Japan turned out to be a favorite country for many people on the cruise. In every port we visited, there were Japanese people who expressed welcome and friendliness.
This band, which greeted us in Aomori Japan, was typical of the welcome the ship got in all of the Japanese ports.
In most places there were people on the pier waving us ashore and waving us goodbye.
We left Kushiro, our final port in Japan on June 25. The decks of our ship were full of passengers enjoying the fulsome goodbye performance.
We waved goodbye. Those on shore waved until we were too far away to see them.
Japanese tour guides in all the ports we visited had a very effective way of making the excursion go well. They all were very clear about the agenda. They clearly set expectations for the tour. They created a spirit of cooperation to increase motivation for all to arrive back at the bus on time. They even wrote the time to return to the bus on a white board.
If I had not just spent six months experiencing many tour guides around the world who did not do this, I might have felt constrained. But, please, give me the Japanese approach every day. People did cooperate and enjoyed the way in which we got back to the ship exactly at the time we expected.
And, can I just end this post by saying: The public bathrooms were phenomenal!
LOL-ing at your italicized final comment! Thanks, especially, for letting us in on your more personal, human responses, Cathy. I hope you keep this blog going after you arrive home and continue to reflect on the impact of this wondrous trip, so generously shared. Thank you.