Our first 'normal' day

Well, we did get to sleep, but then woke up and were wide awake at about 5am.  With no prospect of getting back to sleep again we went to see what we would get to eat and drink.  Life was civilised in the Horizon Court eatery and we had breakfast then headed for the pool.  An almost full choice of where to sit awaited us and we enjoyed the warm outdoor pool, drying off in the sea breeze afterwards in only a few minutes.  The big screen put on the silent film, “The General” – both hilariously funny and nicely silent (and the main players were so fit doing all the ‘silent’ stunts), unlike the noisy other items on the giant screen in the morning – mainly ads flogging the ship’s premium services on an endless loop – oh for the peace and quiet of such as a solarium pool on Celebrity.

We then moved on, enjoying a hot chocolate each ($1.50) in a rather nice cafe before stopping by at Verdi’s Pizza Bar for a pizza and a Beck’s at lunch.  There we met a delightful Filipino girl waitress – Joyce – who was thoroughly cheerful and ultra-polite.  Her only regret was that, as she spoke Japanese, she was condemned to remaining on cruise routes in the Asian region.  But she clearly enjoyed her work and proudly told us that she was saving up for her future.  What a refreshing change!

We arrived in Osaka at 2pm and had already started to work on the germ of an idea – to ride Japan’s famous ‘bullet train’ or ‘Shinkansen’.  What an experience that might be!  We also knew that there was a giant Ferris wheel to be tackled and a Universal Studios Disney Market Place-type place nearby to be investigated.

The ship duly docked, we were welcomed by a party of school girls with a “Welcome to Osaka” banner and we set off to explore what Japan could offer.  The terminal building with its shopping mall and information bureau turned out to be both a challenge and a disappointment.  Because of security around the ship it was fiendishly difficult to get into.  The “mall” consisted of sets of tacky market units not worthy even of a place in Scarborough’s indoor market and the Information Bureau seemed to be run by the local equivalent of the Women’s Institute!  We managed to get hold of a map of the transport system – we were dealing with a place much larger than Sheffield here – and with guidance from one of the ship’s minders at the security checkpoint who pointed us in the right direction, we set off for the station.

Now, this is Japan, we thought, one of the world’s top three economies, so a credit  card will surely suffice for the train tickets in the machine at the station.  With sweat pouring from us as we walked briskly to the station to get out of the sun, we joined a very long queue of cruise passengers all trying to buy rail tickets to here and there.  We joined a queue behind some Brits.  I asked them if they knew what they were doing and they said they had a rough idea, so I thought I would look over their shoulders at the ticket machine!  We finally reached the front of the queue for the ticket machine.  Would it let us pay by credit card?  Would it ‘eck.  It may be possible to buy metro tickets by credit card in backwoodsy old Vienna but not in hi-tech Japan and when we pressed the “Call Attendant” button, a very nice man appeared and gave a “No, No” gesture to my card.

I swore inwardly and we determined to find the nearest ATM machine to get some Yen.  We found a machine in a nearby Spar type shop and got our hot little hands on some currency.  Armed with this, we returned to the station.  By now, the queues had gone and the same “Call Attendant” guy came to help us get our tickets.  ¥2.70 for each of us to the Osaka-Shin Railway Station (£2.40).  Were they singles or returns - we didn’t care at that stage - we were off!  Several stations and a change of trains later and we were at the long distance rail station.  How would we but tickets with only a little Japanese?  The words Shinkansen and Kyoto seemed to do the trick.  A gesture to indicate there and back and the words Osaka – Kyoto – Osaka cracked it and we had our tickets – and some change!  The very nice elderly clerk wrote down the time of the next train – in about 10 minutes’ time.  They run every 3 minutes, it seems and always dead on time.  HS2 in 2030 back at home?  It’s clear we already have light years to go to catch up on this one, let alone wait till 2030!

Now to find the train.  The main stations have lots of uniformed men around looking fairly formidable, but they quickly melt and warm to a hopelessly lost foreigner.  We are directed to the right platform and there an official on the platform edge happily points us to where to stand to get on one of the coaches with unreserved seats.  And that is where you stand – exactly there, because this is Japan and there are marked out areas on the platform showing exactly where the carriage door will be.  You are in a queue on the platform opposite this point and will board in an orderly fashion – oh, joy, a truly civilised country where there is no such thing as pushing in!

The train appears and our excitement mounts.  We get on.  We’re on the bullet train and – unlike last time when we did this and were in a static carriage in York’s railway Museum - it started to move, imperceptibly, silently - and we were away.  A very neatly and smartly dressed young lady appeared at the end of the carriage.  She made an announcement in Japanese, bowed to all present and then proceeded to check our tickets.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  The conductors on the East Coast main line are much more polite than they used to be, but we’re on a new level here!

We raced through the Japanese countryside at a breathtakingly smooth speed and, all too soon were coming in to Kyoto.  The adrenalin was still racing as we got off the train.   Bullet trains were arriving and departing all around us, their front and back ends resembling duckbill platypuses rather than elegant ‘Mallard’ ducks as they moved silently in and out of Kyoto station.  We caught our breath and headed down the stairs ready to cross over to the return track.  A quick check with the militarily-uniformed man on his little podium and we were directed up the right steps to get back to Osaka. A uniformed lady on the platform again showed us where to stand and the train glided in.  And it was back to Osaka – wow and phew!  What a ride.  What a day!

We retraced our steps to the cruise terminal and walked back towards the pier, looking for their version of the Little Mermaid and the free ferry to the Universal Studios area.  We found the Little Mermaid but we couldn’t find the free ferry.  There was a pay ferry to somewhere which didn’t seem to be Universal and the Santa Maria was also doing trips around the harbour, but no free ferry to Universal.  We decided to hit the Ferris wheel, supposedly the world’s highest at 517 feet.  We paid our ¥700 each (about £6.50) had the obligatory photo taken and we were on.  That was some ride, too as the wheel towered above the ship.

It was now beginning to drop dark – it gets dark here by 6.45pm but gets light very early –around 5.30am - so we set off back to towards the ship and the promise of free wifi at the Tourist Information Office.  The WI staff had now gone and the area was filled with mainly geeky looking people tapping away on an array of different devices.  And then I tried to get connected – and tried, and tried.  After about 20 minutes, a couple of reboots and lots of inward cursing, I was in and updating the blog, only to find that I had somehow managed to overwrite my prepared text with a very short, older version of the story so far.  I ran back to the ship, fetched my external hard drive – surely that would have a copy of my prepared text on it - but no, a truly thorough job had been done this time.  All copies of the real McCoy had gone and my sanity nearly with it! I had to content myself with dropping as many relevant photos as I could on to the blog in the time remaining. It was now getting up to 8pm and, with open dining ending at 9pm and the ship sailing at 10pm, that was it - try again another day.

We got back on board and headed for the dining room.  Did we mind sharing a table?  Well, probably not this time and we were put on a table for eight with a young Swiss couple, a couple from the High Green area of Sheffield and a couple of women neighbours from Melbourne – couldn’t resist asking them if they lived on Ramsey Street – which they didn’t!  We had a good chat together and have met up a few times since.