Why a cruise is the best way to see off-the-beaten-path Japan

Telegraph

11 hours ago

When I told friends I was going on a cruise in Japan, the response was mostly bemusement.
'Isn't it better to take the train?' they'd ask. It's a fair question. Japan's high-speed rail network is one of the best in the world, and the journey I'd be making – from Tokyo to Kagoshima in Kyushu, the country's most southerly island – takes just under seven hours. The cruise ship would take three days.
But the point here is to travel slowly, experiencing towns and destinations off the well-trodden tourist trail, and to enjoy the ship in between.
Princess Cruises' Diamond Princess was the vessel I boarded in Tokyo. Built in Japan specifically for cruises around the country, it boasts a traditional izumi Japanese baths, a high-grade sushi restaurant (where Japanese chefs carve up fresh, local fish and seafood), and even Tai Chi classes held daily on the pool deck.
I arrived in Tokyo early, allowing myself time to explore this frenetic city at my own pace, wandering amongst its ultra-modern high rises and winding narrow back streets stuffed with hole-in-the-wall izakaya bars, and spending long lazy lunches at tiny ramen restaurants – where I was just one of a handful of diners seated at a counter – watching the chef working a cauldron of steaming hand-pulled noodles.
On my final afternoon, I headed to Tokyo's Meiji Jingu Shrine to pull my ' omikuji ', or oracle, ahead of my voyage. These fortunes – which usually contain words of affirmation, thoughts about the world and ethical musings – come in the form of ' waka ' (traditional Japanese poems of 31 syllables), of which Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken (to whom the shrine is dedicated) were said to be prolific composers.
To receive one, visitors shake a hexagonal box with a small hole until a single, numbered chopstick falls out. Each number corresponds to a numbered wooden box, and inside it is a waka, written on a thin strip of paper.
It is hoped that the poem's message, based on the traditional Shinto ethics, will have particular meaning for the reader.
I was pleased to see my oracle telling of success in health, wealth, love and family matters – and especially delighted when it declared that my travels would be 'pleasing'. A promising omen.
The following day – waka safely tucked into my luggage – I boarded the ship and we headed for Miyazaki, Japan's warmest city.
This was immediately evident in the change in the landscape: where Gingko, maple and candyfloss-pink puffballs of early cherry blossom had characterised the scene in Tokyo, here these were supplanted by palm trees, tangled jungle greenery and beaches – home to some of the best for surfing in all of Japan.
We stopped at a viewpoint and, as I gazed out across the lush scenery, a peregrine falcon suddenly swooped menacingly towards me, its coal-black eyes fixed on the packet of wagyu-flavoured crisps in my hands. I lurched backwards but, at the last minute, it peeled away from me, talons retracted. A lucky escape, perhaps – or was my oracle looking out for me?
From there, we made for Aoshima, a diminutive island with a circumference of just 1.5km, connected to the mainland by a slender footbridge and surrounded by curious rock formations known as 'the Devil's Washboard'. It was all too easy to imagine a giant dragging its claws through the ebony mudstone and watching as it hardened into lines.
The bewitching Aoshima Shrine sits at the centre of the island, surrounded by more than 400 species of subtropical plants. At the temple's oracle zone, I tossed a clay disk into a ring and it shattered, giving me – the oracle there claimed – another dose of Japanese luck.
Next was Kagoshima, known as the 'Naples of the Orient' due to its coastal location and active volcano, Sakura Jima, which puffs clouds of ash (grey safe; white danger) into the bay.
We visited the popular Ibusuki spa resort on the outskirts of the city, where I was buried up to my neck in black volcanic sand, then feasted on steaming bowls of sabi-sabi hot pot.
That afternoon, we travelled inland to the Chiran Samurai Houses, a village of well-preserved Samurai dwellings – some still inhabited by descendants of the Shimazu samurai.
Their clan had once ruled the area, until – during the Meiji Restoration of 1868 – Kagoshima's Satsuma samurai led a battle that toppled the Shogun (local feudal commander) and restored power to the Emperor.
But it was our arrival in Nagasaki which proved the most poignant. As the sun rose over the East China Sea, the city's iconic Hirado O-hashi suspension bridge (tomato red, often likened to San Francisco's Golden Gate) appeared to part the low-lying clouds.
Our first stop was the Atomic Bomb Museum, which displays a sobering and comprehensive collection that recounts the devastation inflicted on the city and its residents in 1945. More moving still is the peace memorial, located in a tranquil park nearby.
With much to process, we broke for lunch, feasting on delicate sashimi and bento served in beautiful lacquerware boxes decorated with traditional Maki-e patterns, a 1,200-year-old technique of painting motifs onto lacquer and sprinkling gold powder before the material hardens.
But there is far more to Nagasaki than its tragedy – and our afternoon was dedicated to exploring other aspects of its fascinating past. A notable highlight was the city's Dejima district, a former island built first to contain Portuguese missionaries, and later Dutch traders, to keep them away from the city's Japanese population during Japan's two centuries of isolation.
The reconstructed residences show how life was for the only Westerners permitted in the country during that time.
On the last day of the cruise – bound for Tokyo once more – I stood on the deck of Diamond Princess, watching southern Japan's craggy mountains melting into the horizon. I looked again at my waka.
'Your request will be granted.' It read. 'The patient will get well. Building a new house will be well. Marriage of any kind and a new employment are both well.'
The waka was as good as its word. That week, I returned home to find a job offer awaiting me, our application for a loft extension approved, and news that a family member, who had been waiting on hospital test results, had been declared healthy. Suffice to say, the Shinto oracles had worked their magic.
Essentials
Emilee Tombs was a guest of Princess Cruises, which offers the 10-night Japan Explorer sailing from £979 per person (based on two sharing an inside stateroom) or £2,219 per person (based on two sharing a balcony stateroom). Departs February 24, 2026.