This was my and my son's annual trip together (I'm 60 & he 35) to one of his dream destinations. He is deeply intrigued with Japanese culture, anime, gaming and food. We love our "Ramen" and are lucky as we have excellent authentic Japanese dining establishments here in Vancouver; I think we have tried most of the ramen available, not all, but most here... I did tons of research of where we were going to eat at each stop on our trip. Anyway, we were both eager though I found the research utterly exhausting - the trains and maps of each city were overwhelming and stressful to me. I really spent most of my time looking at food as that's what I like and it was so much fun deciding what to try. I had a full page listed of food items. When we booked, the Canadian dollar was strong against the yen—sadly, by the time we left, not so much. The Canadian dollar sucks big time ⬇️, even more now with the global economy uncertainties/tariffs... All my prices in this trip will be in Canadian dollars, sad, sad Canadian dollars...😞💰
💳 Booking & Costs (aka: Ouch 💸) :
We booked the cruise a year and a half ago with a $960 refundable deposit. When final payment came due, the real pain kicked in: $5,800 more—that’s about $2,900 each for an inside cabin on the Millennium.
- Insurance: full travel/medical coverage was another $300 each.
- Airport transfers: $200 each.
- Hotel in Yokohama: $1,050 for five nights (luckily, my son covered this one—thank you, kiddo! 🤗).
By this point, my wallet was crying, but at least the trip was finally real again, and excitement was building.
Our fare included:
- Premium Drink Package (a must, since martinis run $17 USD and the “Classic” package doesn’t cover them 😏).
- Basic WiFi
- Prepaid gratuities
My son was stoked—espresso martinis, fancy coffees, smoothies galore. I was equally happy with “anything premium” 🥂🫧✨. That made the drink package worth it.
We came prepared:
- Waterproof shoes
- Cooling towels
- Electrolyte pouches
- Mini UV umbrellas
- USB fans (one for the neck, one handheld)
- Battery packs
- Thermo cold-water bottles
- Bug spray (which tried to escape below)/Sunscreen
- Daypacks to haul it all around
🌡️ The Weather Factor:
I’d read the humidity could hit 100%. I am NOT good in it AT ALL; in fact I HATE it. Humidity is a total bummer on vacations for me... One of the cruise group peeps online said Japan in the summer is like being inside Satan's asshole, lol🐦🔥; writing that just made me think of "South Park" & Donald Trump, haha, but I digress and was glad to take a much-needed break from ugly politics 💩 - UGH... So, I stressed about humidity/heat as much as the trains instead. It was also typhoon season too so we expected lots of rain as well...🤷🏻♀️A couple weeks before we left my friend sent me a news article showing record-breaking temps of 107.2°F (42 °C) on August 5th‼️😵🔥. Anyway, I'm one of those people who prepare for the worst and then am happy if it's better - defensive pessimism...
Our flight was at 2 pm so we departed in a taxi at 10:30 am to YVR. Surprise, surprise (not), our luggage was overlimit so we had to spend time adjusting the weight between the two suitcases. We finally did and everything else was relatively painless. The flight itself was fine. Japan Airlines had wonderful service. Two hot meals (the breakfast was penne pasta with vegetable marinara with yogurt and apple/pineapple slices as the side 😜) and included all alcoholic beverages and the wine was good! We both agreed that it was one of our best flights ever, if you can ever say a 10-hour flight is good, that is...
Monday August 25th - Arrival in Yokohama:
We arrived at around 4 pm local time. I had pre-booked a car to take us to our hotel. That cost us $225 (¥24,000) for one way. Thankfully our e-sims were working upon landing. I had declared "controlled substance" on my online Japan customs check-in. I have a minimal dose of Lorazepam for anxiety and there was no way I wasn't going to bring it with me. A note about customs; even though the online form let me select to choose arrival for the whole family (and I added his name and answered his questions), they did not allow that once there. Every individual must have their own QR code they told me. My son had to fill out his while we got pulled out of line. The driver was waiting already as I had messaged right when we landed on the tarmac.
Then I got pulled for my "bringing drugs into the country" as the customs agent said. I was taken to a room, filled out a sheet to list all my problem drugs (I selected the one I mentioned). I gave him my prescription from the pharmacy/doctor and he took it and disappeared. It probably took around 15 minutes and he came back with my stamped passport and guided me out. My son was waiting right there for me. Whew...
By the time we grabbed our luggage, it was already pulled off the turnstile belt for us and we proceeded to another line and had to fill out another form for what we were declaring to bring into Japan. All told, we took about an hour to get out of the airport.
Our driver had great photos, instructions and I had sent a photo of my son and me so they could find us easier when we got out, per their request. Sure enough we walked the wrong way and this lovely lady chased us down. She spoke no English but showed us our photo and we were off. We had a very nice large 7 passenger SUV perfectly cool in A/C. It was 32°C so not the worst... The ride was two very long hours (I wished I had used the bathroom before we left!), but we made it.
Check in was smooth. We were on the 15th floor with a Harbour View which is below:
The room was nice, clean and had a kitchen (fridge/freezer/burner plate if you wanted to cook and microwave). The bathroom storage was teeny tiny, even worse than a cruise ship but the tub/shower and soaps/shampoo etc., were top notch (at least in smell - bergamot 🫖🥰👃).
