We continue with the Celebrity Millennium Cruise Review – Tour Around The Ship… Today arriving in Hakodate northern Japan, after very smooth cruising.

Celebrity Millennium visits Hakodate in Japan 2014

Day 70 – May 12th.

Cruise Day 3 – Hakodate, Japan.

This morning we arrived in Hakodate. We made sure we had a big breakfast so that not to be hungry until later as we planned on spending the day ashore. This was our room service for our first breakfast, before our dining room 2nd breakfast!!

Arriving in to Hakodate Japan

Before heading to the Oceanview cafe for a bit more breakfast, we like to have a cup of tea and a nibble while watching us manoeuvre in to port. In this photo collage you can see Moni in the glass lift, the Oceanview cafe and on the far right, a piece of art that Moni liked, which was next to our table.

Breakfast in the Oceanview cafe on deck 10

Celebrity Millennium docked alongside in Hakodate Japan

We hadn’t booked tours on this cruise and so made our way off the ship not knowing what to expect.

Celebrity Millennium docked alongside in Hakodate Japan

Welcome to Hakodate

When we got off the ship, there were shuttle busses that took you to the centre of town for free.

Hakodate Morning Market Square

Hakodate Morning Market Square

A short walk from where the bus drops you off, you find the Hakodate Morning Market Square, where we walked around a bit looking at lots of fresh fish available.

Images from the market in Hakodate

After the market we walked along the roads in Hakodate where I spotted a Black Cat Service Shop where you could deliver your luggage to be forwarded anywhere in Japan. It’s a great service and if you missed my earlier post, you can read about our experience with the luggage forwarding Black Cat Service.

You can see how they often built their premises around trees, and here in Hakodate the signs are shared in English especially the tourist places.

Walking along the road in Hakodate

Red Brick Building area in Hakodate

Close by are the Red Brick buildings that house various shops. The local beer house down by the Bay Area where we enjoyed some beer and continued on exploring.

The Red Brick Building area in Hakodate

The Red Brick Buildings are close to the water and I can only think that this would have been an area for ship building, that has now turned into a tourist shopping zone, very similar to the Red Brick Warehouse in Yokohama.

The Red Brick Buildings in Hakodate

You could take a cable car ride to the top of the small mountain to take in the views, ride on trams etc. We just walked around the town for 4 hours enjoying the area.

Hakodate around town images, cable car, tram, taxi

Continuing on our walk, we pass some Tsunami warning signs along the road and a few buildings that are to be used in an emergency. Arriving back at the JR Hakodate station I’m greeted by a bunch of schoolgirls (well not really, I jumped in for a photo).

Tsunami warning signs along the road, JR Hakodate station

The shuttle bus then took us back to the ship, where we enjoyed an afternoon burger and beer. Later we freshened up for the evening and then on our rounds we bumped into the Captain of the ship…

A quick photo with the Captain on the stairs

Unfortunately the quality of the iPhone photos in low light is not good, I’ll have to look into getting a real camera.

Before dinner we watched the show

It was awesome to say the least, Yulia & Alan Reva performed majestically together with lifts, balance, and strength, holding each other in incredible ways. Yulia was the Russian Olympic gold medallist in gymnastics for many years. They also had some amazing sand art displays on video that worked well with the show.

Yulia & Alan Reva the show for tonight

Dinner in the Metropolitan Restaurant

Images from dinner in the Metropolitan restaurant on Celebrity Millennium

After dinner it was time for bed.

Tomorrow is going to be our last day in Japan. Our final Japanese destination Muroran.