Ever been to Japan? Ever been to Japan during the cherry blossoms?
We were invited to do just that last spring. We travelled to Japan to celebrate a friend’s birthday. We used Air Canada to fly from YYZ to NRT and earned a few Aeroplan points.
Sakura Blossoms
We were fortunate to see many varieties of sakura (cherry) blossoms throughout our time in Japan. We first saw the light pink single blooms in Tokyo, then white blooms in Kagoshima, and double-bloom hybrids in Kyoto and Shimizu.
Our two week trip to Japan began in Tokyo.  Using Expedia.ca, we stayed at the The Grand Prince Takawana Hotel which had a beautiful garden in the back. Many sakura trees were in full bloom and were lit up at night. We had an excellent view from our room. The hotel was busy with weddings and we saw people dressed in traditional kimonos as we waited in the lobby.
We embarked on the Westerdam, a Holland American ship. We enjoyed our first 2 sea days as it gave us time to adjust to the 13h time change. There were strict mask wearing policies in 2023 and we were the first ship welcomed back since 2020. The ship held 1900 passengers & crew.
All of the staff we met were friendly and helpful. We checked out the lounges, participated in some trivia challenges and enjoyed the daily entertainment. One day, we braved the pool to swim in the waves made by the swells. We attended and enjoyed many string quartet performances and theatre shows. We find that Holland American cruises do a superb job with music venues and guest services. We used their services for a few excursions that were well organized and ensured an English speaking tour. Some were quite crowded, more than we would have liked. We learned there was a good reason for this. Many English speaking tour guides were difficult to find because of the 3 year gap in cruises in Japan. I’m sure future cruises will enjoy smaller groups as the cruise line reestablishes their tour connections. This was a great introduction to the amazing sights and people of Japan!