The train station was below our hotel "Nihon-Odori". Grok had told me I could purchase a Suica card there but no I couldn't. I was able to get a Pasmo card though and it seemed both were the same and interchangeable. I loaded 10,000 ¥ or about $95 CAD and was ready to go...My son got his Suica card on his iPhone and loaded the same amount.
We went out to 7-11 for dinner (two minutes walk from hotel) and I was dying to try the egg salad sando.
They only had a half/half with tuna so I got that. It was as good as expected, IYKYK. I ate it before I even thought of taking a picture, so next time. We got a bunch of different things, so many that our bill came to $50 but that included a bottle of brut cava and a cab sav. My son wanted to try a frozen smoothie that you make yourself.
He truly enjoyed it. We went back to the room and had a gorge-fest feast and were stuffed. We both climbed into our beds at 10 pm and went out like a light. I woke about 3 am, then got up at 4 am. My son also was awake. So we decided to get ready and get out early to test using the trains...
Tuesday August 26th - Tokyo:
This was my first foray into Artificial Intelligence. For our itinerary I used "Grok " AI to help piece the days together for us. I printed them all at home before we left, to help steer each day once we got there (it was like a novel, I could barely squeeze it into a large oversized envelope!). I literally spent hours upon hours asking Grok shit, and then I'd get Chat GPT AI to check it, lol (yes, I have trust issues). That was good as they'd find errors in each other's "facts (I use that term loosely)". Then I FACT checked myself and found mistakes in both AI's, but regardless, it really helped in the planning. To me, Grok is the best of AI (maybe because it was my first?), your mileage may vary - choose your AI at your own risk, haha...
For Tokyo, as we were going to spend two full days there, I gave the AI every site we wanted to see, mentioned I wanted unique food not found at home and any other thoughts of things we shouldn't miss. AI (I call Grok "he", lol so I have to keep correcting myself 😆) did a great job as far as we were concerned though my son and I didn't really know enough; but everything we looked at that was suggested (and I researched all that too ad nauseum...💤), we kept in the itinerary. We had step by step directions for walking/trains (Google Maps & Navitime App to verify it all while there), and times to keep perspective. Hopefully this was all in a format that made the most efficient use of our time? We would see...
I can honestly say that Japan was the most monolithic trip I have ever planned (at least that I remember or maybe I'm just getting old🤷🏻♀️?). Here's an example, I found this map and then realized that EVERY map for each place I looked at was just as confusing 😕. My son did help with research though, but there was just oh so much to learn and take in; it was never ending...and the trains terrified me. Every day we talked about Japan and I could see the joy on his face - it made me go on, happily. However, one of my worst fears I struggle with is getting lost; it causes me panic & anxiety. Grok helped me through that, like a good friend would do 😉. I chose to think of the precious time I would spend with my son on this trip and how fortunate I was to have the opportunity 💜. I should mention that the ship excursions were "ridiculously" expensive for what was offered, we couldn't afford any of them; absolutely insane pricing for our budget (starting at roughly $200 - $500 each CAD $) so it was totally DIY for us... So buckle up, here we go with Grok, lol - and I just got to vent out all my planning woes, so yay 👏🏻:
We headed out of the room at about 6:30 am.
And here we were, ready to tackle my greatest fear of our trip...I can't lie, it was formidable for us. I ended up leaving it in my son's hands to figure out as with two of us, I was overwhelming him more. I thought it would be best for him as he's the calm, sensible one...
Our first stop was Tsukiji (two trains). Grok had recommended it as a "can't miss" stop and good for breakfast before it got super crowded. This actually turned out to be a good idea, but it did take us two hours on the train(s) to get there as opposed to the one hour it said... We think we messed up by not taking a commuter express train and took one with ALL the stops. We also had to learn about refreshing google in live time to make sure our info was correct, etc. etc. Then there's platform numbers, the different names of lines/colors, exits and probably more I've blocked out of my mind now, haha. That being said, it truly is a marvel how efficient and timely they work. I've never seen anything like it and everything was clean unlike our transit stations at home!!!
Thursday August 28th - Tokyo DisneySea:
Our last trip to Disney was 11 years ago! We prepaid our tickets through Klook at $170 for two one day passes. We decided on DisneySea as it was a unique park and didn't exist elsewhere. We loaded the tickets into the Disney app and it worked fine (barcodes from our computer screen). This gave us the ability to book reservations for that day so we booked dinner to try it out. I learned that if you're set on a particular restaurant you should get on that 30 days out, I guess like Disneyland, California was for booking Blue Bayou but I forgot and we took what we could two weeks out...
It was three trains to DisneySea and a very long journey (roughly 90 minutes?) that included a LOT of walking and navigating. We didn't make it by opening but by 10 am. We were sleeping lousy and only about 4 hours a night since arrival. For being so exhausted each night, it was frustrating as well-- that we couldn't crank out a good night of rest 😕.
Before we entered DisneySea we encountered the AquaSphere below just before the entrance which serves as the iconic symbol for the park's Mediterranean Harbor area and the park itself.
The ride was fun and we've never been on it before so that was nice to experience it. When we exited we saw the infamous turkey legs. We used to love these at Disney's California Adventure. We'd grab one and a loaf of sourdough and have a meal! Unfortunately it wasn't good here or what we remembered. It was grisly, super chewy and overly salty. We couldn't finish it and I'm glad we only bought one to share. Fail...$9.
