Cruise to Japan Day 09 - Disembark - 29 September 2023

The last night saw Michael and I both indulging in a beer, I seem to have a taste for Asahi Super Dry a Japanese beer, whereas Michael opted for a Dos Equis.

A bit of a mess with the final bill, the cashier seems to think she gave Michael back too much money, unfortunately he placed the money in his wallet, so no idea of she was correct. Wanting to see the camera footage, which they suggested, became a breach of privacy for the other guests which were at the counter at the same time.

We left Yokahama international cruise terminal for Yokohama station walking. Had prepared the route last night only to find that my phone would not turn on. Out comes the Huawei, and using petal maps as the P40 does not have Google maps capability, we made our way and got there a lot easier than Google Maps had done. We went to the ticket office and bought 2 tickets one to Shibuya and the next one to Narita airport.

Got the train to Shibuya and changed over at Shinegawa to the green line train to Shibuya all so we could get to the One Piece Stores. We did our shopping and caught the train back from Shibuya station green line to Shinegawa station and then caught the train to Chiba and transferred to another train to Narita station clearly the path less travelled.

Magnet building for Mugiwara store and Parco buiding for Jump Store. Both had very limited stock.

Had great fun anyway and Michael and I bought some T-shirts and other merchandise, but no Luffy hat for Darren, all sold out.

Now at Narita airport waiting to board.

Cruise to Japan Day 08 - Sea Day - 28 September 2023

As it is a sea day, besides a great Zumba class and writing and rewriting the blog 5 times as the blog program kept bombing out, internet problems maybe? I have decided on all of the lovely and unusual flower pictures and gardens.

Cruise to Japan Day 07 - Hokodate - Night of the 27 September 2023

We had intended to go out at night as it was the first evening that the Diamond Princess was at a port however I was very tired and as we only ever use the stairs and with all the walking, my left knee was having some serious conversations with me. Instead of going out, we went to the buffet, not our best night, our neighbouring table had a strange gentleman, very loud and full of himself.

The food was great with parma ham and seafood stew, and about 15 different European dishes, all the normal Japanese variety of sushi and always ending with gorgeous desserts, a variety of cheeses which this time included two huge rounds of parmasen and blue cheeses as well as fruit.

Later we wondered around the ship and went to bed at 20:00 after a long day.

Cruise to Japan Day 07 - Hokodate - Preservation Area - 27 September 2023

Famous Lucky Pierre's has something for the whole family, a bar, a burger restaurant that also specialises in ice cream.

The calamari boats and their rigging waiting to go out to sea.

Catholic Church

Greek Orthodox church

Christian church

The end of one of the slopes

The red warehouses famous for storage of the herring rich era, have been repurposed as multiple shops selling food, glassware and clothes.

Having walked through a couple of warehouses, we returned to the ship. On the way we met a volunteer translator that did not know where we could purchase a pairing knife but gave me a beautiful present of an origami swan.

Cruise to Japan Day 07 - Hokodate - Motomachi/Ekinamae Area - 27 September 2023

Gokoku Shrine in memory of soldiers killed in the war was our first sight after the tram turned the wrong way for us. Fifty fifty chance it was going right which was the direction we wanted. We got off at Horai-Chu stop and walked towards Mt. Hokodate Ropeway Sanroku station after visiting the shrine.

At the cable car we bought two one way tickets intending to walk back down.

Welcome character in the station.

Some serious antennas, would think free WiFi would be more available.

We started our walk down with Michael ahead of me and encountered this fellow hiker sunning himself on the hot tarmac. Tarmac was followed by lush forest with only human hikers passing us by on their way up.

Square on the floor approximately 2cm by 2cm that shows the way.

We continue walking to the preservation area.