Our last port in Japan, Hakodate, is here and we’re all a bit sad about it. We grabbed a cab and decided to spend time in the city’s largest park, Goryokaku, to see more cherry blossoms. Goryokaku is a fascinating park, built in and around an old Shogun-era fort. The fortress was completed in 1866, two years before the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate. It is shaped like a five-pointed star. This allowed for greater numbers of gun emplacements on its walls than a traditional Japanese fortress, and reduced the number of blind spots where a cannon could not fire.

The fort complex has a moat around it, which makes for a beautiful modern-day park. Goryokaku became a park in 1914 and was declared as a Special Historical Site in 1952. There is an observation tower next to the park, affording a bird’s eye view of the park and the snow-covered Hakodate Mountains.

Our next stop was the Kanemori Red Brick Warehouses, along the bay. This restored complex, built in 1869, used to serve as shipping and commerce warehouses. Since 1988, the warehouses have been converted into a commercial complex featuring shopping malls, restaurants, and event spaces. The shops feature clothing, souvenir, food, toys, pottery and jewelry stalls, amongst others. Sharon shopped a bit, while Marshall got his haircut.

Afterwards, we enjoyed sushi at a local conveyor belt restaurant, Marukatsu Suisan. While we’ve experienced a conveyor belt restaurant before, this one was different. You place your order of sushi items, using an ordering pad, and then your sushi gets prepared and comes to your table on the conveyor belt, stopping right in front of your table. The food is traveling so fast, you wouldn’t dare grab something that wasn’t yours. There was also a hot water spigot at each table so you could prepare your own tea. The food and the experience were both excellent.

Back on the ship, we went through our final immigration inspection with Japanese authorities. The process was smooth and took just 5 minutes. As we were just leaving the port, Sharon’s iPhone and iWatch, still hooked up to cellular service, let off a loud sound we’d never heard before. A warning of some kind was being broadcasted, and using google translate, we learned that it was a tsunami warning. A 7.4 earthquake had just happened off the eastern coast of Japan, though we had not felt it on the ship. We didn’t know what to think and we could hear other people out in the hallways, very alarmed. Soon an announcement came from the bridge, assuring everyone that the ship would be in deep water soon and we were in no danger. Nonetheless, it was very unsettling.

Luckily, the news reports said that the highest tsunami waves were only 1.3ft high. Six people were injured, two in Hokkaido, one in Aomori and three others. Two of the victims were seriously injured. At least 39 buildings were damaged in Aomori, where we had been the day before. We were lucky the quake and tsunami happened just minutes after we had set sail.

Tomorrow begins our crossing to Alaska and we’ll be 8 days at sea. The captain has already prepared us for “less than optimal sea” conditions. We’ll keep you posted.

Tomorrow: Day 1 of 8 Sea Days