We walked to "Tower of Terror" next which we have been on multiple times before, and my son really likes it. I just scream my head off on it. It was about a 50 minute queue so we braved it...
That was fun! All in Japanese but very similar to the others so I remembered it well. Then it was time for a drink! Grok had told me about Teddy Roosevelt's Lounge and said it had the best craft cocktails in the park, so off we went.
We had a minimal wait. They tell you how long you are allowed to stay and put that on your table (70 minutes, I believe?). Below was looking at the bar from our table:
The drinks were delicious and service was fantastic. Great spot, swanky and perfect place to escape the heat! We went back again later and shared an appetizer plate:
The food was very good. We had no complaints at all and it felt upscale/modern. Service felt a little off and staff weren't with that "Disney" vibe we like but because the food was yummy, it didn't really detract from the meal.
Friday August 29th - Yokohama:
Yay!!!! Yay!!!! We didn't have to train anywhere today, lol. We slept in slightly though my fitbit watch said it was only 4 hours of actual sleep, like usual... Our plan was to check out "Happy Pancake". I've been wanting to try one of these souffle thingys since I saw a place in Hawaii that we never got the chance to go to. It was a walk to Chinatown for them but super easy from our hotel.
We were waved in to sit wherever we liked and to use a QR code to order. We're used to that since covid...the descriptions below are theirs...
Honestly we were both wowed with how good these delights were, fluffy bites of heaven. If you've never tried these pancakes, if the opportunity arises, take it! They were prepared "made to order". It was noted in English at the tables it would take time because of that. I ordered a glass of summer wine and it was huge, haha so I enjoyed that, especially for breakfast! Best part was that it was around $40 for everything and son had iced coffee latte thingy. We sure couldn't complain and were very content and happy when leaving. After entering the heat again though I think I asked my son if it was time for a nap 😉?
Grok sent us for a "Yamashita Park" stroll. We actually loved it compared to walking in Tokyo - so calm and peaceful without the crowds. We were overlooking the harbour but it wasn't cool like you'd expect, the heat/humidity was the same and oppressive as always.... This weather right now just SUCKS BALLS. If it's possible not to visit in summer for your trip, I highly recommend you don't... They have a rose garden in this park, and many other flowers.
If you have no choice to visit in summer, be prepared to suffer... the usb fans and UV umbrellas really helped us though and made it bearable. Bug spray was needed too if you're prone to insect stings as I wound up with a couple random bites even while wearing "deet"🦟.
And below, we left the park and started walking to Minato Mirai 21 district of Yokohama.
We became unbearably miserable in the heat so decided we should stop inside the A/C at the "Red Brick Warehouse" shopping district, below.
I asked Grok for a "drug store" like I'd find at home and he sent us back to a mall (Yokohama World Porters) beside CupNoodle Museum. We used the "Go" taxi app as we decided we weren't walking there again in this heat. AI Grok was a fail again as the drugstore he listed wasn't at the complex and staff had no idea, BUT one lovely lady did tell us if it didn't need to be that particular store, there was another one in the complex. So, that was helpful and it got what we needed! I told Grok to update his (its) info and it said it would - more about this later... We looked at the shops, there is a "KitKat" store there and a HUGE Gashapon store as well that you could spend hours in...my son got very bored as I was looking at cosmetics and fake food gachas, haha. This mall had lots of food court stops and gourmet specialty shops.
Yes...I bought myself a cup noodle gacha 🍜. From there we walked to Yokohama Landmark Tower, below. There was a kids fairground along the way. Dusk was just beginning and it didn't feel quite as hot, though still just as humid.
We had a hard time finding where to go once inside. We stopped and asked at a food shop and the lady was just closing and counting her sales. She motioned for us to wait and then told her partner she'd be back. She walked us over half the mall, taking us up escalators right to the tower entrance. That is just how kind Japanese people are 😍. It was about $9 each to go up to the "sky garden" and the elevator goes at a high speed, our ears popped.
The views were lovely at night. There were people sitting around, enjoying a drink as well so a nice place to chill too.
Then we walked to the 7-11 Hammerhead Craft Beer store Grok had told me about. This was a great store for it! Lots of neat interesting choices and names. Unfortunately not practical for bringing home as souvenirs though.
There was also a great chocolate place in there Grok recommended called "VanillaBeans the Roastery". Worth a visit for sure and we bought a couple treats. We used the "Go" taxi app for dinner. It was about a 20 minute walk but it can be difficult to find restaurants just because of the names (though this one was clear as day, lol) and we did a lot of walking already. Anyway, the driver didn't know where it was so my awesome son navigated us to it from where he dropped us off. I had found this place when looking for ramen and chef featured lobster ramen so that was new to us.
Saturday, August30th - Cruise/Sail away:
We awoke to see our ship in port, below. We stayed in our room until checkout at 11 am and then walked/wheeled our heavy luggage down to the pier. My son actually did most of it and in that heat, it was impressive and helpful for me! Our cruise check-in time was 11:30 am. After trying the "free" internet I had to upgrade on my laptop as the only thing you could do with the "free" was use the Celebrity app - if you were lucky it would work but trying to send a photo message or anything else was hopeless.
