This morning we arrived in Yokohama, Japan – the end stop on our part of the cruise. Many do back to back cruises, but two weeks is enough for us.

First impressions of Yokohama are very favorable, even though we won’t get to explore this mega city – second largest in Japan.

We took the train to Kamakura – a smaller town about 20minutes away. It is clearly a popular destination for the locals, and we especially enjoyed the walking streets with some lovely small shops selling items I am mostly unaccustomed to.

The rolls of paper are for origami. We see people using the wash towels (top right) all over the place!

Confections

We ended up at the Shinto Tsurugaoka Hachimangū shrine where we observed a wedding taking place. It was very interesting and quite a solemn occasion.

Yokohama at night from our balcony.

Shimizu is a port where many cruisers took trips and excursions to visit Mt. Fuji, but low-key cruisers like us opted to hang out in the small and friendly town of Shimizu where locals stood on each corner and directed us to any points of interest.

Fish drying on racks in the sunshine.

We visited a couple of shrines and cemeteries that were peaceful and interesting.

We spent an hour or so on the bow of the ship, on the helipad, this morning as we entered the port and had the first possible sightings of Mt. Fuji. She was elusive, as is often the case, but the snow capped peak became visible amongst the clouds which gradually dropped and showed her outline.

We could see the mountain’s position behind the clouds from our balcony and during late afternoon she shyly showed herself for a brief time, but never fully exposed.

Shimizu waterfront.

Himeji castle is an imposing structure built on a high bluff in the city of Himeji. It dates back to 1333. It is the grandest of the 12 remaining feudal castles in Japan. Among the Japanese, it is better known as the “white heron castle” and one can see why.

Its military architecture with (formerly) three moats qualifies it as the ultimate samurai castle. It has seven levels, including the basement and each floor is designed to ward off any attack. There are chutes for dropping stones on anyone attempting to scale the massive dry stone constructed walls. There are 997 openings in the walls – called Sama -oblong slots for bows and arrows, square, round and triangular ones for the guns. One floor is the armory with built in racks for the guns. We climbed right to the very top in our socks, careful not to slide on the well worn Japanese cypress wide plank floors. At the very top is a shrine – one that was relocated from the hilltop.

A scaled model of the castle. Timbers are Japanese Cypress.

In former times up to 40,000 samurais lived within the outer moat to protect their Lord. The castle was handed down from family to family over its long history until it became a military barracks in the 19th century. Selection of the family depended upon their strength. Restoration started in 1910 and in 1993 it was named a World Cultural Heritage site.

We also enjoyed a Japanese tea ceremony in a tea house within the beautiful and serene Kokoen gardens. We were served green matcha tea in a bowl with a small bean curd sweet (similar to marzipan) covered with a cherry blossom flavored wrapping.

The ship docked conveniently downtown and next to a light rail service. On the first morning we opted to walk the 30-Minutes to Sannomiya station in order to activate our JR rail passes and book our seats and trips for when we disembark on Sunday. We then hopped on a rapid rail train (not a bullet) for Nara via Osaka.

(1) An elevator car park with turntable (2) street in Kobe (4) colorful vending machine

Markings on the station platform that everyone dutifully observes.

Nara Park, on the north end of the city, contains most of the treasured and ancient buildings from 5he time that Nara was the capital. Back then, in 710, it was known as Heijo-kyo (citadel of peace) and was one of Asia’s most splendid cities. The city was at the far eastern end of the Silk Route and was an important Buddhist mecca.
The grand Todaji temple was constructed in 752 to house Nara’s great Buddha and to cement the position of the city as the capital and powerful center of Buddhism.
The park is also home to hundreds, if not thousands, of very tame deer who are completely at home with the locals and tourists and pose very kindly for selfie shots!
Kofuku-ji temple was founded in 669. Of the 175 original buildings, only precious few remain. The five storey pagoda burned to the ground at least five times, but the current one dates from 1426.

Unfortunately, due to warmer than usual Spring weather in Japan, the cherry blossoms peaked about two weeks ago; luckily we are able to find a few stragglers!
We walked back to the train station via a semi-pedestrian shopping street that had some interesting windows and was great for people watching.