Home at Last 4-9-26

​Our flight yesterday was just short of 9 hours on ANA.  

Their business class seats are different from any that I have ever used. Half the seats in business class are facing towards the rear of the plane and the other half are facing towards the front of the plane we happen to be sitting in seats out or facing towards the rear, and I thought that was weird, but being out not if they’re more a crash, facing towards the rear might be better. 

The other thing about the seats where that each seat was like a cubicle, which could be closed off from the aisle with a sliding door. The stewardess could see over the top of the sliding door, but it provided some sense of privacy and perhaps a slight noise dampening.

The food on the flight was very good.  You could choose either a continental menu or a Japanese menu, and we chose the Japanese menu. As I said before, the food was good, probably better than the food on any other flight we’ve been on.

We weighed ourselves this morning, and I was pleased that I only gained 2 pounds. I had been concerned that because of all of the good food on the cruise, that I would gain 5 pounds.  If we had weighed ourselves when we got off the ship, we probably would have showed a higher weight gain.  When we were in Tokyo, we walked a lot and ate more reasonably.

We decided that we are not ocean cruise material because the food at all 3 meals are good, but after a while, we seem to not be hungry when it's mealtime, which is uncomfortable. I think this is because there is something about desiring something when you don't have it all the time.

Thoughts about Japan:

We always end up buying clothes when we go to Japan because they have materials and styles that we prefer over US made clothing. On this trip, I found a long sleeve shirt that feels nice to wear, looks good, is stretchy, stays cool, easy to dry, and UV resistant.  Best of all the price was $15!

We seem to gravitate to Uniqlo, where I bought a couple of Airism T-shirts that feature odor control, stretchy, and keeps you cool.

I also bought a stainless steel toenail clipper that is very sharp and looks nice, as well as a little nose trimmer, also made out of stainless steel.

Going Home 4-8-26

​

The Suica card is a Japanese debit card used for transit (metro, buses, trains) as well as some shops and restaurants. We each downloaded them to our Apple wallets and loaded them with 1500 yen ($9.47).  I figured that we would have to add more yen before leaving Tokyo. In Tokyo, have only taken 2 short round trips, so we still had yen on our cards as of this morning.  I used it to buy breakfast today at the local 7-11 store, but still had about 900 yen left.  

Yesterday I had bought a long sleeve shirt that I really liked at a clothing store in a nearby mall, so we went back to that store to buy another. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to use the balance of my Suica card as part of the payment.

In Japan, convenience stores like 7-11  & Lawsons have really good food. I read that Japanese people go to these stores not for convenience items, but for their food. There were 2 convenience stores within 2 blocks of our Airbnb in Tokyo, so each morning we would buy our breakfast from them to eat at our room.  Here is 1 shelf at one store:

We went to Narita Airport, arriving around 1:00 pm.  We checked our bags, went through customs and immigration and were in the Ana lounge by 1:20 pm.  We were pleasantly surprised that the Ana lounge was almost empty, and the food was good, better than in any lounge we’ve been in. Here is a photo of the lounge.  You can see the back of Marge’s head towards the back of the photo

Tokyo 4-5-26

​We docked at the Tokyo cruise terminal this morning on a cold & rainy day.  Late in the morning, we took a taxi to the Tsukiji outer market.  I hadn’t planned on going there because I had been told that it was crowded, but I figured the weather might keep some people away.

Despite the cold and rain, it was crowded at the market. I took this photo just as we entered the other market - once we got in there it was packed.

I would hate to have been there on a nice day. 

We had lunch in a sushi bar that I found on Google Maps.

We ordered the Takumi shown below, plus an order of Marge’s favorite, broiled eel, and a roasted salmon collar for me.

With my beer and Marge’s sake, the total was 6850 yen, or $43.  It was a very nice lunch at a reasonable price. The taxi ride to and from lunch was a bit more than the cost of lunch.

