Exploring Japan via Cruise Ship (What You Should Know)

Exploring Japan via Cruise Ship (What You Should Know)

Well, good morning from Nagoya, Japan. This is the fourth most populous city in all of Japan. And our ship is just docked here. It’s about 9:00 in the morning. And actually, you can see the ship right back behind me here, back down the street. Today, we’re going off on our own. And that’s the beauty of cruising in Japan is that a lot of these ports that you go into, they’re very close to the city center. They’re very accessible to public transportation. A lot of public transportation available in Japan. A lot of trains and things. So today I’m going to go use the train station here to get to Nagoya Castle. That’s like the big thing that people see in the sport. We’re going to see that and then we’ll see what might be in area surrounding Nagoya Castle. And the cool thing about utilizing the trains here is it does use the same Passmo system that they were using in Tokyo. So if you load up a Passmo card, which I recommend you do, you can actually do that on your phone. If you’ve ever used like a mobile transit card, and a lot of cities in the US now and around the world use them, but certainly here in Japan, you can actually load up Passmo. I loaded mine up on the plane on the way over here, and I’ve been using that same Pasmo in Tokyo and then all the train locations here uh around Japan as we’re going along. So, that’s the plan for today. So, settle right in and get ready to explore some of Japan with me. Come on, if you’re ready. Let’s get this adventure started. So, a little bit of wayf finding right back down there is the ship. We just walked up the street here and you can see the entrance to the subway station. This is the Nagoya port station. So, we’re going to go right in here, get on the train, and take it up to closer to the center of Nagoya where Nagoya Castle is located. So, should be exciting. And if you’re traveling here in Japan or really anywhere in the world, I use Apple Maps right here on my iPhone. I just plug in where I’m going. You can see I plugged in that we’re going to Nagoya Castle and it tells me in about 40 minutes I’ll be able to get there. It tells me exactly where to go. And once I hit go, it’s actually going to tell me exactly what platform I need to be at at this station, how many stops it’s going to take to get there, what station to get off at, and it’s going to buzz at me along the way and tell me like, “Hey, your stop’s coming up. You’re getting off at this stop.” So, this is really cool. So, utilize your phone as much as possible. I used this all around Tokyo, and it was very, very reliable. Yes. [Music] [Music] So, after about 20 25 minutes on the train, we’ve made it to Nagoya Castle. And actually, the uh subway station right there brings us out right on the grounds of Nagoya Castle. So, we don’t have to go very far at all. So, that was very easy. again. Just getting on the subway station there nearest the ship. And it’s a beautiful day so far. It’s supposed to be sunny all day. The temperature is about uh supposed to be about 90 Fahrenheit. It’s very humid, too. This is mid June of 2025 when I’m filming this. So, just know if you’re coming to Japan in the summertime. It is warm and humid. Can be in the ‘9s Fahrenheit uh with a lot of humidity. So, kind of like summers in the east southeast of the US. Uh it’s going to feel like that. So, a lot of rain, too. We’ve actually had quite a bit of rain so far this trip. I’ve been here for four or five days. Spent some time in Tokyo. Boarded the ship a couple days ago in Tokyo. We had a stop yesterday. It’s our second stop of the cruise. And uh yeah, it’s been cloudy and rainy. The cool thing about transiting around Japan, in addition to the readily available public transportation, is the sidewalks. And there’s just sidewalks everywhere. You can pretty much get anywhere you’re going by walking or by train, which is nice. So, even as a tourist, there’s not a lot of need for a car or to take a taxi or anything. You can usually get where you’re going on public transportation or by foot. Just entered the grounds now. I got my ticket here. It was 500 yen. 500 yen uh converts roughly to just a few bucks, maybe around $5, less than $5. $350 to $5 uh US. So, not expensive at all to come in to see this. Was able to use credit card. It’s another thing I recommend. They actually had two lines, one for cash payment, one for credit card. So, uh it’s a lot more convenient if you do carry in with you when you’re here in Japan. Uh but you can rely on credit card uh pretty much everywhere. I’m going to show you this while we’re here. Uh this is actually a vending machine. You see these all around Japan. This where you can get drinks. Uh a lot of different selections. a lot of teas available in these and water. Uh they also have a lot of Red Bull