Which Japan cruise for 2017?

For those who have enjoyed this cruise , which cruise would you choose for August 2017?

At the moment, I've circled the Diamond Princess August 28 "Hokkaido and Kyushu", which is a 17 day cruise and it looks to cover most ports. What's your opinion of the selection of ports:

Tokyo (Yokohama), Japan | Miyazaki (Aburatsu), Japan | Busan, South Korea | Sakaiminato, Japan | Tsuruga, Japan | Akita, Japan | Kushiro, Japan | Shiretoko Peninsula (Scenic Cruising), Japan | Korsakov (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Russia | Otaru, Japan | Hakodate, Japan

The fares are quite high still AU 5849 for a BD balcony (AU 344/day)and the Princess site is showing "SOLD" for most balcony cabins. I am keeping this one in my watch list.

Are fares likely to drop considerably and why are there so many "SOLD" categories 12 months out?

If you have never been to Japan, you might want to consider another cruise line - see Celebrity going from Yokohama to Hong Kong. It goes to more of the tourist areas with historical sites. Hokkaido does not have a lot of things to see, it's more of a agricultural island and less developed than the other islands.

One reason that many of the cabins are sold out might be because travel agents have booked large tour groups for the cruise. We experienced this on the Celebrity cruise.

Another things to consider is taking a cruise in April / May or September / October. June and especially July and August are very hot and humid in Japan.

I agree with most of what Loeb says. This is what I would call a scenery cruise (maybe something like cruising South Island New Zealand) and you will get out of the heat to some extent as you head north. I would guess there will be a lot of Japanese tour groups on this itinerary.

IMHO, it sounds like a really interesting cruise, but for sure if you want to see Japan you should look for something else.