I have Apple AirPods Pro earbuds that are supposed to translate live, but I found that most Japanese people we dealt with at restaurants or bakeries speak enough English for us to manage, and the earbuds aren’t yet good enough at translating live conversations.

Tomorrow am, we leave the ship for our Airbnb in the Ikebukuro area of Tokyo where we will stay for 3 nights.

Ikeburuo is a neighborhood that our friend Susan showed us years ago.  We like it because it’s not as crowded as more popular areas of Tokyo, and is full of little shops and restaurants.  It also has a department store with a food floor full of goodies. In Japan, big department stores have a food floor, usually the basement floor.

Tokyo - 4-5-26 & 4-6-26

​In Tokyo, I booked 3 nights at an Airbnb studio in the Ikeburo area, which our friend Susan Greening introduced to us about 4 stays ago in Tokyo.  We like it because it has a transit station, the Ikebukuro Station, and is full of eateries, bakeries and shops. Not unexpectedly, it has gotten more crowded.

In my list of eats were fluffy pancakes, and sushi.

For a late morning snack today, we had the pancakes, and they were more decadent than I had anticipated:

It was very good, but not something I could eat very often for my health.

Another dish I had read about was Omurice, which is a soft scrambled/custardy omelette draped over chicken-ketchup fried rice.  We were in a Tokyo mall and stopped for a snack.  I ordered their version, which was pretty good:

For dinner today, we went to my favorite sushi place in the world, Sushi no Uetsune - less than $20 for 9 servings:

At Sea 4-3-26

​Today was entirely at sea, since the ship decided to skip our last stop before Tokyo, in order avoid bad weather by arriving in Tokyo a day early. I had thought we would experience rough seas, but that has not materialized and the forecast is for decent weather between now and when we dock tomorrow morning in Tokyo.

Even though we did not get off the ship today, I was able to walk over 12,000 steps, principal by doing laps around the walking deck.

For dinner tonight, my entrée was Beef Bourgignon, one of my favorite French dishes.  I order it whenever I see it on a menu, including in Paris. This version was the best I have ever eaten!

The beef in the dish was very flavorful and most importantly, it was so tender that I could cut it with my soup spoon.  This photo doesn’t do it justice. The waiter said that the beef had been simmered over four days.

Kobe 4-2-26

​Today we landed in Kobe.  As usual, we took the shuttle bus to a downtown area, and walked a covered shopping mall. 

This mall seemed like the longest one we’ve been to. My iPhone showed that we had walked 10,500 steps, or about 3.9 miles today, all at the mall.  

Normally I don’t like shopping malls, but the ones in Japan are more entertaining.  All of the merchants were in small shops, and many had English explanations about their wares, or, in the case of eateries, pictures.

As usual, our 1st stop was a small shop were I bought a manju (sweet rice cake):

It was worth the calories!  It was so good that after lunch, on our way back to the shuttle bus pickup, I bought another to bring back to the ship.

We stopped for lunch at a place that served Kobe beef. My Kobe beef dish was served with a shrimp croquet.  

The beef was ok, but I think my taste buds are shifting to pork.

We stopped at a shop that sold knives and small tools, where I bought a toenail clipper and a nose hair trimmer, I think both are made of stainless steel. Not the most glamorous items, but the craftsmanship are what enticed me:

For dinner, we decided to eat in the main restaurant to see what we had been missing the past few nights.  

We both had an excellent pea soup.  

We shared a Caesar salad, which had too much dressing. 

Marge had a rack of lamb but she didn’t care for the sauce:

I had sweet & sour pork, but I only ate a few bites because I had some of Marge’s lamb.

For dessert, I had a very good coffee & chocolate trifle:

One thing that detracted from our dinner was that we sat next to a group of 4 people which included a loudmouth woman who had an opinion on everything. I had my Apple noise cancelling earphones, so I put one in my right ear to dampen the sound.

