I am combining our 5 day stretch of sea days - not enough happening for individual posts and the internet continues to be incredibly challenging - not that I have a lot of other things to do. We're preparing to cross the international dateline on Wed/Thursday and have been losing time every night - 4 hours so far and at least one more tonight. I think we're all a bit out of sorts. We have 2 Wed Jun 28ths this week - just like the movie "Groundhog Day" we get to repeat a whole day. The weather as we travel to Alaska has been consistently cloudy, foggy and cool. 
There's another brunch today at noon. If anything of note happens over these next few days - this is where I'll post the picture. Brunch today so perhaps some pics to come. 

Brunch Wed Jun 28 - 1st day. 

Cabaret Night 

Crossing Int'l Dateline

Insignia has Talent - passenger talent show

Cooking demo - Chicken with Papaya and homemade fettuccine Alfredo and Carbonara

OMG what an amazing surprise! Kyla organized and threw me a Surprise Bridal Shower - surprise being an understatement. It's an amazing how a community gets created, and I am grateful humbled, and honoured to be part of this one! They shouldn't have - but I'm glad they did. What a wonderful memory of this trip. Kyla organized everything, complete with decorations, cake, champagne toast,  wonderful gifts and even a special musical gift, just for Adrian!

Fabulous final day in Japan. The sun even came out to greet us. Today was a ships tour to a red crested crane sanctuary - the cranes once almost extinct are now beginning to flourish again. They are very large beautiful birds, they mate for life and are often used as a symbol of marriage here. There was even a chick for us to see! After visiting the sanctuary the tour moved on to a wetlands park. It was such a gorgeous day to walk the park, which is beautifully maintained with boardwalks throughout! The community gave us a fabulous send off with traditional local music and lots of waving and shouts of goodbye and invitations to return.

Today began with another visit to a fish market. I love strolling through these markets, fresh fish of all kinds and lots of small restaurants willing to serve you too! This is a picture of a mother and sun catching their squid for breakfast. The crab, varieties and size were amazing here.
The ship was once again docked in the town, making walking easy and the city so much fun to explore. The Fish Market was just a few blocks away to the left with the historic city and fort to the right. The waterfront boast a number of historic warehouses now converted to shops and restaurants - not unlike the Historic Properties in Halifax. The promenade wraps around the harbour, eventually leading to the former fort now a lovely park. Leaving the waterfront and climbing the hill - similar to San Francisco, you reach the historic buildings and cable car to the mountaintop meteorology centre. It's a beautifully maintained city and waterfront and a pleasure to walk around - so much fun. There was even a Beer Hall in one of the warehouses which offered not only a local dark beer (yummy) but also a lamb and veggie platter that was delicious. The technology continues to amaze - currency exchange machine - turning many different currencies into Yen! Many restaurants use machines that look similar to vending machines to take your order and your cash payment, even making change - I even managed to order an ice cream correctly today - thank God for pictures!! Definitely want to return here!

Today's tour of Aomori Prefecture included a trip to Hirosaki Castle and Neputa Village.  The ship was greeted by students playing music, flying flags and handing out origami samurai helmets with welcome messages. Hirosaki is a city about 90 minutes away from the city of Aomori. Hirosaki Castle is the name given to the whole park area, which includes the 400 year old gates, the gardens, outer and inner moats and the structure called the castle keep. Although today was cloudy with showers off and on the grounds of the castle were spectacular. There are over 2600 cherry trees on the grounds. As well as apple trees, which the Aomori prefecture is famous for. The cherry and apple trees do so well here because of the expert pruning and care taken by the farmers. The huge wooden gates at the entrances to the grounds are over 400 years old and you can see the arrow marks where they have indeed protected the Lord (a.k.s. Shogun) from enemies.
Following the castle the tour continued on to Neputa Village. The Village a large indoor facility that houses both the lanterns used for the annual Neputa Lantern Festival as well as artisans who make lacquered ware, dolls, lanterns and needlework. The lanterns are spectacular designs lighted and carried through the streets for the festival. The village also boasted a lovely small Japanese Garden, complete with ducks and koi in the pond. Finally the gift shop was filled with many apple products and soft ice cream - you guessed it apple flavoured!!!

