Location at 5.07 am, partial sunrise and port panorama.

What a difference weather wise from yesterday! It was a little cool first thing and it did get a bit cloudy later in the day, but lots of sun and no rain!!!!

I got my excursion sticker early and then meandered down to the dock. As it was a bit too early for the rest of the group, the guide and I then headed for the bus. The rest soon appeared. Our first stop was a morning market, fish based again!

Saw this sign along the way…

Squid used to be the main produce from the sea but due to the declining numbers of squid, not so much any more. Though I bet this poor fellow will be someone’s lunch.

There was also a very large octopus, poor beggar, I don’t like them being in such small tanks. Though he had obviously had crab for breakfast!

On the way back to the bus, there were a couple of fishermen doing quite well, according to a couple from Applecross who were watching them. He said they were catching mackeral. If too small they fed them to the waiting seagulls rather than throwing them back into the water!

From there we parked at the base of Mount Hakodate. We caught a ropeway up to the summit. The view of the surrounds was amazing!.

A tsunami would be devastating!

You can see the ship on the other side of the bay. rather tiny from up here.

Everyone got back on the bus and then the guide took nearly everyone back off the bus for a 1.5 km walk around the area to look at churches and a couple of other buildings. A few of us stayed on the bus! One of the ladies getting back on said they only got a couple of minutes to look at the building before being moved onto the next one! Whirlwind tour!

Had a very late lunch back on the ship and then a bit of family tree, reading, resting and finally facing the right direction for a sunset!

Now we have 2 days at sea. Hopefully will get my passport back tomorrow so I can fill in the online Chinese immigration form!

Location, 4.56 am

Was rather pleased I had decided not to do a tour today. Even though it was dry when we were coming into port, it rained and rained and rained! Didn’t really stop until after 11 am. I was also very stiff after yesterday’s big day! I did get my port panorama done though!

The pool was open late, so had to hang around until 10. Nice that this soalrium has a roof, as it would have been quite unpleasant!

Showered and had lunch. I then sat out on the balcony and I actually dozed off out there. Downloaded a few more books to read and then headed off to the Crown Lounge for a snack. Got back to the room at a most opportune time. There was a large flock of seabirds swirling around outside. Stood and watched then for quite a while and even took a video of them. Fascinating to watch as they must have been enjoying the wind currents we were generating as they kept flying back to the end and cruising along side again. I think it was a mixed flock of streaked shearwaters and black-tailed gulls.

I think the towel animal is a penguin!

There are 4 of these pictures in the Crown Lounge. They are somehow created with lines that change when the picture is viewed at a different angle. This was one of them.

Our last stop tomorrow is in Hakodate. Hope the excursion will be reasonably dry, lol.

Location 5.20 am, dawn & sunrise

Mizuru is the handling port for Kyoto. As it was a 2.5 hour trip down to Kyoto (that’s with a 15 minute rest stop in the middle) we had a 7.30 am gathering for the excursion. Everything much smoother now, not having to tackle immigration and customs. Just had to have our passport photocopy with the immigration sticker on the back!

As there are a lot of mountains we went through 22 tunnels on the way. The other surprise was that their expressway was only 2 lanes!

Our first stop was the Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine. However, it was a 20 minute walk over several roads and 2 railway tracks. I set my own snail pace, lol. I had a map and knew the destination, so I just trailed way, way behind. Managed to get stopped at a road with a red pedestrian crossing and then by trains at both tracks.

I did get to the shrine, but not the multiple inri gates which were quite a distance off. There were lots of girls in geisha outfits. The costumes can be hired for a few hours and must be the thing to do!

Our guide said that it was quite quiet today, usually much more crowded!! Her definition of a crowd and mine are very different, lol.

From there we went to Arashiyama, another 50 minute drive.

One photo spot apparently is the Togetsu-kyo Bridge and then the Kimono Forest. The kimono’s light up at night!

Then it started raining and even now at 8.30 pm and a long way north of Kyoto and out at sea, it is still raining!

This was in a back yard when going back to the bus from the kimono’s.

