Mostly Live. Explorer-Tokyo to Vancouver

[mj_holiday]

We live in Oklahoma City 

[NDOMA]

On 4/4/2024 at 11:26 AM, PhD-iva said:

If they are anything like the reusable water bottles provided on Mariner and on Voyager, I’d say don’t bother. Bring your own insulated water bottle from home. The bottles provided on board have no insulation and they sweat as they quickly lose their chill. No thanks.

The metal ones provided are too big and clunky for me to take on excursions.  And maybe it's just me, but when I try to drink from them I often drench myself!  

[mj_holiday]

Thursday, April 11 Sea Day
Today was a laid-back day with a couple of naps.

This afternoon we had a cognac tasting, of Hennessy Cognac. The tasting was elegantly presented, and we received a lot of useful, new information on drinking various types of cognac.

Edited April 12 by mj_holiday
Correct typo

[papaflamingo]

19 hours ago, NDOMA said:

The metal ones provided are too big and clunky for me to take on excursions.  And maybe it's just me, but when I try to drink from them I often drench myself!  

It's not just you, especially when getting a sip of water and the bus hits a bump (don't ask me how I know that)! 😱

[mj_holiday]

Friday, April 12 we sail into Tokyo
 

Watching the sailing in to Tokyo Bay was very interesting. We soon saw what looked like a very large sailboat sail, blue and white striped on the back side and white on the front. But it wasn’t moving. A quick search on the web show that it was in “air vent” for a tunnel that is under Tokyo Bay. 

 

We took a taxi into the Ginza district which from the pre-cruise trip, looked to be very interesting. It was raining and very crowded. It appeared to me that all the office workers were out for a fast lunch and packed all the little restaurants. Many of the restaurants that were on second floor, only had access via steps, and no handrails.  
I did find a needle workshop. I bought a piece of Sashiko with instructions and threads and of course needles.

There have been some articles about this style in needlework magazines that I get. 
Looked around some other shops and didn’t see anything that interested us and headed back to the ship for a relaxing afternoon.
After dinner, we went to the observation lounge. The nighttime silhouettes of Tokyo skyline was really pretty.  

[mj_holiday]

Saturday, April 13.
Some friends that we made will be leaving the cruise. And we will need to find a new tribute team.

Surprisingly, we were little affected by the change over with some people leaving and new passengers coming on. We were given pink wristbands to wear in the port area so people knew we were transiting passengers.
We decided to take a walk to see the Maritime museum that we had noticed when we were driving into Port 11 days ago.  we got a map and instructions at the tourist information and they pointed us in the correct way.  Well, it was a nice walk, but the museum was closed and it looked like it had been closed for longer than just a day. So we walk back to the ship, this walkway seems to be very popular with people who have dogs we saw several dogs being taken on an outing, and they seem to be very happy.

[RachelG]

On 4/12/2024 at 10:17 AM, mj_holiday said:

We live in Oklahoma City 

Lived there for 8 years in college then med school at OU back in the 1980s

[mj_holiday]

Sunday, April 14. Hitachinaka 

This town originally started as a company town for Hitachi. We took the shuttle bus into town to be dropped at a very large shopping area. We did have some things we needed to pick up and everybody throughout the mall gave us some very good directions to get where we needed to go.
Up until today, the horizon had always been mountains.  Today the horizon is flat.

We became part of a new trivia team since our other team got off the ship and we’re going to have a lot of fun together getting to know them  

[mj_holiday]

Monday, April 15 Miyako. 
Hills and Mountain are back in the picture of the horizon. Today we took the shuttle bus into town to look around and go shopping and the community was very welcoming and ready to help anyone from the cruise ship.  There were interpreters with yellow vests on throughout the town.

After seeing the sites of the town and buying some souvenirs, DH decided he needed to rest. We found a bench in front of a small store and sat down and watched the traffic go by.  DH is still recovering from back surgery and he had a hard time getting up out of the bench. Several ladies from the store came out to watch. I don’t think they could’ve helped, DH eventually got up. (after drawing a crowd)
We walked for several more blocks, sightseeing,window shopping and decided it was time to find a place to go in and have a beer  As we were looking around an interpreter, came up and offered to help.  We explained we wanted to have a beer and a place to sit down for a while. He took us to a convenience store, and the owner took out two beers but I said we wanted to sit down. Soon the husband of the convenience store came out from back with two folding chairs, and set them up in front of the store   While enjoying our beer and watching this traffic and people go by, a couple people stopped and asked if they could take our pictures.
One last thing I wanted to do while in town to find some type of cream for achy joints/arthritis. I found a pharmacy close to where the shuttle bus will pick us up and DH and I went in.  I attempted to explain to the pharmacist that I needed some type of cream for my husband’s, swollen hand and joints from arthritis.  The pharmacist looked at DH hand and then looked at me and motioned that I interpreted him to say “Did he hit it with a hammer?”  Finally got it understood that it wasn’t an injury but arthritis. The pharmacist took me over to a bunch of shelves and pulled out a roll-on ointment told me to use it three times a day. It works.   

