Viking cruise from Hong Kong to Tokyo
After a typhoon scuppered travel plans almost five years ago, Travel + Luxury returns for another bite of the cherry (minus the blossoms).
The Japanese tea master is precise in his ceremonial preparations, so too the women in kimono who will serve the matcha. And as guests in a tatami-matted tearoom adjacent to Ryozen Kannon, a Buddhist temple and war memorial topped by a 24m statue of the Goddess of Mercy in the ancient capital of Kyoto, we have been schooled in the etiquette of how to sit, receive the bowls and drink. It’s all about inspiring qualities such as purity, tranquillity and respect, and a long way from putting on the kettle for a cuppa.
On a 14-night Far Eastern Horizons cruise onboard Viking Orion from Hong Kong to Tokyo via Taipei, this is the only day of rain but the light falls enhance the “mists of time” appeal of Kyoto. Even its Golden Pavilion, the World Heritage-listed Zen temple clad in opulent gilt, glistens in the gloom. I need to quickfoot it to avoid being drenched, but the spring leaves of the trees in the strolling garden, which weaves around a pond, are being delightfully refreshed.
Next morning I draw the curtains of penthouse veranda stateroom 5021 cautiously. Today is the showstopper event because Viking Orion has arrived in Shimizu, the port for Mt Fuji. And there the mountain is in its towering magnificence, fingers of snow streaking from the peak. There’s not a cloud, although some will fluff around this afternoon at the level of surrounding little-brother mountains, leaving the summit with an almost separate existence reaching sky high. Its appearance is painterly, like layered stage scenery, but why on earth compare a natural wonder with man-made representations?
Perfection. Japanese culture finds beauty in imperfection, too, and has a way of embracing contradiction that I come to appreciate. Take religion for example: Shinto seems applicable for progress through life; Buddhism for the afterlife; with maybe a Christian wedding (or the trappings) just for the beauty and social cachet.
Orion, like other Viking ships, has a program of lectures to give insights, however rudimentary, into the history, art and culture of our destinations, over and above port talks for practical information on shore excursions. But the lecturers, who are former academics, diplomats and authors, are informative and entertaining; on my trip, they are resident historian Marie Conte-Helm, Gary Evans, Terry Greenberg and resident astronomer Thomas Kraupe while Yoko Oikawa leads workshops on Japanese language and writing.
I have been here before, not on a Japanese cruise but almost five years ago on the then brand-new Viking Orion sailing down the Chinese coast to Hong Kong. We were to have detoured across the East China Sea to the southern Japanese islands of Okinawa and Ishigaki but Typhoon Yutu blew that itinerary out of the water and we arrived early in HK.
Orion, carrying 930 passengers and half that many crew, is back where I left it, at Ocean Terminal. It is tempting to think the intervening period has not happened. It has, of course, with great tumult – protests in Hong Kong, heightened tensions over the future of Taiwan, and Covid. As we set sail for Keelung, port city for Taipei, a US naval ship in the Taiwan Strait has stirred a Chinese sea and air response, not atypical but a little unnerving. I note the locals refer to China as “our neighbour” rather than “our family”. At Liberty Square I climb the 89 white stairs of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, one for each year of his life, to a giant statue of the seated generalissimo, facing west in his never-achieved ambition of retaking China from Mao Zedong and Communism. Two young guards stand either side as motionless as their hero. A museum documents his life, but also Taiwan’s move to a full-fledged democracy in more recent times.
A day at sea as we head east to the Land of the Rising Sun allows me to reaffirm what I like about Viking Orion. My stateroom is feeling like home, comfortable and a space to relax in rather than just sleep. If only I could souvenir the Scandi-design furniture for my real abode. There are no frayed edges; everything is as spick and span as on my first cruise. And most memorably, the crew servicing cabins, restaurants and public areas are as efficient and affable (and excellent with first names and remembered preferences) as always.
My favourite spots are the Explorers’ Lounge at the bow, from which to observe our graceful early-morning glide into ports, and the Wintergarden adjacent to the pool deck, where afternoon tea (with its own ritual of scones) is served at 4pm.
Dining is in World Cafe, buffet-style but served by crew, where cuisine styles reflect its name, and casual fare at the Pool Grill. Mamsen’s is for early-morning and late-night Norwegian fare while The Restaurant offers table service and paired wines with dishes that can be destination-inspired. Bookings are required at Manfredi’s, with its Italian menu, and The Chef’s Table for a special treat.
After dinner, head to the Star Theatre for changing shows by a team of talented entertainers, and throughout the day catch performances by a resident classical duo, pianist and guitarist. Appealing to matters of body and soul, the ship has a comprehensive fitness centre and Nordic Spa. Upfront about Viking, it has a no-children policy, so there is not the intergenerational family cruising I have noticed on other lines. Fellow passengers are genial, mostly North American and Australian.
