grumeti peking


April 1st and no joke, we start our cruise around the south of Honshu. Departing Osaka in the evening to reach the first port, Tamano, next morning. Our excursion commence with a visit to the Bizen Osofune Samurai Sword Museum. Gosh, watching the muscle of the craftsman forming the sword ! What a skill and power.
Another highlight of Okayama is the Korajuen Garden, 133000 sqm, it was built in 1700 by the local lords. Beautiful if only the thunderstorm clouds would go away, but no, they don't and we escape to a dry place, our coach.

It is very comfortable to take your bed with you, no packing of suitcases, no worries of Hotel reservations. Our cruise ship provides that all.

Arriving in Hiroshima, the largest city of western Honshu. Destroyed by a nuclear weapon at 8:15am on August 6, 1945. Hiroshima was proclaimed as a City of Peace by the Japanese Parliament in 1949.

We escape to another world, the peaceful Island of Miyajima with its red Torii gate and the Itsukushima shrine. Lovely to see, I wish others did not have the same idea but it is a popular spot.
Next stop Uwajima, which locates deep inside the Bay, protected from the sea and rough waves.
From the pier we embark to a one-hour drive into rural Japan. We visit the terraced fields of Yusu Mizugaura, there are stonewalls about one meter high and one meter wide providing space to grow vegetables. It has a special beauty to see the wall terraces flowing gracefully from the top of the mountain.

On the way back a visit to the Uwajima Doi Pearl centre. Watching the implantation of the little ball which, with help of the oyster, will become a pearl. At harvest time not every oyster was successful in creating a pearl but we learn you can still eat the oyster, different consistency and taste as the ones you find at the fish market. Not so my thing.
Back to the ship and getting ready for dinner but today no oysters please.
The port of Kagoshima is waiting for us, the town has a nickname “ Naples of the Eastern world “ for its bay location, hot climate ( we missed that one ) and impressive volcano. We turn south to Chiran, famous for its samurai residences that have been preserved, all around 250 years old

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