Question on Diamond Princess ports in Japan

Our itinerary is Yokohama, Aomori, Akita, Toyama, Busan (South Korea), and Kagoshima returning to Yokohama. We are experienced cruisers and while we love cruising, we are not big fans of the escorted tours with busloads of up to 40 passengers operated by the ship.

Has anyone taken this cruise that can give us some feedback on the ports?Is local sightseeing easily arranged upon arrival in the port? If so - all of them or just specific ones? It is difficult to find specific information about the distance from the dock to center town. Any info? Is the language a definite communication barrier?

I've looked at Cruise Port Info websites found under https://www.mlit.go.jp but it does not help me with

the question of if we can wing it on our own. It's a long time on a plane and we want to make the most

of it so your help would be much appreciated.

Mrs. Ostar

You can post on the Asia Port of Call Forum where ecperienced cruisers who have been in that area can give you useful insights.

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Welcome to Cruise Critic:)

Here is the link to Asia Ports

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=70

There are some recent posts on the ports in Japan.

Also looks a the ratings on the Diamond Princess, there are comments about the ports.

From your itinerary, it looks like you are on the Diamond from 17 to 26 October. We are also on that cruise and the one before and after it. I recommend you go to the Roll Call section and look at the roll call for that cruise and also the one before it. There is a lot of information discussed there about the various ports. And if you post a question there some of your shipmates will have an answer.

We did Aomori on our own. It is easy to do.The big attraction is the Nebuta Warasse Museum: http://www.nebuta.jp/warasse/foreign/english.html It is a pleasant walk along a "boardwalk" kind of area from where we were docked (HAL's ms Volendam) There are various stone sculptures, mostly of seals. If you get to the museum just after it opens you will be ahead of the tour groups. Opposite the museum is a "A-Factory" with restaurants and shops. We ate at "Ocean's Diner." If the walk over and the museum has tired you, there are usually taxis next to A-Factory.

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Just checked. A-Factory is closed until October 10. If it is there is Hotate Goya behind the museum. "Hotate" means scallop in Japanese. You can fish for your own scallops.

I've been to Busan. We did the tour with the temple on the coast. Its a beautiful temple but there are a lot of stairs.

I wish we had taken the 'Busan on your own' option and just gone to the last stop on the tour which was an area with street vendors and unique shops.