Our first landfall in Japan is at Nagasaki on the island of Kyushu. To follow will be Kagoshima (think active volcano Sakurajima); Beppu (hot springs central so prepare for the onsen experience); Hiroshima on Honshu; Osaka (port for Kyoto); Shimizu; and Yokohama (for Tokyo).
Before Commodore Matthew Perry on behalf of the US government forced Japan to open to trade in the mid-1850s, Nagasaki had held a unique position as the isolationist nation’s sole trading point with the world beyond. Since 1636, first the Portuguese and then Dutch had been confined to a tiny man-made island, Dejima, which has been excavated and restored; it gives insight into the life of the “barbarians”; early European merchants seeking fortunes (copper was a prize) in a forbidden land.
At 11.02am on August 9, 1945, Nagasaki’s place in history was sealed as the target of the second atomic bomb to be dropped on a Japanese city by the US at the end of World War II. Peace Park, with sculptures donated by countries and artists, is a symbol of beauty and hoped-for harmony, but a detour down a covered escalator and across a street reveals just a glimpse of nuclear horror. It is the hypocentre of where the plutonium bomb “Fatman” exploded 500m in the air above. Visible through a glass panel is a cross-section of roof tiles, bricks, scorched earth and melted glass.
A few days later we are in Hiroshima, where the first bomb fell on August 6. I find it the surprise of the trip as a manicured, garden city, spruced up no doubt for the meeting of G7 leaders that is to be held soon after my visit. Peace Park here, dominated by the distinctive A-bomb Dome that was once an exhibition hall, is a place of reverence and learning, even among a steady stream of visitors, mostly schoolchildren. The hypocentre is again away from the park in a narrow street, marked by a simple sign. The Peace Memorial Museum, with photos of the devastation, tales of the victims and survivors, and displays of their belongings, is emotionally challenging.
But on a bright day there is much to explore in Hiroshima within easy walking distance, including its castle, rebuilt in 1958 and now a museum focusing on samurai culture. In the castle gardens I spot a eucalyptus tree that survived the bombing. Nearby Shukkeien Garden is a study of classical beauty in form and colour. It is a “circular tour” garden, around and over a pond, including a crossing of the Bridge Between Heaven and Earth. Our visit has been too late for the fruit blossoms, with plum late January to early March, and peach and cherry late March to early April, but azaleas are making a grand pink-and-white show of it everywhere, as is dogwood.
While this splendour is embedded deeply in my memory, perhaps the everlasting impression of the trip will be the friendly and helpful locals, from engaging shore excursion guides, to people giving directions in the street and the owners of small restaurants I have popped into by chance (never a bad meal). Viking Orion has been greeted and farewelled at almost every port by flag-waving locals, school and civic bands, vocalists, drummers and dancers – and a host of cheerful and polite schoolkids eager to practise conversational English. Japan only reopened to the world last October and the first cruise ships entered its ports in March.
On the final evening I am high up in Tokyo’s 634m Skytree Communications and Observation Tower. The panoramic marvel of the capital lies all around and it’s apparent this is a city that would take a lifetime, and then some, to get to know well. Cruising is about sampling what joins the checklist of must-return destinations.
Helpfully marked on the observation deck’s window is where to look for Fuji; heads are nodding and fingers pointing. I spot the peak through a twilight haze, although not with the majestic clarity of seeing it days earlier from the Kengo Kuma-designed Yume Terrace in Shimizu. And then the sun sets. It is akin in colour to the thermal pool Chinoike Jigoku in Beppu. There the vibrant orange-red was traditionally associated with hell. Tonight it is heaven.
MORE TO THE STORY
Not far from the cruise terminal in Shimizu, with views of Fuji at every turn, there is a small museum in a reconstruction of Suehiro, a sailors’ lodge opened in 1886 by Jirocho, who, as volunteer guide Yoko tells me, was a “bad man” (read, yakuza) who also did good. He looked after the port area and established an English school for its youth. Jirocho was keen on his sandogasa samurai hat and there’s one to try on. But Yoko is keen to talk about Australia. She has visited Brisbane. “And Toowoomba,” she adds, where her friend has a beauty business. When I tell her my dad was born in Toowoomba we bond on the glories of the garden city. What’s that about a small world?
IN THE KNOW
Viking Cruises offers a wide range of journeys worldwide. Orion sails the Far Eastern Horizons itinerary departing April 9 and October 4, 2024; from $9795 a person, twin-share.
vikingcruises.com.au
japan.go.jp
Graham Erbacher was a guest of Viking Cruises.