We got onboard and were allowed in our rooms before 3 pm which was nice. We actually liked our room, it was just by "Guest Services" on the 3rd floor and very convenient mid-ship location. It felt spacious and it was nice to finally unpack and organize everything. It was tough living out of suitcases the last 5 days. Lots of plug outlets too which was welcome and not common in my past cruising experiences. I only have one more picture of this day which was a cucumber martini 🥂 and my view where I sat in the martini bar on the 4th floor. 11,400 steps walked.
Sunday August 31st - Mt. Fuji:
We were up early (5 am) today as we were in Shimizu port from 7 am - 4 pm only. It looked like the only way to get around was by taxi hire which was fine. It was cloudy out so there wasn't much hope of seeing Mt. Fuji. When we got out to the taxi area in the port I saw these tours that interested us:
Monday September 1st - Osaka:
OMG, the alarm rang early, another 4-hour sleep which was the repeating theme of our trip!!! We had pre-paid tickets for Expo. I went in 1986 due to it being in my hometown and wanted my son to experience it. But, I did try to cancel the tickets before we left to no avail as they were non-refundable. I tried to plead my case with heat problems causing medical issues but they replied with "so sorry, no can do". I tried to cancel because we'd only have a couple of hours there and no lottery system came through for us for any pavilions though we did apply. There really wasn't enough time to queue, browse/eat leisurely, etc. We decided to just make the best of it and we could say we went to Expo 2025 and got a fridge magnet, haha 😉 (as it turned out, a $225 fridge magnet made in China🙄).
I had a real problem with AI here. At first I had booked the East Gate because it said that was closest to the train/subway. And it was super easy from the port, quick walk to train, then two stops and we were there at Yumeshima station. BUT before I left, further research and AI said I should change my tickets to the West gate entry, which was wrong... It was a 1 mile walk (1.6 km) in horrible heat wave and I was hungover as shit. I was miserable, lol. AND they had no transportation option so walk it was. They would not let us enter from east gate. I was trying to be nice and not let my son suffer for my behavior the night before, but I can't lie - I was cranky and already didn't want to be there...I downed an electrolyte water while walking and it helped mildly...
I barely took any pictures. I really felt overwhelmed at how massively spread out everything was, the endless crowds/queues and not much relief from the heat. Nothing seemed intuitive and it just felt like walking to nowhere...We stopped for lunch at a food court. Probably the least memorable food I ate in Japan. I had cold noodles.
Tuesday September 2nd - Kobe:
We awoke this morning with a call from Guest Services saying they needed to talk to my son but wouldn't say why...he came back about 10 minutes later as I was still getting ready saying it was me they wanted to talk to. So we went out together. We were trying to leave at 10 am and it was close now. The manager and "security" came out after a 5-10 minute wait. The manager was "good cop", the security guy was "bad cop". They were talking about my drunk night and asked what I did. I told them I was in Sky Lounge till about 2 am with a couple of guys I met at the martini bar. My son told them I got home around that time. The security guy said, "yes, they are from the UK" talking about the men I was with....o.k. "big brother" was watching...
So then he asked what about the room I entered after? I was thinking they were accusing me of going with the "MI6 agents" (they told me that's what they were, haha), and I thought they were saying they were "Mission Impossible" agents as a bad joke - implying they were "Tom Cruise's"...but then it clicked on me about the wrong room I went to and it came flooding back into my mind. So I relayed that I remembered the incident and that it was by accident, I wasn't trying to get into random rooms and I'm sure they could see that since they looked at security footage. I told them it was innocent and if my key opened the wrong door, how and why did it? It was either my key opened the door or the occupants left it ajar and unlocked. The good cop manager told me I was very close to my room number but not quite and smiled. Bad cop told me with a serious frown and admonishment that I had to make sure going forward that I only entered my OWN room...
Anyway, I was ashamed (but admittedly relieved that was all it was), my son was embarrassed and then as we returned to our room to finish getting ready, he told told me "great mom, now I'm stuck babysitting you 😜"... To whoever's room I mistakenly opened, I sincerely apologize! When the door opened, I obviously thought it was mine...until I heard the gruff voice asking me what I was doing in there and to get OUT! I was just as freaked out as they were, even in my drunken state! Anyway, I never returned to the "martini bar" after that, haha. And, I will never know what room I went into, but did make it to our own from hereon thereafter...
We got on the trains for Kobe. Today was a luxury lunch having certified Kobe beef. At home I've only tried Wagyu and at ridiculously expensive prices. I literally dreamed of this day and couldn't wait. It was like the whole trip to me was based on this experience. I did research on my own for this. I found the restaurant recommended on one of the cruise groups and mostly that it was affordable. I made a reservation through facebook. They were pleasant and answered timely and I emailed about a week before to ask dress code and they answered saying there wasn't one as long as we weren't naked, haha! Google wanted us to take 3 trains but I told my son Grok had found a way in two in pre-trip planning and my son came up with it on an express train and off we went! We even got the first car with the conductor and got to watch our ride:
We had a bit of a problem when we reached the Express platform and we watched our train go right by us without stopping. It turned out we had to move up 2 spots. It was a 20-minute wait for the next one but we helped some young ladies from China who also missed the same train. They had very good English and were sweethearts. One of them even gave me a red envelope with money for "good luck". They were heading to Universal Studios and only needed this train for one stop. Anyway, once we got it we arrived in Kobe and proceeded to walk to the restaurant.
