Day 7 Kyoto, Japan

Our tour today was after lunch so we skipped breakfast and had a brunch at the poolside bistro.  We met our tour guide dockside where the bus was waiting to take us to Rokko Mountain and then to Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum for sake tasting.

It was much cooler (and thankfully sunshine) on the 800 metre high Rokko Mountain.  Halfway up the mountain we transferred from the bus to a cablecar and then back on to the bus for the remainder of the ascent.  The cablecar was fun and I am always amazed at how steep the car rises up the side of the mountain.

We were given an hour to spend at Rokko Mountain where the views are spectacular, or they would be on a less hazy day.  Philip spotted the Rokko Shidare Obseratory a short walk from where the bus stopped so we made our way towards that.  The observatory is shaped like a giant tree with its trunk covered with branches and leaves.  

There are lots of interesting sculptures and ornaments in the gardens surrounding the observatory but unfortunately all the descriptions are written in Japanese and as I am not up to date with Japanese I can't explain to you what they all mean......

The next stop was at the Sake Brewery Museum that was very interesting.  We first watched a video that showed the process of making Sake that is basically fermented rice. It is a very tedious process that required a lot of muscle power back in the day.  Now a lot of the manual power has been replaced by mechanical.  We tasted the Sake and I must say it tasted a lot better than the one I remember tasting on another cruise many years ago.  That glass of sake burnt the back of my throat but the one we tried today was very smooth.

We were back on board the ship by 4.00pm and set sail for Kochi by 6pm.  At 6pm everyone on board the ship is invited to enter the corridor to meet you neighbours in what it called a block party.  We participated but not many did.  Dinner tonight in Compass Rose restaurant.