Location: Hakata, Japan
Weather: cloudy, 22C
Unlike March which I felt dragged on and on, the month of April just whipped by and we are on our last cruise of the Shanghai/China season, on the eve of starting the Taiwan season which will bring many new excitements and also challenges. On May 1st we have a repositioning crew-only cruise from Shanghai to Keelung where many special events are planned so you'll have to stay tuned to hear about that!
From where I last left off at the end of March we had a special treat of cruising to Kobe, Osaka and Kochi, even with a semi-overnight in Kobe! As we arrived into Kobe a marching band was playing on the terminal roof along with hundreds of Japanese waving and then the release of a massive net of balloons, making it the best welcome I'd seen yet! To be fair Kochi later did send us off with beautiful music and Abarutsu fireworks, but Kobe probably still made the biggest impression so far.
In Kobe crew all aboard was not until 2am and I didn't have to open office hours that evening so we got a rare chance to spend a night out in town. Naturally the first stop was to try some of that famous Kobe beef, which was as good as steak goes.
Afterwards we walked around Kitano which was the foreign residence area before embarking on a pub tour. More food and drinks later at an izakaya we find more friends from the ship at an Australian bar which apparently turns into the shoreside crew bar every time we dock in Kobe. The highlight of the night was getting to enjoy live jazz at one of Kobe's well-known jazz bars, where we tried really hard to get our musicians to play on the stage when the music was over but the owner was having none of it.
We were joking that we should have been given the option of meeting the ship in Osaka as it was only a 40min train ride from Kobe but 3 hours of docking to docking time on the ship. On the Osaka morning, I did my first ship tour for some very important Japanese officials which went off without a hitch. I'd been to Osaka once before on my first trip to Japan so this time I concentrated on just going to Dotombori to get some takoyaki and okonomiyaki. The Osaka port was the most convenient out of all the ones I'd been to so far, with many attractions doorsteps away from the ship, and you really can't beat that night view as we sailed away.
Kochi was like a small town compared to the two previous metropolises, there wasn't even a terminal building but just some tents set up by the pier, but one with free WiFi of course. You could tell they really wanted us to come back as there were signs all over the city welcoming us. I only had a few hours but managed to catch sight of the castle as well as browse through the shopping arcades and famous Hirome Market.
As if somebody flipped a switch when April arrived, the weather warmed up by like 10 degrees when we called into Shanghai one day definitely hot enough for t-shirts and shorts. Who said there were no blue skies in Shanghai? I also discovered a local market with very cheap but good snacks within a short walking distance from the terminal so naturally that's where I took my friend on a rare day when we had two hours to go out.
Unfortunately cherry blossoms weren't out in full bloom yet in the central Japan ports but boy were we lucky when we returned to Fukuoka on the next cruise. Maizuru Park, which I'd been to before briefly for the castle ruins, was awash in light pink as we stumbled upon it in the middle of the cherry blossom festival, complete with performances and many food stalls featuring sakura flavored snacks. This was also the first time I discovered we could rent bikes for free from the ship so here's to opening up a whole new world of exploration!
The sakura were also out on a rainy day in Nagasaki when we walked all over town in search of the best view, found some neat temples along the way as well.
Then we got a new port called Abarutsu, where it felt almost tropical. The closest city called Nichinan is nothing to write home about, in fact it's like a ghost town with absolutely nothing open in the late afternoon. However the surroundings are very beautiful and we went the Udo Shrine which was located in a cave on seaside cliffs with magnificent views.
The next Nagasaki I took the bikes out for another spin, this time up 331m Mount Inasa which had been on my list for a while, and the view was worth all the burn in the legs. The only regret was that we didn't have time to stay until the evening as Nagasaki apparently was nominated for one of the best city night views around the world a few years back.
So keeping with the biking streak in Fukuoka I went for another longish ride out of the city to Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine, passing what my friend called scenes right out of Japanese cartoons.
I will say that not all is smooth sailing out at sea and you constantly need to improvise as situations change. In the literal sense seasickness still does occur and I had one rocky day where I felt really nauseaous until I finally gave in and went to the medical centre for some motion sickness pills. I've also managed to have two colds in a span of one month despite having gotten a mandatory flu shot for the first time in my life. Getting sick on the ship is serious stuff and they quarantine you for certain contagious illnesses, but fortunately I didn't have one of them.
For twice now we've also had late arrivals (the second time very very late, like at 4pm instead of 8am) in Shanghai due to poor weather. The channel going into Shanghai is narrow with high traffic and if there is bad visibility the port authorities will close entry. Let's just say being on standby with thousands of angry yelling passengers is not the most fun situation. Well, at least we didn't have to emergency anchor for the night in the middle of the ocean like another ship did.
But let's leave on a happier note with this beautiful sunset on another of those clear sunny days sailing away from Shanghai.
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