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In 2020 we had booked an April 2022 cruise with my brother, Gerry, and his wife Sue, that would have taken us around multiple ports in Japan. Well, we all knew what happened then. Figuring it would be a short term problem we rebooked the same cruise for 2023 which, sadly, was also canceled. When Celebrity cruise line decided not to send a ship to Japan in 2024 we bailed entirely and decided to consider a land based trip instead. Well, it has finally happened and we are headed there today for a 11 day land-based tour with Insight Luxury Gold called “Majestic Japan”. The itinerary can be seen on this web link.

https://www.luxurygold.com/en-us/tours/majestic-japan?optionId=1042

Although this will not be a new country for us as we once visited Okinawa while on a cruise, it is a fascinating country that we wanted to experience more of.

As the trip starts in Osaka we must fly from Seattle through Seoul, South Korea with a short layover before leaving on the short connecting flight to Osaka. As is our usual planning we are arriving a day early (April 1), with the formal trip beginning on April 2. One of the “perks” of the trip is there will supposedly be a driver to meet us at the airport to take us directly to our hotel in Osaka. And to occupy our free day in Osaka we scheduled another excursion we often take when visiting a new country-a walking food tour. We enjoy these as we get an exposure to the type of food we might encounter during the remainder of our time in the country.

We chose this time to visit Japan  as this is normally the peak time to experience their famous cherry blossoms (commonly known as ” Sakura”).  The current prediction is we are in luck!