This was from our very first cruise all the way back in 2008 aboard Diamond Princess in Asia for our honeymoon and it was taken on one of the last sea days of the fabulous experience. I didn’t really take very many photos of the ship at all which can be explained by a lack of mobile phones with good cameras on them and me only having a 50mm prime lens on my DSLR at the time with the photography hobby being very new. I did pick up a Tokina wide angle lens in Hong Kong during the cruise and this shot was using it and getting more of the ship in view. But because it was late in the cruise all the excitement and strangeness of being on a ship for the first time had eased away into wonderful relaxation aboard and things like photos and videos of ships just wasn’t a thing back then. Oh for a time machine.

The photo now is a lot brighter and sharper, with a lot of the noise colour noise removed and some brightening of the shadows to just pick out what’s going on under the covers. A pale wash to both lighten the yellows and make the water in the pool pop has been added and the curves have been stretched to bring out more contrast.

Hahahahaha, no, no the rain didn’t stop at all. It just kept raining. And raining. Then raining a bit more just to remind us it was raining, in case we’d forgotten it was raining. Heavy drops in warm temperatures. So, so humid. We would spend the entire day drenched. But, you know what? We didn’t mind a bit. We were in Taiwan! Do you know how many people we knew had been to Taiwan? None! You’ll take rain in that situation.

Nanya Shore And Rock Formations

The northern coast of Taiwan has many scenic viewpoints along its shoreline, and it was to one of these, Nanya, roughly twenty kilometres along the coastal road running east from Keelung, that our Princess Cruises bus took us first in order to get out and take some photos if we wanted. Quite a few people on the bus didn’t want to get off on account of the aforementioned rain but most did, and we were among that mass. As you could have guessed from the fact that this post isn’t called Views Of Rocks Through A Rainy Bus Window.

The Nanya Rock Formations are considered a natural garden to the people of Taiwan. The geology of the region is sandstone, and the constant battering of the rock from the sea, from winds, and from monsoons that blow in has over the millenia sculpted the rocks into attractive, abstract shapes with holes and coloured stripes offering snapshots of different levels of hardness of the rock and oxidisation in the atmosphere when it was all first laid down.

Pareidolia. Human beings are wired to identify patterns in things and ascribe some definition or meaning to them even when it’s all natural, a result of physics, or just random. It’s why we see dogs in cloud formations. It’s why religion was invented. It’s why we dream. It’s why many of the weathered rocks in Nanya have been given names. It’s why the sandstone formation in the photo below looks like Pac-Man had an affair with a giant fish, the child of which, unwanted by either parent, left home to become a beachcomber, eking out a living selling flotsam and jetsam to tourists.

We didn’t stay too long at Nanya; ten or fifteen minutes to wander around and get soaked through to the underwear mostly. I’d never consider myself a landscape photographer, favouring architecture and people more often than not, but this northern Taiwanese coastline offers some spectacular, raw views if you’re that way inclined. There was something here for everyone, really: the sea, rough, carried in on a decent-strength wind to pound the rocks; the sandstone artwork, sculpted by nature and ready to be whatever you see in them; the hills and cliffs inland, covered in green, verdant, lush from the regional climate.

If you ever find yourself on a cruise ship excursion then there’s a chance that you’ll be on one in which a film crew will accompany you. The ships like to produce video mementos of cruises which we’ve always steered clear of based on the price, but it’s a shame that they don’t make these videos orderable years later because we’ve found as time has gone on that we wouldn’t have minded seeing some of the sights we’d missed or forgotten about. For this Taiwan excursion our bus was host to one of the ship’s video teams who would set up panning shots of the scenery and conduct short interviews with the local guides every time we stopped somewhere.

Fushan Temple, Jiufen

The village to which we were heading was called Jiufen (or Chiufen, according to the literature we had at the time) and our time there will be covered in the next post from this travelogue series in Taiwan. We would have one more short stop for photos before reaching the village itself, and that was on the walk to Jiufen from where the bus parked up.

The Fushan Temple was dedicated to the Earth God in Taoism, and if you’ve never heard of the Earth God in Taoism then welcome to the club. In fact, the Earth God is one of the minor deities in the religion, but since Jiufen grew from a late-nineteenth century gold rush you can also say that the Earth God that the inhabitants sought protection from was a miner deity too. Yes, I went there.

The exterior of the temple was covered in sculptures and reliefs of heroic and religious and historical figures, plus typically fantastical and representative creatures like dragons, all from a grey rock that contrasted acutely with the bright reds, golds, and blues painted and lacquered over the flatter surfaces. The detail in the faces was exquisite, reflecting a lot of skill and local wealth from the mining operations.

The interior of the temple, however, was something we weren’t prepared for. Calm, peaceful reflection was not the theme here. Barbara Cartland would have loved this place, and if you’ve got a fondness for pink that knows no bounds too then you’d probably feel at home as well. Personally, phrases like “explosion in a bubble gum factory” and “remember, don’t visit here while on LSD” flew through my mind.

Anyway, feast your eyeballs on this subjective beauty.

That concluded the bits of our excursion prior to the main reason for picking this trip. In the next post you can take a look around the place that’s been claimed is the inspiration for the animation classic, Spirited Away, Jiufen.

This is a short post documenting a few activities that took place at the conclusion of our excursion while docked at the port of Shanghai (at Waigaoqiao) which had seen us take a tour of the ancient water town of Zhujiajiao.

