Ship from Heaven and Hell

The ship from Tianjin to Kobe turned out to be quite a decent kind of vessel. Though probably a little old, there were plenty of life boats and those kind of important things. The Deluxe Suite we booked was very pleasant indeed (for a boat), and though the smaller private twin rooms would probably have been sufficient, it was nice to have a queen size bed and a bit more room...especially since the Chinese onboard smoked like a chimney.

The first 24 hours or so went by smoothly. We had some adequate food from the restaurant, we enjoyed a sunny afternoon up on deck, and the ocean was calm. And we had been taking ginger tablets, which helped combat any mild sea sickness. Then things went down hill. Kiera got food poisoning and all she had eaten needed to make a rapid exit via both ends and I felt significantly sea sick (but didn't vomit, yeah!). Time cured Kiera and some Kwells seasickness drugs helped me - combined with just trying to sleep through the worst of it. Breakfast options didn't help either: salted boiled egg, congee, plain balls of dough and strange plates of cold appetizers that weren't. Oh, and the open ocean we were now passing through was rolling the ship a lot more and it was raining outside so we couldn't go out on deck :-(

But we met a friendly japanese Woman, Mizumi, onboard who has invited us to stay with her down in Hiroshima. And we planned (roughly) our time from Kobe to Tokyo. We arrived, cleared customs without a problem, and hopped a local train to the JR line and on to Kyoto.

If you don't mind ocean voyages, then the ship is probably worth doing as an adventure - but one-way is probably enough.