Best of Japan - Millennium 5/2 - 5/15

[debfed65]

10 hours ago, scorfman said:

Time for lunch now. What we didn’t expect, and maybe should have, is that they took us to the same place as the tour dinner last night

Thank you for posting such a detailed review of your excursion.  Did you also take a Celebrity excursion the night before? If so, which one?  Did you enjoy it?  This will be our first time to Japan and I am trying to pick as many brains as I can for information lol.

 

As always, I appreciate all the hard work everyone does posting these live reviews with such wonderful pictures & details!

 

Thanks...Debbie & Ron

[Jim_Iain]

I'm home and enjoying my afternoon catching up on your journey.    You are capturing the beauty and energy of Japan. 

[Alan2504]

19 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

I am sure there are going to be a lot of unhappy guest and a lot of complaints about disembarking here in Hiroshima.  We just walked dec 4 from the aft elevator to the theater and the whole starboard side was packed with guest waiting to disembark.  These are obviously guest without shore excursions. 
 

We are in the theater and it is very full.  Our assembly time us 2 pm and we are group 17.  It is 1357 and they just called groups 9 and 10.  Things are going slow.  
 

We used the priority disembarkation with the retreat host, we must have been 3rd or 4th off the ship, it was handy as we had a local guide waiting for us 👍

[prairie girl]

Hi everyone!

We are also on this sailing and are enjoying the posts and comments.

I just want to let anyone planning future travels and exploring private journeys and tours in Japan a recommendation of the tour company we used in Kobe and Kyoto.

We arranged 2 full day tours with Pinpoint Travelers and we highly recommended them.

They were easy to deal with and were willing to charge each couple separately.   Our guide was top notch—personable and entertaining.  We had absolutely no complaints and had two lovely days together.

Sandy

Edited May 8 by prairie girl

[DaKahuna]

25 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

I'm home and enjoying my afternoon catching up on your journey.    You are capturing the beauty and energy of Japan. 

BTW -  butter has not changed on Millennium 

 

[DaKahuna]

Good morning —Today is a sea day and so I want to catch up on yesterday. 

 

We departed the theater shortly after 2 PM and made our way down the gangway to our tour bus.  There was still a very large queue of people who were no on tours waiting to get off the ship. Everyone seemed to be merged together at the deck 3 gangway.  

 

Our tour, a trip to Miyajima was very nice.  About at 25 - 30 minute bus ride to the JR ferry terminal and then a 10 minute or so ferry ride to the island.  Our tour guide gave us quite a bit of information regarding the island, the shrine and the Tori gate for which is it fameous. 

 

The way a picture is worth a 1,000 words so here are some of the ones I took. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DaKahuna]

 A few more pictures 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately as you can see not all the signs and information is presented in multiple languages.  Most of the signs on the island are in Japanese only but I still find them interesting. 

 

We also were there a low tide when the base of the tori gate is exposed. It is said that at high tide, the gate appears to float on the water, and having seen pictures of it at high tide, I can understand why they say that.  

 

 

[scorfman]

14 hours ago, debfed65 said:

Thank you for posting such a detailed review of your excursion.  Did you also take a Celebrity excursion the night before? If so, which one?  Did you enjoy it?  This will be our first time to Japan and I am trying to pick as many brains as I can for information lol.

 

As always, I appreciate all the hard work everyone does posting these live reviews with such wonderful pictures & details!

 

Thanks...Debbie & Ron

Yes it was. Please see this post for a full description.

[DaKahuna]

Upon arrival back at the ship we had to undergo Japanese immigration for departing Japan.  This was very easy, show passport to customs, walk about 15 more steps and show passport to Immigration and receive the stamp.  We heard later from the Retreat Concierge that after our bust there was a whole group of buses that arrived at the same time and there was quite a queue. We missed all of that thankfully.  Our bus was there only people in the terminal at the time. 

 

 We dropped our things off in our room, relaxed for a bit and then proceeded to Luminae for dinner. 

 

 Our amuse-busche — I keep forgetting to take pictures and remember what they are most of the time .. this was a hard crusted puffed pastry shell with cream cheese and goat cheese blend filling.  I had two as my wife does not like cheeses, especially goat cheese most of the time. 