There were lots of shops and restaurants from and to the bus, obviously one of the reasons for stopping here, lol. Everyone got back to the bus rather wet. My shoes were horrible as lots of unavoidable puddles! The driver was funny. He had started the day with a small towel draped around his neck as it was hot and humid, then it migrated up to his head for the rain! Mind you the rain did drop the temperature down from 31 C to 23 C.

I did like their wet road warning signs! Lots of umbrellas to be seen returning to the ship and 22 tunnels again!

Not doing an excursion tomorrow. Really pleased about that as the last two days have been very long ones!

Location at 5.43. No sunrise, on the wrong side of the ship!! Mind you it was very cloudy!

I don’t know why but the port authorities and immigration were very tardy this morning. We had an 8.30 meet for the tour only to be told that there was at least an hour’s delay because of docking and immigration. We finally started out about 9.45 and got through immigration to get on our bus and on our way about 10.20.

Our first stop was just over an hour away, the Adachi Museum of Art. I picked the tour because it said it had gardens! The gardens were great, just that no one was allowed to walk through them lol. They were either behind large glass windows or fenced off.

I went through with the group until they headed upstairs for the art, so I went back over our route, which was much better as there weren’t 3 bus loads of tourists all wanting to look at the same time. It did rain quite heavily for a short time, but that was it for the day!

I took panorama shots of the gardens!

That’s a camphor tree at the front. There was a sequence of photos up on the wall, showing the garden in each season.

Apparently they don’t like flowers in Japanese gardens, so the only one I saw was this water lily. The koi in the pond were enormous!

From there we returned back the way we came to visit a fish market. When we walked in all I could see was dried packets of everything fishy, but the smell did encourage the fact that there was fresh fish there as well and there sure was! All colours and sizes!

We then went onto a shopping centre, but I stayed on the bus. Each of our stops had to be 1.5 hours long, so hanging around a shopping centre for that amount of time just didn’t appeal.

Three more photos. One of rice fields of which we saw many. The guide said there are big problems with the children not wanting to farm like their parents. Then a bridge we had to traverse. Apparently the drivers are not allowed to take their foot off the accelerator as the bridge is so steep they would start rolling backwards! Then one of the ship on the horizon from the top of the bridge!

Tomorrow is a visit to Kyoto, but we shouldn’t have to worry about immigration again!

Location at 6.07 (5.07 at home), dawn & sunrise

Nothing much doing this sea day. read on the balcony for a couple of hours, did my pool exercising. A bit of family tree, lunch, then jigsaw and a nap, lol.

There are 4,500+ guests on this cruise. 1500+ are Chinese nationals and 2500+ are international guests. So there is a lot more English speaking going on this trip.

Had a chat with the head waiter, from Romania, at lunch time. He’s been doing it for 31 years and says that people are definitely changing. They used to be more sympathetic, understanding and friendly. Now they seem to be only interested in themselves and their phones!

Today’s towel creature is Miss Piggy (I think!!!)

I thought I would walk down the opposite corridor to dinner and found more interesting artworks. Here’s one of them! Would be another fun jigsaw!

Excursion tomorrow, so watch this space, lol.

Location at 4.17 am

As I had woken up really early, I wandered up to deck 15 to watch us coming into dock at Baoshan. It was okay when I got there, but I had to move down to the covered deck 14 as it started raining! The rain making the sky light up with a hazy light.

The Huangpu River is wide enough at that point for the ship to turn around so that we could head out later in the afternoon.

Maybe because it is Friday, the number of boats out on the river was a lot more than on the Sunday when I boarded! Very much a constant flow both ways.

Didn’t do much of anything, jigsaw, reading, puzzles, lol. I went down to the Crown Lounge as I had to get out of my room for a while. It’s funny walking down the corridors and all the room doors propped open so they can be cleaned and reset for new guests! Bags of laundry and rubbish scattered throughout.

From the Lounge I had to go to the other end of the ship to collect my new key card. They had 2 stations set up so used the old one to check out then got the new one out of the envelope for check in. The Internet wasn’t available so the lass said wait until 11.30. So I did, but it wasn’t really very happy, lol.

