Sunday 12 April Takamatsu

Happy Birthday J1! Sunshine expected today as we berthed in Takamatsu around 7am. Nice views from the ship.

After breakfast we board a coach for the morning tour(included) at 8.30. Our guide is Kao, one of the younger women so I am most grateful for that. Our journey begins with a visit to Shikoku-mura (Shikoku village) which is an open air museum at the base of Mt Yashima. There are over 30 restored buildings from the Edo to Taisho periods. There are plenty of steps and all upwards! It certainly is interesting and pretty. The rope and timber bridge was a challenges.

There is a gallery near the top that features world renowned artists work. There is a Rodin sculpture plus a Picasso and a Matisse.

We then keep heading upwards for the light house.

Time to head back down to the coach.

We continue our journey to Ritsurin Garden which is the largest cultural property garden in Japan.It had been maintained for over 400 years. Originally created in the Edo period of the dsimyo (feudal lord) the garden features ponds and landscaped hills in front of Mt Shiun.It is not a botannical gardens as such, but relies on trees water, islands and rocks for its arrangements. so many photos taken that it's hard to pick the best.

Time to get back on the coach and return to the ship. We get back in time for lunch at 12.30. There is a free shuttle service operating that would take us into the Main shopping street this afternoon if we wanted but we opt for an afternoon at leisure in the cabin to catch up on a bit of hand washing,sort photos, reading and do the blog. There has been no problem each day so far, getting in our 10,000 steps. We change for dinner as it is the Captain's recruiting tonight and head for a pre dinner drink about 4.30.

Everyone needs to be onboard by 5pm and we get a special send off by some locals.

There is a video of them firing off the rifles but the onboard wifi is so slow that it keeps creating trying to upload. Anyway... We now have a free drink and canapes as the captain welcomes us onboard and introduces his team. We will be using the zodiacs tomorrow afternoon so have briefing on how to use them. Next is Margie who is the Travelmarvel coordinator for this trip. At one point she asks who is J1 as she wants to acknowledge that it is her birthday! Then it's time for dinner and we head down to the dining room. We pick a nice table for 2 as both of us are worn out and prefer our own company rather than have to come up with small talk with strangers. Dinner was excellent although the Japanese style prawn cocktail was unusual.

I was hoping to fit in dessert as I had seen a chocolate mint pie that sounded yummy but I never got to the dessert menu, as we were surrounded by all the waiting staff to sing their own version of happy birthday to J1. There was even a mini conga line around our table at one point. J1 was presented with a mini birthday cake and that became our dessert. What a hoot! I videoed the singing but it is a large file and won't upload to the blog via the ship's wifi so I'll have to upload it later. we eventually make our way back to our room and J1 has a lovely surprise waiting for her.

What a great way to end her birthday! But as I didn't get a lot of sleep last night I'm in for an early night as we have another big day ahead of us tomorrow. At 9pm we leave port and head for Hiroshima.