Hong Kong to Japan, the long way round

Boarding is at the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal, on the runway of the old airport. The ship sails at four, so the first evening is aboard.

North overnight and up the Taiwan Strait. The first of two full days aboard, and on a ship this size that is not time to be endured — there is more on board than anyone gets through in a day.

It is also the day to book whatever sells out: a table at one of the speciality restaurants, a show, a spa slot. Everyone else has the same idea on a sea day.

Out of the strait and across the East China Sea, running up towards the Korea Strait. Land is a long way off in every direction today.

Worth spending part of it working out what you want from the three port days ahead, because they come one after another with only one gap. The days ashore are short and the good things are not always near the berth.

Korea’s second city and its largest port, wrapped around a harbour with mountains behind it. It is a working city rather than a museum piece, and the things worth seeing are spread out — which matters on an eleven-hour call.

The combination that fits is Jagalchi, the country’s biggest fish market and best early, with Gamcheon — a hillside of painted houses above the port — after it. Four to five hours, nothing to pay to get in. Haedong Yonggungsa, the temple on the cliffs, is the alternative rather than an addition: it is at the other end of the city and pairs badly with Gamcheon. Seoul does not fit at all — the fast train alone is over two hours each way.

Do not plan on walking into town. Busan has two cruise terminals and the large-ship one is on an island south of the centre with no walkable access, so budget 15–30 minutes each way by shuttle or taxi. Which berth a given call takes is not published; we confirm it with the line before you sail.

A separate country and a separate entry. Korea is not Japan for immigration purposes, and this sailing clears both — see Before you sail.

A 07:00 arrival is not a 07:00 walk-off. This is the first Japanese port, so every guest on board clears immigration in person — fingerprints and a photograph, no exceptions over sixteen. On a ship carrying nearly five thousand people that is a long queue, and it is the one morning not to book anything for half past eight.

After that, twelve hours — the longest call of the sailing, and it needs them. The berth is a genuinely good one: Matsugae terminal is a ten-minute walk from Glover Garden and five from a tram stop, and a ¥600 day pass covers the whole city. Of the four ports this is the only one you can simply walk off and use.

Nagasaki carries two histories at once. For more than two centuries it was the single place Japan permitted contact with the outside world — Dutch traders confined to Dejima, a fan-shaped artificial island in the harbour, while the rest of the country was closed. Much of what reached Japan from Europe came through that one gate.

The second history is 9 August 1945. The Peace Park, the Hypocenter and the Atomic Bomb Museum sit together north of the centre, about half an hour away by tram, and the museum costs ¥200. Give the three of them three hours, not one. It is a detailed and unflinching account, and worth knowing in advance if you are travelling with children.

Then walk the other history: Glover Garden on the hillside (¥1,300) and Oura Church beside it, Japan’s oldest, both a few minutes from the ship. That is a full day — roughly six hours ashore and about ¥2,500 in entries. Mount Inasa’s ropeway is the classic view but sunset is around half past five in January and the ship sails at seven, so it is tight.

The last sea day, and a longer one than the map suggests. Rather than threading the Seto Inland Sea between the islands, the ship goes the outside way — south around Kyushu and Shikoku and east through open Pacific. It is roughly 200 nautical miles further and it is why this is a full day rather than a morning of coastline.

Use it to recover from Nagasaki and to settle whether Kyoto is happening tomorrow, because that decision has to be made before you wake up.

The shortest call of the four, and the earliest start. A driverless train runs from a station attached to the terminal into Sannomiya, the city centre, in about ten minutes for ¥210 — nothing is walkable from the berth itself, but the front door is very close.

Himeji Castle is what we would do with this day. Japan’s finest surviving castle, about 42 minutes from Sannomiya on a JR rapid train and a 15–20 minute walk at the other end. Roughly five and a half hours door to door, which leaves room for lunch back in Kobe. Admission rose to ¥2,500 for adults in March 2026; under-18s are free.

Kyoto is possible and we would talk you out of it. It is about 90 minutes each way door to door via the bullet train from Shin-Kobe, which leaves five hours in a city that deserves three days — and one missed train is a missed ship. If you go anyway, pick one of Fushimi Inari or Kiyomizu-dera and do not attempt both.

Staying in Kobe is a real choice rather than a consolation: the Kitano district of nineteenth-century foreign houses, Chinatown and Meriken Park are all walkable from Sannomiya, and the beef needs no introduction. Note that 9 January is a Saturday at the start of a Japanese long weekend, so Himeji and Kyoto will both be busy with domestic visitors.

Into Tokyo Bay in the afternoon, and the ship stays the night. That last part matters more than it sounds: you get an evening in Japan without paying for a hotel, and you disembark rested rather than at dawn.

You berth at Daikoku Pier, and it is not the terminal you will find online. A ship this size cannot pass under the Yokohama Bay Bridge, so she docks on a man-made island outside it rather than at Osanbashi in the middle of town. Daikoku has no railway station and nothing within walking distance — getting ashore means the shuttle bus or a taxi. Search “Yokohama cruise terminal” and you will be shown the wrong one.

Allow for that and the evening is still worth having. Fifteen minutes by shuttle puts you at Yokohama Station or Yamashita Park, and from there Chinatown — the largest in Japan — the Red Brick Warehouse and the Minato Mirai waterfront are all close together. Tokyo is not an afternoon, though: you will be ashore around four and it is dark by half past, so save the city for a hotel night rather than trying to squeeze it in.

You leave the ship in Tokyo, not in Hong Kong — and the ship sails again the same evening, so everyone is ashore by the middle of the morning.

Neither airport is close, and Daikoku has no station. Everything routes through Yokohama Station first. Haneda is comfortable for an afternoon flight from about two o’clock; Narita is another 90 minutes to two hours on top of that and needs a departure of half past three or later. Nothing before noon at either works. We would put you in a hotel for the night instead — it costs less than the transfer stress and buys you Tokyo.

One thing worth knowing about this particular date: Monday 11 January 2027 is a Japanese public holiday at the end of a long weekend, so the roads into both airports will be busier than a normal Monday.

This is also the easiest place on the whole sailing to add days. You are already in Tokyo with your luggage; staying on for three or four nights costs a hotel and nothing else. We can book that, and the flights, as part of the same arrangement.