Live(ish) Cruising From Japan

[MMDown Under]

1 minute ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Room service has been a bit hit and miss unfortunately. I'll try to remember to take some photos.

 

Yes, we have a lovely balcony. It was too hot sitting on it yesterday at Okinawa. Today at Keelung it's been a bit showery but it might clear up later. The balcony is covered though.on.  

Casually mention you are going to take photos of the food so they may take better care of the presentation.  We eat with our eyes!  I thought you'd have a balcony. Cruising across the Atlantic, it was recommended you choose a cabin on a certain side otherwise it was too hot for the balcony.  I would have never thaught of that. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

Bugger.

Get well & out of ISO soon. I am curious if you have had a recent booster, and whether we are going to benefit from a boost before our next cruise.

Our last booster was in May. We were due for the next this month or whenever it is released. Oh well, I guess we got our " booster" the hard way! 🙁

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just now, MMDown Under said:

Casually mention you are going to take photos of the food so they may take better care of the presentation.  We eat with our eyes!  I thought you'd have a balcony. Cruising across the Atlantic, it was recommended you choose a cabin on a certain side otherwise it was too hot for the balcony.  I would have never thaught of that. 

At a port it also depends which way the ship is facing when it's docked - we caught the afternoon sun yesterday because of that.

 

Some of the food presentation has been good, it really depends which restaurant we order from. We order through room service and they pass it on to the restaurant I guess.

Edited November 17, 2023 by OzKiwiJJ

[MMDown Under]

2 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Yes, the variants are changing rapidly plus we've been exposed to people from all parts of the world so who knows which variant we caught. Apparently we're the only ones onboard with it and hadn't mingled too much before being diagnosed. Hopefully we haven't passed it on to anyone. So far the group we are travelling with are OK.

I'm extra careful at airline hubs when passengers join from lots of different countries.  Try daughter is flying via Doha to NY at end of this month.  She had a recent Covid vaccination, but I'm not confident how effective it is. That is great news that no-one in your group has Covid. Did you do any tours in Japan?

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just now, MMDown Under said:

I'm extra careful at airline hubs when passengers join from lots of different countries.  Try daughter is flying via Doha to NY at end of this month.  She had a recent Covid vaccination, but I'm not confident how effective it is. That is great news that no-one in your group has Covid. Did you do any tours in Japan?

Yes, we did a couple. 

[MMDown Under]

1 minute ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

At a port it also depends which way the ship is facing when it's docked - we caught the afternoon sun yesterday because of that.

 

Some of the food presentation has been good, it really depends which restaurant we order from. 

 

 

Do you have an umbrella for protection from the sun whilst in port?  If not borrow one from the ship.

[Blackduck59]

10 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

Casually mention you are going to take photos of the food so they may take better care of the presentation.  We eat with our eyes!  I thought you'd have a balcony. Cruising across the Atlantic, it was recommended you choose a cabin on a certain side otherwise it was too hot for the balcony.  I would have never thaught of that. 

 One of the explanations for the word POSH is Port Out Starboard Home had to do with cabin selection. Unfortunately I can't recall where you were sailing to or from or if you wanted to be in the sun or shade.

Edited November 17, 2023 by Blackduck59

[MMDown Under]

17 minutes ago, Blackduck59 said:

 One of the explanations for the word POSH is Port Out Starboard Home had to do with cabin selection. Unfortunately I can't recall where you were sailing to or from or if you wanted to be in the sun or shade.

I was cruising from USA to Rotterdam. 

[Blackduck59]

13 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

I was cruising from USA to Rotterdam. 

I guess in the summer for that route "POSH" would put you on the sunny side and being an Atlantic crossing that may be a good thing.

[lyndarra]

8 minutes ago, Blackduck59 said:

I guess in the summer for that route "POSH" would put you on the sunny side and being an Atlantic crossing that may be a good thing.

That would be SOPH.

POSH would work from UK/Europe-USA return.

[Blackduck59]

1 minute ago, lyndarra said:

That would be SOPH.

POSH would work from UK/Europe-USA return.

Rather than muck up Julies thread let's move POSH to the different thread. 

[MicCanberra]

I know some prefer to SHOP, than not.

[Stickman1990]

2 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

Do you have an umbrella for protection from the sun whilst in port?  If not borrow one from the ship.