Went and logged into the emergency evacuation site again, finished the jigsaw and then did some family tree. Had some more water & goodies delivered. Sat out on the balcony and read as the weather had improved, grey sky but no rain.

A tricky jigsaw!! I think the red art work is my favourite.

Here’s my corridor a long way to go to eat, lol. I’m way down the end, past the white light. The carpet is not really the right colour for lots and lots of traffic!

Only back on Perth time for the day, now going forward again for Japan. A day at sea tomorrow, then Sakaiminato the day after, where I’m doing a cultural day tour.

Location and sunrise 6.15 am

Didn’t really do much of anything today. Sat on the balcony for a bit and decided the ship must be going in circles, as when I took the sunrise photo it was behind us, an hour later it was shining on me from the front. Did the pool thing at 10. The water was actually heated this morning, even though it was quite pleasant previously. It was also a bit busier, maybe because it was warm!!

It has been quite an obvious thing that the Asian contingent really like taking photographs and that the subject being photographed has to pose for it. No candid shots allowed, lol. There was a lass in the pool with her Mother walking around the outside taking lots of posed photos and then they swapped and daughter taking lots of mum! I had to keep stopping in my walking around the pool so I didn’t get in the way!!!

Then another lady decided it was a swimming pool and managed to go down one side in three strokes, walk around the end and then three strokes back to walk around the end again. Probably as pointless as me walking around in circles, lol.

Here’s the pool, roped off, from yesterday!

The other photo from yesterday I hadn’t had uploaded was the tug hovering around before we left. We obviously weren’t anywhere near ready as he was out there for nearly an hour!

After the pool, shower and a bit of jigsaw and reading headed upstairs for brunch. Got a system going now. I grab a serviette, chopsticks and water and head for the high bench. Leave the serviette spread out with the other items on top, so I’ve got a spot when I get back with my bowl of food! Been quite successful with most of my selections the last few days. Only had a couple that had a bit of chili in them. Definitely did not like the bitter melon though, an acquired taste I would say!

And another art image!

On my way out of the Windjammer I stopped at the pizza place and got 3 pieces for tonight’s dinner. I’ve an online committee meeting at 7 and as we usually finish off with pizza thought I’d better bring my own! Did a bit more of nothing much, had a snack in the Crown lounge ready for tonight and then back for an early blog catch-up.

Back in Shanghai in the morning. As the pool won’t be open I’ll go back to the Crown Lounge until my room has been cleaned and stay out of the way of the clean-up that goes on prior to new vacationers.

Loation at 6.22 am and the best sunrise so far, lol.

There are 2 panorama’s today as I thought we had docked when we must have been waiting for something to happen as we started moving about 10 minutes later! You can see the red lighthouse in both of them.

Didn’t do much first thing, but headed up to the pool at 9 am only to discover that it was closed until 10 as the crew had to do their safety/evacuation drills first! So sat and read until the lifeguards arrived and removed the netting from the pool. I did take a photo, but it hasn’t uploaded to the cloud yet, so maybe tomorrow!

As that was late I actually had lunch today and not brunch, lol. It was a lovely quiet dining room, not many people at all. They do still manage a very respectable repast for those onboard. I did see a lot of the higher echelons of the crew dining too. It is very funny eating German potato salad with chopsticks!!!

Spent a little time in the Crown Lounge which had no one in but me! Lovely. As I only usually take my phone and key card when eating, I of course forgot my ‘outside’ bag. So I had to go back to the other end of the ship to get it and then back again to the gangway for today. One of the crew said that they normally berth at 1, near the entrance, but today it was 2, so much further away. I did a short walk along the long pier and then returned to the ship. I had to relinquish my passport again and get a photocopy of it for the next lot of Japanese ports of call.

I couldn’t get far enough away to get a picture of the ship in one, but these don’t look too bad!. She’s enormous!!!

This is one of the artworks I was talking about before. Would make a great jigsaw. There are a few in the same vein all down the corridor. Each one a different colour with very different objects!

