Chasing Summer –

August 18-22, 2025

Did you miss me? It’s been a while since my last post. I took three months off to do camping, gardening, visiting with family, and even a quick trip down to LA to see my man. But now I’m back on the boat and ready for more adventures.

After a quick three-day trip to Los Angeles to visit Michael, I returned to Calgary and then flew out the very next day to Tokyo. It’s about a 10-hour flight and not too bad. Sadly for me, though, the boat wasn’t in Tokyo; it was down in Kobe.

To get from the International Airport in Tokyo to Kobe, required three trains and then a port liner to get to the boat. I left Canada at 4:00 PM on the 17th and landed in Tokyo on the 18 at 5:00 PM. Between switching trains, I finally got to the Odyssey at 11:45 PM on the 18th. Boy, was I tired.

Even with my late arrival, I was up and ready to go in the morning. Of course, that mostly meant just unpacking, but I did go into town after lunch. If you’ve never been to Asia in August, it is very hot and humid. Luckily, many of the shopping streets are covered, so it doesn’t matter if it’s raining or just sunny; you have some protection.

The city provided a free shuttle from the port to the centre of town. Across the street was its Chinatown and a covered pedestrian shopping street.

I started off walking through Chinatown, which was interesting, but mostly restaurants. From there, I decided to look at a few of the shops.

Of course, no trip in Japan is complete without a stop at Daiso. Daiso is like the Japanese dollar store, where everything unlabeled is ¥100, or about a dollar. There I picked up some makeup and hangers as well as a mug for my room.

I decided to walk back to the boat because it was only about 1/2 an hour away, and I could see some things as I wandered back. The first place I visited was a shrine. There are dozens of shrines throughout the city.

I also passed by the Church of Kobe, which I thought was a hotel at first.

I also headed towards a park area that had many statues and fountains. Here I was interviewed for the local news station regarding nude statues and whether or not I thought that they belonged in public spaces. Apparently, many of the nude statues have been removed from public areas. My viewpoint is that they are art, they’re not lewd, and no one’s being traumatized, so leave them alone.

A little bit past the park was the flower clock.

That was about enough adventure for my first afternoon back out and about, so I headed back to the boat and went to an evening show on the boat put on by a local group that included Japanese drumming and puppetry. It was a great way to finish my first day back.

The next morning, I decided to head out with Claude and Paul to the herb garden, which was on top of a hill, so it was a little bit cooler. We did walk to the base of the hill, and it was again very hot, so we decided not to climb the hill but take the gondola up (1,400 yen) and return by walking.

At the top of the cable car ride, there were buildings with restaurants, a scent museum, and the beginning of a garden path going down the mountain. I picked up a few craft beers and put them in my backpack to try later. We made our way down the hill, stopping at various garden sections to admire what was in bloom at this time of year.

At the midway point, there was a tram going back down, or people could continue on the hiking trail. The hiking trail will take you to a dam as well as past waterfalls.

We continued walking down, and the trail was fairly steep but manageable. The waterfall was in several sections, and there was one offshoot for a castle ruins path. I was a sweaty mess and chose not to go on that one, but Claude and Paul did. Their report was that it wasn’t worth it.

By the time we got back to town, it was 11:30 am. We decided to walk to the next station, where Paul was going to look for some last Kobe beef and then take the port liner back to the boat. While Paul didn’t find his Kobe beef, I found a craft brewery.

After a refreshing stop for beverages, we made our way back to the boat and finished our Kobe adventure.

One of the things that I admire about Japan is that all of the cities have had welcomes and goodbyes for the ships. Usually involving a band or dance, but sometimes water cannons.

The Odyssey headed away from Kobe that evening, towards Kochi, which is a small island off the coast of Japan. We did not arrive in Kochi until the afternoon.

Once again, the city provided shuttles for us to get into town, which was about 23 minutes away. Angela, Steve, and I were lucky to get on the first shuttle into town after lunch.

Once in Kochi, we walked down the covered shopping streets to the castle.

The Kochi Castle ruins cost 500 yen to enter, and visitors have to take their shoes off to go into the building. The top of the castle tower has amazing views of the entire city.

From the castle, we walked back towards the bus station, where the shuttle would return us to the ship.

One of my favorite things about this port is that there was a brewery, just a 5-minute walk from the boat. Several people from the boat made our way over to the brewery for drinks and dinner. The oddest beer I tried was a Fun Guy Fungii beer. I quite enjoyed it.

On our second day the shuttle buses were overcrowded and Angela and I decided to go into town just to visit a few shops.

We also hit up a few tourist areas that we missed the day before, including the bridge and the musical clock.

I went back to Daiso to get some cheap items for a happy hour invitation that was Japan-themed. Kochi was small, but it had quite a bit to offer.