Heading home on Monday 2 September

Early rising for shuttle bus to airport. Thought I might have put it at risk by locking door key in our room - but no problem. Two full size buses doing the shuttle, and both almost full.
Despatched my portable WiFi unit into the post box at the airport Post Office (worked perfectly all over Japan, and up to about 3km off shore for much of our cruising time) and straight through check in, but quite a long queue for security as it did not open until 7.15am (seemed as though first international flight from Terminal 2 was 8.55am). Moved quickly once it opened, however, but then had to give up our sample soy sauce bottles from Obi (not sure they exceeded 100ml as no indication, but not worth the argument). I failed the screening, so it was full checkout, including my belt experiencing in-depth analysis and my shoes and wallet getting a second detection run. Then quickly through Immigration and into the Sakura Lounge (less than 40" after leaving Hotel).
Breakfast in the lounge (where there was a retired Sumo wrestler in his robe) and then relaxation before our flight.
What to say about Japan:
I loved it all, including the challenges of the rail systems and the huge Tokyo, Shinjuku & Yokohama stations (and the minimal english in some areas). Pat was more challenged by the crowds - and the severe heat and humidity in Tokyo caused me to wind back my ambitious program.
The cleanliness of everywhere was incredible, irrespective of time of day. No rubbish and graffiti anywhere.
The Oakwood Premier was first class accommodation, so we'll located beside Tokyo Station, such great reception desk staff and its "guest night" a great initiative . We loved the place - it was an oasis just when you needed it!
Politeness is always evidenced and you can pretty well get away with just three words - konnichiwa, arigato & sumimasen. In fact, a simple "arigato" will invite a lengthy Japanese discourse, particularly from shop assistants - at which time its best to just smile and nod your head!!
The people in the ports we visited were extremely welcoming, with either (and often both) welcome or farewell displays. In the smaller ports, particularly, there were many enthusiastic volunteer student "english" speakers ever willing to help and I really enjoyed interacting with them.
To be able to wear shorts day and night for all of 3.5 weeks in 22C - 39C temperatures was absolutely great. Despite some rain on 3 cruise days, it never had a massive impact - and we have never been able to spend as much time on our balcony as on this cruise. Otherwise, with the exception of the one night at the tail end of the typhoon, the seas were always flat and balmy.
The Diamond Princess, despite its age, is still an excellent ship and, of course, it's crew ensure a great cruise - and we seemed to have a very compatible passenger manifesto.
I absolutely loved the baseball, just so much spectator involvement, noise and colour - a great night, and I loved how everyone took their rubbish with them!!
Yes, Japan is expensive - hard to find anything that compares to Australian prices, but it's a holiday!
Would we come back - absolutely, and we would probably do it the same way ie a one week city stay (perhaps Osaka or Kyoto) and then another cruise (as more and more Japanese ports are opening to cruise ships).
On track for an on-time departure and 10 hour flight time to Tullamarine.

Disembarkation on Sunday 1 September

One of the secrets of a good disembark is to not be rushed for time - no rushing for an early overseas departure and no rushing to be first off the ship. An easy, relaxed breakfast, only hand luggage to think about and 30" on the Promenade Deck means our luggage is all that's left of "Gold 3" in the terminal, so no scrambling search required. Another Customs Declaration (4 for Japan now), a quick passage through Immigration and pretty well straight into a taxi to YCAT (Yokohama City Air Terminal).
Wheeled the cases 80m and they were loaded onto an Airport Limousine Bus for the 100km express road trip to Narita Airport. Sunday traffic going our way was reasonably light and we beat the timetabled arrival time by 10". A coffee in the airport, then out to our hotel shuttle bus for the 2km trip to the Narita Tobu Airport Hotel. Narita is surrounded by a green belt with numerous very large, and well spread out, hotels. The Tobu is pretty much a one night affair only (and used by lots of air crew) - fairly basic but with big rooms by Japanese standards, and complimentary shuttles. It has a strict 2pm check in policy, which I knew about, so we had bit of a wait but were second checked in.
Some repacking/re-sorting and then the shuttle to the Narita (township) Station and the big Aeon Mall (seemed a bit like a mini tour of the area) about 5km away. Quite a big Mall and we did not see it all - but the supermarket was massive at around 150m x 50m floor area, and its range of products seemed unlimited.
Had dinner in a restaurant which specialised in tempura dishes, very nice (the pickled vegetables were bottomless, as were the pickled squid entrails - although, in the entrail stakes, I was not able to match the local girl on the next table!!!).
Shuttled back to the hotel for final packing and an early night, ready to shuttle to the airport at 7.30am.