Our honeymoon cruise aboard Diamond Princess took place in November, so while it was still just about light by the time we’d reached the port and boarded the ship at the end of the long drive into the megacity, it wasn’t long before darkness fell. The early part of the evening – following a quick freshen up, of course – included a stroll around the promenade deck to see what the port area looked like from the ship. Cruise ports in general tend to fall within one of three categories:

• No port at all to speak of; you take a tender boat to and from the ship
• A dedicated cruise terminal
• Docking facilities shared with some other purpose

Of the latter category those other purposes can be ferry or fishing uses, or, more typically, commercial and industrial ports, and Shanghai at the time was most certainly an industrial area. The views from Diamond Princess were not only dark but fairly bleak, harshly-lit, concrete and steel.

Over the years that we’ve been cruising we’ve discovered that we’re not really interested in going to see evening shows. In fact, if you’d asked me if we ever went to shows I might have said only once, because the only one I could remember was a Madness tribute act aboard a P&O cruise ship. However, when I stumbled upon a few photographs for the evening of this Shanghai port stop I realised that we had actually attended a performance on this very first cruise of ours; I’d almost completely forgotten about it, which is not to say that it wasn’t good. The pictures below – excusing the quality, once again – show the skills of the Chinese acrobats who’d boarded the cruise ship to entertain the passengers. I certainly took enough photographs to indicate I must have been impressed at the time even if, perhaps in comparison to all the other amazing sights and experiences of this trip, the memory of what we’d seen that night swiftly faded into the background.

After the acrobats had performed and departed the ship, and after Diamond Princess had left the port of Shanghai, and after we’d had some food somewhere in there, we ended up in Skywalkers Nightclub. On these Grand-class cruise ships operated by Princess Cruises Skywalkers is quite probably our most-visited spot on the vessel. We will typically finish every evening with a couple of hours of listening to music, maybe strutting our stuff to a tune or two, people-watching (if we’re not the only people around; which happens more often than you’d think, and happened an awful lot on this particular cruise), and, naturally, grabbing some late drinking opportunities. Jack Daniels and Coke would be my go-to drink for this cruise, and with us often being the only people around in venues at night we soon got to know many of the staff and they got to know us too, to the point that I would frequently walk into somewhere like Skywalkers or Explorers, catch the eye of a waiter, nod, get a smile, and get a drink in short order without even having to say a word or show my cruise card. What’s not to love?

The following day would be a sea day as Diamond Princess made her way towards the Japanese city of Naha on Okinawa.

Bus rides, and especially those on which no photos or videos were taken, are generally not that interesting, but there are two points to remark upon on this one.

The road that we were originally following was a wide, multi-laned affair through the Chinese landscape southwest of Beijing. Driving distance to the port is around one hundred and seventy kilometres so we were expected to be on the bus for a little over two hours but within half an hour it became clear that there was a problem as the very little traffic that we’d seen on the road was clearly coming to a halt for reasons unknown. We initially thought that there must have been an accident ahead but another bus travelling in the opposite direction was being driven by someone who knew our driver and so stopped alongside to let him know what was happening. Immediately afterwards, while the other cars were still waiting in line, our bus did a U-turn across the opposite lanes and headed back the way we’d come, then turned off to find a new route. With Beijing relying heavily on good transport links to the port this was luckily fairly easy to do. We soon learnt from our representative on board that some Communist party leaders were apparently on their way somewhere and as was apparently the way things were done back then this meant they got the road all to themselves until they’d passed by.

The second incident I’m mentioning with no respect as to whether you’re eating right now or not was when we took a brief stop to use the rest rooms. This was something that looked like a truckers’ stop in the middle of nowhere because that’s mostly what it was. Normally, I can suppress the need to use the loo on a journey as short (despite the diversion) as this was supposed to be but it turned out that the Peking Duck I’d eaten had different thoughts on the matter. We all got off the bus, some just to stretch legs, and those who didn’t need to visit the toilets almost instantly got back on because the change in the weather from earlier in the day was extreme; it was certainly not t-shirt weather at the exposed rest stop; the wind pickup and the temperature drop was brutal. Off I walked briskly to the toilets.

Ah, toilets when you’re abroad. They can be terrifying things. This was and still remains the worst example of one in all my years of travelling. Picture a large room with cubicles numbering perhaps two dozen lining three walls. The cubicles had doors so that was good, but that was the only good thing. A hole was set in the floor of each cubicle, but not a deep one, and from it a gully ran into a communal trough set into the floor that ran outside and along the front of all the doors. And that was it. A man stationed in the large room had a bucket and mop which meant his job was to enter cubicles after they’d been used in order to throw water into the pit so it would run into the gully and into the communal trough. Water slowly took all that waste around the room and down drains but it made the act of using the toilet one of blocking your nose, stepping over the trough of shit, entering the cubicle, closing the door, squatting and hoping to hell you managed to avoid anything you were wearing, then leaving over the trough once more so the cleaner could come in and manually flush it all away.

Oh, and there was no toilet roll. Cue me turning around, heading straight back to the bus, grabbing all the packs of tissues we’d luckily still got, and rushing back. A wholly unpleasant experience. Stupid, greasy, fatty, tasty duck.

I’m going to freely admit that people who’ve stumbled upon this The First Day Aboard Diamond Princess post probably didn’t come here looking for toilet-squatting terrors in Asia so you’ll be pleased to know that I’ve finished with that now.

Xingang was the name listed on all our documentation but that was just the shortened form of Tianjin Xingang meaning “New Port of Tianjin“, and that was where we finally got to step aboard a cruise ship for the very first time.

I must confess that I don’t have any real memories of this boarding experience. From later cruise-boarding I know that we must have had our suitcases taken away by porters and we must have queued up to have our documentation checked and cruise cards issued but this whole area just isn’t surfacing. Perhaps it was the strangeness of it all, and possibly not helped by the sun having set already at this time of the year. A commercial port in a strange land in the twilight hours likely won’t have too much exciting detail to recall. Most likely, though, is that we’d both had a lot of trouble getting over the jet lag from the flight out to China in the first place – I had found myself awake at four most mornings and crashing early in the evening every day – so we were just tired when we boarded.

