Blossoms, bullet train and beyond: exploring Japan by Land and Sea.

[Pushka]

What's pushka or the relevant derivative?

Cats name.

I don't get packaging.
Just like when MrsQS got a small trinket from Tiffany NYC. I saw it come out of a drawer - it was in a tiny plastic ziplock (= mass produced) then that goes into a Tiffany box which goes into a small Tiffany cardboard bag which then goes into a large Tiffany bag. I don't get it.... just give me a lower price... I know you don't get it that's why I posted it. I thought of you as I opened it. . It was only $5.

 

[Quickstatus]

But in Kanji or whatever the characters are called?

The packaging maybe $1?

This is where we get our free alcohol

Wait!. I thought suites get premium drinks included?.

 

[Quickstatus]

This is where we get our free alcohol

Wait!. I thought suites get premium drinks included?.

 

[Cruise Luxury]

Our passport was scanned the first port. Yesterday. Haven’t gone onshore yet today.

Any tips for a Kobe steak restaurant for lunch tomorrow?

Did you find anywhere for Kobe steak? Thanks for the updates!

 

[Pushka]

Wait!. I thought suites get premium drinks included?.

It's complicated. If you book a suite at the start then yes you do. If you win a suite in a bid up then you don't, except in the lounge. If we'd booked a suite at the beginning the cost was well over $20,000. Winning the bid up as we did we shaved off $10,000.

 

[Pushka]

Did you find anywhere for Kobe steak? Thanks for the updates!

Everywhere near the Chinese markets. Wonderful grilling smells.

We booked Premium access which gave us premium wifi for 2 devices each plus a whole stack of other benefits which is a much better deal than buying premium wifi for just one device.

We are also now in a suite. Tomorrow night we have an invitation to be on the helipad for sail away courtesy of the premium access. We also have a retreat party invitation at the same time on the aft deck. We can't do both. I think we are doing the latter and we may well get a helipad invitation later for the suite booking.

Now have three charms.

The casino is blissfully closed as we are sailing too close to Japanes mainland. It's only been open once. We hate them.

Tonight when collecting my charm in this magnificent jewellery store I came out to find MrP and the store manager deeply involved in a cricket discussion. . So I said that's fine and walked back into the store to look for jewellery.

 

[Quickstatus]

sail away

Further Dummy 101 questions...
You mean an invitation only sail away party?

Now have three charms. How much time spent listening to the talks

are people wearing it on the ship?

Premium access

Cheaper than paying for just premium wifi?
Sounds like it can be booked out as it includes certain other perks like invitations

 

[Pushka]

Further Dummy 101 questions...
You mean an invitation only sail away party?

are people wearing it on the ship?


Cheaper than paying for just premium wifi?
Sounds like it can be booked out as it includes certain other perks like invitations

Yes, normally aren't allowed to go near the helipad. And I expect they will close the sunset bar as an invited guest party. Coz they will put on free alcohol and specialist food.

Not yet as the lockets aren't complete.

Yes, there was a weird price glitch. It was cheaper to buy the premium access package with a lot of benefits than simply buying two lots of wifi for one device only. Weird and many asked about this on CC as it made no sense. Right now I'm streaming radio on my iPhone while on the iPad looking over Kochi port where a tug is pushing us into port berth.

The ship wifi has its issues. Supposed to be starlink but some ports block it. I'm not really able to see anyone's pictures here eg on the View from my Office thread, and also mine. We also have hired a land mobile device at the airport which is much better and I'm using to load photos up.

 

[Pushka]

Quiet day today and actually warm. Spent the day by the pool, one of us at the empty gym and pretty much everyone left the ship. It's our first do-nothing day in three weeks.

Shut up Casino. I don't think it opens again until 10pm tomorrow as we set sail for S Korea for a day trip. There are heavy rock sea walls here and even though berthed we were still moving with the swells.

Kochi.



We went to the retreat deck for the party which was a non event. We could see the helipad and that party looked more interesting so off we went.



It took many sea ladders to get to the helipad and as we'd had two glasses of champagne and the ship had started to move off getting back it was a little interesting get back onto the ship.

This is where we were at the retreat lounge. Right up top. And looking down at the helipad from that point .



The locket thing - they said they were handing them out on a closed port day which everyone was challenging them as everyone has missed a day. It's a charm of the ship so a little relevant. Tonight they said there are 8 charms so there will be a chance to collect the missing one towards the end.

And yes, women are starting to wear them. I have four now, should be five. Three more to go plus the missing one.

 

[Pushka]

Tomorrow on Anzac Day we will visit Hiroshima. It's also my late mothers birthday. And the date of our first date. We went to the Anzac Day football match at Adelaide Oval. So with three generations serving in the Armed forces, and one still in the RAAF it's quite a day of emotions.

I have been doing some reading into Hiroshima and 'enjoyed' Oppenheimer but think after tomorrow I will need to find out more. We have organised a private tour guide who will take us to Miyajiyama first then to the Peace Museum.

 

[love_the_life]

In Hiroshima at the Peace Park I found this to be incredibly moving though a lot of people don't seem to visit.
Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims

 

[jukebox333]

In Hiroshima at the Peace Park I found this to be incredibly moving though a lot of people don't seem to visit.
Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims

Hard agree on this. It's off to one side, halfway up the Peace Park precinct, and is beautifully set out.

