Not a lot to tell about our first day in Japan. We arrived about 9.30am but because of having to go through immigration ( which they do onboard the ship) it was after 1pm before we went ashore.
We are usually up early and go up for breakfast at 6am. Then we go down to the atrium for a morning coffee.
After coffee and a walk outside on deck we head up to the Spinnaker lounge on deck 13 at the front of the ship and read for a while.
Most ships have the gym at the front so it gets the best views but having a lounge at the front is great as you have views right around three sides.
This is the view of Otaru as we docked. Again, we had fantastic weather!
We could see these people below working in the garden.
So after lunch we finally got off the ship, which is not far from town. I was expecting shuttle buses but there were none we decided to walk. After a visit to a 7-11 store to get some cash we walked for about half an hour through a residential area thinking we were going towards to shopping centre.
However we realised we were going in the wrong direction when we got close to the train station, so we turned back. We eventually made it to the shops, which were only 10 mins walk from the ship – if we’d walk in the right direction.
The views were lovely. We spent a couple of hours looking around before getting back to the ship about 4pm.
These lovely crocuses were flowering in middle of no-where.
Our porthole is the round one just under the flags, above the gangway – so its noisy early on port days as they set up just underneath us.
The last few days we’ve been eating in the restaurant instead of the buffet for a change. I wish we’d gone there earlier! I found out today that I can pre-order my meals for the next day which is much better and I’ve had some really lovely meals there. Tonights GF dessert was chocolate cake.
After dinner it was time to leave port and we were farewelled by these very energetic drummers.
We ended our day with a guest talent show. We’ve seen some very shows on this cruise, the entertainment has been some of the best we’ve seen overall. We were going to go to a late show as well but sleep won out as we’re still trying to adjust to the time changes.
Tomorrow is Hakadate.