bazzaw

I know that I am NOT an alcoholic - because I do not/will not drink Sake!!

HINT - there is no storm and no ice falling from the sky!

We had a friend in Quebec who brought out his ice wine stash when we visited - I had never even heard of it but I do now know it is created by the Gods!!! I also never knew what an "ice storm" was - it is certainly not what I imagined it to be.

I am old and I don't know what a Ghibli is!! But we saw this clock in our wanderings and saw that it played a few times per day so we came back at an appropriate time. I was more impressed by it's existence than by what it did. 🙂 But I have to admit that at my age, I am not easily impressed anymore. What did impress me was that somebody paid for this installation for the public to see. We are both tight arsed and unimaginative in this country - if it doesn't produce a measurable positive monetary outcome we don't want to know about it!!!

Just did a quick check re comparative prices - 10 nights on New Guinea cruise P&O FROM $1044 -- 10 nights Alaska cruise On QE FROM $1529. Certainly there is a 33% difference there and we would have flights to Canada for the Alaska cruise - but Americans and Brits would have flights to Brisbane for the NG cruise . No - $500 difference does not account for the different demographics!!!

The demographic was my problem to on our Pacific Endeavour cruise - SOOOO different to the demographic on Cunard Queen Elizabeth around Japan.

Not all - even the cheap APA brand have two sizes of rooms - around 11sqM and a DELUXE 22 sq m at twice the price :(

Our was also - what hotel are you in. I hope you have checked the room size ( which we didn't do but WILL in the future) - our was 11 square metres!!!!!! --smaller than an in side cabin on most ships 🙂 BTW - Tsukiji is pronounced Squidgee

Better talk to your Bank Manager first though! 🙂 BTW - lots of it at the Outer Market in Tsukiji, Tokyo.

Didn't know and still dont know anything about Japanese hosts onboard QE in March this year.

Finding the beginning of the Yurikamome line supposedly at Shimbashi for our trip to the Cruise Terminal - was difficult as it is actually outside that station and between it and the Shiodome station. Nothing actually even looks like a train station - mostly all above ground office highrise blocks - all the action is below ground . Did you see this clock in that general area?

After research back here at home, I think you are right - you can do a search for your destination at the machine and the machine then tells you how much - we were working by just looking at the huge underground network diagrams on the wall. (which are often in Japanese only) - everything becomes easy when you know how to 🙂

Yes - you can see it clearly from this port - IF the weather allows you to. We could not see the mountain at all when we arrived and although the weather cleared during the day, we could see the mountain but I would not call it " clear"

BTW - the reason that people find the underground a bit daunting can be exemplified by Shinjuku station - it has 36 platforms, caters for 4/5 million passengers each day and has 200 entries/edits to/from the station!! 🙂

The Suica card can only be installed into an Apple Iphone - not Android phones. The ship shaped building is adjacent to the cruise terminal and is a Maritime Museum (wasn't open last month when we were there) . I know the London Underground well and have always enjoyed using it. BUT - that was using an Oyster card ( like a Suica card) and everything was in English. We didn't have a card in Tokyo, and much is in Japanese so had to buy a paper ticket for every leg of the Tokyo Underground - the biggest problem with this was knowing how much to pay but have now come across a workaround that eliminates the requirement of knowing how much to put into the machine) - basically you put in the minimum amount for any journey on that line - and the system will tell you how much you owe when you try to get out at the other end.