mj_holiday

Today we are in the town of Shimizu. Our excursion is a photo op tour for Mount Fuji. Our guide was very informative about the area. He explained information such as the rain on Mount Fuji travels through the volcanic soil, is purified and ends up in a spring for drinking water. It was a hazy day. We were told that yellow sand in the air is coming from China. We were also told that the cedar trees are releasing a lot of pollen, which is the reason so many people are wearing mask. Our first stop to take pictures ended up having a steep incline with lots of steps. DH didn’t attempt it. I did attempt it but only made it half up, but I still got a couple pictures of Mount Fuji. Our second stop was to a pine tree forest. Our guide explained that during World War II, Japan ran out of oil and developed a method to extract oil from burning the pine trees. In the pine tree forest, the trees do not stand tall and erect as the Douglas fir that I am used to. These limbs are all over the place. It was very peaceful setting, and the sand was beautiful. The ocean brought in the sand and gravel from Mount Fuji. After seeing the pine trees, we took another walk to a small kiosk area that sold snacks and some souvenirs. I bought a snack I have no idea what it’s like. We’ll find out back at the cabin.

It was very crowded. Getting up to the shrine to offer your prayers. There was also security enforcing no pictures and no talking. After the shrine, we went to a garden inside Tokyo. DH and I walked in far enough to use a facilities. It looked very nice. We were just exhausted. Their brochures showed what flowered by the month, but their spring has been late this year. The last stop was a walk by the emperors palace, the front gardens and lawns around the palace were beautiful. They do have an interesting way of making benches to sit in. We have seen these several places. We finally made it to Port, check in was a breeze. We soon had a glass of champagne and was escorted to our Muster station. Then we were escorted to our cabin. We dropped our carry-ons and headed to the pool grill for something to eat. I tried the lobster nachos which I have been hearing a lot about. Our luggage was delivered by the time we finished with lunch. We unpacked and made ourselves at home in our home for the next 30 days. Our suite attendant came by to introduce himself and we’re getting our bar set up with what we want. Then, on to dinner in Compass Rose and DH had his first lobster tail of the trip.

The room in Tokyo Hilton did have a kettle and Nescafé along with tea.

Today’s the day we really start our journey. We were up very early, of course. Did I mention we have crossed 11 time zones Breakfast was nice and we packed our carry-ons and we’re ready to head to the meeting place. Our suitcases were picked up last night sometime. Since the ship will not be ready for us as we check out of the hotel, Regent is having our buses due 2 to 3 sightseeing stops Our first stop was to Meiji shrine. The tour guide told us it was a 20 minute walk. Due to this DH stayed on the bus. The 20 minute walk was a fast walk. We went by many barrels filled with saki or beer. These are offerings to the Emporer The Emporer Meiji enjoyed both wine and saki. . I made it to the shrine and went in under a large Torri wooden gate. It is very different style from Christian shrines that you may think of. Entering there was a place to wash your hands which I understand, is part of the ritual. (Sorry for the upside down photo).

Do not know why the previous photo is upside down, I added it the same way I added the first two. We are now getting ready to head to the ship. I will start a new thread just for the cruise. Watch for it in a couple days.

Later on in the afternoon, those partaking and T took on a different air. More people were dressed up and several young women were with their parents. It was a nice enough event that many people were taking pictures. For dinner we had reservations at St. George in our hotel. DH wanted and got a flight of three Japanese whiskeys. The flight was elegantly served on a wooden tray which each whiskey identified by its genre. We had a nice small dinner afterwards and the food was excellent.

Our Easter Sunday was quiet while we decided to re-sync our inner clocks with the time in Japan. After breakfast, we went shopping in the arcade attached to the hotel. There were lots of interesting stores, quite a few were closed for the day. We were able to find the toiletries we needed. There was a store that looked like it sold custom made kimonos. Lots of beautiful silk on display. We also saw several women in the shopping arcade in kimonos that weren’t connected with the shop. After shopping, we went back to the hotel, and wanted some refreshments. Most of the restaurants were completely full with people doing afternoon tea. We found a table in the Zatta bar. It was interesting how full the restaurants were with people partaking in afternoon tea. The set up for the tea was very interesting, and none of my pictures came out. I did find out what looked like cloth magazine racks that were next to tables and barstools were used for. They are used to store packages and your purse while you’re at the table. I hope my pictures make it through.

