Every question, answered

At two berths. Marine Port Kagoshima, a reclaimed island 7–8 km south of the city centre, takes every large ship and most calls: 102 of the 125 calls on the 2026 schedule. Kita-futo (North Wharf), in the old harbour next to the aquarium and five minutes' walk from the Sakurajima ferry, took the other 23 — all ships of 48,072 GT or less. Small ships sometimes use Marine Port too, so check the daily programme.

Marine Port is 7–8 km south of the centre, so you ride. Three ways. Your ship's shuttle, if it runs one: about 30 minutes to Tenmonkan or Kagoshima-Chuo Station, every 30–60 minutes, free or paid by line. Walk and tram: about 27 minutes on foot to Wakita stop, then tram Line 1 to Tenmonkan-dori in 24 minutes for ¥200 — about an hour door to door. Or taxi: about 15–30 minutes and from about ¥3,000, after a queue of up to 30 minutes on big-ship days.

From Marine Port, not to the sights: the centre is 7–8 km away. What you can walk is the prefecture's signed route to Wakita tram stop, about 27 minutes, then ¥200 by tram; beside the ship there is only a lawn park facing the volcano. From Kita-futo, yes: the Sakurajima ferry is 5 minutes away, Kagoshima Aquarium 2 minutes, Suizokukan-guchi tram stop 7 minutes and the Tenmonkan arcades about 19 minutes on foot.

Sometimes. The prefecture says that depending on the ship there may or may not be a shuttle, and that it may be free or paid. When it runs it goes to Tenmonkan or Kagoshima-Chuo Station, takes about 30 minutes and leaves every 30–60 minutes. Older reviews mention a drop at Dolphin Port by the ferry: that shopping centre is gone, and its site is now a prefectural event space and car park. From Kita-futo you need no shuttle.

At Shin-Chuo Wharf, tied up alongside the Aomori Port International Cruise Terminal completed in 2019; Aomori is not a tender port. Shin-Chuo took 41 of the 43 calls in 2026 and all ten calls from 4 October to 13 November. Okidate Wharf, a cargo quay west of the centre, was used only for the 168,666 GT Ovation of the Seas and for a second ship in Nebuta week; treat it as a taxi berth.

Two parts on Shin-Chuo Wharf: a hall of about 1,036 m² for immigration and customs, and a Welcome Hall of about 318 m² used for welcome events and waiting. On ship days the port committee often stages brass bands, local-product stalls and a calligraphy corner on the wharf. Non-passengers cannot meet you at the gangway under SOLAS rules. Tourist information is in ASPAM, about 11 minutes' walk; the nearest ATM is at a Lawson about 570 m away.

Yes. It is flat all the way: ASPAM is about 11 minutes, Wa Rasse about 16, A-Factory about 18, the nokke-don market about 21 and JR Aomori Station about 22 by our routing estimate; official pages say 20 minutes to the station. A taxi to the station takes about 5 minutes.

No official source mentions one from either berth, and at Shin-Chuo you do not need it: Wa Rasse is about 16 minutes' flat walk and JR Aomori Station about 20. A taxi to the station takes about 5 minutes; there is no confirmed taxi rank, so ask the ship's shore desk or the welcome staff to call one. The Nebutan-go loop bus stops at the Hokkaido ferry terminals, not the cruise terminal.

At one of two terminals in central Kobe. Kobe Port Terminal on Shinko Pier No.4 takes almost all international ships — 13 of 14 international calls from October to December 2026 — and has a Port Liner station right outside. Naka Pier Cruise Terminal, beside Port Tower and inside the Kobe Meriken Park Oriental Hotel building, takes ships up to the 77,000-ton class, mostly Japanese ships and small luxury ships. The two are about 1.3 km apart.

