20251029 Viking Gems of China and Japan Day 25– Kobe, Japan

Viking Gems of China and Japan Day 25 – We've got no beef with Kobe

Today was a virtual sea day for us. The only excursion offered today was the included Kobe Highlights tour that we took yesterday. We had also taken the shuttle and walked through Chinatown, so this morning, we turned our attention to other matters, like laundry. With the cruise coming to a close, Arlona reasoned that the washers would get busy this afternoon and tomorrow. She scored a pair of washers, so we finished the morning with all our clothes freshly laundered.

We had a nice start to the day, courtesy of Chef Isabel. She revised her recipe for biscuits and sausage gravy, and it was spot-on today. We appreciate the extra effort that she put in to make it right for us. She also got a kick out of learning a new dish. It was a win-win.

Today was a short day in Kobe with the all-aboard time set at 12:30 and sailing at 1:00. With everyone on the ship, Arlona caught the crew sealing up the gangway door on deck #1.

As we sailed away, we were treated to an impressive drum serenade by extremely skilled Japanese drummers.

Viking provided a Taste of Japan lunch in the World Cafe. We didn't see anything that moved us, so we enjoyed burgers on the pool deck. The roof was partially retracted, and we had a somewhat al fresco dining experience.

When we returned to the room, our departure information was waiting for us. That included the tags for our luggage as well as transfer tickets for our transfer to the airport for our flight to Mongolia.

This is today's travel plan.

We will make our way this afternoon and overnight to Shimizu, where we'll spend the day tomorrow.

Viking held one final trivia contest this afternoon. We gave it our best effort, but just like every time, we came up one correct answer short and finished in second place.

We started with a picture round again. This time, I remembered to take a photo so you can play along.

What phrase is represented by each image? From left to right, top to bottom:

1. West Indies
2. Six feet underground
3. Reading between the lines
4. Rising (or growing) economy
5. Jack in the box
6. Making up for lost time
7. Pain in the neck
8. Two down, one to go

We got all those correct. Here are the misses that cost us the game:

• What kind of animal can be Siberian or Caspian?
• We thought tiger, but two members were sure it was a sturgeon, so we went with that - of course, it was a tiger
• An array is a group of: Hedgehogs, Rats, or Moles?
• We guessed moles - it was hedgehogs
• What company invented the laser printer (Brother, Canon, Kodak)?
• We reasoned it was likely Kodak - it was Canon (although research shows it was actually Xerox), but rule #1 of trivia is that Arann's answer is correct, not necessarily the actual right answer
• Which is the best conductor of electricity, Gold, Silver, or Bronze?
• We guessed gold, but surprisingly, silver is a better electrical conductor
• What is Jupiter's largest moon?
• We said Titan, but should have known that it was Ganymede
• Aronophobia is the fear of (metal, the internet, shiny surfaces)?
• We guessed shiny surface - it was the internet, although I find very little evidence of this word online

We still had fun, and really had a good team with everyone contributing at different times.

We both did some packing this afternoon, getting a jump on it so tomorrow won't be a crazy packing rush.

One of the guests from our pre-cruise extension arranged a farewell get-together at the pool bar tonight. It was fun meeting up with all the people we spent the first ten days with, traveling around China. From there, we headed to dinner and then back to the room to watch the farewell show on our TV.

Before that, we spent time in Guest Services. It's a long story, but the bottom line is that we have unused onboard credit that we want to move to a future cruise. Viking came back and said that not only do we not have unused credit, but we owe them nearly $1,000 for items purchased on the ship, like the drink package and excursions. None of that is correct, and our paid invoices show that we have prepaid all of this. So now, we have to get Viking to sort this out in the one day we have remaining on the ship. Suffice it to say that we're not very happy with Viking at this point, and it sure tarnishes an otherwise great trip. We'll see what they come back with tomorrow, but I don't expect it to go well.

We should dock in Shimizu tomorrow around 9:00, and we'll head off for our final excursion of this cruise.