I’ve noticed. So if you’re a energy drink drinker can get Red Bull. Uh but all sorts of different drinks that you can get. [Music] [Music] Several hours later now we’ve explored the castle and taken the train back down here to the port area and actually just visited the aquarium. The aquarium is right back here. The uh public aquarium cost me about $14 $14 to go in. It was a very neat aquarium. It’s very close to the port. Actually going to turn around here walking across the bridge when I get back to the ship. You can see the ship right over there in the port of Nagoya. So very, very close. And just goes to show you if you get out and start exploring on your own when you’re in a town like a lot of these Japanese towns that we pull up to on this cruise, you actually can get out and make a day of it on your own. You know, you don’t really need a short excursion to show you the highlights cuz the highlights are all accessible by train. I think a lot of the excursions, at least that the ship was offering today, went to Nagoya Castle and probably some other places we didn’t get to see. But still, you can make a really good day of it on your own in Japan. And I hope that this shows you a little bit of how to do that or at least shows you what I did and maybe you can mimic something similar yourself. Maybe you’re not coming here to Nagoya, but you can do the research and and plan and find out things. I will say a tool that is becoming more and more popular and I’m using it a lot more and more and actually used it a little bit today is chat GPT. So using artificial intelligence to actually plan your itinerary and I did this back when I was in Tokyo for a couple days. I had an evening that I wanted to do some sightseeing and I just had chat GBT to make me an itinerary of cool things to see and it did and I enjoyed it. And not only did it tell me like be here at this time and then go here and then go here, it told me the train stops that I would need to be at, the trains I would be taking. So really really cool tool to use chat GPT. Um it it’s a lot of trust there though that uh trusting that AI is going to come up with a reliable itinerary for you. But it worked for me. So maybe that’s something that you can try as well. Hello. It is now a couple days later and now we’re here in the port of Kochi, Japan. Uh yesterday we’re actually in the port of Osaka. We’re actually in the port of Kobe in the Osaka region of Japan and actually did another day on my on there and I went to Universal Studios Japan which is located in Osaka, Japan. Had a really great time. I took the train there from Kobe. It took about an hour there and an hour back. So, a couple hours. It’s just been really hot. Uh it’s really, again, it’s June, just before noon. It’s actually 11:30 in the morning, but it’s already very warm and humid here. But, uh, you can see the Norwegian Spirit back here behind me, and we’re going to head out today. We’re in a port. It’s not near the city. So, in order to get to the city, Norwegian is offering bus services or a shuttle service. Uh, that does leave from the port building here. We’re going to walk in in just a minute and get to the bus. It is $20 per person. You can charge that to your onboard account. So, that’s what we’re going to do. They’re going to take us and drop us off in the downtown area of Coochi. We’re going to walk around and explore that a bit before we head back to the ship later. So, after about a 15-minute bus ride from the port, we’ve made it to the downtown area of Kochi. And my goal is to see Kochi Castle. That’s like the big thing to see here in Kochi. So, we’re going to walk up there, but along the way, I’ll show you what some other things there are to see uh between here and there. So, we’re just going to take it easy, do a little bit of sightseeing. uh as we make our way towards Kochi Castle. Right here is the bus stop and we’re going to cross the street over here. It’s going to take us about 25 minutes to walk there. It is about 1.2 mile walk from the bus stop where they’ve let us off. It’s also be the place of course where we get back on the shuttle bus to the port once we’re done exploring here in Coochi a little bit later. So, similar to Nagoya, and I was telling you how your cell phone uh is a very reliable way to get around uh to tell you about the trains and things, it’s also very reliable to tell you how to get around by foot. There are no trains here to get to uh Coochi Castle from where we’re at, so we’re going to be going all by foot, but it will give you reliable turnbyturn locations. I have an Apple iPhone and I have an Apple Watch also, and it’ll actually send the directions right here on my watch, and it will tap me when it’s time to turn or go a different direction. So, just keep that in mind. Um, they do have guide maps they’re providing on the ship and at the shuttle that you can bring