There were Kobe beef restaurants all over, a few at which I had considered...
And then we arrived! We were seated when we came in. One other couple joined this seating and they were from Korea. Son and I decided we were going all out and would order the 200 gram portions of both the sirloin and the filet and share, though the sirloin was the recommended choice from our server, and if you look at them, I can see why...
Chef's teppanyaki station was immaculate! He talked about the grill with great pride. Told us Steak Aoyama has been a family run business for 63 years, 3 generations (he is 3rd), only 8 seats per seating, and 3 seating's per day. You must reserve to get in. And then he showed us our beef 😍😍😍.
I ordered the Fukuju Junmai Ginjo sake made in Kobe and Chef told me it was served to royals and had won a Nobel prize. It was so good, I had two. Our beautiful salads were brought out while Chef fried onions & garlic which he sliced with technical precision in front of us, even shedding onion tears.
Then Chef went to work on our vegetables. He was quite polished in his performance and said he calls himself Japanese Tom Cruise, lol.
The cream soup was next. Chef said the recipe has not changed in 63 years and neither has the homemade ponzu sauce which is top right in my picture below. Why mess with perfection?
Our veggies were finished and served, and then it was onto the steaks...
Only salt & pepper seasoning used...he asked us how we liked our steaks done and we asked his recommendation. He said his recommendation was that we get it the way we like it. So, we both ordered medium rare.
We ran into a couple from the ship we've been chatting with and shared a taxi to Kochi Castle with them when we got off the bus. We were way ahead of the cruise ship buses so that was great! We were the first ones there for opening. Lots of stairs...
The Hat Bread Family sculptures are part of a charming public art installation located in Omachi Multipurpose Square, just west of Aotepia Kochi—a cultural and civic center in Kochi City. These whimsical characters are inspired by Bōshi-pan (literally “hat bread”), a beloved local sweet that originated in Kochi. We thought they were hamburger buns, lol and wondered if there was a burger shop inside the grocery store nearby?
Thursday September 4th - Hiroshima:
This was my most worrisome day about the planning and timing of everything. Plus someone had mentioned on a forum that taxis could be difficult to get, so that fed my fear. I guess because of the ferries needed as we wanted to see both the Peace Memorial and Miyajima. We also wanted to try their local dish of okonomiyaki and I had a restaurant in mind that I wanted to try it at. We bought the Peace Memorial tickets online through Klook ($3.67 each) hoping that would save a little time.
In the end, we decided to just see Miyajima island and cut the stress/timing out of it all. I usually cry/bawl at stuff like the memorial so for that fact only, I was okay not seeing it this time. We called this "Sauna day" as it had rained so hard, it felt like walking around inside a steam bath all day long. We caught the ship's free shuttle to Hiroshima Harbor Passenger Terminal and then bought return fast ferries tickets for $37.50 each. We had to run to the ferry to catch it as it was just going to leave.
When we arrived, they asked us to book our return time. We chose 3:30. As soon as we arrived on the island we saw all the deer. I had watched them on YouTube and saw they can be aggressive, especially to those feeding them. I watched a lady get bitten by one of them. And sure enough a crowd was fawning (no pun intended) over them and the deer ate the guys papers he was holding! Looked like a newspaper and more bundled papers and the deer just snatched it, chewed it up and it was gone in seconds...I read you are not supposed to feed them on Miyajima and I can see why. They didn't look healthy or happy, in my opinion...
I haven't talked about toilets yet, so I guess now is as good as a time as any? I would always freak out when I saw these ones below, but fortunately there was always the usual bidets as well. The bidets varied in degrees of fanciness, heated seats, sounds you could play like the ocean in case you needed to fart, etc. When we stayed at a hotel in Hawaii that had a bidet in the room, I looked into it when I got home but my bathroom is not capable of having one ☹️.
We made our way over to the "floating" Shrine.
We stopped by the ticket shop for the ropeway but the lady was very nice working there and advised we shouldn't waste our money by going as we wouldn't see anything today. We appreciated that. So, then it was just a shopping/food fest exploration day.
Below, my son tried this adzuki bean, matcha cornet. He said it was really tasty:
Next was a croquette that we shared ordering from a machine. This was yummy, though a bit pricey...
Then I went to get an oyster fix. The first place was a little food cart $4.70 for a skewer, pretty good, can't complain, loved the glaze:
The next stand was grilled oysters...I had those NOLA memories coming back. These were just plain though but still so damn tasty! YUM! He did offer three types of spices/sauces to zhuzh them up if you wanted. If memory is correct, I think these were $5.60 for two?
And then onto lunch! I was able to find a Okonomiyaki place. Right beside it had gacha machines and bought my friend a mini-vibrator as a joke, though I thought it was a butt plug at first, lol. Our guide on the backstreets tour had told us about the adult gacha machines that appealed to fetishes and escapism for the hard workers in Japan. Though, this one wasn't a black capsule hiding the contents so more a cheeky gift rather than sexually explicit, I guess?
I loved how every Japanese restaurant served sake overflowing, and more so that each region had their own...
