Our 2025 journey to Japan started on 10/10/25 flying to
Japan via Singapore Airlines landing at Haneda Airport. We
then took a taxi to the Hyatt Regency Yokohama which was a 5 minute walk to our
embarkation point. In 2024 we went to Japan
to see the cherry blossoms. This time we
are in a group of 44 people who are in Japan for a touring cruise but also to improve
our Bridge.
12/19/25 We
have the morning to ourselves; we decide to walk down to the park on the
harbour. There are over 1000 dogs being
wheeled about in prams. It is a NaACtional holiday weekend called ‘Sports Day. It celebrates the opening of the Tokyo
Olympics on Monday 1/10/1964.
Our embarkation point has moved from a 5-minute walk to a 15
minute drive which takes an hour because of Octoberfest celebrations. At dinner that night we meet other 42 members
of the Bridge Group.
13/10/25 Day at Sea. Our 1st Bridge Lesson 3 hours!!! I
am rooted. 1st lecture by Dr
John Freedman. Very Impressive.
14/10/25 Hakodate Vivienne goes to Fish
Market and meets an octopus. That
afternoon I go to the IT desk to sign up to the Internet. I am only allowed to connect 1 device at a
time unless I pay US$30/day. I am in
disbelief and complain during the Seabourn Welcome to Newbies Cocktail
Party. Result is the letter to the
Seabourn Chairman at the end of this email.
15 /10//25 Akita is the birthplace of Japan’s National Dog. Loyal Hachikō became
legendary after waiting every day for his master to return at Shibuya Station
in central Tokyo.
We go for a walk and end up petting a couple. There is also a Wind Expo promoting the use
of Wind Turbines. Can’t help myself and
argue against them to several distributors but logic and science fail to
convince them. When I say the only thing
renewable about renewables are the government subsidies they get quite upset,
16/10/25 Nigata Pouring with rain stay on
ship and play bridge.
17/1025 Day
at Sea 2nd Bridge Lesson
18/10/25 Tsuruga
– Polish Jewish Museum See blog Courage:
the most important virtue
19/10/ 25
Sakaminato Before the cruise starts, we are asked if we'd like to book any excursion trips. When I looked at them I thought they were
incredibly expensive. For a four-hour
tour it was US$400 which is A$533, for 2
of us the total would be $1000+, Like many Australians on the cruise , we
bucked up at the price. So we would just
take a shuttle bus into the town centre and walk around. But I did book one excursion, which was
called Daisen and its Temples. Daisen is a big mountain near Sakaminato. The coach trip took an hour to get to the base
of this mountain. It was a steep climb and my mobility is not as good as it
used to be so we dropped out. We managed
to get a taxi back to the boat That
evening I met someone who also gone on the same excursion. He was about half my age and said, "You
never would've made it. It was
unbelievable rocky, the path was very, very tortuous and difficult; be glad you
didn’t go."
20/10/25 Busan finds us ending up with a terrific Christian Korean woman who spends an hour
with us searching for and finding a store that sells men’s urinary pads that I
need because my prostate was removed in 2014.
21/10/25 Cruising
Kanmon Strait 3rd & final Bridge Lesson
22/10/25 Kochi
Pouring with rain stay on ship play Bridge.
It rains a lot in Japan.
23/10/25 Wakayama Go to and climb to top of Wakayama Castle.
Grab and keep the free Bamboo walking stick.
Am I glad I had it.
I picked up thse two bodyguards in Wakayama
24/10/25 Kobe
Disembark and taxi to Hyatt Regency Kyoto. It’s a great hotel. Recovery day.
25/1o/25 We had a great time in Kyoto. The concierge
was incredibly helpful. My wife said
the pillows were the best she'd ever slept on in her life.
As part of our package, we were given free tickets to the
shrine next door to the hotel Rengeo-in
Temple (Sanjusangen-do)
. Also known as Sanjusangen-do, this
750-year-old temple features 1,001 Senju-Kannon (female
statues housed in a 120-meter-long hall.
1,000 Buddhas are wooden female statues painted over with gold
leaf arranged in 5 tiers. The final
buddha is a large gold stature in the
centre. At one end of it was the god
of thunder and the other the god of wind.
You don’t think these guys are merciful and loving like you
think the Christian God is; they are pretty ferocious. And there were
five-year-old girls kneeling and praying before these gods. -
26/10/25 The
two things you have to see in Kyoto are the Golden Temple and Nijo-Jo Castle. You don't go inside the Golden Temple, but
it's located on a hill top over looking over a lake. It makes for a great photo.
Nijo-Jo Castle is nearby 5-minute taxi ride and is enormous. It
needs 3 hours to walk around the circumference. Its claim to fame is that it is where the samurai
warlords handed over power to the Emperor for all of Japan.
Two Restaurant recommendations:
My wife, Vivienne, is a coeliac.