36 calls are scheduled from October to December 2026: 20 at Kobe Port Terminal and 16 at Naka Pier. The 14 international calls are Luminara (three), Westerdam (two), Carnival Luminosa, Celebrity Millennium, Viking Orion, Norwegian Jade, Star Navigator, Costa Serena, Azamara Pursuit, Seven Seas Explorer and Silver Moon. All but Silver Moon (5–6 October, Naka Pier) use Port Terminal. Naka Pier's regulars are Asuka II, Asuka III and Mitsui Ocean Sakura. Check the berth in your daily programme the night before.

Kobe Port Terminal has an information desk, an automatic currency-exchange machine and 13 coin lockers on 3F (¥200–600 a day, ¥100 coins only, no change machine), with the Port Liner station right outside. Naka Pier has an information corner and 20 lockers on 2F, but no exchange machine listed. On ship days the port's Omotenashi Crew, in Kobe-tartan happi coats, help with transport, sights and food. We could not confirm free Wi-Fi at either terminal.

From Port Terminal, the Port Liner: two stops, about 5 minutes, ¥210, paid with an IC card or a contactless Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Amex, Diners, Discover or UnionPay card; weekday trains run at least every 5 minutes. Walking takes 25–30 minutes (our estimate), and the city puts a taxi at about 6 minutes. From Naka Pier, walk 15 minutes to JR Motomachi and ride one stop, or take a taxi, about 8 minutes.

Most dock at Wakamatsu Wharf, beside JR Hakodate Station, where the Hakodate Cruise Terminal opened in 2022: 16 of the 24 calls from October 2026 to March 2027. The other 8 use Minato-cho Quay A, 6 km north, with no terminal — every ship over about 120,000 GT (MSC Bellissima, Spectrum of the Seas, Navigator of the Seas) and, on 24 and 31 October, the second of two ships in port. A third wharf, Nishi, has no cruise calls in 2026–27. Hakodate is not a tender port: ships tie up alongside.

24 calls between October 2026 and March 2027, on the city's schedule of 1 September 2026: 20 in October, one on 5 November and three in March 2027, with none in between. MSC Bellissima and Norwegian Jade call four times each; Westerdam, Seabourn Encore and Silver Moon twice; Navigator of the Seas, Spectrum of the Seas, Diamond Princess, Costa Serena, Seven Seas Explorer, Luminara, Asuka II, Mitsui Ocean Sakura, Vasco da Gama and Oceania Nautica once. Every date and berth is on our Hakodate cruise calendar.

Toilets, Wi-Fi, immigration and a tourist-information desk in English and Japanese, staffed for each call, with a covered walkway from the ship. There are no shops, vending machines or currency exchange, but a Lawson is about 220 m away and the Morning Market 300 m. The terminal opened at Wakamatsu Wharf in 2022; the quay is closed to the public, so friends cannot meet you at the gangway. Departing ships are often seen off with the city's squid dance. Minato-cho has no terminal at all.

From Wakamatsu, yes: the government's berth sheet gives 300 m and about 3 minutes on foot, and JR Hakodate Station about 5 minutes. From Minato-cho, no — it is about 20 minutes by car, so take the ship's shuttle if one runs, or a taxi.

At Tempozan, in front of the Tempozan Ferris wheel and beside the Kaiyukan aquarium. All 22 calls on the port association's schedule from 1 October to 27 November 2026 use it, and 79 of the 83 calls in 2026. The only exceptions this year were two small expedition calls at Chuo Pier and two by a small Japanese boutique ship at Kaiyukan West Pier.

About 20–25 minutes by subway, and you walk to it: Osakako station on the Osaka Metro Chuo line is about 5 minutes on foot from the terminal, by exits 1 and 2, according to both the port association and the national port specification, which lists a downtown shuttle as not needed. Allow 5–8 minutes from the gangway on the 430 m quay. From Osakako, Osaka Castle is 15 minutes and Namba for Dotonbori 20–23, both ¥290. Some cruise lines may run their own bus, so check the daily programme. The terminal also has a taxi pool for 28 cars.

