Here we are in Aomori back on the island of Honshu. There has been civilization in Aomori for longer than 30000 years. It's was founded in 1625 and became a city in 1898. There are no old buildings as almost the entire city was destroyed at the end of WW11. The ancient people lived underground and were hunters and gatherers and pottery makers. In 1611 the second lord of the Tsugaru Clan, Tsugaru Nobuhira constructed the historic Hirosaki a Castle. The castle was ...

Today we dock in Hokodate at 8am but we don't leave until 11pm. We gave to be all back on board by 10.30pm. The exciting thing about this is there is a Ropeway to the top of Mt Goten where you can see the city light up after dark from the Mt Hakodate Observatory House. Getting around is made very easy using street cars and a day pass. From the ship we have a free shuttle that takes us to the railway station and then it's a short walk to the tram stop to go to Hak...

Well there is no doubt we are racking up the stamps in our passports and the Japanese authorities have more photos of me this trip than Glenn has taken of me....... Well that's not quite true but seriously, before we can go ashore today in Otaru we need to be 'Processed' again. We are given the 7.30am time slot so we decide to get organized and go ashore early to make the most of the day. It's a bit cool but promises to be a fine sunny day. Otaru began as a fishi...

After cruising through the Shiretoko Peninsula yesterday, we arrive in Russia this morning. The Shiretoko Peninsula is the southern most area to have sea ice in the northern hemisphere. We did not see any whales but we did see a large pod of little black dolphins. Korsakov, the city we are visiting today is actually part of Siberia in Russia's Far East. It was a penal colony during communist rule but nowadays it's a busy commercial shipping port as it does not fr...

Yesterday was a cruising day as we left Tokyo and headed north to the island of Hokkaido, Japan's second largest island. The temperature should be cooler, forecast 18 for today. The sea was fairly big again yesterday, not so choppy but a rather large swell. The sun came out for awhile so we enjoyed sometime on our balcony. Today we arrive in Kushiro, nicknamed " City of Mist" because of foggy days with light rain. We are joining a small group for the day on a pri...