 

 

For starters my wife had the grilled octopus, it was tender and delicious, and her usual French Onion Soup (not pictured) 

 

I was in a salad mood so I went with the Caesar salad again 

 

 

Here entree was the Vegetable Udon Stir Fry

 

 

And I had the Citrus and Chili Braised Short Ribs - the ribs where huge .. I could only eat one and only half  of one of the steamed rice buns.  I guess having the Luminae burger for lunch yesterday was still having an effect on me. 

 

 

We shared a small service on the Ricotta Cavatelli as I almost ordered that for my main course.  It was very good. 

 

 

For my wine the sommelier recommended a merlot to go with the short ribs. 

 

 

I enjoy Columbia valley wines and this is a good merlot.  In enjoyed it, even though it falls under the Basic package. 

 

After dinner my DW was tired and neither of us felt up to going to the show.  So we came back to the room.  I posted some of yesterday’s adventures and decided on a nightcap.  While my wife got ready for bed, I went down to the lounge for a Kettle One and diet tonic.  Chatted with the bartenders in the lounge and then came back and read until I could not keep my eyes open any longer.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 8 by DaKahuna

[DaKahuna]

Today is a sea day and we decided to “sleep in” .. I finished reading the second part of a three part book series I am reading and then cleaned up and went to the Elite breakfast in Tuscan Grill, since it was after 9 AM and I had not been there yet.  

 

I guess there are no where near as many Elite and above on this cruise as there was on our Panama Canal transit last year as the Elite breakfast is served rather than a buffet. 

 

Here is the menu 

 

 

 

 I had an orange juice, black coffee, mini-bage with cream cheese, meat plate and fruit plate.  

 

 I got a fruit plate to go for my wife. 

 

 

It was good but I was surprised at how few people were there.  

 

Before lunch we attended a Future cruise presentation in the Retreat Lounge.  It was very interesting to see how many different itineraries Celebrity has for the 2025 - April 2026 season.  We are still trying to decide if another cruise is in the works for us or not.  We have a few days to discuss and be able to take advantage of the onboard booking benefits.  I do missing the prepaid gratuities and additional suite OBC of last year. 

 

 

[DaKahuna]

Lunch in the Luminae was delicious - 

 

 My wife started with the beet salad

 

 

 And I had the lobster bisque 

 

 

 We both had the Cobb Salad. 

 

 (before the dressing) 

 

 

After the dressing

 

 

And we both had the White Chocolate Macadamia Cake 

 

 

Everything was delicious .. the salad was quite large and neither of us cleaned our plates. 

 

We are now relaxing in the room with a cup of green tea while relaxing before we journey to the MDR on deck 5 for our Sake Tasting .. 

 

 

 

 

[scorfman]

Trip day 6, Cruise day 5

 

We managed to sleep a little later and the wife took a break from her morning workout routine and instead had a leisurely time getting ready for the day. We went to Café al Bacio and had tea and a latte along with some pastries before heading to join our excursion.

 

Today we chose another Celebrity tour: Osaka Sightseeing. Since the ship was departing at 3:00 pm, this was short compared to our earlier excursions. It was perhaps a 30-40 minute drive to our first stop at Osaka Castle. It was a 10 minute or so walk from parking to the Castle entrance with great views of the moats and walls along the way. After a quick stop to get the tickets we were on our way in and up. Unexpectedly there was a goshuin available here for purchase, and we also found an eki stamp. There was a lot to see here and we didn't have the time we would have liked. But, we saw what we could and made it to the top for an amazing view. We also ran into some of the people we will be touring with in Busan in a couple days.

Time was running out, so we descended and headed over to the nearby Hokoku Shrine, which was on the way back, to get a goshuin and also a drink from a vending machine. We also grabbed a cooked dough filled with cheese as a snack near the bus parking. This was quite sweet, and didn't have much cheese. Funny to see the cheese was Costco Kirkland Mozzarella.

 

Back on the bus we took a 30 minute drive down the main avenue, passing Dotonbori , and arriving at Sumiyoshi Taisha shrine. This shrine was very interesting with some incredible beauty. It sprinkled a bit on and off but never turned to rain. We strolled the grounds and did some people watching. There were several groups here for baptisms, and it was fun to see some little kids being mischievous and the parents doing some wrangling. We were soon on the bus and back to the port.