I have finished jigsaw 1 and have started on jigsaw 2! These wooden puzzles are great fun!

Now we have 1 day at sea before returning to Shanghai. xo

Location at 6.17 this morning.

Once again, there wasn’t much of a sunrise, but here’s the panorama.

I had a tour booked and meeting at 8 am, but got there are 7.30 which was good timing. The Excursions lass had one of the crew, who was taking the same tour, take me out through the passport control, security etc. to the bus. Which was great as it took a lot of walking and time. It turned out that he was from Costa Rica, been with Royal Caribbean for 21 years and he’s the casino manager. Nice lad!

Our guide said that photography was allowed outside buildings, but never inside. The first stop was the Tochi-ji Temple with the largest wooden statue of the seated Buddha in Japan. There was a pitch black tunnel under the statue that we had to traverse. Not really sure of the significance, but it really was impossible to see anything, torches not allowed. I did like the gardens outside, with the very old bonsai trees and an amazing collection of cycads.

From there we went to the Sumiyoshi Shrine. Funny thing here was that it had no photography signs in front of most of the structures, but it had 2 smart phone stations. Presumably to get the photo at the right angle, no idea!

The next stop was to a shopping centre, of course, what’s an excursion without shops, lol. Anyway the guide also gave each of us 1200 yen for lunch, saying we should really try the Raumen. Always game, that’s what I headed for. The shopping centre was enormous and the 5th floor was devoted to raumen restaurants.

The one I picked was just at the top of the escalator and luckily the young lass at the front spoke good English. I had to order it all on a large display screen out front, select what I wanted and then pay, all on the one device. She advised the 1200 yen raumen. There are lots and lots of variations both of the broth and the contents. I had mine with green onion, wood mushroom, pork and standard noodles (there were 5 variations of noodles too!). It was very, very yummy!

Sort of thought I had got myself lost getting back to the meeting point, 5 floors and a road walkover away. However, I actually was in the right spot, very much to my astonishment!

Back at the ship had a bit of a rest as had done lots of walking again and was very stiff. However, I had been looking at the ship guide for the day and decided that I would actually attend a show. It was a combination of music, singing, dancing, acrobatics and digital images. Entitled the Silk Road it celebrated the cultures encountered along the route. It did have a technical hiccup half way though but they did fix it and the show went on!

In this last pne you can see the robotic arms that have screen attached, which create a different dimension to the images as wel.

It’s very windy and rather rocky out there tonight, and it’s late now, so hopefully will sleep well. South Korea tomorrow. Just as well I didn’t have my heart set on the English guided tour, it was cancelled.

My location at 6 am (5 am at home!) and a vague sunrise!

It’s long time to 9 am and the pool opening when you wake at 5. Anyway, the jigsaw grew and the book read and the games played, lol. Discovered that’s it’s a bit more difficult exercising in a water depth of 0.82 metres when used to 1.2-1.5. I walked around and around for 5 minutes, then leg/hip exercises for another 5, then repeated going around the other way. Did that twice more, so passed my 45 minutes or so and was hardly wet to the waist!!! Mind you it did get a little deeper when the ship rolled with the swell, but as it had an overflow at the end, it didn’t last very long. Await a photo on another day!

Back to my room for a shower and then had to wait an hour until the Windjammer opened for lunch as the later pool meant I couldn’t get there before the breakfast closure! It was koala or bear day, not sure which!

As they say Necessity is the mother of invention. The desk was too low to do jigsaw and the cabinet just a bit too high, so opened up a drawer which was the right size for my board. Mind you the shoulders did feel it after a while. Couldn’t go down to the next drawer as my knees were in the way!! lol.

It was warm out, 27 C, but very gray!

I do much prefer the artwork on this ship to the last one. They are actually proper visual pictures, not abstracts at all. This hanging art work is between the elevator foyers. They are definitely not as quick at arriving as on Voyager!

Have a tour of a Temple & a Shrine in Fukuoka, Japan tomorrow. This is the substitute stop for Seoul.