After spending the night in port at Kobe we departed at 9am to sail to Beppu via the Japan Inland Sea. We pass under the Akashi Bridge which is the largest single span suspension bridge in the world. It crosses the Akashi Kaikyo (strait) which leads to the Harima Nada (sea) Today is all about scenic cruising so its a very leisurely morning before heading upstairs to view the scenery. We have been fortunate to enjoy scenic cruising in the Fjord-lands and Hawaii an...

We woke this morning as the ship was negotiating the busy waterways leading into the port City of Kobe. From the Lido deck ( deck 14) we watched the approach. On the dock was a young lady dressed in a very neat pale blue suit complete with white gloves and straw hat waving at the ship. After a number of minutes of continual waving, she disappeared inside the terminal but then emerged a short time late with a 17 piece brass band! They set up very quickly and immed...

Well rested and packed, we store our bags at the hotel and head off again for a few hours. Our transfer to the ship is due to pick us up at 12.55pm so we have a bit more exploring time. We still have time on our hop on hop off bus and 1 more route to do. We now have the subway and trains mastered so this is our preferred mode of transport because as I mentioned earlier, Tokyo is not a walkable city and time is of the essence. The 3rd bus route is to Roppongi and ...

What a day - more than 36 hours on the go since we left Adelaide. 2 x 7 hour flights with a few hours in Singapore in between makes for easy travel. The 2nd leg from Singapore to a Tokyo did allow us a few hours sleep so we could hit the ground running in Tokyo. Our first challenge was getting to the hotel. We had a meet and greet guide who met us at the airport and he gave us the option of the mode of transport. Did we want to take the train, the bus or a taxi. ...

Stop one- Singapore!