along with you that might help you to navigate, but I didn’t bring any of that because I like to just use my phone. So, just keep that in mind. You can use your phone. It is very reliable. Thankfully, a lot of our path so far at least is under this covered market area. Uh, which is really neat, too, because you can stop and do a little bit of shopping as you’re walking about trying to get to where you’re going. But it’s very I’m very grateful that it’s covered because it’s very warm today. I think it’s north of 90° F and very humid. So, I’m thankful for the cover. and a Mr. Donut here. I wanted to remark about it because I’ve seen a Mr. Donut in Tokyo and pretty much all the ports. I saw one yesterday in Osaka. So, a lot of the places we’ve been so far on this cruise, I’ve seen a Mr. Donut. So, I think it’s a popular place to get pastries uh like donuts uh here in Japan. It must be a a major chain, but just interesting to see one here in Kochi, too. And speaking of popular change, I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you about a couple of convenience stores. So, coming over here today, I didn’t uh actually we’re walking by one right now. I’ll show you the first one. Uh Family Mart. You’re going to see Family Marts around just about any town you’re in in Japan. Uh it’s just a little convenience store. Think of it as like a 7-Eleven. Speaking of 7-Eleven, that’s another one that they do have in Japan. You’re going to see them everywhere. Uh and then the third one is Lawson’s. You’re going to see Lawson’s everywhere. Uh, in fact, I stopped and bought some water there yesterday, uh, right outside of Universal, uh, Studios there in Osaka. But, doesn’t really matter where you’re at, you’re going to be able to find at least the 7-Eleven. I didn’t bring water. Like said, it’s really hot. I didn’t bring water off the ship cuz I didn’t bring a bag and I didn’t want to carry too many things because I know that there are convenience stores literally everywhere. So, that’s what I’m intending to do is just to grab a drink as I need it. Uh, same thing with public restrooms in Japan. Public restrooms are readily available just about everywhere you go. So, just know that if you’re out walking around in one of these port towns in one of these areas and you’re worried about access to a public restrooms, they’re available and they’re very clean. I mean, the cleanest public restrooms I’ve seen anywhere personally, but I’ve read that they’re the cleanest public restrooms in the world. They that’s their reputation here in Japan. So, just know that you can have access to uh all those things. And we’ve literally walked like maybe a 100 steps and there’s another Family Mart. Just to show you how accessible places like that are, these little convenience places. Coming up on another location that there’s a lot of them around Japan and you’re probably very familiar with is McDonald’s. Uh, and that’s not unique to Japan. There’s just a lot of McDonald’s all around the world. And I do like to uh just go look at the menu because they do have unique things at McDonald’s around the world that they just don’t have uh in this in the US in particular. Uh but like here you see the different burgers that they have. And then this thing down here, I saw this yesterday. Uh right there, it’s actually a shrimp and avocado shrimp mayonnaise and avocado sandwich. So you certainly can’t get that in the States. I also want to show real quick that a lot of the restaurants around Japan actually have a display of plastic food outside of their location to show you what all they offer. So, you can see here a mango smoothie, uh, chocolate frap with Oreo cookie, and then some macarons also. And while we’re talking about places to go and buy things, let’s talk about money and how you can buy things. Because, of course, we’re in Japan. Their currency is yen. Now, I would encourage you if you’re coming to get a little bit of yen. You can do it at the airport. Uh recommend you not do it at the airport because the conversion rates there are going to be insane. They’re going to charge you all sorts of money to convert your money for you. Typically, you can go to ATMs in the country once you arrive. I’ve gone to them in the airport before and got money out that way. That’s usually going to be cheaper than going to the conversion booths that they’re going to have in the airport that are going to charge you an astronomical amount of money just to convert your money. Uh go to the ATMs once you arrive in the country, get some yen. Uh, but if you don’t want to keep up with money in habian in a country like Japan and pretty much most countries nowadays, you’re not going to have to, especially if you do contactless payment. If you have stored on your cell phone, your credit card using like Apple Pay, which I do, I have all my cards stored in my phone. So, when I’m