Port Power

In the middle of Osaka, 2.2 million people living in “the city”, there is this lovely veggie garden, including a rice paddy and scarecrows, right next to the Umeda buildings. This structure is 30 years old and is in the top 20 buildings of the world (some sort of architectural designation). My excellent travel agent had never heard of it, nor had I before today.

This is my absolute favourite photograph, inspired by one take by our destination lecturer.

Views from the top floor below the skywalk. This photo from the bus was just to give another perspective of the escalators crossing under the upper floors.

Our second stop was the Umeda Sky Building. The two 40-storey towers (173m high) connect at their two uppermost storeys, with bridges and two escalators for crossing the wide atrium-like space in the centre. You ride three escalators to the 3rd floor, then take a lift to the 35th floor. That lift has glass walls, so you are looking over the city while you ascend. Then you take the escalator from the south tower to the north tower to the 38th floor. (For those in wheelchairs, there is an option to go to another lift and get there.) There is a “crater rim” walk on that level, with an inward facing glass wall. Then another set of stairs (or lift if needed) to the outside 360 degree skywalk. I did rather cower in the middle of the lift on the way up, but quite happily looked out over the city on the way down. I cautiously (fearfully?) side steeped to the inner glass wall of the skywalk to take a photo looking down at the escalators. What I do for my fellow Cruise Critic Members!

Thursday, September 28th. Another morning tour of Osaka, first visiting a Buddhist temple, the oldest in Japan. We observed while a monk chanted a personal prayer for a man and his son, which our guide said would have been for a family member who has died. A rear temple housed two large, gold buddhas. No photos could be taken inside the temple grounds, so here is only the entrance.

The second stop on our tour was a Shinto Shrine. I walked over the timber bridge and spent some time watching terrapins swimming around. A lake at the back of the complex had juvenile terrapins as well as one tiny one. There was young couple with their one month old baby attending the shrine to bless the baby. Last night was pretty quiet aboard as several guests were eating out and/or doing the harbour cruise dinner. Others had taken the train to Kyoto and were spending the night there. My new trivia team, although with only 5 of us, won! Who would have known that remembering Popeye’s father was called “Pappy” would make the difference? I have no idea how I remembered that!! Four of us ate at Silver Note. The jazz duo are really very good.

The two hours there went far more quickly than expected. There was an interesting diorama of the life of Hideyoshi Toyotomi. The last feature is a model of the castle and its environs in the Tokugawa period when it had expanded and had a new outer moat. The inner moat was the border in the previous generation.

The samurai helmets were interesting. Many are made of lead. What a headache! What looked like metal was often tightly woven fabric using metal threads, which gave strength and flexibility. This was mainly seen on the body armour.

Wednesday, September 27th. Osaka overnight. This morning’s tour was to Osaka Castle followed by a Shinto Shrine. It was 32C today, too. Our tour bus only had 20 guests, which was a manageable number. We wandered around the gardens a bit while awaiting our time slot to enter th3 Castle. There was a long queue for the lift (elevator), so some of us walked up. At each floor we toured the whole area before going up to the next floor. The view from the 8th floor was over the grounds and then the city intruding.

So do I. This is the second port where the drums were played. Love them! And we are honoured the young people took the time to play for us. In early April on my land tour, we stayed at a resort right by Mount Fuji. We crossed the lake on a boat. Saw nothing! Fog all across the lake, fog obliterating the sky. The downside though, is the temperature. Yesterday was a pleasant 27C, but today was 32C. It is still very hot in much of Japan. Forget about ABC in Europe, here it’s “another bloody shrine”! I would skip tomorrow’s excursion to yet another shrine except that it also goes to that incredible building with escalators seemingly in mid air miles above the ground! I need a good foot massage, but not at Zaharia Spa prices!

A wonderful welcome to Osaka this morning by these young people.

The Shimizu area mainly grows tea and mandarins. There were neat rows of tea bushes over large areas, but even squeezed into land between buildings along the main road. The waterfalls were lovely, worth the walk down all those stairs. And then back up, of course! And again…. The guide said Mount Fuji was about 15km away.

