Last Sea Day on Diamond Princess

August 2, 2015 -- At Sea 

Sky: cloudy

Temperature: 24C

After exiting Tsugaru Strait around midnight, Diamond Princess sailed along the east coast of Japan the whole day. As usual, there were a lot of activities planned on board for passengers of all ages. What I noticed was the Interdenominational Worship at 8:15. Princess is one of the few cruise lines that continues to schedule Sunday services for their passengers. Thank you, Princess!

The pulpit set up.

When we entered, Chris, one of the entertainment staff, told us that they don't have a clergy on board and that the service will depend on volunteers showing up. We told them that MOR is an ordained minister and we will be glad to help out if needed. He was delighted and asked MOR to lead the service. We ended up having Ruth, a retired teacher from northern California leading with the singing of hymns, MOR delivered a short sermon, and then Ruth lead the fellowship/prayer at the end. We had a good fellowship with the 15 or so passengers attending the service through songs and prayers. Princess even provided the pianist for the service. Well done, Princess!

I should mention that we had a beautiful Sunday service on another Princess cruise in Alaska a few years back. It was lead by one of the crew members and it was beautifully done. He did not do the sermon, but lead the singing, scripture reading, and an inspirational reading at that service. I was totally impressed.

Printed programs

After the 40-minute service we went to the service desk and check on our onboard account. We had quite a large sum left on our accounts and we wanted to make sure that whatever's left will be back into our hands. Everything worked out fine.

Then we did a couple of activities and then another load of laundry before lunch.

This was the one and only time we had lunch in the MDR.

The burger that I had was very good.

In the afternoon, I had the dreaded duty of packing our luggage. I turned the TV on and watched the "Sound of Music" movie to make the chore a little bearable. We had to have our bags out before we go to dinner that evening. 

A couple of pictures of the sunset.

Our last dinner on board. I ended up ordering from the Japanese menu that evening.

Cold Tofu

Oh, it was also the Baked Alaska Parade night.

Teriyaki Chicken

Pork Belly

Rice and Soup. All very good!

One last creme brulee. Wonderful as usual.

Leo and Megumi, our fantastic waiter and assistant.

One more shot of our beds.

There was the "Sound of Music" Sing-along that night.

With printed copies of the lyrics.

I was disappointed that it was not a showing of the whole movie like when we were on the Crown. It was just like karaoke, going through the songs with words projected on the screen. The background singers were definitely not the original cast. Well, at least they had three crew members leading the singing. 

Including Chris on the left.

The whole thing was over in 15 minutes.

One last night on the Diamond!

Pre-Nebuta Festival in Aomori, Japan

August 1, 2015 -- Aomori, Japan (1:00PM~11:00PM)

Sky: Cloud Cover

Temperature: 25C

Once again, we came to the port of Aomori at the northern tip of Honshu before heading back to Yokohama on the east coast. We thought we knew our way around and what we were going to do but what in stored for us took us by surprise. What a fantastic day we had on this day!

Diamond Princess was scheduled to dock at 1:00PM so we had the whole morning to enjoy all the activities on board.

There was an Aomori Presentation by high school students at the Atrium.

An active session of origami.

Information table

There was the Aomori Port Lecture that morning, but we figured that we already knew what to do so we did not attend the meeting. Good thing that we watched the lecture on TV before walking off the ship. We found out that the shuttle stop would be at a different location this time because of the preparation of the Nebuta Festival the next day. Lantern floats would be lining up near ASPAM and some streets would be blocked off causing the shuttle buses not being able to stop at the ASPAM building. It was a Saturday also and they expected a large crowd coming out to this area. Now we were excited, what will we see in town today?

We were greeted by this high school band as soon as we got off the ship at 1:15.

This time the shuttles made drop-offs at the Small Cruise Ship Berth on the other side of the ASPAM building. From there we could see the Diamond Princess docked on the other side.

Then we walked through Shotoku Park.

To Aoiumi Park next to ASPAM. Stage was set up already for the festival.

People arriving early for the activities there that day.

Several lantern floats already on display.

To follow our original plan, we just took a quick look at the floats and continued our walk to the Furukawa Fresh Market where we had some great seafood don the week before.

This is the front entrance of the market. We would purchase our food coupons from the booth right behind the guy in yellow shirt.

I spent my 1,060Y worth of coupons on these. No rice this time. Another good meal!

Celebrities got their pictures on the wall.

Another Golden Award

Wasahi, soy sauce, chopsticks, tissues, and tooth picks on the communal tables.

The little towel is for people to wipe the table when finish eating. Everybody needs to clean after themselves.

Hot and cold water dispensers.

After our lunch we walked towards the JR Aomori Station area. Passing by the Festival City Auga. 

A young singer performing in front of the department store.

This dress on the lady in front of me caught my eyes.

"Smoking is very bad for you..."; "Especially if you are on fire!!!"; "Don't say I didn't warn you...";

"I crack myself up..."  How funny!

We went past the train station then made a right to the A-Factory and Nabuta House (Wa Rasse) area.

Nebuta House

Looking back at the train station.

A-Factory and part of the Aomori Bay Bridge.

They also had some food stalls set up there that day. This is the fried food stall.

Fried chicken pieces, very good!

Fried chicken

We went inside the Nebuta House, but did not go to the museum since we knew that we will be seeing many floats that day. It was very crowded inside the store though.

Then we went inside A-Factory and this was what we saw.

There are some restaurants at the other end of the building.

After looking at the merchandise and rested for a little bit, we went to the back of the building and got on the Footbridge (Aomori Loverbridge) which took us back to ASPAM. A nice walk!

When we got back to ASPAM we saw many more floats ready for the parade tomorrow.

Most of these floats were of characters from old Chinese and Japanese folk tales.

Back of ASPAM building.

The volunteer at this float gladly took our picture and handed us the lanterns as props.

It's the same singer from the department store!

Remember we had a plan for this visit? One thing was to have an early dinner at the #1 sushi restaurant listed on Tripadvisor. We have checked the place out, which is just about two blocks from ASPAM, and we were so looking forward to have an amazing dinner there. Well...when we got there we were told that they couldn't take us because we did not have reservation. Bad mistake on our part for not making reservation on this busy Saturday afternoon!

No sushi, maybe this will make us feel better?! These are like Tagoyaki (?), except it has scallops inside instead of squid.

ChC wanted to wait til the sun goes down before heading back to the ship. Good thing we waited because the whole place really turned festive in the evening.

Some floats started to light up.

More and more people came.

Volunteers working at the floats.

Beautiful floats all lit up!

Families enjoying their picnic.

Look at the crowds!

I think they were having some kind of competition with groups doing the same thing one after another. To me it was like cheerleading with the drums and cymbals, but I am sure it was something else.

It was fun watching all that was happening there. Even though we did not get to see the parade on the day of the festival I felt lucky to be a part of this celebration. What a surprised visit!

As we walked back to the shuttle stop I can't help but thank God for this opportunity to cruise and visit these amazing ports of Japan with my family.

Back on Diamond Princess we had a late dinner at the buffet before calling it a day. We will have to leave this beautiful ship soon!