While we were scheduled to arrive at 11am, the Captain announced the day before that he would try to dock by 10am. And he did well before 10am. The sail into the harbor is very pretty along a fairly narrow channel. Once docked, the ship provided a shuttle bus to the downtown train/bus station which puts many of the tourist attractions within walking distance. The whole station is quite nice and modern and a bullet train to Tokyo leaves from here (2.5 hours & 6 stops).
Our Tours by Locals guide, Takashi, greeted us at the gangway and rode with us to the bus station where we purchased our 500¥ all day bus ticket which we used to get around the city. Our first stop was at the local fish market which was much like other fish markets we've visited.
We caught another bus and rode it to the Kenrokuen Garden. Entry was free for seniors and it's a very large garden (not a park) poised on a hill. There are lots of photographic opportunities. From here we walked down the hill and across a bridge to the Kanazawa Castle Park. Inside the park is the castle which was once again free for seniors. It, too, had the steep stairs (ladder-like) but only two stories tall.
Leaving the Castle Park, I found myself quite overheated so we stopped for a few minutes in a rest area which had cooling fans. We wandered by a shrine over to a tall building with sort of a food court on the 8th floor and the group chose to eat at the Kohrinbo Daiwa restaurant.
After lunch and a chance to cool and rehydrate we took a bus over to the Geisha district where we walked around and visited a place where gold leaf is made. It was fascinating to watch the process. It's also possible to purchase ice cream that is wrapped in the gold leaf and we sampled cold tea with gold leaf in it.
From there we headed to the samurai district and walked around before briefly visiting the Museum of Modern Art. It was then time to take a bus back to the bus station where we boarded our 7pmish shuttle back to the ship. By now it was dark and the Maasdam glistened in its blue and white paint scheme and the LED lighted Maasdam letters sparkled their white invitation to identify the ship.
Upon boarding we went through Japanese immigration in the Explorations Cafe to leave Japan and surrender our passports for the upcoming Russian immigration procedures in Vladivostok. With the heat of the day it was time to once again rehydrate, get cool, eat something and prepare to be entertained by an all women's drum group. We went to the second showing of the drum program before catching the last part of Dr. Kam's travel story in the Crow's Nest.
Just after 10:30pm without public announcement, the Maasdam released its lines and moved away from its berth. The drummers waved us off and a few of us up on deck 12 returned the waves using cell phone lights like in a concert. And we headed down the now dark waterway led by a lighted tugboat. Near the end of the jetty, the pilot transfer boat picked up our pilot and we headed off into a very dark ocean with an upcoming sea day on our way across the Sea of Japan to Vladivostok. We later learned that we sailed at 20 knots overnight in an effort to miss the current typhoon that was to our southwest. Would we miss the storm? Stay tuned.
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