During dinner, the ship announced that  we would skip the next port, Nagasaki, due to poor weather concerns that the Port of Tokyo might close if we tried to dock at our normal date of April 5.  We will dock in Tokyo a day early and will be able to remain on the ship until April 5.

So we will be at sea the next 2 days in rough weather.

Kochi 4-1-26

​Today we docked in Kochi.  Late am, we took the ships shuttle to town.  It was raining, but there was a big covered mall near the shuttle stop so rain wasn’t a problem.  We walked to a large food mall filled with food booths.  Our 1st stop was a small booth that served zenzai & tea:

For lunch, I had a bowl of ramen and Marge had spring rolls:

Beppu - 3-31-26

​Today we landed at Beppu.  We took an excursion to a mountain overlooking the city, but the mountain was shrouded in clouds, so we couldn’t see much until we were on our way down and we could see the city.  Next we went to an area featuring steam vents.  We were able to soak our feet in a hot water pool, which felt nice and relaxing:

Cherry trees are in full bloom- here’s Marge in front of one in the stream vent area:

We wanted to cut back on food, so for dinner, we ate the afternoon antipasti brought to our room by our butler

and had an early dinner at a sandwich bar on the ship:

As the ship departed, a Taiko drum team played at the dock:

Kagoshima 3-30-26 Favorite Food Day

​Today we docked in Kagoshima.  We didn’t book any excursions today, so we just took the ship’s shuttle bus into town.  

All I knew about the city was that there was an area of shops, cafes and local shops.  Luckily the shuttle dropped us off next to that area. For this trip to Japan, I wanted to eat some of my favorite Japanese foods: grilled manju (sweet red beans wrapped in a rice cake), Zenzai (sweet red bean soup) and ramen.  Within an hour of getting off the shuttle, we had eaten the 1st 2 items and were sitting in a restaurant eating the best ramen I’ve ever had.  

Here are some photos:

Manju in front of shop making them:

Zenzai:

Ramen:

Also on my list was to buy a sunblock that I had discovered on a prior trip to Japan and to buy umbrellas for both of us. We had read that we would encounter rain on the trip and that Japanese umbrellas were very good.  After long, on our way back to the shuttle bus, we found my sunblock and umbrellas.  It started to rain as we walked to the shuttle stop, so we lucked out again.

Back on the ship, after resting, we went to the afternoon tea.  We ate about half of what was brought to us:

Late in the afternoon, our butler brought some appetizers:

After all our treats today,  we skipped dinner.

Fukuoka 3-28-26

​Today we docked in Fukuoka, our first stop in Japan.  We took a shuttle bus into downtown Fukuoka and went exploring. 

I’m a sucker for sweets, so this young lady making a connection in a department store food floor caught my eye. It’s a ball of sweet red beam paste with whipped cream wrapped in a small pancake.

I bought one and they put it in a bag along with 2 cold packs.  It was really good!

We spent time & $ in our favorite Japanese store, Uniglo.

Tonight’s dinner on the ship was at a restaurant with the menu designed by Nobu Matsuhisa. 

Here are photos of most of the dishes:

Grilled eggplant:

Eel sushi:

Assorted sushi:

Vegetable tempura:

I thought it was a good meal, but not extraordinary as one would think a Nobu restaurant would be.

Busan 3-27-26

​Today we docked in Busan, South Korea, just before 8 AM. Here’s a photo of the port:

After breakfast, we went on a tour of Busan.  

One stop was the Busan fish market, which reminded me of Tokyo’s Tsukiji market, but on a smaller scale.

Here a photo of our ship on our return:

Later this afternoon, our butler brought us a tray of enticing appetizers:

My favorite dish is French onion soup, so when I saw it on tonight’s dinner menu, I had to order it.  This was the best FOS I’ve ever had, even better than the one at Papillon in Fremont, my former favorite, or FOS I’ve had in Paris:

You can see that there were plenty of simmered onion pieces, but they didn’t overpower the taste.  I also had another favorite dish, chicken pot pie, but it was disappointing.