Friday September 5th - Sea Day:
Ahhhhh, at last some rest!!! It took 13 days to get a free day!!! We took full advantage and slept in until lunchtime, even though we had planned to try breakfast in the main dining room (we never managed that once on this trip). We each woke up at different times and just enjoyed a slow, lazy morning with no pressure to be anywhere or do anything. The only picture I ended up taking this day was of lunch.
We both had Spaghetti Bolognese and some kind of Mediterranean crepe thingy that we shared, both were tasty and hit the spot. Then back to sleep (carb coma) and woke up for dinner (which I don't remember or have any pictures of, meaning it must have been unimpressive). Then slept again till morning. A most perfect day for rest and recovery that was much needed☺️!!! I will say my fitbit watch still said my sleep was only rated as "fair"... I don't know if anyone one else with these watches feels like it's never happy??? It's always not enough or too much effort - work harder/work less! I try to mostly ignore it when on vacation except for step counts...speaking of which, it was only 3850 steps today. I felt like I might be coming down with a cold as well, run down for sure.
Saturday September 6th - Busan, S.Korea
We booked a tour through "Get your Guide" for this port ($170 for both of us). I had the tour operator's info and asked him how many people "could" attend this and he said between 4 and 80 people. Not ideal but it was reasonably priced and really our only "cattle call" tour of the trip. It was also nice not to have to worry about doing it ourselves for a day. I also felt much better today which I was relieved about. I guess I really did just need a full day of sleep to catch up! We had exchanged money to Korean Won for our day and had $80 worth.
It was pretty confusing at the port but we found our tour group. I told her I needed to use a restroom and she pointed me to an outside trailer portables. Before I was finished, my son was texting me and telling me they were getting on the bus. That was quick since we were waiting for a bus full of people and we were first off the ship pretty much! Anyway, he waved me over to a bus and we got on. By the time I realized we were not on the right bus, we were on the cruise shuttle bus into town, it was too late... Long story short, we took a taxi back to the port (the tour company paid) and we were the least favorite people to board our tour bus. We probably delayed departure by a half hour or so? Anyway, a lot of unhappy faces greeted us when we got on.
Haedong Yonggungsa was our first stop. Wow - it was packed with wall to wall people! Luckily for me, I remained anxiety free - well as much as I could be when I'm surrounded by hoards like this...
And of course another scorching hot day. Our tour guide was a little (okay, a LOT) scattered and really didn't do well herding our group. We lost her numerous times over the day including here, she scurried along so fast with her little flag and we didn't find her till much further down the trail, but at least we knew where the bus was 😆 and she always gave us the allotted time for each place, i.e. what time to be back at the bus!
We were so rushed and without a guide, it was difficult to understand this place. I've learned more about it now that I'm home.
I had no idea Canada participated in this war until we watched a video in the building below before we wandered the grounds (and yes, tears streamed down my face, like always in these settings).
Below, my son bought one of those frozen marshmallow thingy's. He got chocolate ice cream $6. He enjoyed it in the heat, for sure. I got a frozen beer but had to get her to scrape off all the honey she squirted on the top! We stopped for a quick bite, I got my favorite noodle dish of Japchae but honestly, I've had better in Vancouver. We have a LOT of Korean restaurants at home, many of them are excellent. Besides food though, I did find a beautiful handmade fridge magnet so that was my purchase of the day for $5!
And then we were off to the Songdo Cloud Bridge (Songdo Yonggung Suspension Bridge). I was amazed what a bustling, metropolitan city Busan was. It wasn't what I was expecting at all.
The Turtle Egg Shell Sculpture on Geobukseom Island near Songdo Beach, Busan, reflects a folktale where a fisherman’s forbidden love with Aewangsoe, the Sea Dragon King’s daughter, ends with her transforming into a turtle, creating the island with their tears. This modern 2012 installation, covered in visitor wishes, and nearby statues of the mermaid with a turtle egg and the fisherman with a seashell, symbolize their enduring love.
Last stop was downtown. We got an hour and a half here to explore. We stuck to the street food and were unfortunately disappointed with what we tried.
We ate a couple of skewers. One deep fried, one mostly blow torched and the then they were painted with teriyaki sauce. Solid "meh" with buyer's remorse.
We had dinner in the dining room and were seated with the couple we toured Kochi castle with. I ordered trout with pine nuts, cauliflower and grapes which was very tasty.
We walked 17,000 steps today.
Sunday September 7th - Sea Day:
Today we had "High Tea at Sea" booked at 2:30 pm. I was put off when we arrived. I handed the manager my reservation card, but he hummed & hawed and dismissed me like I was a bother and acted as though we didn't have a reservation. When he finally walked us to our table and held the chair out for me to sit, I chose the other seat, lol.
Service seemed in disarray and staff seemed like they were running around in a scattered manner, like unprepared for service. They took our tea order but it never arrived. When our tray of goodies was put down, there were only sandwiches for one and the server told us we were to share them and could order more if we liked. As he was explaining them he said one was missing and ran off to get it. I have never had to share sandwiches at tea before! Anyway, the bread was hard and stale on them, so I complained.