traveling, most places now accept that. So, I just use my phone like when I go to the Family Mark. Here’s another one right here we’re walking by now. I can just use the credit card stored on my phone as my method of payment. It’s really convenient. You don’t have to worry about carrying around cash or doing conversions and having to pay the conversion fee. You just use your credit card. And if you like a cup of Starbucks coffee, they’re everywhere here, too. So, uh, no worries there. If you’re a big fan of Starbucks, you will be able to find them all around Japan. Actually popped into a Family Mart real quick to get some water. But just wanted to show you they also have a lot of different foods that are just packaged that you can take and go. Uh, really good packaged, prepackaged food. uh if you want to try something unique or something different that maybe you’ve never had before, I think this is a great way. They have these at the 7-Eleven also. But just know at the convenience stores, they do have a lot of prepackaged food. And also just like looking at all the various different snacks that they have. They’re all so different to what we have in the States. I don’t even buy any of these things. I just like to come in and look cuz it’s all unique. all their candies that they have and Hi-Cheu. I do like Hi-Cheu. They do sell those in the US, but it is a Japanese candy. So, uh yeah, just a little bit of a look at the assortment of things that you can buy. There’s some ice cream over here and things at a family mart. 20 25 minutes later, we’ve made it to Kochi Castle, which is way up on the hill up there. So, um, the track continues to get all the way up there. So, now we’ve made it breathless as we are to the top up here to Ochi Castle. Take a quick uh peek just inside here. You can see the entrance there to go in. And up there at the very top, you can see there’s some folks up there. That’s where you can go and get a view off. You can actually get a very good view of Kochi just from the bottom down here and at the base. Don’t have to go all the way up into the castle. But I will show you if we come around here the actual entrance. It is 500 yen if you want to go up and uh you will put your shoes in a shoe box over here or a shoe locker rather. You can see uh it’s actually called both on this side. a shoes box and a shoe locker, but uh you can put your shoes over here and keep them. And they ask no eating or drinking inside the castle and no shoes. Thing I wanted to say about language, of course, Japanese is the predominant language in Japan, but a lot of the signs and everything that you’ll see around uh in addition to being in Japanese, you’ll also see at least the title here is also in English. So, if you’re worried about that the uh language barrier, don’t be. I mean, a lot of English in written and a lot of folks here in Japan can speak English as well. But if you’re having problems, if you like want to know what the rest of this sign says, again, I’m going to go back to your cell phone because now with artificial intelligence and things like chat GPT, you can actually utilize some of the AI features of it to translate this for you. So, just keep that in mind. If you come up to a sign and you don’t know what it says, just pull out your phone and uh figure out a way to get it to translate it for you. It’s really easy, I promise to uh you know discover the language even if it’s foreign here. [Music] [Music] and back at the port of Kochi. Now, that’s going to do it for our time in Kochi and our time in Nagoya, Japan. Thank you so much for watching this video. If you enjoyed it, please go down below, give me a thumbs up. Also, be sure to subscribe to the channel. More coverage coming from here on board the Norwegian Square, where I’m having a great time and can’t wait to tell you more about this experience. So, make sure you follow along on this adventure with me. Thank you so much for watching and I’ll see you on the next adventure.

In this video I’m exploring Japan via a cruise ship on my recent cruise on Norwegian Spirit to tell you what you should know to explore Japan on your own. Japan is one of the easiest places to explore via a cruise ship thanks to the abundant access to public transportation, namely trains, just steps from the cruise port. In this video I explore Japan ports Nagoya and Kochi. Nagoya, Japan is actually the fourth largest city in all of Japan and here we set off to see stunning Nagoya Castle. In Kochi we take a shuttle, provided by Norwegian Cruise Line, to the city center to see Kochi Castle and walk through the outdoor market.

Along the way I will tell you about the local currency, how to spend your money, how to best get around, how to navigate Japan’s cities, and more! My Japan tips and tricks will help you on your Japan cruise vacation.

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