A perfect day at sea on Saturday 31 August

Awoke to clear blue sky as we sailed north up the west coast of Honshu island and between its northern tip and the southern tip of Hokkaido island, before heading south on the east coast of Honshu towards Yokohama.
About 8am at our furthest point north, we recorded our lowest temperature of the trip at 22C, but by mid-morning back up into the mid 20'sC. This morning was the last time I will be asked at breakfast "are you travelling alone?" Disembarkation day tomorrow has no Room Service Dining, so Pat will need to come to the Dining Room!!!
On this leg, our most cruised cruisers are an American couple with more than 1700 Princess days.
Spent time walking on the Promenade Deck, lots of time in the sunshine on our balcony, and afternoon up on deck 16 for time in the whirlpool and the sun.
Earlier in the day, I dropped into the "clearing sale" of souvenirs, clothing,  jewellery etc, etc - reminded me of the Myer Bargain Basement of the 1970's! Left packing to the last minute so we could enjoy all the sunshine. Cases need to be out before our 7.45pm dinner, but we need to meet our neighbours in Skywalkers for pre-dinner drinks, so it was 6pm for us.
Final dinners are always a bit sad, but the traditional Bombe Alaska parade through the Dining Room always livens things up - and then there is the good natured "encouragement" of the wait staff to rate them a "10" in the passenger feedback survey.
One of the big wrap ups is also the Crew Show, and it was a "standing in the aisles" drawcard. We enjoyed extremes of talent and it wound up with some good old fashioned comedy farce - to great applause.
Almost mid-night tonight and an early morning tomorrow with cabins to be vacated by 8am. We however, will have a leisurely day, including being among the last to disembark.

Friday 30 August in Sakata

Japan has been experiencing widespread rain for the last three days, but we have avoided most of it. Western Japan has been impacted most by these apparently unprecedented downpours, with 3 people perishing in flood waters, and almost 1 million under evacuation orders. The weather bureau forecast 100mm of rain for Tokyo in the 24 hours from Thursday night.
We arrived into Sakata (our last stopover) under threatening skies but with a hearty welcome from the locals, including many secondary students volunteering their time to offer assistance as "english speakers". They are so keen to talk and I love to engage with them because they get so little opportunity to use their "english"!!
Sakata is a city of around 110,000 people on the Sea of Japan on the north west of the island of Honshu and the area has a reputation for growing high quality rice. Very little english is spoken and virtually no english signage, so for the students, the arrival of a cruise ship is a great opportunity. Not many cruise ships come here, and the town went all out for us.
We shuttle bussed into town and headed to the Abumiya Residence - the historic residence of a famous merchant family which depicts what life was like in the Edo period of 400 years back. Very big house, with a lot of rooms, displays and some hands on. As we left to walk to the Sankyo Soko Warehouses & Rice Museum via the Honma Residence (the historic residence of one of Japan's former richest merchant families), the rain began, and it persisted. The very large Soko warehouses (which played a pivotal role in Sakata's rise as a major merchant port in the Edo period) had a very big gallery & gift shop (the food items in particular were very popular with the Japanese) as well as a very informative rice museum.
Despite time out for a coffee, the rain persisted so we again tackled it to head back to the town centre. There are umbrellas everywhere you go in Japan and bags to carry them in when wet. Mine is quite thick and I could not get it into the narrow bags, so left it in the stand on its lonesome. Despite the very heavy rains, it was still there an hour later when we left!!
Needed to take shelter for a period on the way back before the rain eased off a little. A covered colonade in the town centre provided some relief as well as some entertainment. I had a couple of photos taken as a Samurai (including with the full outfit), engaged in a number of conversations with the students, and even purchased a brightly coloured Haori (a traditional Japanese hip length kimono style jacket).
We then headed back to the ship, and, on the dock with the rain almost stopped, were provided with free food samples, drinks and some small gifts from the town - very touching and I felt so sorry for them that the rains had come on their parade. By mid afternoon, however, it had reverted to just the occasional shower.
Wonderful send off from the people of Sakata with a big group of around 70 brightly costumed dancers on the dock. Pleasingly for everyone, the rain had stopped and the dancers were enthusiastically applauded.
Despite the rain, the temperature remained in the mid 20'sC (and was still 24C at 11pm).
Another formal night tonight so I gave my Haori a run. It attracted quite a few looks and a number of comments. Embarrassed to say , but, again, I could not go past repeating the escargot, calamari, lobster & creme bruise menu selections.
Finished the night off by attending the "Born to be Wild" stage show for a second time - great show and great entertainment, and then the 3 deck attrium "balloon drop" - which always attracts great excitement.

