Hanmon Strait

This day was just a day on ship with cruising through Kanmon Strait.

Every morning I go up to the top front of ship to the Explorers Lounge and get an Americano from our favorite bartender James. He gets a 5 hour break in the middle of the day, we see him for coffee in the morning and pre dinner wine/cocktails in the evening.

We didn’t do much today other than listen to a port talk, go to a cooking demo, and enjoy time outside on deck with commentary as we sailed through Kanmon Strait, an important water way fur ships hundreds passing through a day. There is an underground pedestrian tunnel under the channel, as well as a bridge. We sailed under the bridge, it felt like it was only inches above the top of ship!

Views from both sides of ship.

Cooking demo.

I had a yummy burger on deck for lunch followed by some dessert.

Enjoyed dinner chatting with Mark and Barb, Barb gave Dave a Canada button! We enjoyed an illusionist and also stopped by the piano bar to listen to music for a while.We are enjoying the fresh local fish at dinner, don’t remember what this one was.

Kochi

We had a great day in Kochi, since I lost the whole post I already created this will redo will be short and sweet! Kochi welcomed our ship with music and flag performance.

The cruise ship was docked in an industrial area so ship offered a shuttle for 20.00 into town dropping us off at a bus station. From the station we walked to Kochi Castle, oldest surviving castle in Japan, started in 1601. We just explored the exterior and grounds as we were told inside is not that impressive. Picture below is Dave’s impersonation of the face on statue!

The views were from the castle grounds were amazing.

Next we went to the Castle Museum, a small museum the best part was the air conditioning! It was so hot and humid out.

We noticed a shrine down the street from the museum so we decided to go. Took off our shoes, entered and sat down, no pictures allowed in Shrines. Soon a priest or monk came and sat by us, he didn’t speak English but he really wanted to converse so another priest came over with a phone and we had a conversation using translation. We could tell they were enjoying this encounter so when we left Dave asked if we could get a picture of them outside, they smiled and nodded yes of course!

Next we explored a popular food market.

We were hot and wanted to find a sit down restaurant with air conditioning, we hit the jackpot with this great katsu place, luckily a kind local helped us with the machine you order from, had English translation for good but not for payment.

The waitress showed us how to grind up sesame seeds to put on top of your meal.

We did a little kitchen knife shopping, the guy we bought from was a hoot!

We found the iconic red bridge that has a sad love story between a monk and a young woman.

We found our way back to the bus station and took the shuttle back to the ship. We enjoyed wine and cards before dinner. We have seen this service dog a couple times at the dining room, the other night it was wearing a sparkling black tutu!

Kobe

We enjoyed our sail into Osaka Bay, surrounded by land, can see Osaka in the distance as well as Kobe where we will dock. It was already feeling hot and humid by 8:00 am. We didn’t bring enough clothes for warm weather!

We hopped in a taxi to the Nunobiki Herb Gardens and Ropeway and with plan to hike from there to a waterfalls after enjoying the gardens. The ropeway was great, incredible views and only one party per car. The gardens were much more spectacular than expected.

We then worked our way down hill through the beautiful peaceful gardens.

There were some huge flying insects, possibly bees? Along with butterflies.

Yummy lavender ice cream at the herb garden. Some unique displays in the gardens.

It was so hot and humid that we decided not to walk to the waterfalls so instead caught a subway to China Town. Here are a couple vending machines in the subway, they are actually all over the streets everywhere too snd they sell everything!

Our goal was to have lunch in Chinatown, specifically a steamed pork bun place Dave had read about and we found it by the long line, they were amazing!

Next we had to try Kobe beef, we were not impressed, too fatty for our taste.

Did a little shopping along Motomachi Street. It is known for high quality second hand clothing.

Took a taxi back to the ship and enjoyed a cool beverage!

We enjoyed a lovely dinner with our new friends from Calgary and ended the evening at the piano bar listening to one hit wonders.