[mj_holiday]

Tuesday, April 16 Hakodate

Our excursion today was a panoramic bus tour. We first drove to a parking lot and walked over to an area for good views of the city and the port.  On the way, the guide gave us interesting information on the four churches, all at one intersection: Buddhist Temple, a Roman Catholic Church, a Russian orthodox church, and an Episcopalian church. A couple of the churches had burned down at least twice in the early 1900s. The Buddhist Temple finally was rebuilt with reinforced concrete.

 

The town has many long steep sloping streets. The important streets will be heated when it snows so they can still be traveled on.

we then traveled to the top of the mountain overlooking the town. The mountain was formed by a volcano, and up until modern history was an island separate from the rest of the town.

Many plants and animals are unique to the peninsula that formed connecting the island to the island of Hokkaido. The view from the top of the mountain was pretty awesome, but there were quite a few steps and sloping walkway, which made it difficult for some people. 
In my opinion, this town would be a great port for a late night departure or an overnight stay. The restaurants and shops are very close to the port, and seem very welcoming.

Edited April 16 by mj_holiday
Correction

[mj_holiday]

Wednesday, April 17 Otaru 

Otaru is a suburb of Sapporo Japan

We walked into town. This town is known for its canals throughout the ports and warehouses. We saw quite a bit walking around the town. There were some nice, duty-free shops, and several small cafés, all converted from large warehouses that backed up to canals.

There were a lot of people out walking and enjoying the day, even a small group of preschoolers, walking along, holding to a common cord with their teacher learning how to cross the street.

A local brewery, in fact, it brews a Otaru beer. This was a very large warehouse and had a hint of Germany in their bar. DH ordered a beer and I ordered a Pilsner. The beer was very good. They did their brewery for those and the copper tanks were right in the middle of the public area. 

We bought some souvenirs and headed back to the ship in a light rain.

To get onto the ship, we had to go through Japanese immigration to get our passport updated to show we are leaving Japan. We then turned our passports over to the ship so that they can work our entrance into the Dutch Harbor, Alaska. 

[mj_holiday]

April 18, Thursday, sea day

We lost an hour last night, and I think we will be losing one every night until we get to Alaska.

Last night we went to Pacific Rim for dinner, I have pictures, and it was a very nice delicious dinner. 

Above are the appetizers, potstickers and salad. 

Thai Red Curry 

Everything was delicious

[mj_holiday]

Now I will discuss umbrellas in Japan
 

Keep in mind that Japan is a small country and many places have small stores, gathering, places etc. and it rains quite a bit. 
I started noticing umbrella stands outside, or just inside the entrance too many places. After thinking about it, I’ve come to realize that putting your umbrella in the stand as you go into the store, keeps water from dripping all over the place and making a mess or causing someone to slip. 
The first umbrella stand, I will show you is from the Tokyo Hilton outside the door in a covered area 

There appears to be a common one at a lot of stores. 

There was another interesting umbrella stand that also had large strings of some type of cloth so that you could dry your umbrella off when you put it in the stand. We saw that in immigration at one port and planned to get a picture of it on the way back, Murphy’s Law meant that we were ushered through a different mouse maze going through immigration coming back and we did not get a picture. 
One more picture I want to share with you is the creating the creative solution of having the umbrella always ready.  I am not sure if this umbrella belong to our guide or the bus driver that day. 
I really don’t think there’s a problem with petty thieves messing with the umbrellas stowed outside stores. 

Edited April 19 by mj_holiday
Correction

[2012_Alaska_bound]

16 hours ago, mj_holiday said:

even a small group of preschoolers, walking along, holding to a common cord with their teacher learning how to cross the street.

 

Were they holding up their arms? That is how children cross a street in Okinawa.

[mj_holiday]

No their arms were by their side (mostly). I think this was their first outing, since they had to be reminded often to hold their place on the cord. They were very cute with fluorescent yellow hats. 

[mj_holiday]

April 20, the first one
We are on our third day since we left Otaru. I called this April 20 the first one because we will be having a second April 20 tomorrow, we are crossing the international dateline. 
We keep ourselves busy with bingo, reading, trivia, watching the scenery go by, it is very relaxing.

Since we boarded April 1, the service has been fantastic. Crewmembers always have a smile on their face while they are working very hard.

An example of their service happened yesterday. DH and I had gone to the La Veranda for lunch. We found a table and then went to get what we wanted.  I went out to the pool grill to order a sandwich and came back sat down and didn’t seem DH.  I said s__t, where is my husband? A staff member walked up and asked if she could help me. I said no thank you, I’ve just lost my husband. She looked up looked around and found him for me.