Theres an umbrella standard in every suite 

Its a lovely sunny day - about 20 degrees in Taipei today 

[Stickman1990]

3 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I'm not sure how they're handling immigration for Taipei

They gave us a photocopy of our passport page which we were required to show to Taiwan immigration as we exited - it was a very cursory inspection. They were however super vigilant for any food products being taken ashore - they insisted the only thing that could be bought ashore was water

 

After leaving Okinawa and Japan Regent retained our passports to enable bulk clearance into Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand 

[MMDown Under]

4 minutes ago, Stickman1990 said:

Theres an umbrella standard in every suite 

Its a lovely sunny day - about 20 degrees in Taipei today 

Enjoy the lovely cool sunny day.   

 

24 minutes ago, Stickman1990 said:

Theres an umbrella standard in every suite 

Its a lovely sunny day - about 20 degrees in Taipei today 

It is a muggy 17-28 in Brisbane today 80% chance of showers

[Aus Traveller]

4 hours ago, Blackduck59 said:

 One of the explanations for the word POSH is Port Out Starboard Home had to do with cabin selection. Unfortunately I can't recall where you were sailing to or from or if you wanted to be in the sun or shade.

The POSH acronym applied for people sailing from Britain to British possessions in the Far East - India or Hong Hong. This was in the days before air conditioning in ships.

[MicCanberra]

A popular folk etymology holds that the term is an acronym for "port out, starboard home", describing the cooler, north-facing cabins taken by the most aristocratic or rich passengers travelling from Britain to India and back.

[MMDown Under]

23 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Yes, we did a couple. 

I hope you are still enjoying having your food delivered.  Can you get books from the library, or do you have your own books and magazines?

[NSWP]

Get well soon Julie and Rolf.   How does Regent ISO cabin service, i.e. food/drinks, compare with what you experienced on Princess?

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, MMDown Under said:

I hope you are still enjoying having your food delivered.  Can you get books from the library, or do you have your own books and magazines?

We both have Kindles loaded with plenty of books.

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, NSWP said:

Get well soon Julie and Rolf.   How does Regent ISO cabin service, i.e. food/drinks, compare with what you experienced on Princess?

It was far easier on Princess and the hot food arrived hotter. However we have a much greater choice on Regent as they have five restaurants as well as the buffet and pool grill. At least one of the restaurants is open for lunch every day including port days, and different one(s) each day.

 

Neither of us is feeling like drinking alcohol at the moment. I've just been having tea. Getting decent espresso is a bit of a challenge so Rolf can't be bothered trying room service coffee at the moment.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Wed 8th Nov - At Sea

 

Our final sea day on the Diamond cruise. No alarm for us this morning, we slept in so had to go to the buffet yet again for breakfast. That also meant we were too late for trivia.

 

We went to the Good Spirits Bar so Rolf could get a decent espresso. Getting espressos in the Horizon Court was more miss than hit! We scored a good spot by the window. I had a pot of tea which takes me longer to drink than Rolf's espresso.

 

We had lunch in the MDR then went back to our cabin to tackle the packing. Again we had to pack strategically - clothes for the couple of days in Tokyo, and clothes that wouldn't be needed until we boarded the Regent cruise. We had one suitcase that was mostly still fully packed with hotter climate clothing so just added a few things to that.

 

We had a final cocktail in the Wheelhouse Bar then headed down for dinner.

 

I finally got to try one of the Japanese appetisers I'd been eyeing all cruise - marinated octopus in soy broth. It was delicious.

 

Rolf had eggplant hummous. I stuck to the Japanese theme with braised pork belly with vegetables while Rolf had a New York Striploin steak. I can't remember what I had for dessert, Rolf had the Baked Alaska which was served as an individual portion not a slice of a big Baked Alaska. It came with a message written on the plate.

 

Thank goodness they didn't have the usual Baked Alaska parade through the dining room - on that ship it wouldn't be practical with one large MDR aft and four small ones mid-ships. Instead they paraded around the Plaza deck so could be acknowledged by passengers on all levels of the Atrium. Much better and no grotty napkin-waving! Our wonderful waiter  Ana Joy, is in the middle nearest us but facing away from us.

 

There were the usual speeches.

 

The band then took over so we hit the dance floor for one dance before retiring for the night.

 

It's been a great cruise!

Edited November 18, 2023 by OzKiwiJJ

[OzKiwiJJ]

Thu 9th Nov - Disembarkation - Transfer to Tokyo

 

We didn't have much left to pack up so didn't have to wake up too early. We were out of our cabin by 8am and had a leisurely breakfast in the MDR. Our disembarkation time wasn't until 9:45am but by the we'd finished breakfast and made it to the P.E.S disembarkation lounge they were calling our group - about 40 minutes early.