We would have eaten, we would have had a drink or two if I know us, we would have unpacked our bags when they arrived, but we very likely went to bed early. We must have explored a little bit too because I have a single photo as evidence. The following picture doesn’t look like much but here it is in all its glory, the very first photo I took aboard a cruise ship and the only photo snapped on that first evening, Club Fusion on Diamond Princess in 2008:

Diamond Princess should have left Tianjin that first evening but our log of the cruise indicates that there were clearance issues with the local authorities leading to a later embarkation process and resulting in the ship staying alongside overnight to ensure all passengers were boarded. By the time we emerged from our cabin, though, the sun was up and the ship was at sea.

If I could list all the things we did and ate and drank on this first day on Princess Cruises‘ Diamond Princess then I wouldn’t hesitate to bore you senseless with the details. As you can tell, no minor bit of useless information is too small for me to overlook most of the time. However, this was 2008 which was a time before cameras on phones was a thing, and with this being our first cruise we hadn’t yet picked up the habit of keeping hold of all the documentation we could. That’s right: no Princess Patters! Shocking. If you’re thinking about cruising for the first time then let me give you some advice, and that’s to keep all those pamphlets that end up in your room every day; they’re fabulous reminders of what will be a fantastic experience.

We did pick up some quiz sheets and sat in the piazza – the central space on this class of vessel often called an atrium on other ships and usually if there are more windows present – and, in a rare moment you’ll want to treasure, the closest thing you’ll find of us to a selfie was taken.

We naturally explored outside on the cruise ship since that’s its unique selling point. You might want to visit a hotel somewhere because it has some facilities or it’s near somewhere handy but when you’re on a cruise ship then every inch of it inside and out is all part of the holiday experience too.

Something you might take for granted these days if you’re possibly thinking of taking cruise for the first time is to have a search on the internet in order to see what the ship and rooms and facilities are like from a non-corporate, genuine perspective. Yes, the site existed, but it had only been up and running for a couple of years before we booked our cruise so the vast amount of research material present today simply wasn’t there. We had a few descriptions of how good it was from some relatives and one formal photo of my in-laws to go on. Everything was new to us.

The sea!

There’s a clock there!

Look, lifeboats along here!

A hot tub!

The carpet is a different colour in this corridor!

A first day on a cruise ship is a great chance to be five years old again.

Our levels of unpreparedness were exposed in much the same way as we ourselves were when we ventured out onto the open, top decks of Diamond Princess. This was a cruise to Asia taking in places such as Vietnam and Thailand which for some reason meant we’d completely overlooked the fact that the temperature at points might actually be cold. In fact, while it would reach close to thirty three degrees Celsius at sea later in the cruise, for this first day in the Yellow Sea off China it only just crept into double figures and there was a strong wind accentuated by the natural progression of the ship. One of the other things we did early on this first cruise day, therefore, was hit the shops on board in order to buy some Princess-branded hoodies. Suitably protected from the surprising-to-us weather we then took a look around.

My very first example of taking a photo of a bird during travels abroad and not having a clue what it was (or still is) but knowing that it was just different enough from what we’d be able to see at home to know I wanted to capture that moment.

I think it’s some kind of tit. It probably thought the same about me.

Not too many photos inside Diamond Princess on this first day but I do know that we took part in the trivia games that occurred every few hours. We ended up getting approached by two other couples who had also flown into China early to enjoy the three days pre-cruise tours arranged by Princess Cruises. We’d not talked to them at the time but over the couple of weeks aboard ship we would all be regular quizzing buddies. Sandra and Ian were from somewhere up the north of England, while Ken and Lowell were from Alabama. In case you’re wondering how people become quizzing buddies on a cruise ship then it works a little bit like this approach to us from Lowell:

You were in Beijing, right, before this cruise?

Yes.

Are you here for the trivia?

Yes.

Good, we’ll join you because you look smart.

Flattery has the power to penetrate our Shield of Introversion. Plus, she wasn’t wrong; we ended up winning the trivia many times.

In addition to trivia we would also have checked out the buffet for lunch and taken a look at whatever other entertainment was going on around the ship such as drinks demonstrations. Over the course of this cruise our daytime activities on Diamond Princess would see us also attend lectures on topics such as the history of magic and the life of Houdini, see comedian Kelly Monteith deliver a set (a room of tired, older people was not the best of audiences), and get roped into a demonstration of close-up magic in the piazza in front of everyone (to our horror because of the situation, and to our amazement because of what we saw).

We very much enjoyed heading out onto the Promenade Deck during our cruise, especially since we’d booked an inside cabin and wanted to enjoy the outside views as much as possible. The Promenade Deck on Diamond Princess is a full wraparound deck which means you can walk a complete circuit, although if you have any walking difficulties then you should be aware that there is a section that requires you to climb some steps. This first day of cruising included at least two complete circuits for me and my wife as I took photos on one of them and also recorded the eight-minute-long stroll on another. That video is not included below for reasons. There’s a reason I mostly take pictures and not video.

The last photos taken on this first day aboard the cruise ship were of our cabin, something we did instinctively because it felt like the sort of thing that was required of travellers, and an instinct that has been borne out over the following years as it turns out that literally everyone who writes about their trips includes photos of the room. Basically, if you don’t fell compelled to take a shot of your room then you’ve probably not got the travel blogger gene in you.