Sea Day 3-26-26

​Today was entirely at sea since we were sailing from Incheon to Busan South Korea.

I walked a lot of laps around the ship, about 16,000 steps.

I checked out the afternoon tea for the first time. Here’s a photo.

There were lots goodies to choose/ogle, but I settled for a couple of bites of a  chocolate mousse & a bite of a small scone.

When I was back in the room later in the afternoon, our Butler brought us a tray of snacks, which we politely declined, but not before taking a picture:

We had dinner with a couple that we met that afternoon: the wife was a sansei (3d generation Japanese American) just a little older than me who was born just before her family was incarcerated during WW2.  I had intended just to eat two appetizers, when was a mushroom tart and another one was a couple of scallops, and the waitress talked me into having an entrée of a small lobster tail. No photos because we were too busy talking.

Boarding Day 3-25-26

​Today, the only things on our agenda was breakfast at the hotel, pack, taxi to the dock & board the Crystal Symphony.  Boarding was scheduled to start at noon.  We were ready to leave the hotel by 10:30 am, so we checked out of the room and went down to the lobby to order a taxi.  I didn’t want to arrive at the dock early because I pictured us waiting outside with our suitcases and backpacks.  

We arrived at the port around 11:30 am. I was pleasantly surprised by a number of things:

1. the passenger terminal was in a building

2. our ship was the only one docked there

3. There were plenty of Crystal staff members in the parking lot to greet us and take our suitcases.  

4. We were in the 1st group allowed to board, and we were seated for lunch by 12:15 pm

Lunch was a delicious buffet, but I just selected a few things to sample and they were all very good.

For dinner, I had a really good vegetable soup, that probably had a significant amount of cream to add to the taste. My entrée was a couple of small portions of veal steak, which was perfectly sized because I was mostly full after the soup.

During dinner, the ship started leaving Port, and I only knew that we were sailing because we were sitting by a window and we could see the movement.  The ship is the smoothest ship I can remember - there is no sense of movement.

One thing we noticed in contrast to our cruises on Viking, the other passengers are not as friendly as the ones on Viking. We really noticed this when we went to dinner and asked to be seated at a larger table than just for the two of us. The head waiter discouraged us from that, saying that we wouldn’t want to be sitting at a table for six people and be the only two people sitting at the table.  On our Viking cruises, we would always ask to be seated at a larger table and met many people that way.

We landed in Incheon

​We landed at the Incheon airport at around 3:30 PM on Tuesday, March 24. The food on the United business class fight was surprisingly good except for breakfast.

We took a short shuttle to the grand Hyatt Hotel, which is about a five minute ride from the airport. The flight was long, but I watched at least two movies and listen to my audiobook. I think I dozed off, listening to my audiobook, but not for very long.

For dinner, Marge was too tired to eat, so I went downstairs to the restaurant in the hotel. I didn’t plan to, but ended up eating the $67 buffet dinner, which was very good so I ate more than I should have.

Flight Day at Last!

​We left the house at 7 AM today, after planning & packing for a week.  We sped through security because there were no lines, & aided by the new TSA pre-check pre-scan.  We were in the United Polaris Lounge, sitting in the restaurant by 8:05 am!

Here’s the menu:

I ordered the granola and mushroom empanadas. 

The empanadas were excellent.  The granola was just ok.  

Catastrophe Avoided: After we finished eating, we were relaxing in the lounge area, and a lounge employee came up to me and asked if I was Robert Sakai.  I was thinking that something bad happened at home so it was an emergency call.  Turns out that I had dropped my travel wallet at the restaurant.  They saw my credit cards and my Global Entry card, which has my photo, so fortunately she found me.  

Cruise to South Korea & Japan 2026

 We are going on a Crystal Cruise starting 3-23-26 in Incheon, South Korea, with stops in Busan, SK, Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Beppu, Kochi, Kobe, Nagoya and ending in Tokyo, where we will stay 3 nights in the Ikebukuro area, then home.