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.