Our cabin was C116, a deck and position – forward – that would become our favourite over the years on these Grand-class vessels, but we’d booked an Inside Cabin following advice from my in-laws. It was cheaper, they said, and you would be able to get sea views from the Promenade Deck or on top of the ship. That was certainly true, but it was the only time we booked a room without its own view because for us the sea is an important aspect of cruising and we’ve come to love having our own balcony on which to read and stare out to sea with a drink, and without people around us. They also convinced us to take off the daily gratuities that would be paid to save money too which we did at the reception desk because we were virgin cruisers. Again, the only time we’ve done that because we now understand how the wages work on an American-run ship and how the tips are pooled; anyone who stops the automatic payment of tips to staff is doing so because they’re short of money, they’re tight with money, or they think it will make them appear more special when they personally hand out cash to individuals (who won’t be allowed to keep it) and so boost their ego. Don’t do that. Budget for that when you’re booking your holiday. There’s a good you.

Inside cabins on a cruise ship have lots of mirrors to make the room feel larger. Great if you’re vain, but problematic if you don’t like having yourself in any photos. Hence the dreadful angles. Two beds pushed together as a double with small tables either side. A long desk with some storage. Plenty of space for cases and hanging clothes. A TV. A bathroom with shower. It’s a room on a ship. There’s only so much you can say about them.

After this full day at sea – the first of many sea days we would grow to adore over the following years – we would be returning to China with a stop at the port of the staggeringly large city of Shanghai where we had pre-booked an excursion to visit the ancient water town of Zhuijiajiao.

Processing-wise, the reworking of this took some standard steps to adjust for the lens, do some straightening, reduce a lot of colour noise, and sort out the levels to bring out some details. I then tried a few of the newer sharpening filters and options in Photoshop to pull out some more detail before playing around with contrast levels to bring out details again. Noise reduction was limited because the image was already very soft, and because the photo was dark and warm I finally added a cool tone over the top to drop some reds and yellows and bring out more of the greens and blues. Saturation was reduced a fraction to take out some of the harsher colour noise still present. There’s a lot more that could be done but this was a task just to produce something better than I had and sometimes you need to stop as soon as you think “Ooh, yes, I kinda like that” otherwise you risk ruining it all. A lesson for life.

I can’t actually remember much about the breakfasts. This was, if you didn’t already know, our first foreign holiday together, the first time either of us had been out of the country in well over a decade, we’d just got married, and thoughts of blogging about travels didn’t exist. In short, cut us some slack. Like you even wanted to know what breakfast in an international hotel was like anyway.

As for the lunches, while I cannot tell you what restaurants we visited in Beijing on this pre-cruise tour other than one (I made a note – Wahaha restaurant – so we almost certainly went there for one of the meals), I did at least take some photos and videos, and I can recall some details. I can tell you, for instance, that each day’s food was a different type of cuisine. One day we had Cantonese-style, another was Szechuan, and another was Hangzhou. The styles were very different and you definitely didn’t think you were getting the same thing each day. Unless you were an American woman in our group.

Excuse me! Can you tell us what sort of food we are going to be having at the restaurant today?

Yes, certainly. Today we are visiting a restaurant in an old theatre and you will be able to make your own Peking duck in the traditional style!

Wait. Are we having Chinese food again?

Yes, yes we were having Chinese food again. Funny that. It was lovely. It was completely different to what we’d had on the days before that. Don’t be like that woman. Embrace the culture when you’re travelling.

So, let’s take a look at some of the photos and videos from two of our visits to restaurants in Beijing.

One of the restaurants promised very fresh food. Some of it was still alive and in tanks as we arrived.

There were some interesting looks from everyone at some of the dishes that were then presented. I’d like to say that we were brave and had a go at the chicken head but my recollection is that nobody on our table did. Everything else was tried, though.

Some photos from just outside the restaurant were taken as well.

Our last restaurant meal in Beijing was to the old theatre mentioned before. This was where we got to try some Peking duck and was also memorable for the sea lion swimming about in a small pool in the restaurant entrance. I would like to say for certain that sea lion was not on the menu but I can’t. I’d like to think it was just there as a tourist draw and while it’s something we don’t agree with I can say that the animal appeared to be well looked-after.

Our evening meals were left to us. I know that a lot of people in our pre-cruise tour group dined at the hotel in which we were staying and I suspect it was very good there; for the price I’d expect it to be. That price was shockingly high, though, as we discovered on the first evening and while we’re not tight with money even we have our limits. Dining there for one evening would have cost us a fortune so doing it for all three would have left us with a sour taste in our mouth before the cruise had even properly begun. Luckily, following a quick chat with the guide who’d accompanied us on the first day exploring Beijing we discovered that one road behind the hotel there was a local restaurant with better prices.

That restaurant was the Great Wall Restaurant and I’ve included some photos of a small, fold-out menu as well as a shot from a larger one that was provided to us at the table, the reason for that being pretty obvious if you’ve got the mind of a juvenile like us.

The Great Wall Restaurant was absolutely fabulous. The food was incredible; the variety of dishes was superb; the price was laughingly cheap. About twenty pence for a bowl of sticky rice, for instance. Their most expensive bottle of wine – something the waitress was hesitant to serve us initially because she thought it might be too costly – was fourteen pounds. We have drunk Chinese red wine in China and we’ve drunk it out of glasses barely larger than thimbles. On top of that the restaurant brewed its own light and dark German-style beers (you can see that in the first photo from the menus above) which was under a pound a pint and it was absolutely wonderful. Another British couple we got talking to visited that same restaurant every evening specifically for the beer alone.