Thursday 29 August in Kanazawa

We woke to steady soaking rain in Kanazawa. Temperature was quite warm but clouds low and solid rain looked in prospect for the day.
Kanazawa is on the west side of Honshu Island, almost opposite Tokyo on the east coast. It is a city of almost 500,000 people and it features another huge port including petrochemicals, gas, containers of all sorts, as well as Komatsu tractors and earth movers. There was a big Komatsu export facility on our wharf as well as many machines awaiting loading. Breakfast came and went, but the rain did not - and it did not look like it would. We decided that notwithstanding the rain, we would shuttle into town and use our time around the Kanazawa Station area as I understood it was a new station and anticipated that it would be a shopping precinct. As we prepared to leave the ship the rain stopped and the humidity built. The trip to the station was through more lush market gardens as well as areas of light industry, and then a wide boulevard featuring many modern buildings and car dealerships. The Japanese seem to have strong regard to ensuring the ongoing existence of their market gardens, irrespective of how close they are to surrounding housing and industry. A pity we don't seem to be doing the same thing.
The railway station was indeed new (and big) with large associated retail shopping areas. With the rain still absent we decided to venture further and bought all day tickets for the Kanazawa Loop buses (buses that run a loop in opposite directions around most of the tourists spots). We first went to the old Edo period Higashichaya Machi district with its narrow paved streets, wooden houses and tea houses. While we did not catch a glimpse of a geisha, we saw plenty of gold (including gold ice creams and gold fruitcake). On then to the 21st Century Museum where we wandered through without entering any galleries, as well as around its gardens. Back to the Station passing Kenrokuen Garden and Kanazawa Castle on a Loop Bus, but not before some exchanges with students (not sure how it all works as we understood this was the summer holiday period). Google Translate proved useful.
Pat and I continued on to the 300 year old undercover Omicho Market where seafood, fruit and vegetables of all sorts were readily available from a multitude of stalls - as was pretty much anything else you would wish to buy.
Another bus back to the Station which is surrounded by modern buildings of all sorts and is itself a very pleasing (and big) architectural construct. Shared a bun and had a coffee in a bakery within the complex, then wandered through some of its retail precinct - another place that reinforced the civilised nature of shopping in Japan (as indeed did the Market, although I am sure not everyone would want to buy the tuna eyeballs that were available at one place). Kanazawa had proved a most enjoyable stopover, just a pity it was impacted by rain - and rain it did, again, as we headed out to catch the Shuttle back to the Diamond Princess. The ingenuity of the Japanese, and their dexterity with umbrellas, however, ensured we pretty much managed on and off the buses and back on the ship with barely a drop hitting us. Of course, half an hour later the rain had cleared!!!
With that cleared sky, we were treated to another drumming farewell from volunteer locals (including a couple of very small children) - most enjoyable and lots of towel waving from on and off shore. Our farewell also featured quite a few inquisitive eagles circling the ship.
Pat had watched the farewell from our balcony in her dressing gown, and there is now a view that as everyone has seen her wearing it, she should be able to wear it in the Dining Room.
Before dinner we again saw Diane Kichijitsu, this time performing Rakugo (Japanese storytelling). She is outstanding and her ability to move seamlessly between english and japanese is amazing.
Our dinners are coming to an end, but tonight's was again most enjoyable, and then we headed off to see a New Zealand comedian, Andre King. At his best he was very funny, but overall inconsistent.
Back in our cabin just after 11pm, I noticed bright lights through our drapes, and investigation showed them to be very big squid/calamari fishing boats in full fishing mode with their multitudes of powerful catch attracting lights in full brightness. One was only 200M off our starboard, with two others on the horizon, as we passed in the night.

