natefish95

That post actually posted surprisingly easy, so let’s get some random thoughts out of the way. Loved Sendai and Hakodate! Aomori and Kushiro are definitely tinier without much to do (that I’m interested in). The ship offered shuttles to Kushiro from the port for $20 (like in Sendai) and they were definitely necessary. We docked in a very industrial area far from any transportation. (You could get by without the shuttles in Sendai if you don’t mind walking a know how to use public transportation in Japan) Garden Cafe buffet has been better than when I sailed last year. Tsar’s Palace service either has a good night or a bad night. Some nights I’m in an out in 40 minutes, other times it’s 90 minutes. I went to O’Sheehans for lunch today for the first time and they were struggling. Took 45 minutes just to get food and it came out lukewarm. Never saw the waiter after he took my order. I’ll try again another time and see how it goes. I do love those nachos… La Cucina and Le Bistro were excellent. The filet at La Cucina with the blue cheese ravioli is incredible. I tried the chicken cacciatore this time and will go back to my filet. (Sidebar-the woman at the table next to me ordered spaghetti carbonara and then got mad when it didn’t have meatballs and meat sauce. Maybe read the menu next time?) I haven’t done Le Bistro in awhile and it was delicious. I may go again this trip. I’ve been randomly deciding to try new things this cruise and decided to get a $30 glass of Veuve Cliquot and came to the conclusion I can’t tell the difference between good champagne and crappy champagne. Maybe I’m just trashy haha. It was still good though. Haven't been to many of the “activities” but I’ve heard from a few they’re not enjoying them, but that might be because of the international participants not fully understanding the activity. Personally haven’t been a fan of Renan as CD. I sailed with Tahani twice on Jewel before and loved her. Renan definitely isn’t as communicative and isn’t as engaging when he hosts activities. All just my personal opinion and in no way negatively impacts my cruise. Last (but certainly not least) the thermos spa is sooooo worth every penny. It’s so nice to have a quiet, not crowded area to relax in. I’ve been spending a lot of time there reading my Kindle. The spa staff has been super nice overall!

Hi all, as expected wifi onboard during the crossing is prettyyyyyy terrible. We finished day 2 of the crossing and are repeating Tuesday April 16th tomorrow. So far seas have been good , but should get a bit rougher as we get closer to Dutch Harbor…where it’s supposed to snow on Friday…we’ve been mostly fogged in the past two days with the exception of one hour of actual sunshine yesterday afternoon. Outside temp is probably in the 30s (and the interior of the ship is also very cold even for me. I’ll try and post a thorough review recapping what I’ve missed when I get back to stable WiFi.

The Hakodate Ropeway pictures speak for themselves

After looking around for kaisendon, I found a place in a fish market. The machine gave English as an option, but the dish names didn’t translate. I asked for help and got my kaisendon for 1600 yen.

Hello! Docked in Hakodate about 10am today. I spent the morning relaxing in the thermal suite before heading ashore. I took the tram up to Goryokaku Tower. Tram was 230yen and the tower ticket was 1000yen. Pictures below the Sakura ice cream was 450 yen. I’m keeping a running total of price’s because NCL shore excursions were ridiculous and this is all doable on your own.

If you search enough, you can find onsens that are tattoo friendly. I went to Thermae-Yu in Tokyo and they offered adhesive patches for smaller tattoos.

Wednesday the 10th, took the JR line to the ship and got on about an hour after I got there. The process was a bit strange and surprisingly unorganized. The ship still looks great and just how I remember her. We had a very large solo traveler group of about 35, which was really surprising. Solo host right now is Caio from Brazil. Today we docked in Sendai. The schedule had us actually docking in Ishinomaki (contrary to port schedules). Turns out NCL is wrong and the port schedules were right—we docked closer to Sendai. They offered a shuttle service to downtown for $20 which took about 40 minutes each way. We docked a bit late around 10:30 and back on board was 4:30 so not an ideal port stop. The NCL shuttle dropped off at Sendai station about noon and then I went with another solo to get the local favorite of beef tongue (gyutan) which was surprisingly delicious! Walked over to Jozenji-Dori to take pictures and hopped on the shuttle around 2:30pm. gyutan, barley rice, and oxtail soup

What’s up party people did I forget about you? Yes. Am I enjoyed this trip? YES Is the wifi bad on the ship? YES!!!!!! To quickly summarize, my day trip to Mt Fuji was great even though we couldn’t see the mountain. We saw (and smelled) all the sulphur from where the hot springs water originates and took the Hakone ropeway and a short cruise on a lake. the next day the weather was terrible. I took the subway to Shibuya, but it was monsooning so I noped out of there real quick and went to an onsen. Then I did a really fun walking tour around Shinjuku.

Bamboo forest and surrounding area

Golden pavilion (even the ticket was beautiful)

Oops, first picture was my sushi dinner at Chojiro Hazenshi. So good!

Lunch and matcha ice cream

Kiyonizu and the stage

All the gates (and the people)