We had no big plans for the day other than to leave packing as late as possible because all the while your clothes are still in the wardrobe you’re still on holiday and they can’t remove you from your room. Old maritime law. One thing we had discovered, though, was that through a combination of the ESPN channel that was available in the state rooms and the time difference between where we were on our approach to Japan and the east coast of the USA we would be able to watch the Patriots taking on the Bills first thing in the morning. With me being a Patriots fan this was something I couldn’t really miss so with breakfast out of the way we settled into our room ready to watch some football. I know the rest of the world and I shouldn’t call it football but you pick up American terms when you’re a fan of American sports. Same applies when you’re a software developer; we all spell colour color in our heads. We even say it that way. You can’t tell but we know we’re saying it without the ‘u’.

The game wasn’t long underway before there was a shipwide and in-cabin announcement from the captain. In-cabin announcements are rare and are for important things. The captain announced that two passengers had been taken seriously ill in the early hours of the morning and required an air evacuation by helicopter. However, the Japanese Coast Guard helicopter had turned up an hour ahead of when it said it would which had thrown a spanner in the works as far as Diamond Princess was concerned because the passengers weren’t ready to be moved and the top decks had not been cleared of people, something necessary for any ship that wants to keep its Days Since Helicopter Rotors Sent Passengers Flying Overboard figure as high as possible. While that activity was taking place as quickly as possible and while the ship was being turned to make it easier for the coast guard to gain access we were treated to the helicopter circling, looping out, and making close overflies for the best part of half an hour. For me, then, it became a task of ducking out onto the balcony to see if there was anything to see (naturally nosey, me) and ducking back into the room to make sure I didn’t miss any of the football action. It was the most exercise I got during the cruise.

This was the second time we’d been on a cruise and had a helicopter airlift for passengers take place, the only previous time being earlier that same year aboard Sapphire Princess. As with that occasion the main action seemed to be visible only from the port side of the ship. We tend to cruise on the starboard side out of habit so for us there was plenty of sound of spinning rotor blades from above and occasional signs of things getting battered by the downdraught of the helicopter but that was all. Eventually, the pitch of the helicopter sound changed and it became clear it had flown towards land as the noise died off, the ship started turning back to its original course, and there then followed the announcement thanking everyone for their patience during the matter. We hope the passengers involved were okay.

With that unexpected activity complete and a victory for the Patriots viewed we grabbed some lunch then went for a nose around the ship to find a spot to read and see if there was anything going on. This was early afternoon and it was time for the Egg Drop Challenge for those who had signed up for the event. In case you’re unaware or can’t guess, this challenge involves constructing something that will protect an egg dropped from the top of the piazza with the winner being the person closest to the centre mark. As with most other activities on the ship this was popular with the Japanese contingent of passengers and mostly ignored by the rest of us; so many Japanese passengers took part, in fact, that they had to drop in pairs in order to get through the challenge before dinner. If you ever find yourself working for a company that does one of those utterly humiliating and dreadful team-building events involving you making things like bridges out of spaghetti or towers out of straw or a sensible business plan out of tears then try to sit next to any Japanese fellow-employees if possible because what they appear to lack in construction ability they more than make up for in will-do-all-the-work-so-you-don’t-have-to ability which is key to your success in any large organisation.

The last sea day was a busy one for the piazza on Diamond Princess. Not too long after the entertaining egg drop challenge had completed and the floor area had been cleared of any residual egg shells and yolks from the less successful uncontrolled landings a large group of passengers who had been learning different dances from around the world during the cruise gathered to show off their moves in the Festivals Of The World performance. Your challenge is to guess what festival and culture is being represented in the video below and if you guess correctly then you’ve done better than me because I still don’t know.

The early evening then saw the piazza transformed for the late night balloon drop. This is something we’ve never attended on any cruise because it’s always been rammed with people, we just haven’t felt the urge to stake out a decent viewing location early enough for the farewell party, and the timing always seems to clash with a bar somewhere else on the ship serving us a drink. One day we’ll see one, I’m sure.

We headed to the Elite Lounge in Skywalkers for some nibbles and cocktails and final sunset views over the ocean from the aft of Diamond Princess. It was a stunningly beautiful sight with which to end the cruise. These are the views for which we cruise.

Our final evening meal was interrupted as per tradition by the Baked Alaska Parade which naturally meant that Baked Alaska was the last dessert we ate aboard the ship.

We finished the night off with a cocktail in Crooners and another one in Skywalkers for some final disco music to round the cruise off in traditional style. In the morning we would be in Yokohama from where we’d started the cruise and several hours later we would be flying back home. Boo and, indeed, hiss.

Princess Patter

Every evening you’ll have delivered to your stateroom the Princess Patter, the programme of events for the following day. On the front on port days you’ll find very useful information relating to emergency phone numbers, shuttle buses, tender boat operations, etc. On sea days it’s typically more general with a few spotlights of events you can enjoy aboard ship. You can see the Princess Patter information for our penultimate cruise sea day below. We like to have a good nose at what’s going on around the ship in the printed version in the evening and morning then tend to rely on the digital version during the day that’s available on your phone for free when connected to the ship’s wi-fi in airplane mode. You can see the information on how to do that in the Princess@Sea box on the front page.

Morning Activities

It was great to wake up to yet another blue sky (despite the weather forecast in the Patter) and Diamond Princess was passing the Amami Islands when we emerged from our night’s slumber. There was a pretty strong northerly breeze with a bite to it but it otherwise looked to be another glorious day at sea. They’re all glorious, really.

After breakfast we would normally take part in the morning trivia but we decided to skip it in favour of the Culinary Show taking place at 10:15 in the theatre. We’d been to one of these before on Sapphire Princess (see: Sapphire Princess Food And Drink) and wanted to see how different it would be on a ship catering to the Japanese market in the way that Diamond did. The answer: not very, and probably a side-effect of having a vast number of Italian chefs on the Princess Cruises fleet who then favour the same sort of food specialities to demonstrate. Nevertheless, it was fun, with a very amiable executive chef again in the form of Fabrizio Fazzini. All of his preparation explanations were translated by one of the Japanese staff with the exception of a remark about how extra virgin olive oil doesn’t stay that way long around Italians. “Yeah, I’m not translating that,” she said to loud laughter.