Sakaiminato on Wednesday 28 August

Arrived into Sakaiminato under a cloudy sky and after periods of drizzle overnight. Seas still quite flat, even on our overnight crossing back to Japan from Busan, South Korea.
Although it only has a population of 35,000 Sakaiminato has a huge port. Once again a focus on timber and wood chips is obvious, there is a very big fishing fleet (of very big boats which look they can spend long periods at sea) and seemingly quite a bit of petro chemicals/gas, as well as fish farms in the harbour.
This town has a strong tourist focus, largely built around the celebrated manga artist, Mizuki Shigeru, whose 174 quirky Yokai characters line its main shopping street. The shops all feature the principal characters in a vast range of products and there are many murals, stamp stops, footpath plaques etc, etc - in fact an industry built around them.
After proceeding through immigration and customs because we were now back on Japanese soil (so far we have entered Japan three times and South Korea twice, so lots of forms to be filled, photos to be taken and fingerprints to be checked). We then took the Shuttle Bus into town and spent time in the main street to see the Yokai characters before wandering off to look at some of the fishing fleet. After meeting up with two of our dinner colleagues, we took a taxi to the out of town Yushien Garden, travelling through market gardens with what seemed very fertile soil. Yushien is a classic Japanese manicured circuit garden which particularly features peonies, streams, small waterfalls, clipped grass, shaped pine trees etc. It is open at night and would look truly exceptional under lights. With the drizzle getting beyond annoying we caught a shuttle back to town then took the opportunity to have a hot spring leg & foot spa (a free, undercover, community facility catering for up to about 10 people at a time) - hot & relaxing.
Back then to the ship (needed to use the covered walkways as the drizzle was getting heavier- and by late afternoon was steady rain but temperature still in the low 20'sC).
Time up in Skywalkers Lounge on deck 15 for drinks and prawns before dinner. The food keeps coming with dinner in our Dining Room and sometimes you just have to say "no" - very difficult to do when such beautiful creme brulee is on the menu every night.
Finished the night off in the Princess Theatre for the big cast "I got the Music" - tributes to the icons of popular music.

Tuesday 27 August - back in Busan, South Korea

Drizzle overnight and early morning as we arrived in Busan but clearing up during breakfast. Pat has yet to make a breakfast appearance in the restaurant, so most people believe I am travelling alone rather than accept my explanation that her absence is because "robes are not allowed in the restaurant".
Blog is falling behind because my portable WiFi is limited to Japan and I am not taking my tablet ashore today - should catch up with publishing tomorrow.
Easy exit from the ship (which was refuelling from ship alongside that was serving such purpose) after the masses, breezed through Immigration and picked up some Korean Won. Plan was for the four of us to taxi up to the UN Memorial Cemetery then taxi & train into the city. Our taxi driver (Mr Kim) was keen, however, and offered us a four hour tour for the equivalent of $A30pp, so off we went. First to the UN Memorial  Cemetery which is beautifully presented with the flags of all 16 participating countries flying (as well as that of the UN). Established in 1951, this is the only UN Cemetery in the world and covers 35 manicured acres with rows of neat stone markers on the graves of those who lost their lives and are buried here. In recent years, a number of the wives of the fallen have also chosen to be buried alongside their husbands - including, the first of them, Mrs Nancy Hummerston from Australia (whose husband of 1 year lost his life soon after arriving at the front). Her cremated remains were buried beside him in 2010 (2 years after she died in 2008, aged 91). 11,000 military dead from the Korean War are interred in this UN Cemetery, including 885 British, 378 Canadians, 462 Turks and 281 Australians. There were many thousands more military deaths, where the bodies were repatriated to their home countries, including almost all the 40,000 Americans who were killed.
We then travelled via Songjeong Beach, a long sandy surf beach (plenty of surfers & surfing lessons in progress), a fishing port area and market to Haedong Yonggungsa Temple. This temple is located on the coast, has a dramatic rocky backdrop and is tied to the legend of a great sea goddess. We all snacked on Hoddeok fried cakes (deep fried, hot and filled with banana and sunflower seeds). By this stage the drizzle had restarted but Mr Kim had umbrellas for those without them. Then up through the foothills via a huge colourful cemetery, with numerous flower stalls on the roadside, an extensive market garden area (with roadside stalls), forested hills, and an area of garden themed restaurants, to Beomeosa Temple. This hilltop temple is more than 1300 years old and features many "prayer halls" (with plenty praying and/or meditating). More than 400,000 attend here for the first new year prayer sessions.
We came back via a specialist crab area. An area of 3 blocks x 3 blocks is given over to shops/stalls selling large red crabs and to restaurants cooking and serving them. We then returned to the ship via areas densely populated with huge high rise apartment towers. We covered a big area in our 4 hour tour and were all quite impressed with what we had seen and what a contrast it had been with the inner city area of multiple markets and market like areas that we had seen eight days earlier. Mr Kim had provided great value for money, as well as saving us from what would otherwise have been quite a wet adventure.
One abiding impression of Busan is that, irrespective of where you are, it is most unlikely you would have to walk more than 100m for a feed.
Soon after we had returned to the ship and had a bite to eat, the drizzle stopped. Our departure from Busan again saw plenty of activity on what is a huge and super busy harbour.
Before dinner we went to a great Latin American dance performance by a couple from Poland, then to another excellent dinner.