We took a 2 week cruise on Holland America’s MS Westerdam ship starting from Yokohama and stopping at Naha and Ishigaki in Okinawa, Hualien and Keelung in Taiwan and Kagoshima, Aburatsu, Kochi, Osaka and Shimizu in Japan before returning to Yokohama.
Osaka, Japan.
We had two days in the port of Osaka giving an opportunity to explore this incredible city. Unfortunately on the first day it was raining heavily all day.
We decided to take a local bus into the city centre and spend time in the huge Takashimaya departmental store. There were 9 floors in this store, the top 3 floors being all restaurants. While my wife browsed I headed to the floor with the coffee shop and the golf shop.
The choice of restaurants on the 7th, 8th and 9th floors were incredible. We had lunch in a wonderful yakiniku restaurant where we grilled our own beef.
The next day was fair so once again we took the local bus into the city from the port and explored the vibrant Dotonbori district. The streets were full of fascinating restaurants many having large signs advertising the type of food they specialised in making it very colourful.
We then walked to the Kuromon Ichiba Market where there were many shops selling an incredible array of food. In many of these shops you could sit and they would cook the food right there for you. We sat at one seafood store and ate some stunningly good toro tuna sushi with a large barbecued prawn. Later we stopped at a small stall selling wagyu beef and had some freshly cooked wagyu which was excellent.
From here we walked back to the Takashimaya Store area where we would catch our bus back to the port. Back at the port we explored Tempozan Park next to where the ship was docked and the harbour front area around the Osaka Aquarium.
It was time to depart from Osaka so I took the opportunity to take some last images of the port area from the ship. We got the most incredible send off as the ship left with a large Japanese drum ensemble playing some stunning drum music.
As we sailed towards our last port of call, Shimizu, we had our last dressy dinner night on the ship.
Passionate Photographer …. Lost in Asia
Stuart Taylor of HighlanderImages Photography has been making images for over 30 years and can offer a diverse range of photo imaging services with a focus on Asia and a documentary/photojournalistic style. These services include planning and executing a photo shoot on location but importantly all the post-processing and image preparation needed for the specific finished media format required by the customer. Stuart’s experience and knowledge in all of these aspects make HighlanderImages Photography a one-stop-shop for a comprehensive and professional image production service.
Stuart can be available for a variety individual assignments or projects and he specialises in areas such as photojournalism, commercial, architectural, real estate, industrial, interior design, corporate, urbex, adventure, wilderness, and travel photography.
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E-Mail : staylor@highlanderimages.com