Day 72 - Tuesday March 26, 2024, Shimizu, Japan

Arrival: 07:00 All Aboard: 15:30 Departure: 16:00

The rain that started Sunday evening through Monday continued as we sailed into Shimizu. The Oceania Currents from the previous night had a picture of Mount Fuji with the cherry blossoms. Two strikes - (1) too rainy to see Mt. Fuji and (2) no cherry blossoms yet.

Janice had booked a tour by locals for the day and our friends, Jean and Pete decided to join us.

Leaving the ship at 09:00 we went in search of our guide, Yomiko. She found us outside the cruise terminal, and we rushed to the waiting van to get out of the pouring rain. The taxi driver was dressed in a suit and tie like all drivers in Japan, what a novelty!! His name was Mr. Yoshi.

The weather limited us to what we would be able to see. Yomiko decided on a one-hour drive to Shizuoka to visit the Mt. Fuji World Heritage Centre. A good touch was that she provided us each with an umbrella to avoid the rain that was quite harsh at times.

The cost for the Museum was 300 yen per person ($1.50 CDN) however it was free for anyone over the age of 70 which Pete and I were. The outside of the museum looks like an inverted Mt. Fuji with its peak on the bottom and the flat surface on the top.

A circular pathway starts on the main floor with screens showing your ascent up to an observation hall at the top where views of Mount Fuji can be seen on clear days. Today was not one of them.

An excellent 10-minute film on Mt. Fuji was shown on the second floor in cinema style room. The only thing missing was popcorn.

An interesting feature on the screen are silhouette figures of hikers making the ascent with their packs. At one point I looked behind me to see who the people were until I realized it was silhouettes.

The history of Mt. Fuji and other exhibits were shown on various stops along the way. At the observation hall, our guide air dropped a picture to me of Mt. Fuji from the previous week. I will include it in the blog. It was probably one of the best museums we've visited.

It was still raining as we make our way to the Shinto shrine of Fujisan Hongu Sengentaisha. There were not many people here due to the rain.

A quick stop was also made to a local sake store for samples, yes, I did sample them. Janice purchased several bottles to take home.

As we leave the port of Shimizu fireworks are going off and the people on the pier are waving goodbye to us. The next port is Kobe (Kyoto) 275 nautical miles away where we will overnight.

Our cruise director Ray mentioned there would be motion on the ocean and to use handrails when walking around the ship. The sick bags are out. The strong winds that started around 20:00 remained throughout the night so this may affect the time when we get into Kobe. When I checked, the sea conditions on the television at 21:00 showed wind gusts of 44 knots (50.6 mph) to 56.5 knots (65 mph).

On a lighter note, at Trivia Ray mentioned there was an ice cream spill in the elevator on the port side aft of the ship. When he advised housekeeping about it, they asked what floor the elevator is on. You can't make this up.