 

We were invited to have a sail away on the helipad so we headed up for that. There were drummers beating a farewell tune but… we didn't depart. Crew said there were nine late passengers and we watched with great anticipation. The shore crew line attendants didn't anticipate such a long delay. One of them was called by nature and went down the steps below the dock thinking they were concealed. They smiled, zipped, and waved while we cheered him on.  Always something new on travel… Eventually a few pier runners showed up to great fanfare, but we didn't see all of them. We  finally departed about an hour late headed for Hiroshima. The weather as we headed out of Osaka Bay was on the rough and windy side and made for deep sleep as the ship was rocking over night.

 

[DaKahuna]

58 minutes ago, scorfman said:

We were invited to have a sail away on the helipad so we headed up for that. There were drummers beating a farewell tune but… we didn't depart.

 

 I was up on the Helipad for a short while as well.  It was a little breezy and I left before we sailed away.  I went back to our cabin and our balcony was on the starboard side aft so  we could hear but not see the Taiko players.  We kept waiting and finally did see the gangway brought in and then saw it put back out again.  The three people, appeared to be three ladies, one of which was in a wheel chair, walked up and boarded the ship and the gangway was pulled in and they started singling up the mooring lines.  It was then time for us to get to dinner and we were having dinner when the ship finally sailed away. 

 

[scorfman]

Forgot to mention we had dinner in the MDR again. I had Asian consommé which was merely adequate. Wife liked it though. I had aged sirloin medium rare with mixed veggies. They really need to sharpen their steak knives. Wife had pork medallions which she really liked. Dessert was apple crumble for wifey, and I had chocolate lava cake. Slightly overdone but yum, and the caramel coffee ice cream with banana was great. 

[DaKahuna]

@scorfman Did you do anything in Hiroshima?  

[DaKahuna]

I realize that it’s a bit early but thought I would share something my oldest friend just sent to me regarding departing at Narita and Haneda airports.  Apparently they have a facial recognition system that makes the whole process super easy. 

 

This is for Narita 

 

 

This is Haneda 

 

https://tokyo-haneda.com/en/flight/int/dep_step.html

 

And here is a PDF in English describing the process.

 

how_to_use_Face_Express_en.pdf

 

I hope some of you find this useful. 

 

 

 

[DaKahuna]

Speaking of useful information, here’s some for tomorrow’s visit to Busan. 

 

 

 

 

[DaKahuna]

Today’s sake tasting went very well in my opinion. Michael, the Cellar Master onboard, was our host.  He explaineds the reason why most Americans, and possibly other non-Japanese, believe sake should be served warm. Apparently this is something that started during WWII as result of the sacristy of rice.  The rice used was not good quality and as a result the new sake’s brewed during that time were not the quality of older sakes and serving them warm made them taste better.  Anyway, we had one sake warm and the others were chilled.  Each was paired with a different food but we found that most would go with just about anything. 

 

 

 

 

My favorite was the unfiltered (2nd bottle from the left), and my DW’s was the second bottle from the right.  

 

Here is a better picture of the one my DW liked

 

 

 

 

 

 

[scorfman]

37 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

@scorfman Did you do anything in Hiroshima?  

Yep, coming in 3, 2, 1…

[Pushka]

6 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

Speaking of useful information, here’s some for tomorrow’s visit to Busan. 

 

 

 

 

All these daily info sheets are so helpful so Thankyou. It makes planning so much easier. It's great to see so many free shuttles as well. Provided by every port it seems. 

[scorfman]

Trip day 7, Cruise day 6

 

The day began as usual. We eventually made our way up to the main dining room for a sit-down breakfast. We were still cruising on our way to a 1:00pm docking in Hiroshima.