I took video of the culinary demonstration and of the walk through the galley that takes place afterwards and will upload the unedited versions at some point but for now you can see short clips in the sea day activities highlights video at the bottom of this post. You’ll also be able to see some footage of the outlet sale area in the dining room through which you exit after the galley tour and clips of the Bollywood dance class that was taking place in the piazza just afterwards too.

Afternoon Activities

Sea days are swimming days for us. Diamond Princess hadn’t been particularly kind to the avid swimmer by not heating any of its pools but we’d found that south of Japan the shallow depth of the Sanctuary Pool under the sunshine was just about acceptable temperature-wise. We decided we wanted a swim, changed into the appropriate gear, made our way to our favourite pool and discovered it had been netted off. The sea wasn’t rough so there didn’t seem to be a good reason for it and nobody could give me an answer as to when it might be made available so we took the plunge and tried the main outdoor pool for the first time since the first day aboard. It was cold but tolerable so long as you kept moving and kept your shoulders below the water’s surface where the wind was whipping across it occasionally and kept repeating to yourself that the additional blubber that had formed over the preceding fortnight was protecting you like a manatee.

We ended up swimming for about 75 minutes which was about three times as long as we’d initially planned. In the first instance this was because I got talking to a Canadian man as we swam lengths and we swapped cruise experiences as you do with everyone you meet on one of these trips at sea. After he gave in to the need to warm up, my wife and I found ourselves in a quandary. The ice carving demonstration had just started beside the pool. In itself not a problem but it was right beside where we’d put down our clothes and bags. This meant we’d need to walk in front of a gathered crowd and – worse – the ship’s videographers recording the event in order to dry ourselves, grab our clothes, and go. Our sense of propriety forbade the possibility that our near-naked masses might make the final cut of the highlights DVD so we extended our swim until the coast was clear. We grabbed burgers and fries as we tried to get feeling back into our extremities.

We wouldn’t have been allowed to stay in the water much longer anyway as the next activity on this sea day was due to start and it involved the pool we’d been swimming in. This was Scrapheap Challenge “The Boat Float”. Earlier in the cruise there had been the opportunity for passengers to sign up to the challenge of constructing a vessel that could float and be towed around the perimeter of the swimming pool, carrying cans of drink. As with all the group activities on Diamond Princess this was something that the Japanese passengers signed up for in their droves. When it comes to participation we’ve never met a group with a more go-for-it attitude than the people of Japan.

We grabbed a decent viewing location – in the sun for still-needed warmth and good light for photographs but more exposed to the wind to keep us from burning – and took a great deal of enjoyment in seeing the Boat Float challenge proceed.

It was a well-attended event as you can see from the many photos I took. It was also a lot of fun and interesting to see those who were there just to take part and those who really wanted to win. There were two prizes up for grabs, those being for the fastest lap of the pool and for the best design.

Boats came in a variety of styles from those constructed just from inflatables that had been brought along or bought on the ship to those getting more in the spirit of the game made with balloons or cardboard or anything else really.

Mishaps did occur. String untied itself in one instance almost causing the vessel being towed to drift into the centre of the pool out of reach. In a few cases the boats either weren’t quite up to the task of carrying the cans they had been loaded with or the person towing their vessel had tugged too hard and upended it all. In either event the result was the same and the cans sank to the bottom of the pool which led to calls for a brave person – an Australian gentleman as it turned out – to dive in and retrieve the cargo. As we knew how cold the water was we can only salute him.

Winners were eventually crowned and their prizes ended up being the cans of drinks they’d been ferrying around the pool for everyone’s entertainment. Some high intensity boat float action can be seen in the highlights video at the bottom of this post.

Taking advantage of having my big camera with me out on deck and lovely weather conditions I had to have a quick stroll around to see if anything jumped out at me and wanted to be photographed. You’d be surprised how much does, over and over. My wife wouldn’t. We noticed that the pool we’d wanted to swim in was still netted off.

A very casual activity for a sea day for us is wildlife-spotting. We’re not experts by any stretch of the imagination and we certainly don’t go out of our way to look for creatures of any sort when we’re travelling but it’s sometimes hard not to be captivated by what you see crossing your path so if there are reports of pods of dolphins then you look even if you’ve seen them a dozen times before. Similarly, when we spot birds we try to pay attention to them especially when we’re cruising far from home because it’s likely we’ll have never seen them before and life is about experiences and gaining knowledge and a continual quest for one-upmanship. Thus, when we spotted some black and white birds keeping pace with Diamond Princess, sometimes circling around it, more often gently flying alongside, we made our way to the promenade deck for a closer look. We probably watched the birds for a good fifteen minutes and a little research once we got back says they were probably Brown Boobies of the subspecies Sula leucogaster plotus. Knowledge!

Of course, there’s a sea day activity that we always engage in and that’s drinking. After all our outdoors entertainment we grabbed our reading materials (I like physical books, my wife has her Kindle) and a set of playing cards (in case the desire to challenge one another at ten-card brag overwhelmed us) and hit our favourite place to drink on a Princess Cruises ship, Crooners.

Situated at the top of the piazza it’s easy to tell when there’s some activity taking place in it that might be of interest. A typical day will often see some music being played but you might find group dances taking place too (as there had been earlier in the day) and some traditional ship games such as the bean bag toss that started not long after we’d grabbed our seats. Yet again, as with every participation activity on Diamond Princess this was something attended by the Japanese passengers aboard in large numbers again and although the photos don’t show it the number of people waiting to play was probably several dozen. The video at the end of this post contains a little bit of footage of this activity and a rather unusual throwing technique deployed by a frustrated competitor.

