Activities in Japan that are walking distance from cruise ports?

Hi, We are travelling on NCL Jewel during Golden Week in Japan in April 2019. These are the ports: Kobe, Japan Naha, Okinawa, Japan Ishigaki, Japan Keelung (Taipei), Taiwan I am wondering if there are any places to go that are in walking distance from the cruise ports in these stops? I know it will be crowded because of Golden Week. Also, are their car rental places near the ports? Two of our family are Japanese and have liscenses and drive there all the time, so that is not an issue for us. Thanks/

Hi, We are travelling on NCL Jewel during Golden Week in Japan in April 2019. These are the ports: Kobe, Japan Naha, Okinawa, Japan Ishigaki, Japan Keelung (Taipei), Taiwan I am wondering if there are any places to go that are in walking distance from the cruise ports in these stops? I know it will be crowded because of Golden Week. Also, are their car rental places near the ports? Two of our family are Japanese and have liscenses and drive there all the time, so that is not an issue for us. Thanks/

Why rent a car in Japan? The rail system (JR or subways) is superb... I would recommend that before renting a car.

I don't know if these cruise ports have JR rail anywhere near them. Do you know if they do? If we can walk to train station from cruise ports, that would be fine. (Not worried about Yokohama/Tokyo port, just the ports of call listed.)

Kobe does... there´s even a "Port Liner" right in the terminal.

Keelung has a train station within walking distance (about 10 minutes). We took a train to Taipei on our last cruise.

Haven´t been to the other ports... sorry!

Thanks, Miaminice.

I just looked up the 3 Japanese ports I listed, and found some more answers!

Okinawa: https://www.twport.com.tw/Upload/A/RelFile/CustomPage/3184/f6aec67f-20a1-455c-bea4-633b8a3e73df.pdf

Kobe: https://www.whatsinport.com/Kobe-Osaka.htm

Ishigaki: http://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/cruise/detail/076/documents/kanko.pdf

In Taiwan, we will probably take a ships tour since we won't be as comfoirtable without language fluency.

Thanks. Hope this helps someone else too.

Hi, We are travelling on NCL Jewel during Golden Week in Japan in April 2019. These are the ports: Kobe, Japan Naha, Okinawa, Japan Ishigaki, Japan Keelung (Taipei), Taiwan I am wondering if there are any places to go that are in walking distance from the cruise ports in these stops?

It does depend slightly one what you class as walking distance :)

Kobe, as already mentioned by another poster, has the Port Liner right at the Cruise Terminal. This will take you to Sannomiya Station where you can get regular train services to Osaka, Kyoto, Himeji, etc. However, walking from Sannomiya you are in a large shopping and food area. North-West of Sannomiya there is the Ikuta Shrine is a short walk (5 to 10 minutes) from the station, and another 10 to 15 minutes beyond there you will find the area of older foreign residences (Kitano Ijinkan) many of which have small museums and attractions. There is also the Mt. Rokko cable car if you keep heading north to Shin-Kobe which will take you up to the herb gardens. If the weather is nice and you’re feeling very energetic you can walk back down to Kobe via the waterfall. Otherwise from Sannomiya you could also head West through the shopping streets to Motomachi (10 to 15 minute walk) where you’ll find Chinatown as well as Merikan Park with it’s Earthquake memorial, Maritime Museum and the Port Tower.

Naha... it depends on where you dock. If you’re at the cargo pier then there is no where to walk to nearby. You would need to get a shuttle bus (unfortunately I don’t know where NCL’s drop off point would be. I know that Princess and Royal Caribbean use completely different places...) or to take a taxi in. However, if you’re at the Cruise Terminal then there are things to do within walking distance. The main tourist street (Kokusai Dori) is about a 20 minutes walk away, on the way to which you will pass the Fuzhou Gardens. Closer to the Port you can walk through the park along the waterfront to the Naminoue Shrine and the city beach.

Ishigaki doesn’t have much to do within close walking distance of the tender pier. There is a small museum and the shopping area. From the terminal building you can get the ferry over to Taketomi which is a very nice island for walking or cycling. Otherwise, Ishigaki is a good option for getting a hire car and exploring the island. One day is plenty of time to see many of the main scenic spots.

Keelung has lots of small things to do near by. Again, it depends which berth you are at for what is closer/easier to walk to. Around the Maritime Plaza you have the Oceanic Culture Museum & the Keelung Story House both which have English explainations. There’s the Night Market with it’s Temple also close by. You can also explore Zhongzheng Park with it’s Ghost Festival museum (There is also a history museum but it has almost no English) and continue to the temple at the top of the hill with it’s giant goddess statue and nice views over Keelung Harbour. If you are up for more hiking than walking there are several paths up to some of the old fortifications around Keelung which also give nice views over the city.

I hope this has been some help :) Let me know if you have any further questions and I can try and help.

ShipFish, this is wonderful; extremely helpful.

We are pretty good walkers, so sounds like we can do a lot without too many forms of transportation.

Thanks.

ShipFish, this is wonderful; extremely helpful.

 

 

We are pretty good walkers, so sounds like we can do a lot without too many forms of transportation.

 

 

 

Thanks.

Hi Lumpkin8 - if you are pretty good walkers you should have no problem walking around Kobe. We just returned from our RCL cruise yesterday. In Kobe, there were free shuttles available for the passengers to take to Nankin-Machi (Chinatown). Great place to shop and lots of eateries around. From there we walked about 20 minutes to the Minatogawa Shrine. Beautiful and peaceful place to visit if you're into Shrines. Free admission too. And from Minatogawa Shrine we walked to Merikan Park to look at the Port Tower and the earthquake memorial site. Finally walked back to Nankin-Machi to catch the shuttle back to the ship. We did all this within our 6 hours in port.

