Saturday, April 1, 2023
As usual, I headed to Horizons early to get coffee. I enjoyed watching the sunrise over the Pacific Ocean as we were at sea and not scheduled to dock in Shimizu until noon. Eventually, Jane joined me and we ate a light breakfast of pastries together in Horizons. After breakfast, we headed back to our stateroom and began packing our luggage because we’d need to place it in the hallway by 10 pm to allow transfer onto tomorrow’s bus to the airport. Meanwhile, we had our deck door open enjoying a warm breeze, and as we neared land, observed Mount Fuji, albeit in a haze with its peak enshrouded in clouds. After packing, we went topside to socialize with fellow cruisers, eat an early lunch, and observe the docking in Shimizu Port. After we obtained our tour number and laminated bus tickets, we disembarked and boarded Bus 1 with Moto as our guide.
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| Sunrise over the Pacific Ocean |
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| (Obscured) View of Mount Fuji from our Stateroom |
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| Go Pack!. |
Our first stop today was the seaside pine grove of Miho no Matsubara. We took a nice boardwalk, “Path of the Kami” (kami=Shinto spirits) to this grove that featured a third-generation 300-year-old tree with mythical powers. Jane and I walked a ways down the beach, which under clear conditions, provides a great view of Mount Fuji, and is considered one of the three best views in Japan. However, although we could make out the base of the mountain, the haze and clouds interfered with our view. On the return walk, we lingered in some shoppes before taking the boardwalk back to our bus.
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| Hagoromo no Matsubara (the Hagoromo Pine) |
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| (Obscured) Mount Fuji from the Beach |
Our next stop was to visit the Kunozan Toshogu Shrine. To visit this shrine, we took a cable car with the confidence-sapping name of Nihondaira Ropeway, down a mountain side from the bus parking area to the the coast. The shrine is dedicated to the feudal lord Tokugawa Ieyasu, who unified Japan in the early 1600s and was the first shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate which ruled Japan for over 200 years. The shrine is a complex of ornate bright-red buildings and was constructed by Ieyasu’s son, the second Tokugawa shogun, in honor of his father. The tomb of Tokugawa Ieyasu is located on the shrine site in a peacefully secluded area. We also visited a museum on the shrine site. No photos were allowed, but we saw incredible displays of 16th century writings, swords, armor, etc., that had belonged to Ieyasu.
After leaving the shrine and ascending via ropeway back to the parking area, we had time to climb a series of stairs up to a beautiful overlook of Suruga Bay featuring what is usually another iconic view of Mount Fuji, but the shy peak continued to hide from us. On the bus ride back to the ship, Moto exclaimed that the peak of Mount Fuji had emerged from the clouds. Some folks, including Jane, claimed to see it, but my poor aging eyes couldn’t distinguish the snow-cap peak from the clouds in fleeting glimpses from a moving bus. Oh, well, at least I saw the base which is more than some visitors see. (BTW, hikers aren’t allowed to climb Mount Fuji until June.)
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| Nihondaira Ropeway |
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| View of the Coastline from the Ropeway |
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| Main Hall of Kunozan Toshogu Shrine |
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| Another Hall of Kunozan Toshogu Shrine |
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| Tomb of Tokugawa Ieyasu |
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| Exiting the Shrine Gate |
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| Suruga Bay and (obscured) Mount Fuji from the Nihondaira Park Outlook |
Back on the Nautica, we relaxed awhile and finished packing our luggage before putting on our fancy duds to have dinner at the other specialty restaurant aboard, the Polo Grill, where we had a late reservation. We ascended to Deck 10 and were escorted to a private window-side table. Too bad it was night and we were offshore so that there was only blackness to view outside. However, we were pampered with a final wonderful meal. Upon returning to our stateroom, we packed up our fancy clothes, wrapped the assigned Purple 2 tags on our three pieces of luggage and placed them in the hall, then sadly retired for our final night in Stateroom 6031.