The manager and I had some words and he said everyone else in the restaurant was happy. I told him that I guess it was just unreasonable me then. And then we got past it and both softened a little. I told him I was dining at Tuscan Grille on the last day. He said he had noticed that and already told his staff to watch my food, but mentioned the tea had nothing to do with his restaurant at all and he was unhappy being associated with it and other events held there. Anyway, my son ate the sweets (which he enjoyed) and I tried round two of the sandwiches which were meh and salty as could be (and bread still not great). For the price, we could have saved the money and got mostly everything at Cafe al Bacio which was included in our premium package. I told the manager this and he agreed and then refunded me so I thought that was fair.
And they didn't even bring the tea! My son had to ask for it at the end of his treats. I instead just ordered a "white ginger, pear martini" and it was okay though it looked amazing.
Afterwards we spent most of the day winning/losing in the casino. I tried to write some of the trip report up in the room. Dinner in the dining room was "Chateaubriand". It looked more like roast beef and was unfortunately tough for supposedly being a "filet mignon" steak. But I didn't complain 😉, I had done enough of that today!
We walked 7,700 steps.
Monday September 8th - Hakodate:
I still seemed to be battling a cold and now my son was starting to feel a bit off as well. The best thing was we had really no plans for today though we had an itinerary. We decided to go where we wandered and felt like. I think that was partly trip burn out too - we were slowing down our fast pace.
In my research I read about a yakitori place in a corner store that was a supposed "must do" so off we went there.
There was a huge line up, but the bench was shaded and they were playing English beach music songs so it as good a place as any to enjoy the lemon sours. My son ended up sitting inside waiting for quite some time. I talked with a lady from Hong Kong who said there were really only two attractions in town. I wasn't really up for another tower and grounds walking so took it off our itinerary.
We shopped for a long while in the Kanemori Red Brick Warehouses after. We stumbled across a pharmacy and we got some cold/flu pills with help on the translator. We both took them and they helped! The cashier also had a change counter machine so I got rid of about $30 in coins! We ran into some other people we had been chatting with over the cruise and they recommended we get some ice cream as Hokkaido is known for their milk and said it was creamy and delicious. So, my son got some and agreed. I opted to try a sweet potato dumpling. The picture was better than the actual product though.
Son googled to find "sake tastings" and it led us to this place. It was really hard to find, no businesses were open inside and we thought the arrow told us to go upstairs but that was just dusty storage. We had to exit the building through the back and then found the door!
Turns out they only had craft beer, but that was okay. All of them looked tempting and the vibe inside was very casual and laid back, with mostly English speaking tourists. The bartender spoke pretty good English too. They even had a beer from Vancouver on the menu, #2!
We were able to get off the ship by 7 am and we did. It was the most beautiful weather we had experienced since we got here. It was almost like home with almost no humidity. We were able to hit the ground walking at a good pace we normally didn't do because of the heat and it was wonderful!!! Everything was closed though and it was a local holiday there as well. However, as in all the other cities, Auga fish market was open so we headed there for breakfast.
There's something a bit strange about eating meals like this for breakfast - it was 7:30 am, with sake, isn't there? But no one here bats an eye at it and everyone local is doing the same thing. It's almost like a country that never sleeps? Except the trains stop at midnight 😉.
We walked back to the port to get a taxi to go see the largest seated bronze Buddha statue in Japan! The taxi was $65 and that included an hour waiting time and drive back to wherever we wanted. I think admission was $12 for both of us. Below was a sign in the cab - don't bug your driver!:
.jpg "Matcha Tea Service")
Wednesday September 10th - Sea Day:
I worked on the trip report the whole day today until it was time for dinner at 6:30 pm. The menu was the same as it was on our last Celebrity cruise in 2018. I'll start with son's dinner first, below:
Thursday September 11 - Yokohama/Home:
We reserved airport transfer from the cruise and it departed at 8 am. On this last day I finally had a sleep rated as "good" on my fitbit watch. That figures 🙄. Son and I both felt better and that our colds were over with. Our info left in the stateroom said passengers with ship bus transit were to meet at the theatre at 8:00 am exactly. We got there and not a soul was in sight. I asked a member of cleaning staff to find out for us and someone came and told us just to exit as everyone else was - right by our room, lol. So we backtracked and left the ship. After picking up our luggage and finding the ship bus area, the lady there confirmed we were going to Terminal 2 and we said yes and she directed us on to the correct bus. Well, we ended up at Terminal 1 and the driver said this was the final and only stop 🙄. Our flight wasn't till 7 pm so we had a LOT of time to kill today. It was a real pain having to shuttle with our luggage though as we had to carry it on/off ourselves and it was awkward. When we got there we got my son some breakfast/lunch as he hadn't eaten and it was almost noon now. I ate the lasagna this morning which was great cold and managed one bite of the steak which was also good cold!
Son was really happy with his meal. I had a sake and was also quite happy 😊. We made our way to check our luggage. That worked out well as we chose to get our picture taken so didn't have to show our passports again, just stood in front of a camera when needed. Best of all both our luggage was underweight!!! Yay!!! We left a lot of brand new unused stuff in the room, bug spray, sunscreen, wipes, etc. Then we had to decide whether to go through security or stay behind for a while. We googled and found that there were lots of shops and restaurants past security so we decided to do it and just be stress free. It took us a while to find the shops and restaurants and we started to freak out a little, but it was true and everything was there. Phew!