The Muse was leaving Shimizu at 1:30pm, so tours started early. I was on one of the tours to the Segentaishi Shrine and Shiraito Waterfalls. It was a warm, sunny day today. The bus only had 20 guests and the excellent guide was the tour guides’ boss. The shrine was nice, but it was the water coming from inside the mountains that made it such a lovely place to visit. So clear! Samurai used to bathe in the ponds before entering the shrine. In fact as the bus left, I saw an older man standing in one of the pools (dressed but bare chested) washing himself. You can see the trout quite clearly. Mount Fuji is always there.

After the Welcome show in the Venetian Lounge last night, Jonathan read out the facts and figures, which always interest me. Silver Muse is full this trip, with 560 guests. There are 23 solo guests. There are guests of 28 nationalities! There is one person from Malaysia, two from Korea, two from Mexico, six from Austria, etc. However, the main group numbers are quite different now, showing the international flavour of Silversea. 14 from New Zealand, 77 Canadians (a large French Canadian cohort), 92 from the UK, 102 Australians and 149 from USA.

Indeed I am. In fact, 105 remained aboard.

This morning we are docking in Shimizu. This was the view when I opened my curtains as the Muse sailed in. I always thought there was snow on top? Apparently not. Mount Fuji.

I am flying straight home after disembarking as I have another land trip in Europe to get to. Several passengers are staying on, and I’m sure you will receive suggestions from other CC members.

I visited Japan in late March to early April this year for the cherry blossom season. It was gorgeous. That was a land trip by bus and bullet train, with two- and three-night hotel stays. A cruise goes mostly to very different places, and I think is perfect for an overview of Japan for a first visit. A cruise also complements the land visit as the destination lecturer provides more information on history and culture as well as places to see.

Whoops! I didn’t proof read.

The second stop was at the Sankeien Garden. This was the former home and grounds of the Yanohara family. The main garden posts were built in 1906 during the Meiji era. However there is also a temple built in 1634 that was moved to these gardens in 1907. All that doesn’t matter. It was a warm, sunny morning and we thoroughly enjoyed walking through these beautiful gardens and around the lake, as well as through the original residence. As is usual in Japan, the trees had been shaped and trimmed during their growth to achieve harmonious displays. We arrived back to the ship about 12:30pm for lunch at La Terrazza, a glass or two of Pommery champagne, and time to put a load of washing on. Unfortunately domestic chores still need attending to! A few new passengers were aboard, but most came streaming through after 1:30pm. Now to sit back and relax until the next port destination lecture at 6:00pm. Evelyn is excellent and it is good to find find she is remaining on board.

The half day tour went first to the Kawasaki Daishi Buddhist temple. For the first time ever when I’ve visited Japan, there were no other tourists there! The temple was calm, quiet and peaceful. A few locals came and prayed. Besides the temple and five storey pagoda, there was a lovely garden and large pond with koi, including a few of a lovely soft gold colour.

This morning those of us in transit had the choice of several tours. When I left my cabin and walked through Dolce Vita, the lounge was quite full of departing passengers awaiting their colour call. Oh, how nice to simply walk through without the carry-on following behind! There are 104 passengers continuing on around Japan, so about one-quarter of guests from the trans Pacific leg. This cruise is full at around 560 guests, so one-fifth of the passengers are staying on. Yokohama port.

This blog is to continue with the next leg on Silver Muse, a circumnavigation of Japan including Busan, South Korea. Please note that I tend not to photograph food, but I will try to remember when there are special events or dinners.

Thank you, @photosg for you pr travel blog. I have decided to try and fill in the gap until @drron29 takes over for their cruise to Honk Kong, Singapore and Cairns. Have a safe trip home.

Okay, I’m convinced! I will look up where I can purchase. For those experienced in Arctic travel, would you wear the same boots for Iceland-to-Greenland in June?