Evening Activities

As you can see from the Princess Patter at the top of the page this penultimate cruise day aboard Diamond Princess was a formal night. We don’t mind formal nights, we most often dress up for them, but on this particular day we just weren’t feeling it, even though the last formal night on a cruise is the big one: the one where the champagne fountain at the farewell cocktail party in the piazza takes place, the one where lobster tends to be on the menu. We’d already decided that we were going to do things completely different for a change and order room service, drink the two bottles of champagne we’d won in a couple of trivia games during the cruise, and watch a few movies from the very large selection available.

But this didn’t mean we couldn’t head up to the Elite Lounge in Skywalkers and take advantage of one of the cheaper drinks there and enjoy what was sure to be another spectacularly beautiful sunset at sea. As our drinks arrived we were pleased to see people already there in formal wear and because Diamond Princess caters about 50/50 for Japanese and Western passengers it was especially pleasing to see some people in formal Japanese clothing.

The two films we ended up watching were Table 19 and The Shape of Water, the former (which was okay) because it had been recommended by the Canadian swimmer earlier in the day and the latter (which was fantastic) because it had been a film we’d meant to watch when it came out at the cinema.

That concludes our sea day activities aboard Diamond Princess. We would have one more day on the ocean before this utterly fantastic cruise would come to an end. The video below (temporarily removed) contains edited highlights of some of this day’s activities as explained during this post.

Upon leaving the dock there is an obvious, wide, straightish road heading into the city that we followed. Two dragon statues marked the start of it and we passed by them, knowing that staying on the road we were on would bring us to Kokusaidori Street in about 15-20 minutes.

Or it would have taken us 15-20 minutes if I hadn’t been distracted by the appearance of a block of greenery on our left that demanded a quick exploring. This turned out to be Matsuyama Park and we didn’t know it at the time but it continued on the other side of the street too and looks like it’s worthy of a nose around if you’re passing by; we certainly will if we return to Okinawa on a future cruise. The park contained an artificial pond and several statues and monuments, though to what we couldn’t tell. One sign did seem to indicate that the original hospital of Naha may have been in the area. With some schools for younger children and some playgrounds in the area I kept my camera away for the most part. The other thing of note in this park was a large gathering of people in similar attire with placards and bullhorns. They didn’t look the friendliest bunch in the world so we steered clear of this group too and decided against any inadvertent antagonisation by keeping the camera firmly down. As it turned out this wouldn’t be the last time we saw them.

Leaving the park we continued approximately southeast along the road we’d been walking on with the only landmark of any note being when we crossed over one of the tributaries feeding into the Kokuba River, alongside which were the elevated concrete rail pillars we remembered fondly from our previous visit to the city.

This then brought us to the large four-way road junction with its diagonal pedestrian crossing markings that signified the start of Kokusaidori Street and it was here that we encountered a wonderful surprise: the street was entirely closed off to traffic so we would be free to wander along its length and cross over to view shops at leisure. We didn’t know if this was just something they did on a Sunday (it was a Sunday when we were there) but it meant there was a gentle pace to exploring that could be shared by both locals and tourists alike.

It was great to see some people really making an effort and enjoying the pleasant temperature of the late afternoon on Naha’s main shopping street.

We then discovered the reason that Kokusaidori Street had been closed off. Our visit to the city of Naha had coincided with a large, public martial arts demonstration. Within many of the city blocks there were one or two red carpeted areas on which either a demonstration of moves was taking place or had already done so by the time we arrived. Groups were either engaged in their moves or milling about awaiting their turn. People in white martial arts outfits ranged in age from the youngest of children to the oldest of men and women. We saw some with sticks and some with other weaponry but the vast majority were unarmed. Some signs on poles along the street seemed to indicate that karate was the main martial art on show although I can’t say for certain that every person demonstrating to the onlookers was definitely performing just that skill.

The sun getting lower in the sky made for some lovely long shadows along the street.

We’d been making our way slowly along Kokusaidori Street in a roughly easterly direction all this time as we’d been entertained by the martial artists along its length when we spotted something very familiar to us. During our first visit to Naha we’d very much enjoyed finding an indoor market area and had picked up some souvenirs at the time. Guarded by an odd-looking sculpture of a creature playing a musical instrument we saw the arched entrance of the market again and decided to pop in for a look to see if anything would entice us to part with our wallet of yen.

Emerging back into the noticeably fading light but without any goodies we endeavoured instead to head back down Kokusaidori Street and check out some of the many shops we’d passed on the way up. The martial arts demonstrations had come to an end at this time and we could see some of the children being warmly congratulated by proud parents while adult practitioneers seemed to be drifting away in groups too.

It was strange to see so many Japanese schoolchildren around with it being a Sunday but not quite so strange as seeing a few of the schoolgirls taking photos of their sausages on sticks in the middle of the emptying road.

We ducked into several shops and started to spend our money. We like trying to use local currency when we’re travelling because it gives us a chance to pick up small change and keep it as a memory of our trips. Importantly, though, if you are travelling to Japan then it really helps to have yen on you because while it’s a very advanced country technologically in many ways we’ve found that the use of credit cards is not as widespread as you might expect; many businesses will only accept cash so if you’re looking to spend in Japan then keep that in mind. You can read more about this tip and others by looking at mistakes to avoid when planning a trip to Japan.

As we got closer to the junction that would mark the end of Kokusaidori Street and the point at which we would be turning back towards the direction of the cruise ship the low sunlight that had been creating such lovely long shadows along the concrete disappeared behind distant parts of the city and with that darkening of the evening the lights of the buildings became more prominent.

