2019 - China & Japan (Part 2 - Yokohama & Shimizu)

Monday 19 August and Tuesday 20 August

These were two sea days travelling to Japan. These days were spent eating, wandering around the ship trying to avoid the expensive shops and the smoke filled casino, sitting by the pool, enjoying a refreshing beverage by the said pool, afternoon naps and dinner. That's it. We had one dinner in the La Mer French Restaurant. This was great, very good food and excellent service, let down by the poor location of the restaurant. It was open to the main plaza / atrium and thus was very noisy, especially when they hosted dancing there. It really needed to be more discrete with its location as befits a premium restaurant.

One of the evenings was the formal night, formal for me being putting on shoes.

The view from our cabin.

This is what you do on two sea days.

The captain's speech to the passengers.

The French restaurant on board.

The deck lit up.

Wednesday 21 August

We arrived in Yokohama at about 7:00 am. We could not get under the main bridge so we had to park away from the normal cruise terminal.

The Yokohama Bay Bridge (which we could not get under).

It was a slow embarkation as just about everyone was leaving to go on various excursions. The price of these tours was extortionate so we caught the free shuttle bus into the city centre where we wandered around the shops and waterfront area.

The Nippon Maru Historical Park in Yokohama.

Interesting sculpture.

Pukarisanbashi Pier.

An interesting museum in Yokohama. Didn't go in, but I suppose it typifies some of the weirdness that exists in Japan.

The Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse.

Red Beach.

A food stall at Red Beach.

After lunch at the Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse (that is what it is actually called), we found the entrance to the China Town.

The entrance to Yokohama's China Town.

A temple in Yokohama's China Town.

From there back to the ship and an afternoon by the pool. Lots of space given the passengers were away.

Then it got interesting. Sitting on a lounger next to the pool enjoying a cold beer and then an announcement over the tannoy system "Would Mr Hammond of cabin Mxxx please contact customer services". After calling them it transpired they had messed up our immigration status. We had advised them on the first day that we would be leaving the ship in Japan and that we would need to go through proper immigration procedures. However this did not happen when we got stamped in earlier in the day.

Half and hour and a change of clothes later we were in a car along with the port agent and a member of Princess' Sydney staff heading back into Yokohama to find an anonymous office in a back street where the immigration staff worked. Whilst all the paperwork was being completed the guy from Sydney was very interesting to talk to about all things on the ship, especially the differences between a Chinese cruise (which we were on) and an Australian cruise (which would be the next trip in a week's time). It basically boiled down to vastly increasing the amount of alcohol on board and removing the voluntary (read compulsory) crew tips from your account.

Before dinner dinner we took in the taiko drumming show, Very energetic. I enjoyed the show.

The taiko drummers.

The taiko drummers.

The taiko drummers.

We left late in the evening as we did not have far to go and there were a lot of passengers on trips to Tokyo.

Posing in Yokohama.

Leaving Yokohama.

Thursday 22 August

We arrived in Shimizu early, meaning that we were docked and tied up when we opened the curtains. We docked right in the city centre, opposite the obligatory Ferris wheel (every port seems to have one) and a shopping centre.

There is not much to see. The main reason the ship stops here is that it is the nearest port to Mt Fuji. However the low cloud obscured the normally excellent view. Even the passengers who went on an excursion did not see much.

We walked along the waterfront to the main shopping centre, bought a coffee and then back to the ship for another swim in the deserted pool.

The park at Shimizu.

Mt Fuji is behind all that cloud.

Our ship.

Enjoying a tasty beer in the Wake Bar.

Dinner in the buffet as not very hungry.