Cattom

On 12/1/2020 at 8:24 PM, Peregrina651 said:

I wanted to learn more about Japan.

 

I'm enjoying this one because it isn't just a bunch of names and dates. It covers some history (enough to give an overview of the political development) but it also covers religion, language, literature, theater, art, etc. I'm only halfway through but wanted share my discovery.

Thanks as I like to read or watch about where we're traveling also.  I don't have Audible as we have such a great library system and can access every University library in our state (Colorado).  I was able to order it (audio) for free-just in case others might not have Audible.  

16 minutes ago, Lilyskittymom said:

A little back story on our cruise.  We were originally booked for Hong Kong to Vancouver but had to shorten it to Tokyo when my husband started having medical problems and couldn't be gone that long.  We had quite a bit of money to spend on a cabin upgrade and excursions.

 

Since we could book our excursions earlier with the upgrade, we had no problem getting what we wanted and there was no need to look for outside tours.  But there were local guides meeting people who booked private tours at every port.  Clay's suggestion of goodwill guides is something we would have done if it had been necessary.

 

We did a combination of included and paid excursions and generally liked everything, with the exception of the included tour in Kagoshima, the Kagoshima Scenic Ride.  It was a rainy day so the stop at the scenic overlook was soggy and the trip to the local museum was ok, but literally something you could find in any city, anywhere in the world.  A private tour would have been a better choice.

 

I'm not going to get into a lot of detail on the excursions because the descriptions were accurate.  Here's what we did.  Hong Kong - we flew into HK a day early, took the ferry across the harbor, and the tram to Victoria Peak, on our own. We enjoyed the views and the walk down one of the hiking trails.  The next day we took the Hong Kong Walking Tour, which was a nice representation of the city.  Afterwards, we wandered the area near the port, which is home to the largest shopping mall in HK.

 

In Taipei, we did the Highlights of Taipei.  Since we didn't have a lot of time in port, this was a good tour for us. 

 

In Nagasaki we went on the Atomic Bomb Museum and Park.  The museums in Nagasaki and Hiroshima are very different, and I'd recommend going to both of them if that's where your interest lies.  It was a very good tour.  The Glover Gardens are a short uphill walk from the ship and was definitely worth the visit.  In addition to the main house, and the gardens, there was a museum that had costumes and floats used for local festivals - very interesting.

 

In Beppu, we did the Steaming Sites of Beppu, which was very interesting.  If you'd like to go to an onsen, look for one close to the port - they're everywhere.  The Viking onsen tour is robbery. I wanted to go to an onsen, but would have had to go to one a bit further away because I have large visible tattoos.  Yes, there are tattoo friendly onsens in Beppu especially.  A Google search will find them.  Instead, we took the Viking shuttle bus (most ports had one) to the area near the train station.  From there, we wandered through shopping areas and stopped at some small neighborhood shrines and temples (Google maps is your friend).

 

Ultimate Hiroshima was wonderful, with its visit to their Atomic Bomb Museum and Park, and the trip to Miyajima Island.  The island was really worth going to - very quaint and lovely.  Again, the Atomic Bomb Museum is very different from Nagasaki's.  We were in port until noon the next day and went on a walk along the water the morning we left.

 

In Osaka, we were on Sights of Kyoto, another wonderful all day tour.  Food on the all day tours was always very good and at local Japanese restaurants.  

 

Shimizu took us to Highlights of Mt Fuji, another all day tour that took us to the 5th station of Mt Fuji, the furthest you can go by vehicle up the mountain.  Fuji-san wasn't visible when we pulled into port the evening prior, but we were treated to unobstructed views of the mountain the next day - a rare occurrence in April.

 

Tokyo had us docked at the port of Yokohama, and while the port area is very nice, it was a 1+ hour drive to Tokyo, so the Tokyo Panorama tour wasn't as good as it could have been because we spent 2.5 hours driving.  We did go back for An Evening in Tokyo, which was very nice.  The views from the Skytree and the way the streets are lit up at night was amazing.  Viking guides were available to help people navigate the subway system, for anyone who wanted to head out on their own.  Hopefully you'll be docked in Tokyo itself, which would put you so much closer to the city.

 

Overall, this was a wonderful cruise and makes me want to go back to Japan.  We were warmly welcomed, and sent off, from the all the ports.  The port areas themselves are surrounded by parks and are well taken care of.  International ATMs can be found at 7-11 and Lawson. Perfectly safe; I got Yen there a couple of times. And the stores are everywhere especially near the ports.  If you don't know about the wonders of 7-11, Lawson and Family Mart, look it up before you go.  They're not the sad version of 7-11 we have in the US.  

 

There's also another page called Everything "Far Eastern Horizons": Hong Kong to Tokyo that is being started back up again.  It's worth looking into.

 

Hope this helps.

Maria

 

 

Thanks so much for all the great info!  I'll make sure to take some of your suggestions into consideration!  Hope your husband is healthy again and you're off and travelling.  Sometimes it's hard to plan so far in advance-we're in our 70s-healthy and active, but have had some Orthopedic issues and I'll need to have another one of my Total Knees replaced, but so far so good!

15 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

I highly recommend trying to arrange “goodwill” guides in the Japanese ports. These are guides who in exchange for practicing their English tour you for free. You are expected to pay for their meal if you share one and for any admissions to museums or the like. When we did it in the before times, the maximum group size was 6.  We had a great guide in Tokyo and at the end of the day, it cost us each $8 but the best part was having someone with whom we had a real conversation about their life.  While the two of us were in Kyoto, we booked one for our day trip to Hiroshima. The cost there was higher as we didn’t have anyone to split it with and we requested to go to a specific restaurant.  Still was such a great day. Here is a link to where we requested ours:

https://www.japan.travel/en/plan/list-of-volunteer-guides/

Thanks so much Clay!  Hope you have many more fun travels!

On 10/18/2023 at 9:32 AM, Lilyskittymom said:

We did Hong Kong to Tokyo this past April and loved it.  If you have any questions, please ask.

 

Maria

I was wondering if you'd be willing to share what tours you did or if you used private companies?  I'm working on my spreadsheets right now.  As there are just two of us, I'm finding that the prices are even higher than the Viking prices.  They would be good if we were a small group.  We're on the Grand Pacific from Vancouver to Aukland September-December 2024.

Thanks in advance!

We were on the Viking Jupiter in May and the ship was almost full (880+).  Their advance reservation system wasn't working properly and all advance ones were lost which we found out on board as they didn't show on our calendar.  However, they were able to accomodate us for both venues.  Also, as stated above, one can make reservations fairly easily which we were able to do. Can call during certain hours from your room, at The Restaurant during certain hours and at the desk near the hand-washing station in the World Cafe.  We found the latter to be the easiest.  Do it fairly early like we did and we were able to get our first choices for both restaurants and our preferred times.  On our cruise, the Chef's Table was not as popular as Manfredi's.  Have a fun time!