20251030 Viking Gems of China and Japan Day 26– Shimizu, Japan

Viking Gems of China and Japan Day 26 – Shimizu - Finally a little snow on Fuji, and some Shimizu Deja Vu

We docked this morning in Shimizu, Japan. Shimizu's port has been operating for 125 years. Shimizu-ku ward in Shizuoka city, a Shimizu town in Shizuoka Prefecture, and the former city of Shimizu, which is now part of Shizuoka city, boast a population of about 3 million people throughout the entire urban area.

 One of the attractions here is Mt. Fuji. We visited Shimizu in October 2023, and Mt. Fuji had no snow on it. Today, we got to see Mt. Fuji with a little snow, so we're counting that as a win.

As we were admiring Mt. Fuji's beauty, this rowing team came by the ship.

They started waving

Then, they raised their oars and saluted us before they continued on their way

We left the ship for our 12:15 tour

A fun water storage tank featuring a cruise ship and Mt. Fuji

We caught some great views of Mt. Fuji on the way

It was a good thing because a few minutes later...

...it was completely obscured by clouds for the rest of the afternoon

Our last look at Mt. Fuji

Our first stop was Fujisan Hongū Sengen Taisha Shrine. It was built in 27BC as protection from volcanic eruptions. It is a traditional starting point for guests climbing Mt. Fuji.

The current buildings were constructed by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first Shogun, in the early 1600s, however, many of the original structures were destroyed by earthquakes, and only the Inner Shrine, Outer Shrine, and Tower Gate remain.

It was familiar, but we've been to so many Shinto shrines, they all start looking the same

A guardian at the gate

A statue honoring the riding archers  - they still compete today

The main gate

Honoring the year of the snake

A hand purifying station

You dump the clean water over each hand to purify - wow, this seemed familiar

The main shrine building

Children get blessed at various points in their lives - this girl was seven and receiving a blessing

She was happy to pose for photos

 The family asked to take photos with our entire tour group - it was fun and should be a nice memory for her

Volcanic rock from Mt. Fuji

Another volcanic stone

A wishing wall where you tie a piece of paper with your wish on the ropes

Wow - this seems really familiar...

As we walked to the pond within the complex, I had a huge wave of Deja Vu

And yes, we visited this exact shrine on October 12, 2023, on our Viking Orion repositioning cruise

You can see the visit by clicking here.

We duplicated photos from that trip on this bridge

After we completed our shrine visit, we boarded the bus for the ride to Shiraito Falls. The Shiraito Falls (Shiraito no Taki) are located in the southwestern foothills of Mount Fuji. Ranked among the most beautiful waterfalls in Japan, the 150-meter-wide cascade is fed by the volcano's spring water and flows off the edge of a 20-meter-high cliff in thin white streams that resemble hanging threads of silk - hence its name. It flows well all year long since the water takes time to reach the falls as it percolates through the permeable volcanic rock.

A small portion of the falls - not the main attraction

Our first glimpse from the upper level

We descended the 100 or so stairs, stopping at different levels for a view

Reaching the bottom, you can appreciate the full falls and the multiple streams that make up the entire display

There are so many individual streams seeming to come right out from the tree roots that it is impossible to count them all

We started back up - you can see the staircase with the 100 steps - I'm very happy that the new knee was working well

Arlona spotted this guy on the stairway up

I spotted this one - ahh, nature

Arlona noticed this bench at the stop of the stairs - kind of ironic, given that we're near the base of Mt. Fuji

We made the 45-minute ride back to the ship, ending our final excursion of this cruise. 

The next thing on the agenda was more packing. We got mostly done and then headed to the Explorers Bar for one last pre-dinner drink. Then, we hit the World Cafe for our last dinner. We set sail around 7:00 and were sent off into the night by a brief but lovely fireworks display from the pier in Shimizu.

The other item on the agenda was to continue our battle with Guest Services about their incorrect accounting and the supposed balance owed. We met with them this morning and got nowhere, and were hoping for a resolution when we got back this afternoon. Unfortunately, we got no answers then either. We printed out our receipt showing that we had prepaid everything other than gratuities before boarding the ship, hoping that printed documentation would help us get a resolution. 

After dinner, we went down to Guest Services again, and they finally got everything sorted out and showed us the expected $249 of non-refundable onboard credit that we should have had. Because the shops have been closed or had very limited stock, there was no opportunity to spend the credit on the ship. We asked if they would just move it to one of the three cruises that we have already booked on Viking. They couldn't figure out how to make that happen. Their solution was to cancel excursions we had already taken, resulting in a refundable credit, and then rebooking them with the non-refundable credit. After jumping through that hoop three times, we ended up with $249 of refundable credit that will get refunded to our credit card shortly after we disembark. In the end, the result is that we wind up whole and are not out any money. The fact that we had to fight with them for three days to get to that outcome was simply unacceptable. It's too bad because it tarnished the luster of this trip.

With that finally behind us, we returned to the room to finish packing and get our big bags out by 10:30 for Viking to deliver to the pier. It will be an early morning tomorrow as we need to get breakfast and vacate the room by 8:00. Our airport transfer is at 9:30 for our 3:30 flight to Mongolia. Tomorrow will be a long travel day, getting us ready for the Mongolia extension. Tomorrow, we visit another new country!