You mentioned seeing many women that had rented kimonos to memorialize the day. Do you have any further information on what they were memorializing for the day? I also saw many women, more than I expected, in kimonos on Sunday.

The tour was a half day tour that would take us to two places. We had a guide that was a certified guide, her English was good with a heavy accent, and she is a schoolteacher during the year. She did not have a lot of extra informative information for us like I like to hear from guides, but she had the facts about the places we were heading per the write up. The description of this tour basically said we would be taken to the site and then be on our own with free time and that’s what happened. Some on the bus wanted more information and to be taken around the sites. The first place we went was Odbaiba, which is a man-made island that was made to protect Tokyo from Admiral Perry. My history is rusty on the exact history and I will be checking it out when I get home. There is a copy of the Statue of Liberty on this island, much smaller, and it looks like some beautiful gardens to go through. The next place we went to was an area called Ginza, This is a shopping district with lots of restaurants, kabuki theater, galleries, anything you could want. Our guide explained where we were to meet and we had about an hour and a half. DH and I walked through one large shopping center, which had very high end clothes. We wanted a place to have a drink and ask someone who told us B2 take the elevator, which we did. As soon as we got off of the elevator we found a very nice wine bar and had a glass of wine. After the refreshment we walked around the entire B2 and the whole floor is filled with small bars, bourbon shop, candy shops, cookie shops, lots of stuff to eat. The bourbon store had bottles of bourbon priced at 300000 yen. Guess we’ll look someplace else for a bottle of Japanese bourbon. DH and I decided this would be a nice area to come to the next day. After we got back to the hotel, we decided we needed to have some lunch, this was to be a late lunch. There was only one of the restaurants opened for lunch at 3 PM. The Chinese restaurant. The other restaurants were being set up for afternoon tea. The food was very good and we had a very nice lunch. After lunch while DH was resting I went off to see if I could find the train station that the guide kept pointing to. It wasn’t where I thought she was pointing to, but I eventually found it. Usually train stations are nice places to buy every day needs and they also have many restaurants. Since this was a Saturday, not much was open but I did find a Family Mart and was able to get some things we had forgotten and a delightful of array of Japanese beer. I really didn’t see any restaurants within walking distance of the Tokyo Hilton, and so that evening we went to have a light dinner in the hotel. I then remembered all the warnings given about needing reservations. Even the bar that we wanted to go back to was booked up. We found another bar on second floor and they had a table that was not reserved so we could sit and have some appetizers and drinks which is really all we needed since we had a late lunch. We made it an early evening, since we’re still adjusting to the travel and time distance.

Saturday morning found us up at 4am. We were down at breakfast shortly after it opened. It is a very large buffet. There was lots of variety of fruit, cereal, eggs, an omelette station, not much meat, juice, beans, just about anything you might want for breakfast. As we were leaving breakfast, we could see a very long line waiting to get in. Glad we started early. We were to gather for our tour at 10 am and headed down about 20 minutes early. As has been reported several times, the elevators just don’t support the numbers heading out at the same time. When we got to the meeting area we were given bus numbers and went to wait to be called. There was a man with the tour company giving bits and pieces of etiquette in Japan. He informed us that Japan was the last to open after Covid and many establishments just didn’t get the employees back. For example, some hotels won’t rent out all their rooms because they don’t have the staff to support that. It was not a long wait. Our bus was called and we headed out. DH and I were bringing up the rear. We got on the bus and several people told DH to take the front seat. That was nice. There were about 25 on the bus.

The kettle was in a cabinet under the teapot way in the back.

A couple people on the plane complained they couldn’t get a good enough picture of their passport to work. I only tried once and after that I just hand entered the data. Taking our picture was easier than I expected. I don’t know how much before your trip to work it. I just gave myself enough time to be able bad attempts. Forgap - Good for you for remembering you needed to update QR info, I am not sure I would think of that.