Day 2 in Tokyo started with a visit to the Tokyo tower - the tower provides great views of the city and really shows off the number of trees and the greenspace. After the tower the tour drove through the many districts that make up Tokyo with information on the buildings and unique characteristics of each. Sadly there were not stops so it wasn't the best tour on offer.
The ship was docked in the city adjacent to a wonderful park. Walking the park was a great way to get some steps in and to see the amazing facilities and care taken in these public spaces. Fabulously groomed trails, plants, trees, public washrooms, places to sit and picnic areas abound. A wonderful community asset right on the waterfront. Like the other port visited in Japan there are well marked pedestrian paths and easy to navigate roads.

Adrian and I agree that we need to come back to Japan - we love it. The people in this country are friendly, welcoming, and helpful. The cities aren't overflowing with the history we've found in other countries, much is new, but the care that's taken is evident. No garbage - anywhere! Automation, everywhere. Servers and clers don't handle cash, everything that can be is automated. There are some beautiful older buildings but many more modern and interesting building architecture wise.
Today was day 1 in Tokyo and it was all about figuring out and using the monorail and the subway. Once mastered a visit to Ginzu was in order - this area is much like 5th avenue in New York. Very high end, major world brands. You can see the impact of the pandemic everywhere - lots of empty spaces. The malls also often have "museum" or idea spaces, a circular farm area - where the idea is explained and sample products are available for sale! Same with a really interesting hydroponic growing area. 
Overall the city is far greener than I ever imagined. More trees and open spaces. While the traffic and city is busy - it's nowhere near as packed or as busy as I had imagined. The ship is docked in the city which looks lovely at night.

-Lovely overcast day in Shimizu today. Thankful for the cloud cover, made walking about super enjoyable. Japanese cities are all so clean, thoughtfully laid our and super friendly to folks with disabilities - at least it seems so to us! Lots of elevators, designated walking and separate biking lanes, markings and sounds for the visually impaired and so on. Lots of public art and little touches - such as the soccer ball designed lights along the waterfront. Almost every city in Japan and even in places such as Vietnam had ferris wheels - Shimizu was no exception. Fun fact - the wheels in Japan turn - in other countries they were almost all stationary - Cape Town also an exception. There was even a small beach for families to enjoy near the theme park.
Everyone has been super friendly. Today was another walk-a-bout day, strolling the waterfront while heading for the famous fish market - Shimizu is well known for its tuna catch and other fish. I am still amazed by all the plastic food displays at restaurants. The fish displays in the market were almost works of art and the tech is everywhere - even a vending machine for canned fish.  Ordering lunch was an adventure, everything automated. While the signage gave you the number of the item you wanted to order often there were a couple choices for the same thing - with some friendly help lunch was ordered, paid for and even arrived. I am very proud, first toilets largely conquered and now lunch too!! My tempura shrimp and vegetables with rice was served with miso soup (not my favourite) some pickled carrots and something else which I liked and some pickles which I didn't. So much fun with food...

Today was a short day in Kobe, ship leaving at 2pm so we decided to enjoy more of the fabulous food on offer - I wanted to try some dumplings so that was out first mission. While there were a couple of dumpling restaurants to choose from we didn't make the best choice. We enjoyed the KObe beef so much our plan was to start with dumplings and then share some Kobe beef - alas the restaurant was sold out. It was also sold out of several of our other choices so we ended up with a lovely cold beer, shrimp dumplings and a dish of rice, pork and lettuce. What we did have was absolutely delicious - but not quite enough. We decided to return to a pastry shop we tried yesterday for cappuccinos and a dessert. Adrian had a grape and blueberry topped cheesecake and I tried something new. I had a dessert served in a coffee mug that had coffee cream something on the bottom and was topped with jellied coffee squares - watch for these, I plan to make this one when we get home! 
The ship was docked next to a port building where we could take pictures of our cabin - Adrian took my picture in the cabin. We had another drum band send us off - they were spectacular but hard to capture. Such power and energy the young people put into these performances - it's a shame they just don't translate into photos.
The ship had its second "pub night" in the Martini's lounge  it was at 5:45 pm (for us old folks I guess) - having missed the first one this one was a must see - the song choices and attendees made it feel more like being in a nursing home - a high end one though!!