In Okinawa - there were no free shuttles but plenty of taxis available. Due to the tropical cyclone Yagi, we were late arriving to Okinawa and had to wait 1.5 hours to clear immigration so we had less than 6 hours in port. We took a taxi to Shurijo Castle (25 minutes ride) for $1600 yen which is not bad at all for the 4 of us. After that we hopped back onto a taxi to Kokusai-Dori street for souvenir shopping and eating. You will enjoy walking along Kokusai-dori street.

You will have a great time without worrying about transportation!

I love carbs, thank you!

Would you happen to know, in Naha, how to get from the terminal (HAL) to the Tsuboya Pottery Village area?

Would you happen to know, in Naha, how to get from the terminal (HAL) to the Tsuboya Pottery Village area?

If you’re at the Cruise Terminal then a taxi is probably your best option unless there is a shuttle to Kokusai-Dori. Tsuboya Pottery is just South of Kokusai-Dori, but towards the Makishi Monorail Station end. You could walk it from Terminal but you would be looking at approximately 45 minutes walk. There are signs from Kokusai-Dori to there, but they are not the best (I got slightly lost, although I was walking from the monorail, not the terminal). However, if you are walking there you’ll find the pottery museum is very near one of the ends of the undercover shopping street which begins from Kokusai-Dori.

If you want to walk:

Head straight from the Cruise Terminal to Kokusai-Dori, then turn left and follow that street. You’ll have to walk quite a way down but eventually you’ll come to an undercover shopping street heading off south from Kokusai-Dori (right hand side of the road). Follow this. There is actually three undercover streets, with a junction between all three part way down where you will want to head on to the left most street (still heading South). Follow this and it should bring you out just across the road from the Pottery Museum and the rest of the area.

It would be quicker to cut through some of the side streets, but that’s rather confusing to direct...

Hi, We are travelling on NCL Jewel during Golden Week in Japan in April 2019. These are the ports: Kobe, Japan Naha, Okinawa, Japan Ishigaki, Japan Keelung (Taipei), Taiwan I am wondering if there are any places to go that are in walking distance from the cruise ports in these stops? I know it will be crowded because of Golden Week. Also, are their car rental places near the ports? Two of our family are Japanese and have liscenses and drive there all the time, so that is not an issue for us. Thanks/

My friend and I are booked on the same cruise. ;)

I was also wondering what to do at each of those ports, so thank you for starting this thread

I will be traveling in April on Celebrity’s Japan sailing. I am not afraid to take trains etc, but would like to know is it safe enough to explore on my own as a single woman or should I obtain a guide or organized tour. Thank you!

I will be traveling in April on Celebrity’s Japan sailing. I am not afraid to take trains etc, but would like to know is it safe enough to explore on my own as a single woman or should I obtain a guide or organized tour. Thank you!

Japan is definitely one of the safest countries in the world to travel as a single woman. It’s not perfect by any means, but basic common sense and it is very unlikely you will have any problems.

In my time living in the country, and also traveling around on vacation, the worse I ever had was some very low level harassment (just unwanted comments - but that wasn’t in a tourist place, plus I’ve had worse many times in Europe). This summer a friend had his wallet stolen but that was only after he left it unattended on a table in a hotel; however, we were more shocked that it WAS stolen! Spending too long in Japan changes your idea of what is normal ;)

The only thing with the question if to get a guide or not is that it depends on how comfortable you are being in a foreign language environment (although all your ports are regular cruise ports and have a reasonable level of English for Japan) and what you plan to do. If you plan to go further afield then a guide might be handy (such as going to Kyoto from Kobe - or to some of the sights outside of Naha which can be more difficult to get to unless you are driving).

Thank you very much ShipFish! I truly appreciate it and will look for some guides to Kyoto as I would love to travel there while in port at Kobe. Your thread here has been helpful and I have even placed some of the imparted wisdom from you into my “notes” on my ipad!

Thank you very much ShipFish! I truly appreciate it and will look for some guides to Kyoto as I would love to travel there while in port at Kobe. Your thread here has been helpful and I have even placed some of the imparted wisdom from you into my “notes” on my ipad!

You’re welcome :D I’m glad to hear all my rambling has been helpful! It is possible to do Kyoto independently (for starters, there is trains to Kyoto from Sannomiya on the JR line every 15 minutes or so during the day), but Kyoto is a big city and you would need to do a lot of planning on what you want to see and how to get there. That’s why if you’ve never been there before I would recommend a tour guide: the main sights are not close to each other (nor to the main JR Kyoto Station). It’s very easy to spend more of your day traveling from A to B than actually seeing the sights.

ShipFish

Would you happen to know when the last train would be leaving from Kyoto back to Kobe? We will be in port on a Tuesday and Wednesday.

ShipFish

 

Would you happen to know when the last train would be leaving from Kyoto back to Kobe? We will be in port on a Tuesday and Wednesday.

Last train (normal train) from JR Kyoto to JR Sannomiya is currently at 23:54 (arriving 0:46). Of course, by that time the Port Liner will have already stopped for the night so you would need to get a taxi from the station to the ship (last train on the Port Liner leaves Sannomiya at 0:15).

Last Shinkansen appears to be the 23:09 from JR Kyoto which would get you to Shin-Kobe at 23:38.

A very good website for checking Japanese train times is Hyperdia which is available in English. Google Maps directions also works very well in Japan for checking train times and routing.