Don’t know if I will be able to post daily but will try. After our nonstop flight from DFW, we arrived at Narita airport. I had requested a wheelchair for DH since he had recent back surgery and were met at the end of the ramp as we got off the plane. T thank you. The wheelchair attendant helped us get through immigration and customs and I’m very glad I had the QR codes completed. They did have dogs in the luggage area and the customs area and that’s probably their way to find narcotics and other illegal drugs but I don’t think my blood pressure medicine caused the dog to even look at it a second time. We were met by Regents representatives and we had a 15 minute walk to where the bus would pick us up. Had to leave the wheelchair in the airport. It was a 2 1/2 hour bus ride to the Tokyo, Hilton, lots of traffic, but a couple people think the bus driver went around in a circle a couple times, I just slept. Check in at the Tokyo Hilton was very efficient and they had people ready to take our luggage up to our room. There is lots of information about restaurant reservations in the hotel, we weren’t ready for a big meal, and we went to St. George’s bar and had a cheese plate and drinks and listen to a small band. Our hotel room is very nice and very comfortable. No in suite coffee maker, there is a teapot and cups and tea, but I haven’t found the hot water yet. Breakfast is provided and the tour doesn’t leave until 10 AM so it looks like we will have plenty of time to get settled and have some breakfast. That’s all for now.

We had better luck with flights. I definitely am glad I had the QR codes. I wasn’t sure how to get them on my phone so had printouts which worked just great.

Thanks for your comments. This is new for us, DH recently had back surgery. There is a place on the airline web where you manage your air tickets to request a wheelchair.

The on line survey at the end of the cruise was implemented before Covid. This survey is done using the intranet (not the internet). The intranet is also used throughout the ship for things like restaurant orders, account balances etc. It is a learning experience getting logged on for the survey. Once I get logged on, I found it fairly easy to complete. But, I do not like the fact that I am not able to rate/discuss the last couple of days. It is my understanding that the midcruise survey stays on the ship. The end of cruise survey goes to corporate for metrics, passenger comments and process issues, etc.and this would be reported back to the ship. It would be interesting to see the percentage of surveys completed compared to lines that use the mail surveys after you disembark. It is a shame that Regent newbies somehow did not get the notice about the survey. I have found out I have missed some things that are displayed in Passages in a box like ads are. I use to just skip over these, not any more.

Thanks for your responses. Looking at the airport web for reserving a wheel chair, they also mentioned carts that you get at central locations. My husband can walk, just not very far. Does anyone know about getting a cart? How close are they to the gates?

Dec 2022 we did Cape Town to Cape Town, things just opening up from Covid. We did a Pre-cruise to Victoria Falls. All of the logistics were great. In J'burg a Regent rep walked us (just across a road) to the Intercontinental gave us green ribbons for our suitcases that were to go to the ship. The next morning the Rep got us to the airport and walked us as far as security. After we got out of immigration in Zimbabwe we were met by a rep and we went to the Victoria Falls Hotel. The only hiccup during the trip was the hotel had different expectations for our eating (way more dinners planned) than we did. We headed to Cape Town had delayed flights and were late getting in, were met by a Rep and taken to the Radisson Blu, our suitcases we had left with a ribbon were in our room shrink wrapped. Our post trip, Winelands, had some very nice winemaking places to go and the Aquila Camp was good, but no over night. We stayed in Cape Town. I to was worried about getting into the vehicles, the one we got into to go see animals was very, very easy to get into. If looking at 4-6 days type safaris, I would try to find some pictures of the vehicles. Attached is the vehicle used at Aquila and they had a ramp to step from. DH and I are not ones to head to a camp for 3 or 4 days, so this suited us.

For those of you who have flown into Narito, could you give me an estimate as to how far is it to luggage and customs/immigration. I am trying to decide if I need to reserve a wheelchair for this walk.

hat is Le Club Voyage benefit?

You will love Copacabana. Thanks for starting this and taking us along with you.

We have gotten USA today in the past. For those who do not get paper newspapers, there was always a selection of newspapers in the library (at least pre-covid)

During Covid, Barbados advertised about their great web access and a great place to work from a distance. Then when cruising was just beginning to open up, it seemed like several cruise lines started or ended cruises at Barbados. Barbados is getting way more tourist than they can handle.

When you are eligible for a night in a hotel before the cruise, and you take a 3 day pre-cruise, you cannot combine the two as mentioned, but you will get the credit for not taking the included room.

thanks