Ever been to Japan?
Ever been to Japan during the cherry blossoms?
We would not normally consider a cruise in high season, but when our friends invited us to join them to celebrate a special birthday, we said yes! We were happy to have the flexibility in our schedules to join them! We used Air Canada to fly from YYZ to NRT and earned a few Aeroplan points.
Sakura Blossoms
We saw a variety 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. We booked our first night’s stay at 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.
Cruise Embarkation
We embarked on the Westerdam, a Holland America 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 because we were the first ship to be 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 coming to Japan. This is why we did not try to do our own guided tours. I’m sure future cruises will enjoy smaller groups as the cruise line reestablishes its tour connections. This was a great introduction to the amazing sights and people of Japan!
Our itinerary
This was our itinerary and more details about our stops are posted in the following posts:
