8th March
NAGASAKI, JAPAN
The sail in to Nagasaki is quite picturesque as you pass hilly tree covered hills and small uninhabited islands. A huge road bridge spans the estuary then it changes to more built up areas and dock yards etc. The dock itself is right in Nagasaki so no shuttle bus is required as you can walk straight in.
There was a beautiful sunrise with no cloud at all, unlike yesterday, but still quite a nip in the air. Forecast to stay sunny all day and get up to about 14-15 degrees.
Set off on foot about 8.30am and walked up to see the Nagasaki Confucian Shrine. Our next stop was the Glover Gardens where we caught the venicular right to the top with spectacular views across the bay and ship and the hills around. We then headed for Shinchi Chinatown and up to the Hamano-machi Shopping Arcade. Again, like yesterday it was a covered in pedestrian walkway with shops each side. I must admit that by the time I had finished I felt like one of those nodding dogs you used to get in the backs of cars !! Everyone bows their head to you and of course, you do it back! I even done it to the staff of the ship when I got back on and they thought I’d hurt my neck and had a bad twitch !!!!!
Anyway, after the shopping we stopped for coffee and cakes then decided to buy a pass for the trams. Rode up as far as it went hoping to see some of the “old” Nagasaki but unfortunately it was mostly the same. Saw the school children coming out of school and wow, are they smart or what! But then again all the taxi drivers, tram drivers and bus drivers all wear white shirts, jackets, hats and spotless white gloves. They all look immaculate. Caught a different line back again and by this time we’d had enough so made our way back to the ship.
All day we didn’t see any litter anywhere and not a speck of graffiti. But I did see lots of the most adorable Japanese babies and little children with black hair cut like a bowl had been put on their head and cut round and round chubby smiling faces.
Definitely prefer Nagasaki to Kagoshima but enjoyed both days. As we sailed away there were more Japanese drummers and performers on the quay side to bid us farewell. Now 2 days of rest at sea before we get to Hong Kong.

9th & 10th March
AT SEA
Quiet day at sea as weather was dull, grey, windy and wet out. In the evening it was our friends Clare and Peters wedding anniversary so eight of of went to the Ocean Grill for a select meal. We had drinks in our cabin first then went to eat. Had a great meal and wine which resulted in a quite noisy affair so it’s a good job they put our table in the corner!!!! After, we went to The Rising Sun pub and ended up doing Karaoke..... badly !!! Finished off with the ladies singing Abbas Dancing Queen at the top of our voices!!!!

The following day was the same weather wise with complete cloud cover but reasonably warm though. No deck games on as it’s wet out so stayed in most of the day reading and attending the last game of Battle of The Sexes for this leg of the journey. Turned out that the men won again so they were more than happy.
Done my walking round the deck and saw loads of small fishing boats plus huge container ships as we sail between China and the island of Taiwan. Brightened up slightly in the afternoon but certainly no glimpses of sun at all.

11th March
HONG KONG
Lovely calm sail into Hong Kong which we got up early to watch. The clouds hung low covering the tops of the many sky scrapers lining the shores. Fortunately it’s due to brighten up a lot later and the temperature about 24 degrees.