Japan.It's Bloomin marvellous.

[drron]

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[drron]

We got off at Hakusan Park which is a cherry blossom viewing area and has several shrines.

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The festival was still going even though peak blooming was well and truly gone.With the cold weather they weren't doing well.

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[mrs.dr.ron]

Pug1 if you have followed other TRs that I have done you will know Captain's Choice is definitely on our to do list.Botanica has joined it.As for APT they have a major interest in Captain's Choice,Botanica and in Noble Caledonia so 3 strikes and they are out.Our experiences though have taught us again we are better suited to independent travel..........

Ron has left a word out here. It should read " if you have followed other TRs that I have done you will know Captain's Choice is definitely NOT on our to do list. "
We have not been on a Captains Choice tour, but have experienced them too close at hand on Silverseas :shock:

 

[drron]

Corrected.Missed that on reading before posting.

 

[amaroo]

Just caught up - wonderful read!

 

[Pushka]

So. Inspired by drron. And just booked a cruise for April 2018. Land details tba. Had to be April for the cherry blossoms. Now I have to go back and really absorb this thread.

 

[drron]

More of Hakusan park.As you can see cherry blossom viewing is over.A lot of blossom on the ground,not much on the trees.

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However we weren't the only ones to book at this time.This family were going ahead with their picnic no matter what-

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[drron]

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[drron]

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We both got a written oracle and both were exactly the same!They were getting ready for a ceremony-

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[24601]

Great report and wonderful photos, loving it. Thanks!

 

[drron]

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[drron]

From here on we saw fish for sale at stalls at these festivals-

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The wisteria looks ancient but well looked after.

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[junbugging]

From here on we saw fish for sale at stalls at these festivals-

I'm guessing it was this (sorry if you've already mentioned it elsewhere):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldfish_scooping

 

[drron]

I did see that in Kyoto but here,Akita and Hirosaki they were selling the fish.Not just goldfish.You saw people walking around with their plastic bag of fish.In Hirosaki one fellow was selling medium size koi.

 

[love_the_life]

Pug1 if you have followed other TRs that I have done you will know Captain's Choice is definitely on our to do list.Botanica has joined it.As for APT they have a major interest in Captain's Choice,Botanica and in Noble Caledonia so 3 strikes and they are out.Our experiences though have taught us again we are better suited to independent travel..........

Ron has left a word out here. It should read " if you have followed other TRs that I have done you will know Captain's Choice is definitely NOT on our to do list. "
We have not been on a Captains Choice tour, but have experienced them too close at hand on Silverseas :shock:

Agreed - we did at one stage toy with the idea, all inclusive, interesting itineraries etc, though at the time we felt we were still a little young. Our Arctic adventure on Silversea gave us a good insight into the tours, nearly half the ship were on the CC tour. Quickly decided that this was not for us. From memory their travel director was useless, used to spend his time chatting with his friends on the tour but the doctor was great (a young chap on his first tour) though he found he was kept pretty busy. They were tired out from long days and given the price of the 3 week tour (around $28K pp twin share, economy flights, lowest cabin grade), we did much better for our trip of over a month.

Think that was quite a typo on drron's part there.

Photos are marvellous. I'll be interested to see many of these places with autumn leaves when we are there later in the year.

 

[drron]

The last of Hakusan Park-

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So out onto the street to wait for the loop bus.It was freezing in the wind so walked into the street opposite the park which had some protection.It was the far end of Niigatas shopping street-

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[drron]

Although cherry blossom viewing was over there were good shows of other spring flowers-

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There was a farmer's market on but not all produce was first quality-

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Most other stuff was of the quality you expect in Japan.Mushrooms and asparagus were cheap-

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Popped into a small supermarket and found some interesting stuff-

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We ended up in Misukoshi and they were having a food festival on the top floor.Mainly seafood.Walked around and tasted quite a few very different foods.One was a local shellfish in wasabi sauce.The sauce was great but the shell fish was as tough as old boots.Though that was being really unkind to old boots.We ended up having a tray of fried oysters and a rice bowl each.I had crab,ikura and sea urchin on mine and mrsdrron just the crab and ikura.

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Walking around Isetan and Mitsukoshi there was this familiar face everywhere-

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They still love him after the Brave Blossoms 2015 successes beating South Africa,Samoa and USA but failing to get to the knockout stage-the first team to win 3 matches and not get there.He stated when he took over as Japan's coach that his aim was to get them into the top 10.They got to number 9 in 2014.

 

[drron]

Once again some unusual names for shops though the coffee shop would be at home anywhere-

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They take their comics seriously-

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Japan always has little shrines anywhere-

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And there was a huge darts shop,nothing but darts-

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The entrance to the shopping street and more flowers-

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A group of schoolchildren doing their civic duty.picking up the little bit of litter there was and weeding the flower boxes-

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[drron]

We got back to the hotel about 1730.It was way too cold to go out again but also we weren't feeling hungry.As usual we had bought a selection of cakes.That kept us happy.
Saturday and a complete turn around in the weather with a lovely sunny day as well as being warm.I had planned a short train ride to Gosen where there are many nurseries.It is the centre of Japan's largest cut flower area.On the coming Monday their tulip festival was to start and there are also peony nurseries.However mrsdrron was not feeling well so we scrapped those plans and just stayed around the local area.There is a tower with a movable section.However when we got there it was obvious no one was in there and although we found the place to access it there was no one there so we just enjoyed the late flowering cherries and partook of a coffee lover's nightmare-

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Taking our coffees outwas different to home with everthing done to stop spills down to that little green plastic bit to fit in the hole in the lid.Mrsdrron looked at this Kimono shop.The woman was puzzled when mrsdrron pronounced the cheapest one very nice.
We then went to Loft,an interesting Japanese store.Bought some collectible dolls for our granddaughters.Found the 100 yen shop and once again mrsdrron found things she didn't know she needed.

The wines in the Aeon supermarket were different.These in PET bottles with rather off putting labels as what was inside-

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Then there were these Aussie wines also in PET bottles.Obviously from a winery well known to all connoisseurs!

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After a couple of light snacks I dropped mrsdrron back at the CP and walked to the train station to book our return to Tokyo.The main road was a display of tulips-

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[drron]

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A flower shop at the station had some really nice plants-

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It was hilarious at the booking office.No customers there and 3 women serving.As I entered they all got up and fled.One was too slow and had to serve me.Fortunately for her I write down the train number and time so it was really easy for her.So after getting our reservations she felt confident enough to try some English.
I started walking down a back street and it was obviously an "entertainment" area.The establishments all had pictures of young women outside.At last came to one with some more info.Three pictures with prices next to the pictures-5000,7000 and 9000 yen.Above the photos was-"for 30 minutes".Underneath the 5000 yen lady was in English-comes with free bottle of sake.Methinks there is a catch there.So went back to the main street and looked at the tulips instead.

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