On ship days the Tempozan terminal has a boarding bridge, toilets, temporary Wi-Fi, a currency-exchange desk (US dollars, euros, pounds, Australian dollars, won and yuan) and a tourist-information desk in English, Chinese, Korean, German and Japanese. Both desks usually keep 8:00–17:00, varying by ship. There is no shop or vending machine inside, but the Tempozan Market Place mall is next door, and 24-hour 7-Eleven, Lawson and FamilyMart stores are 260–450 m away; Seven Bank machines in 7-Eleven generally accept foreign cards.

On an 8-hour call, the classic three: Osaka Castle (15 minutes direct on the Chuo line, ¥290, keep ¥1,200), Kuromon Market for a grazing lunch before the stalls close from 16:00, and Dotonbori for takoyaki and okonomiyaki. On about 10 hours or more, Kyoto's Fushimi Inari and Gion become possible by rail. For a hands-on hour, the kendo lesson with a licensed instructor is the most-reviewed experience at any port on this site. Finish at Kaiyukan, beside the ship.

At Hakata Port's Chuo Wharf Berth 5, beside the Chuo Wharf Cruise Center: 176 of the 208 calls in 2025 and 18 of the 20 scheduled for October 2026, including the largest ships such as Spectrum of the Seas. On two-ship days the second ship uses Chuo Berth 6 (25 calls in 2025) or Hakozaki Wharf Berth 5, about 3 km further east (7 calls in 2025, 2 in October 2026). Every call ties up alongside, so there is no tendering. Kashii is a container terminal and has no cruise calls.

The Chuo Wharf Cruise Center, opened in 2015, has up to 20 immigration booths, an information desk in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean, free Wi-Fi and a currency-exchange machine that turns foreign cash into yen only. Its hours follow the ship, and it is not open to the general public. The car park is for tour buses only, with no space for private cars. For a cash machine, the nearest 7-Eleven is about 650 m from the International Terminal bus stop.

Only to the bus stop, really. The Hakata Port International Terminal bus stop is about 500 m (7 minutes) from the Cruise Center. Kushida Shrine, Canal City and the Nakasu riverside are about 3 km from the berth, roughly 40 minutes on foot along busy roads by our estimate, and Tenjin and Hakata Station are further. The BRT bus from that stop reaches Gofukumachi, by the old town, in 10–11 minutes and Tenjin in 15 minutes, for ¥210, every 15 minutes.

Walk about 500 m (7 minutes) to the Hakata Port International Terminal (Chuo Wharf) bus stop. The BRT (Tenjin direction) reaches Tenjin in 15 minutes for ¥210, every 15 minutes; the BRT (Hakata-Station direction) reaches Hakata Station in 18–20 minutes for ¥260, also every 15 minutes. Routes 11, 19 and 50 go to the station too. By our estimate a taxi takes 5–7 minutes without traffic and costs about ¥1,400 to Tenjin or ¥1,700 to Hakata Station.

At No.3 Wharf, Berths 16–17, in Minato-machi beside the Otaru Port Cruise Terminal, about 500 m from the canal. Ships tie up alongside, so Otaru is not a tender port. Every call in 2024, 2025 and 2026 used No.3 Wharf, almost all at Berth 16. The city also lists Katsunai Wharf, 3 km east with no terminal, which took nine calls in 2023, including the largest ships, but has had none since. If your daily programme ever says Katsunai, you need the ship's bus or a taxi.

Toilets, Wi-Fi, a currency-exchange machine for dollars and other currencies, and a temporary tourist desk in English and Japanese on ship days. The Otaru Port Cruise Terminal on No.3 Wharf has no kiosk or vending machine, so buy water in town: the nearest FamilyMart is about 600 m away near Asakusa-bashi. The wharf is a restricted zone under international port-security rules, so keep your cruise card to get back in. The taxi pool holds three cars, and the canal is a 5–10-minute walk.