Dusk cast the evening sky over Naha City into gorgeous shades of pinks, purples, and dusty blues.

Now, you may remember me mentioning the group of people we’d stumbled upon who’d been preparing placards in Matsuyama Park when we’d paid that area of greenery a visit on our way towards Kokusaidori Street. On our walk back towards Diamond Princess we encountered that same group only this time they were in full protest mode. Slowly marching down the road they were accompanied by vehicles travelling at the same pace and one person inside one of those to which was attached a huge megaphone was yelling slogans to the sound of heavy drumming. Our grasp of Japanese is as close to zero as makes no difference so quite what this group were upset at was and still remains a complete mystery.

The remainder of the walk towards the cruise port took place in suddenly very dark conditions. It’s quite weird to look back now and see just how quickly the sky turned from twilight to pitch black. A few buildings were eyecatching enough in the dim conditions to photograph and the most interesting places included a building with a giant lobster on its exterior wall and public toilets with twisted industrial decorations outside.

Eventually we reached the dragon sculpture marker that signalled we’d reached the end of the urban part of Naha and the start of the port area but with this being night and with Diamond Princess being lit up and impossible to miss we didn’t really need any help identifying the location.

This then was our last moment at a port of call on our second cruise aboard Diamond Princess ten years apart. Following our departure from Okinawa we would have two relaxing days at sea before our cruise would end where it started, in Yokohama, and where we would sadly have to leave Asia and head home.

We noticed that the pools were all closed off as we went to breakfast which seemed a little bit like overkill to us. I understand closing off the shallower, adults only pool in the Sanctuary area of the ship because the low water depth and even fairly mild waves can make for dangerous conditions but with the deeper pools this risk is mitigated quite a bit and there’s nothing more entertaining than being in a pool with the waves sloshing around everywhere. While eating breakfast in the buffet area we were captivated by the view of the horizon rising and falling as we made our way through the choppy waters towards Japan and you can see some of that in the video accompanying this post.

There was time to kill in the morning and we spent it watching some of the entertainment in the piazza, taking part in the trivia, and getting a little bit of reading in; all the elements of a typical, lovely, relaxing sea day but with a port arrival imminent!

As we neared the port city of Naha tug boats appeared to give us an escort to shore. Our balcony position gave us a good view of one of the vessels although it was not entirely clear what their main purpose was on the approach to Okinawa as they seemed to be neither really pulling or pushing the cruise ship. It’s possible they were there in a precautionary capacity in case the sea and wind conditions required the ship’s pilot to call for some assistance.

We didn’t spot many other vessels as we entered the harbour but one that stood out was the Star Cruises SuperStar Gemini cruise ship, formerly the Norwegian Dream. I love seeing these older ships operating for lines that are more localised, especially ones that have changed ownership several times, and it’s great to take a look through their deck layouts and cabin arrangements and entertainment offerings to see how they cater for the markets they target.

We eventually came alongside in Naha. We’d visited Naha before back in 2008 but on that occasion Diamond Princess had docked considerably farther north and had required us to use a complimentary shuttle bus to get from the ship into the city. Everything would be in walking distance this time around which also meant there wasn’t an unattractive (well, I don’t tend to mind them) commercial port for a view and we could instead look out at the outskirts of the city and towards where we would later be heading.

This video (temporarily removed) shows the sea conditions in the morning, some of the actions of the tug boats, and a little of the port of Naha from the top deck of Diamond Princess.

Japanese Immigration

There is never any point rushing to get off the ship as soon as it docks because there are formalities to be observed first. In many ports there is a brief customs clearance procedure for the ship and then an announcement is made and everyone is allowed off. In some places passports and/or visas and/or landing cards may need to be shown. And then there’s Japan where every single port of entry requires a cumbersome immigration process. You have to pass the thermal scanning to ensure you’re not running a temperature. You have to show your passport. You have to have filled in a customs declaration form. And this all needs to be scheduled because they don’t want three thousand passengers trying to do this all at the same time.

On the plus side you don’t need to do the scheduling; that’s all arranged by Princess and you get notified in your cabin the day before when you’ll need to gather in one of the lounges or dining rooms to be called ashore. Counter to that, though, is that you might want to get off the ship early but that’s completely out of your hands. If you have arranged an excursion through Princess, of course, then you’ll get scheduled early to take advantage of it but whether that applies to people arranging their own things I can’t say. Certainly something to consider if you’re thinking about private excursions while on a cruise hitting Okinawa.

We passed some time observing occasional passengers making their way along the dock beside the ship, having completed their Japanese immigration procedure. We did this to try to gauge just how long it was taking people based on when we saw them leave the ship and enter the terminal to when we recognised them coming back out and heading ashore but it wasn’t an easy thing to do.

It eventually came to our time to head to one of the dining rooms and wait to be called ashore. And wait. And wait. And listen to the apologies for the delay. And wait some more. And watch some people assume queues were for other people and jump them. And wait. And then get let through. A lengthy walk from the ship to the terminal then left us in a long, snaking queue of hundreds of other people with a sinking feeling that this would take forever but, fair’s fair, the queue moved pretty rapidly as there were a lot of immigration desks open. I passed through very quickly and had the opportunity to see the immigration desk computers from behind as my wife was being processed: lots of screenshots of not just her present passport photo page but previous ones too flashed up along with screens of additional information that I clearly couldn’t read. It was actually quite fascinating to see just how much data was being held on her and easily accessible to the customs authorities.

We finally stepped out of the terminal and onto Japanese concrete just over one hour after we’d been told to meet aboard the ship to pass through immigration. For a country that really, really, really likes putting people through immigration it could do with some projects targeting efficiencies in the process in our opinion.

In the next post I’ll cover our time ashore in Naha itself.