HANEDA TO HONOLULU

The flight from Haneda to Honolulu was uneventful and successful.

Flew Hawaiian Air, ate some, drank little, caught some sleep and made it back to 15 Craigside.

Very memorable trip. Took 1630 photos. Picked some of them to show here. Not necessarily the best, but representative. First, goodbye Honolulu. Flew Hawaiian Air to Narita.

After a day in Yokohama we boarded the Diamond Princess on a 9-day cruise around Japan. Two friends from Honolulu joined us, Wakako and Bob Nakasone.

Ate and drank way too much.

I thought I had walked 16,831 steps, but that was read upside-down, and it should have been 13,891. Anything above 5,000 steps is a decent walking day.

Sometimes my drinks matched my shirt color. We are only allowed 15 alcoholic drinks/day.

Dressed up only one night, with an ascot.

Toast to Bob and Wakako Nakasone.

Then disco dancing later that evening.

Baked Alaska is featured on the final night of the cruise.

My Blue-Bar Pigeon met us on virtually all our stops.

Waiting for the Shinkansen.

Typical train bentos. The boxes typically cost from $10 to $15.

Met a tanuki.

Went out to a fugu dinner. During our five-week visit to Japan I think we only ate out three or four times. Stayed only at Marriott hotels, where I am a Platinum member, so the enormous breakfast buffets are free and the Club Lounge serves a lot with free drinks at night. The details to all these photos are covered in my daily blog.

The Ritz Carlton Tokyo was nice, but expensive.

Saw a lot of Mount Fuji.

We had Shanghai Soup Dumplings in various Club Lounges several times.

In Miyazaki, we just had to order their caviar and wagyu beef.

Had dinner with long time colleague Tadashi and his wife Mayumi Matsunaga.

Walked around a lot, and there is usually a seafood market. Saw a lot of crabs.

Plenty of flowers, both in parks and as arrangements within the hotels.

Every hotel had a Christmas tree.

Went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

Kimonos seem to be mostly worn in Kyoto.

Of course, we came for the Fall Colors. It was truly disappointing in Hokkaido, but got better during the final week of our stay in Honshu.

Nara Park is a must visit, with deer and Fall Colors.

Yes, also Fall Colors, but that is a Persimmon tree above. Looking ahead to the 2025 Osaka World Expo, we'd like to again stay at the Marriott Miyako Osaka, for the hotel occupies the part of this second tallest building in Japan. Above the rooms is Harukas 300, a museum and view sight, from where this photo was taken.

Tomorrow a review of our Japan trip.

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