Monday 20 April. Goodbye Heritage Adventurer, hello Tokyo

Happy birthday to me, sang J1 at 5.45am when the alarm went off! Showered, dressed and suitcases out in the hall by 6.30 and then to breakfast. Time to disembark, go quickly and easily through Customs and then on the coach to take us to the Kanazawa train station. What a busy place. Heritage Adventurer is a great little exploration ship and I'd love to travel on it again.

We are then rallied together to get up onto the platform where we have a 45 minute wait before we board the bullet train (Shinkansen) which will take us to Tokyo with about a two and a half hour journey. There has been lots of waiting around, but our guides have us all keyed up that there are 150 of us that need to board the train in 2 different carriages, with only 2 minutes to do so. Some have suitcases with them (the majority of us put our luggage on a truck at the port which will get to our hotels late this afternoon) and there are a number with mobility issues, so it is going to be fun! However, the train arrives in the station and we are all boarded, even tho ugh some havent initially found seats, but that gets sorted quickly once we are underway. Scenery wasnt wow factor along the way, but at almost 260 kph it certainly sped by.

We are provided with a boxed lunch that was really nice, although I wasnt sure what a few of the items were and chose to leave them to one side.

Soon enough the time has passed and we are advised to get ready to get off the train as we arrive in Tokyo. At least we have 5 minutes to do so! It is quite messy getting everyone through exits out to where we gather for our coaches, but eventually order has been restored and we are herded off to our coach which will take us to our hotel. it is about a 25 minute ride. Traffic is heavy. There is major construction going on everywhere.

Finally at our hotel we are thankful that our rooms are ready. I am never going to master all the options for the toilet, and just for the record, I don't need the toilet seat to be heated!

Our luggage may not arrive until about 6 so we head to the hotel's tiny cafe and J1 buys us both coffees which go down very well. We then head out to a nearby shopping centre. It isnt very big and has nothing of interest to us so we head back to the hotel and inhe basement, check out where we will have breakfast in the morning. We can dine there tonight for the buffet, but at $90 per person, I think not! Instead we go to the nearby 7/11 and J1 buys salads, chips, mini croissants and a bottle of wine for our dinner tonight that we will enjoy in our hotel room.What a lovely birthday repast! Back in our hotel room and it is happy hour.

Im quite happily reading a book, with J1 sitting next to me on the lounge, and I felt like I was back on the ship, with the lounge slightly moving! I then noticed that the wine in my glass was moving! J1 and I looked at each other and asked if we both felt whatever it was! This 'tremor' went on for about 5 minutes and then simply stopped. Turns out there had been a 7.4 magnitude undersea earthquake hitting the north eastern provinces of Japan and the tremors were experienced as far away as Tokyo where we are. We later hear that there are tsunami warnings for the area. All good with us, and no one else in the hotel seems bothered by it, so maybe because we are on the 12th floor and the end corner room, we felt the building movement more. Anyway, hope thats the last of it, but maybe not. We head downstairs about 5pm to see if our luggage has artived and it had, so suitcases back upstairs, wine and chippies happy hour continues until we decide it is time for dinner.

Nice views from our hotel balcony. It definitely looks better at night than during the daylight.

No more earth movement so far, and as we are both worn out from today's travel it is time for bed. It certainly has been a very different way to spend a birthday.

Sunday 19 April, Kanazawa

We arrived in our final Port this morning. After breakfast we head to Kanazawa castle with Kenji as our guide. This historic castle dates back to the Maeda clan in the late 16th century. While the original structures of the castle have undergone several reconstructions due to fire and natural disasters, it is impressive with huge gates, watch towers and large grounds.

We then cross the road and enter Kenroku-en Garden, considered one of Japan's three most beautiful gardens. Don't know which the other two are, but it truly is magnificent. Originally developed in the 16th century it has gorgeous landscapes that include ponds, bridges and tea houses. The trees are magnificent.

We have some spare time after wandering the gardens so head to a nearby shop that sells the local specialty of gold leaf icecream! At $10 a cone, was it worth it? Probably not but I'm unlikely to pass this way again any time soon. Mind you, I may be pooping glitter for the next couple of days!

We are then back on the coach for a visit to the Nagamachi Samurai district. This area shows a traditional samurai neighbourhood with well preserved residences,winding alleyways and narrow canals.

We visit a small samurai house that remains after the break up of the feudal system.

As we leave the samurai house I spot a little cafe that befits a number of people on this cruise (not me though!).

Time to get back on the coach and then back to our ship for lunch. The afternoon is filled with packing our cases as best we can and attending a surprise special afternoon tea for those still on the ship. My stomach has no memory as we only had lunch just over 2 hours ago.

From our ship, we catch a peek of snow capped mountains in the distance. Hard to imagine this place in winter.

Time for drinks in the lounge before or final briefing on what to expect tomorrow getting off the ship, onto the bullet train and arrival in Tokyo.

Time for dinner which is a Japanese menu. I can only manage 2 courses and even then it's a struggle.

And the next thing I know I have all the dining room staff surrounding our table and singing their version of Happy Birthday to me. What a racket, and what a lot of fun. I was then presented with a small birthday cake which I felt obligated to eat a small piece of! Even though it's not my birthday til tomorrow, they didn't want me to miss out on celebrating it. J1 took a video that I will upload later. Can't do it with the ships wi fi. Back to our room and what ahoot when I see what staff have done to my bed!

But time now for a bit more packing, filling out Customs forms and the blog!It certainly has been a great cruise and we now only have a taste of Tokyo to look forward to until it's home time. But for now my bed is calling me so I'm done for the day.