We woke this morning berthed in Nagasaki in southern Japan on the national holiday (I think it is sports and health day). Nagasaki is a harbour city with a massive suspension bridge and mountains in the background all around. We bought a day tram pass for ¥500 ($6). First stop was at Peace Park created in memory of those who died in WWII and to reinforce anti war thoughts form the future. The remains of destroyed walls from a prison levelled by the bomb are all that remain of what happened in August 1945. On a street corner whilst we were [View Full Entry]

---

---

First full sea day - Kobe to Nagasaki It was a quiet day today (we left Kobe just before midnight). We went in a golf putting competition in the morning without success. In the afternoon, we discovered that on the Volendam, the foredeck in front of the captain’s bridge was open for passengers to use right up to the front of the ship. This gave a 180 degree view of everything up front. There was lots of local sea traffic about with constant smaller cargo ships sailing past on both sides of us. A local pilot came on board at about [View Full Entry]

---

---

We jumped off to an early start to see Kinkakuji Temple and gardens (the Golden Pavilion) before heading south to Kobe to meet the ship. The bus station that we needed to use after using the subway was right next to the subway station at Kitaoji - that was a real break for us. Kinkakuji was amazing as was the entry ticket, which was an impressive work of Japanese art in itself. Kinkakuji Temple was originally the home of the 3rd Shogun in the late 1300s. He built it when he abdicated after three years! In his will, he had arranged [View Full Entry]

---

---

No room on the bus for a guided tour of Kyoto... so we did a self tour... Geoff Mackie style !.... cost us a subway day pass and about 4800yen in total. Compared to the guided tour cost of 11,600yen each !!!! How's that for saving ????? We got to all the castles including The Imperial Place and Nijo Castle and Heian Shrine and we also got to even the Kyoto Museum of Traditional Crafts.Kyoto was the capital of Japan for a long time. The Imerial Plalace was monstrous; its within a missive park and has its own enclosed walls. No [View Full Entry]

---

---

Well leaving Tokyo wasn't easy. Our deadline was to reach Tokyo station at 10.30am to catch our Shikansen train south. High winds from the offshore typhoon "Melor" meant cancellation of the Chou Line (Rapid Service) that we had planned to use to Tokyo. With lots of help from station staff, almost running from one side of the Shinjuku station to the other (its BIG), around the outside, and Maureen almost being blown over by the wind at one stage outside the East entrance, we finally got in a very long queue for the subway, before we even reached the turnstiles to [View Full Entry]

---

---

Raining again today.Off early.. 8am on our all day tour of Tokyo. First stop was Tokyo Tower which is Japans Eiffel tower - pretty impressive with grand views 360 degrees. Then onto Meiji Jingu shrine, its massive and was named after the Emperor Meiji who in about 1859 opened Japan to the west after handreds of years of isolation by former shogun emperors. It was also emperor Meji who handed powers to the people and set up a peoples government - he's the grandfather of modern Japan. The Shinto shrine is vast, with large gardens and massive temple and buildings - [View Full Entry]

---

---

Very sore feet and tired legs tonight ! We walked and walked and walked and walked !!!! - 28,000 steps on the pedometer. We were rained on for most of the day, but like all Japanese people we carried our umbrellas and stayed reasonably dry! It's warm...quite humid......19 c ...... but inside buildings and shops its very warm. So it's coat on...coat off....umbrella up.....umbrella down !!! talking about umbrellas, most stores and all hotels have umbrella open containers at the entrances so you can shake it before entering and some even have stands to leave your umbrella - they think of [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hi all We are heading off on another holiday and you can see what we are up to with this blog. All you need to click on www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/MG1666. Our old USA trip is still there - we will add the Asia trip after it. Thanks Maureen & Geoff [View Full Entry]

---

---

Alarm went at 4am.....flight left Melb at 6.10am .....arrived Gold Coast 7.15am (8.15 Melb time). Departed for Tokyo at 11.30am. Flying Jetstar we had no movies to watch and food to eat.... long flight !!! Arrived Tokyo after a 9 hour flight 7.30pm (9.30 Melb) We left Queensland in wet weather and arrived Tokyo in wetter weather !! The Narita airport Tokyo was a breeze, walked straight through customs and quarantine. We did have our fingerprints and photo taken. All signage is in English as well as Japanese, very easy to find everything. We took an airport limousine to our hotel. [View Full Entry]

---

---

Neither of us slept too much on the overnight flight down from Anchorage to Denver. The stop over then was brief maybe two hours before flying on to Los Angeles. We both tried to make up more sleep time but who knows if we did. Arrived here about 10.00 ish only to find New Zealand Airways were closed until 1:30pm - not good so we had to wait because there no such thing as left baggage lockers any more. So we waited and waited but were finally rewarded when the queue opened we went straight thru booking the whole lot except [View Full Entry]

---

---