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Our second full day of touring took us first to a calligraphy class in a more residential section of Tokyo.  Our teachers were incredibly welcoming, organized, and supportive as we tried to master this meditative practice.  

There is definitely a learning curve and after going through about ten pieces of paper we were given our final gold rimmed board.  This was my result:  the character for friendship.  

We then traveled to Asakusa and the Sensoji temple.  The mass of humanity was daunting.  

Many had rented kimono and were memorializing the day with individual and family photographs.  

We had free time for lunch and shopping.  Most of the shops sold tourist stuff and the restaurants had long cues of waiting customers.  We passed and wandered to a less crowded back street and stumbled upon a vegan restaurant with, most importantly, AC and beer.  

It hit 80 degrees in Tokyo yesterday after a prolonged, cold spring.  Sakura is just blooming and should be in full bloom next week for the pre cruise portion of our trip.  

 

The next stop was the Ueno area and the national museum.  It was Sunday and warm so we saw people at leisure, pursuing their hobbies.  

The museum is very special with a stunning collection and beautiful gardens.  It was late in the day, so we were already tired so I went directly to the netsuke collection as my father collected them when we lived in Japan in the 60’s.  I was intrigued with the collection of more modern netsukes done in the latter part of the 20th century which deviated from the more traditional symbols from folk tales carved in wood, bone, or ivory 

Our first full day of touring which included the Imperial Palace garden, the Tsukiji fish market, a Sushi class, and finally the Meiji Jingu Shrine.

The Tsukiji  market is not the site of the iconic tuna auction.  That takes place in a new venue outside of Tokyo.  The old marker has shops and restaurants in tiny alleys.  It was so crowded that it was difficult to navigate with long lines of people waiting for spots in the many restaurants.  Our guide even mentioned that after COVID, the government needs to address over tourism.  
 

Lunch at the sushi restaurant was a blast.  We made our own sushi after an expert demonstration then ate huge amounts of sushi, tempura, and shabu shabu.  All topped off with macha mochi. 

Most  of my pictures are in my camera.  I failed to bring my card reader so I’ll post better pics after I make it to the camera store. 
 

We were so exhausted after the day, we fell into bed for a nap, then skipped dinner in favor of a drink at the rooftop bar and then egg salad sandwiches and a strawberry and cream sandwich from a 7-11.  Don’t roll your eyes, now….they were delicious!  

I also couldn’t snap a decent photo of my passport soni just entered the info.  Where you get to immigration they photograph you and take your fingerprints.  

Registration is on the website.  Easy and free.  I logged in again to change our arrival flight number while in transit as we were arriving on a different flight and a different airport.  Also, I did the whole bit of registering our over 39 day supply of meds which were all Ozk to bring into Japan.  But, no one asked about medicine and no one looked.  

We made it to Japan but not without travel glitches.  We left home at 4 am for a 7 am flight to SFO.  Of course, it was late.  Two hours delayed which meant we wouldn’t make our flight from SFO to Haneda.  United rebooked us to Narita but when we got to the lounge, I realized that we would miss that flight and all flights leaving today,  Fortunately, the agent in the lounge was a sweetheart and quickly rebooked us through Houston with a wonderful 1.5 hour layover in the Polaris Lounge.  The 14+flight to Narita was not a picnic in the sky but we were grateful to be winging our way to the far east after fearing delay after delay.  
 

We managed to wiz through immigration and customs and we were on the Orange limousine bus to our Hotel in an hour and 15 minutes from exiting the plane.  
 

Japan is extremely efficient and everything was very easy to navigate.  Word to the wise:  get the “visit Japan” QR code for each of your traveling party.  We had to show it at immigration and at customs.  I had a screenshot on my phone and that worked well but we each needed our own code.  
 

We are hitting the wall now after being in transit for 24 hours.  I hope to report on the cruise but this entry will be about our land adventures in Japan.

We leave for Japan on Thursday.  We booked a 10 day land tour with Gate One prior to the Regent pre cruise and voyage departing on 4/13.  I agree with the previous posters.  I lived in Japan for four years as a teenager.  It is a fascinating country.  We booked the tour in order to make things easier as we are no longer spring chickens.   After the tour we will travel on our own from Kyoto to Tokyo.  We booked two extra days at the Tokyo Hilton before joining the pre cruise tour.  But, we plan to join the tours only for transportation to various parts of Tokyo and then do our own thing.  Also, the Japan travel forums on Facebook have been exceptionally helpful.  

1 hour ago, charltonkerry said:

We were also on that cruise, agree initially that regent management was terrible, but eventually the came up with a good compensation package

What happened on that cruise?

YEAH! Love your humor.   “Trans-slender”…….epic!  

6 hours ago, edgee said:

Result of a lawsuit settlement with a passenger who had valuables damaged or destroyed during the enforcement process. 

This leaves me scratching my head.  Who would leave something valuable unattended in a deck chair? Seems like someone wanted to get litigious.  

Yes, and tight!   Once seated we couldn’t easily navigate our chairs or even attempt to leave the table.  They offered to put us elsewhere but it all looked equally crowded and noisy.  

I always love traveling with you!  I hope one day it will be in person rather than virtually.  Igauzu Falls was one of my all time favorite visits.  Take the ride underneath the falls!  It was something I’ll always remember!  

What perplexes me the most is the silence from the corporate office.  In this day of social media where rumors and speculation can easily get out of control, I would think that corporations would have a dedicated person with “ears to the ground” to report on the issues that aggravate their customers.  Much of the teeth gnashing on this thread and on Facebook could be cleared up easily with an official response from RSSC.  In fact, this was true in the past but seems to have gone away, especially with Mike Moore’s departure.  Even a canned response (“thank you for your feedback.  We have alerted xxxx department to explore this issue”) would be helpful.  