About 500 m, 5 minutes on foot by the national port sheet's figure; our map estimate puts Chuo-bashi and Asakusa-bashi at 10–11 minutes. Downtown is about 1 km and 15 minutes, and JR Otaru Station about 15 minutes, uphill. No shuttle is needed, and the walk to the canal is flat.

No shuttle is published, and the national port sheet says none is needed from No.3 Wharf because the canal is about 500 m away. The wharf's taxi pool holds only three cars, so expect a queue on a big-ship morning; JR Otaru Station, with its taxi rank, is about 1.4 km away. We could not obtain the official Otaru taxi tariff, so we do not quote fares, but the old town's sights are all within about 2.5 km. Your ship may run its own bus; check the daily programme.

At one quay: the Ishigaki Port cruise quay in the Shinko (New Port) district — officially the International Wharf, −10.5 m — on the reclaimed island of Painuhama (南ぬ浜町), about 10 minutes by car south-west of downtown. It is 420 m long and takes ships up to the 220,000-ton class, so there is no tendering, and the city accepts only one cruise ship a day. All 165 calls on the official list to the end of 2027 use it. It is not the island-ferry terminal downtown, where pages written before 2018 put passengers ashore by tender.

No. The national port spec sheet lists no terminal building and no rain shelter at the Painuhama quay; immigration is done on board or in temporary structures. There are toilets, a bus park and a taxi pool, but no shop, vending machines, Wi-Fi, currency exchange or ATM. Bring water, a hat and cash from the ship, or get what you need in town, 10 minutes away.

About 10 minutes by shuttle — but only some cruise lines run a free one, to the Euglena Ishigaki Port Remote Island Terminal (the island-ferry terminal); the city does not run one. When there is no free shuttle, a paid one sometimes runs (a local tour site mentions ¥200), decided just before the day. Otherwise take a taxi, about ¥830–970. Ask the ship's tour desk the day before.

40–50 minutes, according to the city — about 3 km — over a high, steep bridge in full sun, with no route bus to fall back on. It is not a walk for small children, anyone unsteady or a hot afternoon. Many older pages say fifteen minutes; that is wrong. Nothing worth seeing is within walking distance of the quay itself: the market, Miyara Dunchi and the museum are all a short walk from the ferry terminal instead.

At the Hirara Port Cruise Berth, 420 m long and 10 m deep, on the north side of Hirara, the island's town. Every one of the 167 calls booked from October 2026 to December 2027 uses it, and no two ships are booked on the same day. A shuttle bus takes passengers about 1 km from the berth to the cruise terminal; from there town is about 1 km, 15 minutes on foot.

Not any more, as a rule. Since 2020 Hirara Port has a dedicated cruise berth 420 m long and 10 m deep, and every call booked from October 2026 to December 2027 — including MSC Bellissima's 14 this season — is listed at it. In 2016, before the berth, about 30% of calls anchored offshore and tendered. No official source says how the very largest ships tie up, so check your ship's daily programme for the word "tender".

Not from the ship itself. The berth is about 1 km from the cruise terminal and passengers ride a shuttle bus, which a local guide site describes as free; walking in the port area is not allowed. From the terminal, the Harimizu Utaki shrine is about 11 minutes on foot and the town centre about 15. Whether a separate shuttle to the town centre runs depends on the port and your cruise line, so photograph the terminal stop to find it again.

Toilets, permanent immigration and customs, and — on ship days only — a tourist information desk in English and Chinese that opens a few hours after the ship arrives. There is no currency exchange, no shop and no vending machine, and the Japan Tourism Agency's sheet lists Wi-Fi only as "to be prepared". Outside are a taxi pool of about 15–20 cars and space for 10–15 tour buses, but no private-car parking. Town, with cash machines and cafés, is about 1 km away.