Below, my son found the bougie Whiskey his friend had asked him to bring back as it's not available in Vancouver. I brought home some Roku Japanese gin which I can buy at home but not as cheap ($20 less in Japan)!
When we finished shopping, I had lunch at the food hall.
I chose a Michelin Guide mentioned place but honestly I've had that same ramen better at home (without the truffles though, lol). Below, I ordered the "Chicken Broth Ramen with Truffles & and Egg" $30. Anyway, it was still very tasty though the truffles had no flavor unfortunately.
Then we went on the hunt for bars. We only found two so made our way to the first one where lemon sours were of course the beverage of choice, well at least for me, I think my son got an iced Matcha latte?
And then we found the other bar which was a "Dean & Deluca" which is a US chain. Lemon sours there were nice and strong! Then it was time for dinner before the flight. Son splurged and spend $60 on a Wagyu cutlet:
I got a dish of Pork & Prawn Okosoba ($20) which is a mix of okonomiyaki and yakisoba. It was pretty good, I enjoyed it.
Final Thoughts (and they're random like my brain works):
- Japan is sensory overload, in the weirdest, quirkiest, loveliest of ways—though sometimes disturbing (Maid Cafés just creeped me out personally, especially with them peddling it on the streets, - it reminded me of Vegas with all the costumes trying to get you to pay for pictures with them). It's really hard to explain, but a week later, everything still sits with me in my mind, letting it be unforgettable... and the food, well, let's just say you couldn't go wrong with almost anything you ate. I'm very jealous of the food culture/prices there! If I had to describe Japan in one word it would be: "Efficient".
- The electrolyte drinks helped immensely in the heat. It was amazing how much better we'd feel after we'd have one. It also helped on a couple of sketchy mornings of too many drinks on the cruise too 😉. I would never visit again in the summer though—spring or fall sound good! And I wouldn't cruise again either, as I think each place deserves more time exploring. Japan is so massive, I don't know if you could ever run out of places to see or things to do, honestly. We simply just nicked the surface of it.
- I detest stairs and Japan is full of them!!! You cannot get away from them (especially at train/subway stations), so prepare yourself! Speaking of trains, it is weird to get on one and see a totally silent train but everyone's face with a phone in front of it... and this was pretty much every train ride. The odd time in the evening, groups would chat, but in business hours, you'd only see one phone per face or commuters sleeping. My son and I would chat with our phones because he didn't want me even whispering. I get it, I'm loud, so I respected his wishes, mostly 😉... Also, shoes come off/on a lot (temples, castles, restaurants, even some bathrooms, etc.) so I always wore socks.
- We wanted to spend cash while there. We budgeted $2000 CAD each and we spent it all over the 19 days plus about $500 on the credit card. We could only use credit card at Expo and a couple of other random places, though we never thought about IC cards and probably could have used those instead. We did use the IC cards balances at the airport (shopping/dining) going home, so that was good. We also brought $400 USD each for gambling on the ship. The cruise casino wasn't open very often, so it worked out well as on sea days I have a bad tendency to drop too much money there 🙄 and we did... We played crib for money at Cafe al Bacio when it was closed. Anyway, the budget worked perfectly and we wanted for nothing (I can thank Grok for the budget), and some days we lived like kings. On the flip side, we honestly could have been happy if only eating/drinking at convenience stores if needed...the onigiri was awesome at 7-11 as was all the other foods!
- It seemed amazing that both of us only used about 3 GB each out of 20 GB on our esims over 19 days! We have used 5 GB in a week in other locations. We used the internet all day/everyday when available and it was mostly available on the cruise too besides in our room. Anyway, we were totally happy with Nomad and the service in Japan. Google Maps was all that was needed for navigation.
- The more pictures I take, the harder/longer it is to write the trip reports. It's a tough job to self-edit, but as they're my reports, I want what I want in them for memories 😊. My son is already dreaming about going back, he absolutely loved it there. We were so exhausted at the end of each exploring day it was almost impossible to write the report, so a lot of it was left to finish when we got home, unfortunately... I brought a laptop and paid for internet on the ship ($80 USD for the whole trip for fast speed - one device only) to make sure it got done in real time, but it just didn't pan out. I could play YouTube problem though, haha. The writing was a hamster wheel of trying to self-edit and choose pictures. Honestly, this was an epic journey.
- AI: After trying out Grok, ChatGPT, CoPilot, and Google, my takeaway is simple: don’t trust AI fully—at all. On my cruise, CoPilot (Microsoft) couldn’t even connect through Starlink, and when I asked Grok if that was intentional, it assured me it wasn’t (lol). The bigger issue is that all AI tools lie, hallucinate, and can cause problems if you rely on them to be factual. Verifying the information they give is tricky—once they latch onto an idea, it’s hard to shake them off it. You often have to fact-check everything yourself which can be exhausting. Sometimes they’ll even argue their point, only to backtrack and apologize once you prove them wrong.
What I wish is that they’d simply say, “I don’t know,” or give you an answer with a confidence percentage. That would make things so much clearer, but I guess it’s part of the problem with the data they’re trained on and the biases of whoever builds them.
That said, I do find them genuinely useful for certain things. For example, asking about sites/attractions in an area works great—they’re all solid at giving you an overview of what’s out there. Then I can do the research myself and let AI handle the part it’s best at: turning my plan into a well-written, printable itinerary.
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