ride to a good interpretative centre rounded out the day with a bowl of Tonktonsu Pork Ramen at a small little restaurant the south of Japan is famous for its pork Ramen and I think it was one of the best meals we had in Japan.
Today we landed on Busan South Korea before we arrived Karen reached out to an ex-teacher friend who moved nearby Busan. Glen Oxford who taught at Sacred Heart moved to Korea to teach. Since they were in spring break Glen met us at the cruise port and took us out to see some of the sites in downtown Busan. A walk through some local markets and an authentic Korean lunch and a viewing from atop a high rise shopping centre made out for a great day.
Busan
It’s hard to believe that we are less than a week from arriving back home, but we still have lots to see before then so one more blog before we wrap up the Ballhorn’s in Asia.
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