@Mike Moore  it has always been very helpful to read your responses to various issues that are important to this community.   I hope that Regent will assign another administrator to monitor this board and Facebook.  Regent can gain valuable information about their product and nip problems in the bud.  
 

Good luck in your next journey!  

17 hours ago, 1982CruzStart said:

We did this itinerary on Voyager last year.  All but 1 of our Regent cruises have been on Voyager.  I have to say that this cruise on Voyager was our worst cruise with Regent.

I’m curious about this.  We were also on this cruise and, although it was not my favorite cruise ever, it was not terrible at all.   We managed to see the Falklands, the scientific team was fantastic, and many of the excursions were interesting.  I think the negative for me was the lack of special events like the dance parties, the block party, and deck bbq.  The cruise director was Andy Heath.  I asked him about this and there was a big problem scheduling the band. (???) Some of the ports were a bit of a snore, but that is true on many cruises.  

the ride underneath!

Iguazu!   It is really spectacular.  Imagine Niagara Falls times one hundred.   I took the zodiac under the falls which was great fun.   Even though we had a nightmare scenario getting back to BA (cancelled flight, spending the night on hard plastic chairs in the tiny Iguazu airport, missing the BA tour) it made for an iconic travel story.  

1 hour ago, Pcardad said:

flushed an article of clothing to "hide" it.

Hmmmmm…..something  not belonging to the wife?  

Capt. Jablin crossed my mind yesterday out of the blue.  We crossed paths on the Navigator in 2017.  I was a Navy brat so I had to introduce myself as we were both walking on the upper deck.  I guess his spirit was giving a final salute.  

I was reading Regent reviews on CC and came across this quote:

“They advertise about having great internet. Reality is that for several month past and until May 2024 they have really bad wifi due to a fight with Starlink.”

Does anyone have any information on this?  

5 hours ago, giustot said:

For  those who can't read the article, I think I can gift it.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/travel/cruise-travel-insurance.html?unlocked_article_code=1.TU0.tPU0.zI9u-awVA_vq&bgrp=a&smid=url-share

 

Thank you for your help.  How do you gift a NYT article…..for future reference? 

This is a very interesting article in the New York Times concerning trip insurance, a cancelled flight and, thus, a missed cruise.   The moral of the story, in my opinion, is to read the fine print and avoid insurance that is offered by the cruise line. 

  https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/travel/cruise-travel-insurance.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

1 hour ago, papaflamingo said:

I have seen a number of shows on Ponant and have seen the ships (beautiful design).  But it seems they were really geared to Europeans more than English speaking Americans.  Also the cabins seem very small.  

Anyway how did you like Ponant?  Looks to me like a great cruise line for the Antarctic.   

We liked Ponant very much.  I really like modern design but the cabins are rather small with some major design flaws.  That being said, the expedition team and captain spoke excellent english.  My husband is French so the language issue was not a problem for us.  When the Filipino crew discovered my husband was a French Professor, they always appeared, little notebooks in hand, to learn more French. The passenger mix was very international with a large Japanese contingent, a sizable Chinese Canadian contingent, some French, some Americans, some Australians.  One expedition team member was bilingual in Japanese and English (grew up in NJ).  All announcements were in French, English, and Japanese. It was a very memorable cruse with iconic moments I will never forget.  

4 hours ago, UUNetBill said:

I'd say you can legitimately say you've been 'to' Antarctica, but you haven't been 'on' Antarctica.  I'd asked the same question myself, and came to the conclusion that as much as I'd like to walk through the penguin poop personally, I'd prefer to be right offshore on a Regent vessel than crammed on an expedition ship.  Yeah, I know that some of them are pretty nice, but dollar for dollar I'm happier being on a somewhat larger ship.  But maybe that's just me...

We did both.  The landings were spectacular and worth the effort.  We sailed Ponant in 2016 and then Voyager for a drive by on 2023.  Each cruise had its advantages.  We were much more up close and personal to whales, penguins, and elephant seals on the Ponant expedition cruise.  We also slid down a snowy mountain after a hike to the top and managed to see a leucastic penguin.  On the other hand, the scientific team on Voyager made the trip.   If you are not in physical shape to make landings, then the drive by’s are a great alternative.  
 

some pics from the Ponant trip:

To celebrate our first landing

Elephant seal

Penguin version of Abbey Road

4 hours ago, Gilly said:

 

I frequently question whether hotel designers ever stay in the rooms they design!  We have come across similar features and whilst it's theoretically a solution to a windowless bathroom, it's utterly hopeless in practice for exactly the reasons you describe!

 

We're so looking forward to following your travels in the next couple of weeks, Rachel - heading to that part of the world ourselves next year and just feeling ready for a little temptation 😅

I often say designers should be forced to spend a week in a mock up of their design.  We were once on a ponant cruise with too much furniture in the room so it was tight and difficult to navigate.  The closet doors opened out into a small hallway leading to the cabin door.  The bathroom door and WC door also opened out into the same small space.  The result?  Chaos!  

Enjoy!  I’m looking forward to reading your impressions of this beautiful region.  We cruised from San Diego to Auckland on Navigator in 2017 with our best friends.  My favorite memory was sailing out of the lagoon in Bora Bora followed by about twenty outrigger canoes, champagne in hand, and  “Bali Hai” from South Pacific playing on the ship’s speakers.  I hope they repeat this for you.   Bon voyage!