Jen had spotted an interesting Japan cruise earlier in the summer, but it was fully booked. By chance, just two weeks before the cruise was set to depart, one cabin became available at a really good price. Without overthinking it, we booked it and were suddenly on our way to Japan!
Our first stop was Muroran, a port city where cruise ships typically dock for passengers planning to visit Sapporo. Unfortunately, due to storms, the ship was delayed by two hours. We paid for a shuttle to the train station, but when we finally arrived, there was an hour+ long lineup to buy train tickets, so, we decided to abandon that plan and stay in Muroran.
Muroran is mainly a port town with very few attractions. There are several small local restaurants, but they only take cash. Determined to try out one of these restaurants, we embarked on what turned out to be a full-day journey, struggling to find an ATM that would work with our foreign bank cards. We even called our bank, only to be told our card was not locked and should be working fine. After an evening of research, it wasn’t until the next day (and some help from Google Translate) that we realized that we had been inserting our card incorrectly 🤦.
We still had a good time in Muroran, walking around and shopping. The highlight of the day was a credit-card accepting, budget-friendly sushi restaurant (Uobei) where sushi was delivered by train! You order on an iPad, and the sushi arrives on a little train to your table. While it was considered a "cheap" sushi place by Japanese standards, it was a delight for us Canadians. We only paid ¥2090 (~20cad) to have a fun experience and have a full and happy belly.
Hakodate
In Hakodate, we took a free shuttle bus downtown to begin our exploration. Our first stop was a market along the waterfront, where Jen bought some famous Hakodate Cheese Tarts, and Dom tried a whipped cream fruit sandwich. The surprising part of the sandwich was how crisp and flavourful the fruits were. I guess it’s to be expected in Japan, where a single cantaloupe can easily cost $30!
After the market, we made our way up a hill at the edge of town, which offered a fantastic view of Hakodate. We then returned to the centre to try out a local ramen shop, then wandered through town a bit more before returning to the boat.
Akita
In Akita, we took a special tourist train from the port to the center of town. Here, we visited a local market and then spent most of our time at Senshu Park. The park has several walking paths and the remnants of an old Japanese fortress where went up a tower to see a view of the surrounding area.
We also had the strangest lunch experience here: on social media, you can find many people raving about the 7-Eleven egg sandwich, so we had to try it. We stopped by a 7-Eleven, picked up an egg sandwich, a curry croquette, and paired them with some expensive sake from the local market. The sandwich was nice, the eggs were well-blended and very creamy, but we didn’t quite understand the hype. The curry croquette, on the other hand, greatly exceeded our expectations (so fluffy and delicious), as did the sake!
Sometimes the highlights of a trip are not the planned activities but the surprises we stumbled upon along the way. To return to the ship, we decided to walk 45 minutes to an alternate train station (visiting Daiso and Seria along the way) and came across a group of locals gathered around a massive wooden float. Soon after, we saw young kids start pulling a rope to drag the float down the street, while playing drums at the back of the float. It was such a charming and unexpected moment that made our day even more special.
Shimizu (Mount Fuji)
Shimizu is the typical cruise stop for being able to visit Mount Fuji, but you don’t have to wait until reaching Shimizu to catch a glimpse of the mountain. If you wake up early and head to the front of the boat, you might get lucky! We’d heard that Mount Fuji is shy and is usually hidden by clouds, but fortunately, we had a beautiful and clear day as we approached the port.
Dom went Flowriding and paused between rides to admiring Mount Fuji looming larger into view.
When we arrived in Shimizu, it was a local holiday, so most shops were closed. Luckily, the local fish market was open. Shimizu is famous for its tuna, so we treated ourselves to some super fresh tuna sashimi. After a quick stroll around town, we returned to the ship. By then, Mount Fuji had vanished behind a curtain of clouds.
Another unexpected moment was seeing so many Japanese people gathered at the port to both greet and bid farewell to the cruisers. A large crowd had amassed at the port and there was music and celebrations in the nearby park. Several locals stood at the fence waving and greeting passengers in English as they disembarked the ship. As the ship was preparing to depart, the locals were again gathered, cheering and waving the flashlight of their phones as we prepared to leave. Dom had a lot of fun exchanging light patterns with a few people in the crowd. As the ship departed, they continued to wave their flashlights and we were also treated to fireworks!
Tokyo
Our final port was Tokyo. Normally, we would have stayed much longer to explore Japan, but since we’re planning to return this summer with Dom’s nephew, we only spent a few days in Tokyo.
The Tokyo cruise port is far from the train station, so we took a free shuttle to the nearest Yokohama train station and then hopped on a train into Tokyo. Since it was still too early to check-in, we stopped at Shibuya Scramble Crossing, famous for being one of the busiest pedestrian crossings in the world, where people cross in all directions at once.
Next, we visited Akihabara Electric Town to scope out Anime figurines for Dom’s nephew. While there, we spent at least 15 minutes watching locals playing all sorts of skill-based arcade games. Our favourite was a dancing game, similar to Dance Dance Revolution, but instead of just four arrows, the entire mat was interactive, allowing players to move all around it and really dance.
We stayed at a cute hostel in Asakusa, where we visited the temple, wandered the cute streets, shopped, and tasted some local treats.
As always, we had some amazing food experiences. We enjoyed sushi, a Wagyu hamburger, and fresh fruit mochi, just to name a few of the highlights.
