I always like it when a port is welcoming to our cruise ship. Hyuga is one of those ports. But the day started out not so well with a difficult and time consuming immigration process and a problem with my tour company.
Here's how the immigration and customs process is supposed to work. All passengers not on a HAL shore excursion obtain in advance a plastic numbered card that establishes one's sequence to pass through the immigration and customs process which in this case was handled in the Explorer's Lounge on Deck 5. On our previous embarkation in Nagasaki, it was handled in the terminal. Then once the immigration and customs process starts, the sequential numbers are called and the HAL groups are merged in with the sequential ticket holders. Everyone is scanned with a heat sensor (looking for favors) and then one presents one's passport and immigration card. The Japanese agent scans the passport, examines the immigration card and scans it, takes a retinal photo and one has fingerprints taken of their pointing finger. A QR code is printed and affixed in each passport. That process takes about a minute per passenger. Then one goes a few feet to the customs area, receives a disembarkation clearance card, surrenders the customs declaration card, and the passengers are sorted between HAL shore excursion participants and independent travelers. We all then can make our way to the gangway where the disembarkation clearance card is collected, our room card is scanned, and we are free to leave the ship. If a minor is in your party, the responsible party must be there for the security person to override the warning screen that is presented when the minor attempts to scan off the ship.
With that background, here's how it actually worked on this day. We arrived at 8am, but the Japanese authorities didn't arrive until 9am. It wan't until 9:23 that the first group "S" was called and 5 minutes later group 1 was called which included the first Cruise Critic group of 19. About 1/2 hour later groups 2 & 3 were called, and then a short delay before group 4 was called which included part of my group. Shortly group 5, which included the rest of my group, was called. The process above worked well for my group in terms of the actual steps. For the first Cruise Critic group and some other passengers, there was a glitch in HAL's process whereby the disembarking passengers got to the exit scanning station after going through the above process, and the system said they hadn't been processed. The HAL representative wanted to send everyone back through the immigration process, but the passengers balked at the idea due to to the time it takes to do that. Eventually cooler heads prevailed and they were allowed off the ship. I'm really surprised with the number of immigration processes that HAL has done on multiple ships and multiple ports over many years that they don't have it down to an art form!
For my group, our guide, Junko, was waiting for me, but she seemed a bit anxious about the time. There were still 6 people who had not cleared immigration and I waited for them with the guide. Eventually we were all on the bus and read to depart by 10:20 which was only 20 minutes past our scheduled 10am departure time.
After about a 1/2 bus ride west from the cruise terminal we reached the first of 4 planned stops on the day's tour. This was at Umagase which is a natural formation of hexagonal volcanic pillars similar to those found at the Giant's Causeway in Ireland. From the parking lot there is a short walk along a paved trail out to the two view points which are quite pretty. Along the way the guide said we were behind schedule because we were supposed to leave a 9am. I told her, "NO, we were confirmed to leave at 10am." She called into her office and eventually got the tour extended to 1:30 or 1:40pm which was the time per my confirmation form. I found my copy of the email confirmation indicating a start time of 10am and an ending time of 1:30pm and showed it to her. There were also two couples who were quite insistent about spending maximum time in Mimitsu, a historic shipping village and site of a memorial to the founding of the Japanese navy. So I negotiated with the guide to skip the stop at Omi Shrine which in retrospect I wish I hadn't. We made another viewpoint stop at at the "Sea-Cruz" which is a place where the stone split in an almost perfect cross. It was quite pretty as well. From there we headed to Mimitsu which for my taste was an 'okay' stop. The village is certainly old, but very plain. There's a small museum that we visited and my wife and I headed off on our own to walk the town. We found a small cafe for some pastry items and some vending machines for liquids. The Japanese Navy memorial was scenic as was the nearby shrine. We also found and photographed the one engine fire station for my friends in Bellingham who are firefighters. I photograph fire stations all over the world for them.
For future travelers to this port who might want to visit Mimitsu, there's a train for 560¥ RT. It's about a 1 mile walk from the Mimitsu train station to the town. But it's an inexpensive option.
We made it back to the port at 1:40pm and there were all sorts of small vendors in 10x10 booths selling various wares. We spoke with one peanut vending couple who were about to fly to Seattle and Portland for their honeymoon. We then caught the shuttle bus to the Hyuga train station where we spent the bulk of our time in a local department store called "Trail" which is sort of like a miniature WalMart. We bought a few goodies including sushi and Coke Plus since we hadn't had lunch yet. The 3:30pm shuttle got us back to the port where my wife dolled up in a Kimona for a cool photo opportunity. This was a nice cultural touch provided by the locals. We also ate our sushi and did a bit of WIFI, watched a cool drum performance, and then boarded the ship.
Back on board, we headed for the Crow's nest to watch the sail away as has been our custom this trip. I was able to snap a picture of the PILOT who was in the elevator as we rode it together. Promptly and on schedule, the Voldendam slipped sideways from the pier, rotated clockwise 90º, and sailed out of the harbor to the waiting open sea and setting sun.
Once again, we took a quiet dinner in the LIDO before attending a Collector's Voyage cocktail party next to the LIDO pool. I learned that the present Captain Baijens won't be the captain next February when we plan to sail from Singapore to Yokohama.
The evening's entertainment was a comic mime / juggler Yosuke Ikeda. Parts of his routine were clever and well executed, but I'd rather see a vocalist or instrumentalist. We spent the remainder of the evening sipping tea and enjoying conversation with other guests and being grandparent supervisors of our granddaughter in the hot tub and swimming pool. Interestingly earlier in the cruise she indicated she hated swimming. It's amazing how being with 'friends' changes things.
Tomorrow is the last sea day before the Yokohama stop and the start of the last segment for us. Stay tuned.
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