Dining out in Japan where soy sauce is a common ingredient, is hard work.
Here are two gluten free
restaurants courtesy of the Hyatt Regency Concierge.:
Gion Tempura Koromo which uses
only rice flour and rice oil and serves the only gluten-free tempura in Kyoto,’
Both restaurants are 5/5, The food and service were excellent
It was the first time my wife had
tasted tempura. She loved it.
Kappazushi which is located in the Punto Cho. This restaurant is part of national chain.
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Conclusion
I would not
go on a Carnival-related cruise again.
I prefer to pay more money upfront and then not be hustled during the
cruise.
Carnival
owns the following lines:
AIDA Cruises
Carnival
Cruise Line
Costa
Cruises
Cunard Line
Holland
America Line
P&O
Cruises
Princess
Cruises
Seabourn
And here is
the letter I sent to the Chairman.
20 October
2025
Mr Mickey
Arison
Chair of
Seabourn
450 3rd Ave
W Seattle, WA 98119 United States
Dear Mr
Arison
I am currently a passenger on the Seabourn
Quest sailing a circumnavigation around Japan.
I am writing
this letter to basically make suggestions to both your head-office marketing
and IT teams.
On your
website Seabourne is positioned as the ‘Ultra-Luxury Resort at Sea’. The staff on the Quest are terrific; the meal
I had at Solis was the best meal I have had on a cruise ship and the rest of
the cuisine has been excellent.
“The CEO of company sets its culture.”
Captain
Joris Poriau may be standing on the shoulders of his predecessors but I cannot
think of single thing that would improve the culture on this boat.
However, you
do seem to be emulating Viking in saying your passengers are not ‘travellers’
but ‘explorers’. More on that later
But first I
must commend Swenja Henrich, Guest Services Manager, who has been particularly
helpful. She has senior level management
potential. You can tell that by the
respectful tone in the voice of the staff when talking about her.
When I
signed onto the ship’s internet, I was astonished to find that I was restricted
to only one device unless I paid US$30/day and the same applied for my
wife. I have a PC, mobile and Kindle,
and my wife has an iPad, phone and Kindle.
The
internet, like the GPS system was developed by US Military, courtesy of the US
taxpayer. Subsequently the US Federal
Government gifted free access to these two systems to the world. Two of the best of the many gifts the USA
has provided to all the people of Earth,
It must be
10 years now since hotels have included basic wi-fi access as a free
service. Now the airlines are
introducing WIFI and it was free on Singapore Airlines flight I used to get to
Japan. There are volume charges but free
access is available to all devices.
So my first suggestion is that this policy of free
access for every device be adopted by your IT Department
I raised
this issue at the Welcome to First time Seabourn party and at least 5 people
came up to me afterwards and declared they were in total agreement.
Numerous
people have since given me various examples of additional charges being made or
attempted. One was someone who went for
a massage at your Wellness Clinic and discovered 25% had had been applied as a
“automatic gratuity”; he thought the
massage alone was already expensive. And he is telling everyone that the
massage does not provide value for money.
Another
attended two 30-minute lectures: one on improving your metabolism; the other on
treating knee-joint pain. The first 15
minutes were excellent, the second half was a series of repeated closes, simply asking for the order, trying to sell a 5-day
consultancy program.
The repeated
close technique is good for the Carnival demographic who buy emotionally on
impulse unless they are in the top 5 percentile for IQ. If they are, then they are described as quick
decision makers.
The Seabourn
demographic are older with high net worth (HNW) and usually high IQ. They use a lot more logic in their purchasing
decisions and techniques like cost-benefit analysis and risk-return analysis,
The Repeated Close technique irritates them.
Instead, they like to be making the decision themselves and you should
use the minor alternative closing technique.
Eg “Do you want a hybrid or pure electric model for your new car?”
Personally,
I like many other HNWs prefer to pay a full investment price with very limited
add-ons like Regent, Ponant, and Viking do.
For example, if asked to decide between Seabourn and Viking I would
choose the latter. Limited add-ons/Full
Investment pricing would be one reason.
Another would be Viking are a true “Explorer” cruising line. At every port a complementary free excursion
is offered in the morning and every afternoon there is an “expert”
lecture. Finally, you can connect your
laptop, mobile phone and Kindle at the same time to the Internet.
So my second suggestion is that the Seabourn Board
should so a review of its marketing (especially pricing) policy.
In
conclusion when I was a Divisional General Manager of an Australian
multi-national favourable survey results were nice but what I wanted was
suggestions from all my stakeholders on what improvements we could make. I particularly liked those that would improve
my ROI. That is the secret to successful Kaisan. I have provided two; what you do with them
is your decision.
Yours truly,
Chris Golis
MA (Cambridge) MBA (with distinction, London) FAIML
7 Rickard
Avenue, Mosman, NSW 2088. Australia
Mobile
+61418222219
Email cgolisau@gmail.com
