To/From Japan

[euro cruiser]

I'm in the very early stages of investigating cruises to and from Japan.  From what I can see, it appears that cruises from North American to Japan depart in Aug/Sept/Oct and cruises from Japan to North America depart in April.  Are there more options that I'm not seeing or is this it?

 

Our oldest will be stationed in Japan for three years and I'm trying to figure out how to get my brother there to visit.  He has physical limitations that make it impossible for him to handle flights of more than about four hours, so a cruise is the only way he'll be able to go.

 

However, six months on the ground in Japan is prohibitively expensive.  Are there other options that I'm missing?  Is there a way to hop-scotch through the area to access a cruise coming back sooner or going over later?  I have no problem transitioning among cruise lines.

[Donald]

Honolulu to Tokyo by air is about 4.5 hours.

If he can handle that, there are many cruises year-round between the West Coast and Hawaii.

[Expat Cruise]

9 hours ago, Donald said:

Honolulu to Tokyo by air is about 4.5 hours.

If he can handle that, there are many cruises year-round between the West Coast and Hawaii.

Sorry a non stop flight between these two cities is more than 9 hours. 

 

Delta 9h 29m Non-stop

Hawaiian 9h 20m Non-stop

JAL 9h 20m  Non-stopfrom

Korean Air 9h 50m Non-stop

United 9h 5m Non-stop

ANA 9h 5m Non-stop

 

 

 

[euro cruiser]

Yes, I've looked at flights.  Manila is about the longest he could handle, about 4.5 hours, but again I have to get him there.  If I could find cruises to/from Manila that could work but I have yet to find a cruise data base that is robust enough and searchable enough to pin this all down.

[euro cruiser]

The one cruise option I've found is the HAL world cruise, which leaves Ft. Lauderdale in January 2021 and spends about ten days around Japan.  If he left the cruise as soon as it got to Japan and rejoined on the last night in Japan he'd have about ten days on the ground, which would be perfect.

 

Now one of us just has to win the lottery to pay for it.

[Host Bonjour]

What about sailing on freighters? It's not glamorous but they can be decent in terms of food and accomodation and at least get you through to where you want to be. They aren't necessarily inexpensive but might be less expensive than a standard TP cruise on a passenger cruise ship. 

 

Found these two:

 

https://www.freighterexpeditions.com.au/to-from-asia

 

https://www.langsamreisen.de/en/freightertravel/

 

Unfortunately, the Aranui, which is quite well known among South Pacific travelers, Paul Theroux even sailed on it and wrote of it in The Happy Isles of Oceania  well, they only do the islands and don't go up to Japan. And it isn't necessarily inexpensive either. 

 

Years ago I was a subscriber to www.transitionsabroad.com  which was loaded with all sorts of alternative travel information, links, resources. It was how I was able to find courier companies through which I was able to take two very inexpensive long haul journeys (reduced airfare in exchange for giving up my checked baggage allowance) on commercial airlines. Can't do that anymore but it was a great resource and still seems to be the case now. 

 

 I hope you find something that suits your needs so everyone can safely get to Japan. And back. Let us know how things proceed.