The practical side, with an index to known victims is, like so many other things surrounding the memorials, chilling and moving at the same time.

 

[Pushka]

I can’t imagine anyone not coming to Hiroshima and not visiting the Memorial and Peace Park but guess some might find it too distressing and others in denial. Many tours didn’t offer it.

I just checked. We are going to the Memorial Hall. Peace Park & Peace Memorial Museum

As I organised the trip if the others want to bail (UK and US people) then we will hold firm and they can go.

Sail in at 6.45 am but not berthing until 9am. Stunning.

There was also an Anzac Day service onboard at 6am.

This is the port we have to exit Japan for immigration purposes so everyone onboard must depart at 11am. Wonder if the crew have to as well?

 

[Pushka]

Huge Kudos to Celebrity. For the 6am Anzac service onboard, all officers except Essentials were lined up in full Uniform for the service, that's about 90%. Impressive.

 

[Quickstatus]

6am Anzac service onboard,

Lot of passengers joined in ?
Any Anzac biscuits (not that that would have changed the occasion)

 

[Pushka]

Lot of passengers joined in ?
Any Anzac biscuits (not that that would have changed the occasion)

75 was the random count.

 

[Pushka]

So yesterday, Anzac Day, Miyajiyama and Hiroshima Peace Park. Hindsight is not always helpful. I now wish, just as we'd done in Kyoto for 2 days, that we'd not opened up our excursion to other people. Oh well.

We met well on time, ship was early berthing. We'd had a pilot onboard for hours as transiting through all the tiny islands is tricky. Our guide was waiting for us and we all jumped into a taxi. The couple from UK were all on about costs for this and costs for that which were extra. Yet the day before they'd happily paid double this cost for a taxi. Today? Nup. And that was the crux of most of our issues. The couple from the US were great, we'll go with anything.

At Ujina port.



We caught the high speed ferry, we paid with cash and the rest with credit cards which involved a different process for some reason. It was around $40 Aud. Got us there about 30 minutes later and while the tide seemed high, it certainly wasn't by the time we got there but the Tori gate was still in water sadly not deep enough to deter tourists from walking across to it and spoiling our photos . I need to good app to get rid of people.

The Tori gate is stunning. First view and then progressing to it and then into the shrine. By which time the tide was low This would have been stunning on high tide.

 

[Pushka]

This guy was a right royal pain. And we loved seeing the deer bothering him. He wanted to get an unobstructed photo of his tour group right where everyone could get the best photos of the Tori gate. So he kept telling everyone to get out of the way, meanwhile the deer were hounding him. By now I was standing with the Brit lady and suffice to say we did not move on and I told him rather firmly in Japanese, Excuse me but NO, his group were from China. The place was packed with people and he wanted everyone to go. You can see the group behind him and he wanted unobstructed views behind of the Tori Gate.

 

[Pushka]

The Shrine itself was interesting but under renovation. There was a beautiful pagoda but behind construction screens which was a shame. The gardens in Japan are just beautiful. We walked through various paths and into the various shrines which were fascinating.

 

[Pushka]

Out of sequence. In the entrance to every Shrine / Shinto Tori there are always two animals - we've seen Foxes and Lions. One with their mouth open, the other shut. And then the Tori gate. They are usually orange and today we heard that colour was good at deterring insects?



An authentic sake house, there were several we were keen to look at but well, things started unravelling at this point.



So it was already 1pm and we knew we had some distance to get back to the Peace Park. Originally the Guide had booked us a meal at a restaurant to which I'd already said we didn't want, who needs to eat so we could just grab a snack. There are fabulous snack places here. But someone in the group wanted to sit down. That isn't what happens here. And then the guide said every Australian loves oysters. Ah, we don't we said (not raw anyway) but she kept on pointing out oyster shacks. We passed by a fab little place selling sushi and chicken that three of us wanted and said so but by then the guide had charged on ahead and as it was so crowded we didn't want to risk losing her. So then she said we could sit upstairs at a place, well, we didn't want to we wanted to go back to the sushi place, but would take too long to get back there so then she charged off to find a sandwhich place (seriously, a sandwhich here?) then she got lost and finally found it. By now I was in cranky mode. MrP was similar, MrUK wanted to go back to the sushi, his wife wanted to sit and the US couple were going along with it. At least someone was. Finally an unpleasant lunch done and we had to rush to get to Peace Park. Already 1.30pm. Just 2 1/2 hours left

We could have caught the direct ferry to Peace Park. That's what she said we'd do. We didn't. We caught the main ferry, got off that, onto a train, got off that, she wanted us to run down an escalator that was packed, and get onto a bus. 2.15 finally got to the Peace Park. Now everyone was a bit grim. The US guy has anxiety with buses we find out and why the hell didn't we just get a taxi FS.

We had just one hour total in the Peace Park and Grounds. It was packed. So much so we decided to wear masks. There was a very detailed special Photographic Archives of the Hiroshima bombing being held, it was difficult seeing the pictures, reading the stories and seeing the personal devastation the bomb had caused. People were respectful and silent even though a huge crowd. We did have to pass by quickly though. No one was taking photos.