 

We arrived on time and the immigration process began. Since we only had a short time in Hiroshima, we headed down to the guest services area on deck 3 to see where they would put the gangway. We self-explored here, so no Celebrity Tour. As we expected, the tour groups disembarked with priority. About 1:20 or so they announced that the general disembarkation queue would begin at the Martini Lounge, so we quickly headed up and got a place in line just inside the casino, so pretty close to the front of the queue. We then waited, and waited, and waited. Once the line moved we were off in 5-10 minutes, but we were surprised that it took so long. I know the queue stretched back for a very long way, so I bet there were a lot of people that were more than surprised.

 

We boarded the free shuttle to Itsukaichi Station and boarded the San-yo Line toward Hiroshima. Our Suica cards worked fine. We got off the train at Yokogawa Station. That wasn't what google recommended, but we took an old Hiroshima Dentetsu #7 Tram from there to Peace Memorial Park.

 

 

We then strolled to the Peace Memorial Museum and waited in line for about 5 minutes for tickets. We also purchased an audio tour for each of us. We felt it was important to spend time here and get the proper perspective of the Japanese people to the extent possible. I don't know exactly but probably a bit over 2 hours. This is very personal so I won't go into our experiences here.

 

 

After exiting the museum we took our time visiting places in the Peace Memorial Park on the way back to the Atomic Bomb Dome. We both remarked that we can't believe we are here.

 

 

At 5:00 we took a 15 minute walk to Hiroshima Castle. They close at 6:00 so we definitely rushed, but spent whatever time we could looking at the exhibits and enjoying the view. They also had a goshuin we purchased. At 6:00 we walked to the bus stop outside of Motomachi Elementary School where we caught the 23-1 bus to Kusunokicho, then walked a couple minutes to Lopez Okonomiaki for dinner.

 

 

Hiroshima is famous for their style of Okinimiaki, and Lopez was recommended by several sources as the best in the city. The owner is from Guatemala of all places, but studied under a master here.  We were unexpectedly seated at the griddle immediately. Soon after there was a big queue to get in. It only seats perhaps 15-20 around the big counter/griddle. Mr. Lopez was really hospitable as he cooked and we talked. I mentioned that I'd gone to school in Guatemala in the early 80's, and suddenly another patron said she lived very near that same school. Small world! We spent time talking and eating and before we knew it, it was time to head back to the ship. Highly recommend.

 

 

We walked over to the Yokogawa station and again took the San-yo line back to Itsukaichi station, arriving at 8:00pm. A brief wait for the free Celebrity shuttle bus and we were back at the port in maybe 10 minutes. We walked over to the info desk to get the port eki stamp, then went through immigration to exit Japan and boarded the ship. We dropped our stuff in the room and headed to the Sunset Bar for a nightcap. One for her, two for me. Hey, her's was a highball so what's fair is fair. Off to bed.

[hcat]

5 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

Lunch in the Luminae was delicious - 

 

 My wife started with the beet salad

 

 

 And I had the lobster bisque 

 

 

 We both had the Cobb Salad. 

 

 (before the dressing) 

 

 

After the dressing

 

 

And we both had the White Chocolate Macadamia Cake 

 

 

Everything was delicious .. the salad was quite large and neither of us cleaned our plates. 

 

We are now relaxing in the room with a cup of green tea while relaxing before we journey to the MDR on deck 5 for our Sake Tasting .. 

 

 

 

 

so nice that they have a  Japanese tea  menu and sake tasting...brings  a bit extra culture to the cruise..Enjoy!

 

I enjoyed the recent photos..contrast of red, black and white is very striking!  The deer were very cute...hope well cared for.

[hcat]

after seeing this mentioned several times by Scorfman..I finally looked it up..

 

'Goshuin (御朱印) are seal stamps given out at many Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines across Japan. Each goshuin is a unique work of art, consisting of the shrine or temple's name in black ink calligraphy, a distinct red seal representing the location, and the date of the visit"

 

Assume these and other stamps mentiined are part of  a trip collection?

[hcat]

Scorfman..can you explain more about this meal? thanks

[scorfman]

57 minutes ago, hcat said:

Scorfman..can you explain more about this meal? thanks

One word “delicious”. Basically noodles, cabbage, meat, egg, sauce, and a pancake all grilled to perfection. Paired with a nice cold oolong tea. More info here. He also recommended the Osaka version as well so we have that on our list for next time. Reserve an hour for the meal exclusive of any wait time.