 

Yokohama cruise terminal is so efficient. As soon as we started picking out our bags a porter was there with a trolley for us - well, actually we needed two this time as we had further to wheel them so less risk of something falling off with two trolleys.

 

We had a crazy taxi driver. He seemed to be having great fun ducking through the traffic and whenever he did a tricky maneuvre he'd turn his head and grin at us. However he got us to our Tokyo hotel OK with only one wrong turn. It's actually a bit tricky to get to this hotel by car, you have to approach it on the correct side of the road.

 

We got to the hotel just before 11am so expected to just be able to drop off our bags but we were lucky, our hotel room ready on arrival. We quickly unpacked what we needed for the next two days then headed off to get some more cash, top up our Suico cards, then find the right platform for the train to Asakusa. It took a while - Shimbashi station is huge and also links through to Shiodome station - but we got there in the end.

 

As usual it was very crowded when we arrived in Asakusa and we'd come out of an exit from the train station that we didn't know. However I managed to orient myself very quickly - we just had to cross the road to the temple gate.

 

 

Our first priority was lunch. After wandering around for a while we found a nice-looking restaurant that had tasty looking Tempura. Oh heck! The table they offered us was traditional Japanese seating albeit with a footwell. I managed to get down and seated. Getting up again will be a challenge.

 

The tempura was delicious. While enjoying our meal I worked out a relatively easy way to get up - I swung my legs out of the footwell (not very gracefully) then shuffled along a bit on my butt until I was alongside the step up to the dining area. Then all I had to do was swivel and put my feet down to the floor below the step. Then I could stand up. Phew!

 

We wandered along to the temple to find out our fortunes. you pay 100yen, then shake a metal cylinder until a stick comes out. The stick has a number in Japanese characters. Match the number with one on an array of little drawers, open the drawer and take a paper. If the fortune is good you keep it, if it's bad you fold it then tie it on a rack to be burnt.

 

My fortune was mostly good but came with warning a warning "You should be careful in health all the time during your trip".

 

The Temple buildings were hard to photograph because of the crowds.

 

 

 

Our main reason for going to Asakusa was to find the shop that sold beautiful, high-quality chopsticks, many of which are dishwasher-safe. We'd bought some last time we were in Japan, in 2018, and really wanted some more. At first I couldn't find the shop. I was fairly sure I knew where it was but it had moved. I found it eventually and we each picked out four pairs of chopsticks.

 

Then we headed back to the station. This time we were taking a different line as we wanted to stop in Ginza. I recognised that entrance to the station immediately. The train was very crowded so we ended up standing initially. There were three schoolgirls sitting in front of us. At first they tried to pretend we weren't there but after a couple of stops they stood up and offered us the seats. Since my back was still acting up I was very thankful for that.

 

We stopped at a very fancy cafe for refreshments, then found the Uniqlo store, which was new since we were last in Tokyo. Our eldest GD loves their clothes, they are very good quality and much cheaper than Australian brands e.g. identical look and quality tshirts in Australia - Uniqlo $20, Sportscraft $69.99!  Rolf likes their tshirts but I usually can't find anything to fit me. However I had found two nice oversized jumpers before we left home. The Uniqlo store is quite narrow but has 12 floors, so we went up to level 10 and worked our way down. Of course it was all winterwear so nothing that interested Rolf.

 

 

We got a taxi back to our hotel as we were feeling tired.

 

After a rest and a shower it was time to meet up with our friends, including Stickman1990 who used to travel to Japan regularly for work, and who knows his way around Tokyo quite well. He recommended a restaurant nearby where they used to do kaiseki dinners and that had great views. When we got there they no longer did the Kaiseki dinners, which would have made ordering very easy. However they could offer us a private room but not with views. We decided to do that even though it meant Japanese seating again.

 

After a fair amount of discussion we decided on sashimi, beef steak, pork, and cucumber pickles. We were served pickled lotus roots as a starter. Then we had to work out the drinks - beer, wine (I suggested a chablis) or sake. It was a bit chaotic but we ate well. Somehow the price was a lot less than we expected (I'm sure they missed charging us for the wine).

 

After dinner most of us decided to go for drinks at the nearby Conrad, which also had great views. I had a Remy Martin which was very reasonably priced. We headed back to our hotel after one drink but the others stayed on for a while.

[MicCanberra]

27 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We both have Kindles loaded with plenty of books.

Must be heavy.

[Mareblu]

Loving your journey….looking forward to the next chapter.  Hope you’re both improving rapidly.