Yesterday Regent had an event that was new to us. They organized all the states and countries that passengers are from and divided it up into five or six sections. So at 6 PM we went to the section that included Oklahoma and met other people, mostly from Dallas, it was a nice event.  

[GOARMY]

mj-holiday:

 

We did the reverse of your Explorer cruise segment late last-year.  That was Vancouver, B.C. to Tokyo.  

 

Regent did a similar "States" section social get-together on one of our many sea days en route to Tokyo. Met several folks (non-Cruise Critic followers) from Northwest States.  Nice idea.  

 

Assume your Alaska stop will include Dutch Harbor.  If weather permits, (or, even if it does not) suggest visit to WWII Museum.  This is one of three stops on a bus loop--Port, stops, back to Port. Poignant.  

 

My wife's step-mother was an Army Air Force Flight nurse assigned to provide care for soldiers wounded in 1943 Aleutian battle at Attu; then evacuated via ship or aircraft to Anchorage; then via either DC-3 ("Dakota") or,  later, larger DC-4 aircraft to Madigan Army Hospital, Ft. Lewis, WA.

 

CPT Gladys did her duty on this route for many, many months. I was assigned many, many years later to Ft. Lewis.  Fortunately, not involving the Hospital.  

 

During our 2023 visit--pouring rain and wind.  No problem. Got on the shuttle. Honored their sacrifice.  Glad I did. 

 

Take care. 

 

GOARMY!

 

 

 

Edited April 20 by GOARMY
context

[mj_holiday]

It’s still April 20 as we finish the first one and start the second one.
finally, our trivia team placed on the first April 20 and it was first place at that. Hopefully we can do a repeat of this on the second April 20.

As shown by the invite above, you have to spell out which April 20 you’re talking about.
We headed to dinner in the Compass rose, and there was a line. (this is very unusual.)

It seems everyone else wanted to get an early start on their evening, The clocks get set ahead two hours tonight as we head toward the international dateline.

We will have to wait and see what the second April 20 brings us. 
The question for us on the second April 20 is what pills out of our pill organizer do we take since we are having two Saturdays. 

[PhD-iva]

5 hours ago, mj_holiday said:

It’s still April 20 as we finish the first one and start the second one.
finally, our trivia team placed on the first April 20 and it was first place at that. Hopefully we can do a repeat of this on the second April 20.

As shown by the invite above, you have to spell out which April 20 you’re talking about.
We headed to dinner in the Compass rose, and there was a line. (this is very unusual.)

It seems everyone else wanted to get an early start on their evening, The clocks get set ahead two hours tonight as we head toward the international dateline.

We will have to wait and see what the second April 20 brings us. 
The question for us on the second April 20 is what pills out of our pill organizer do we take since we are having two Saturdays. 

This begs the question since you repeat a day on your cruise, do you have to pay twice for a “single date,” April 20??

🤔

[mj_holiday]

1 hour ago, PhD-iva said:

This begs the question since you repeat a day on your cruise, do you have to pay twice for a “single date,” April 20??

🤔

We paid for the entire cruise, not by day. The cruise was identified as Tokyo to Vancouver, and showed when we would cross the international dateline.

However, I don’t remember seeing both April 20 listed when I was making dinner reservations in the specialty restaurants.

[Nachosdelux]

There was only the option to make specialty dinner reservations on the "first" April 20.

 

It is a limitation of the computer system.

 

When we boarded, we were able to make a reservation for the "2nd" April 20 (which was wide open)

 

It is now snowing!

Edited April 21 by Nachosdelux

[Gilly]

When we sailed that itinerary in April/May 2019, we made the dateline crossing on May 4th.   Cue for countless Star Wars jokes (again and again)    Fun though (and not to be forgotten)

 

Sorry you'll miss Dutch Harbor, but hopefully an additional port will more than make up for that.   

 

Thank you for sharing the trip - we have really enjoyed coming along with you again and were glad to see the Kuril Islands which were bathed in fog when we sailed past!

[travlr21]

15 hours ago, PhD-iva said:

This begs the question since you repeat a day on your cruise, do you have to pay twice for a “single date,” April 20??

We did this cruise last year. It was a advertised as a 17 night cruise, however we had 18 sleeps - aka 18 nights, we repeated May 12th. We only got 17 reward nights. 😞

[Chateaunole-du-pape]

22 hours ago, mj_holiday said:

As shown by the invite above, you have to spell out which April 20 you’re talking about.

Love this!

 

I turned 40 in Tokyo, and my wife and I flew back to the US that evening. So, of course we crossed the dateline, I was briefly 39 again, and got to turn 40 again, in a pretty cool location - the upper deck of a 747-400 - a few hours later.

 

I love geographical quirks!

[jctdlt]

What airline were you flying.  Love upstairs on 747.