At the Sunport quay in the city centre — the prefecture's Tamamo district 50,000-ton quay, 310 m long. All 22 calls on Kagawa's 2026 list use it. From the quay it is about 8 minutes on foot to the island ferry piers, 10 minutes to Kotoden's Takamatsu-Chikko station, 11 minutes to JR Takamatsu station and 10–12 minutes to Takamatsu Castle, by our estimates.

You walk: no official shuttle is run, and none is needed. From the Sunport quay the island ferry piers are about 8 minutes on foot, JR Takamatsu station about 11, Takamatsu Castle 10–12 and the covered Marugamemachi and Hyogomachi arcades 15–20 minutes, by our estimates. Only Ritsurin Garden (about 3.4 km) and Kotohira-gu need the Kotoden train or a taxi. Tour coaches park on the quay apron, which takes up to 20 buses.

Pick one of four days. The easy one is Takamatsu Castle (¥300, 10–12 minutes' walk), Ritsurin Garden (¥500, 7 minutes by Kotoden) and an udon lunch, back at the ship with time to spare for about ¥500 in fares. Or take the Kotoden 62 minutes to Kotohira-gu for about three hours at the shrine, or the ferry to Megijima or Ogijima. Naoshima works only on the 10:14 ferry out and the 14:20 back, with no fallback, so we keep it for a 12-hour call.

Few on the quay itself: it is an open apron, and no official source describes a cruise terminal building or a staffed information desk there. About 8 minutes' walk south, the Shikoku Kisen ferry ticket office at the Sunport piers has toilets, Wi-Fi and lockers in four sizes. The nearest ATMs are a 7-Eleven by JR Takamatsu station, about 470 m from the quay, and the Sunport post office, about 500 m. Ritsurin Garden and the castle have lockers of their own.

At two quays, both 370 m long, so there is no tendering. Most ships use Miura, in the city centre, where the terminal is the Sasebo Port International Terminal ("Yoko Terrace"), 5 minutes' walk from JR Sasebo Station. The second berth is Uragashira, on Hario Island near Huis Ten Bosch, whose terminal is the Sasebo Cruise Center. Of the 16 calls on the official schedule from October to December 2026, 13 are at Miura and 3 at Uragashira. Check your berth in the daily programme the night before.

16 calls from October to December 2026 on the official schedule: Eastern Venus (most of them, on round trips from Busan), MSC Bellissima, Viking Orion, Silver Moon, Luminara, Star Navigator and Adora Mediterranea, plus Mitsui Ocean Fuji. Uragashira takes the second ship on two-ship days and some mid-size ships — Adora Mediterranea on 13 and 17 October and Mitsui Ocean Fuji on 21 December. It is not the big-ship berth: MSC Bellissima (171,598 tons) uses Miura. Every date is on our Sasebo cruise schedule.

The Miura terminal, at Hizukushi-machi 1-42, has toilets (including accessible ones), Wi-Fi, a tourist-information desk, a shop and a police post, according to the city's leaflet; it lists no cash machine or currency exchange. The nearest cash is by JR Sasebo Station, 5 minutes' walk: a FamilyMart about 35 m from the station, a 7-Eleven and the station post office within 200 m. The Uragashira terminal, the Sasebo Cruise Center, has toilets, a lift and tourist information, and no cash machine within 1.5 km.

From Miura you walk: JR Sasebo Station and its bus terminal are 5 minutes away, the covered arcade about 8 minutes and the free Sail Tower naval museum about 1.3 km, so no shuttle is needed. From Uragashira the city lists a free shuttle bus to Huis Ten Bosch (about 10 minutes, 40 per bus) and a free water bus to Sasebo Station (about 20 minutes), with a warning that they may not be available at all times. Ask at the terminal desk for the day's times.

At Kochi New Port (Kochi Shinko), on Sanri No.7 Wharf, on the east side of the mouth of Urado Bay and about 8–10 km by road south-east of the city centre. The normal berth is 7-3. In the prefecture's October 2026–March 2027 schedule, 8 of 51 calls use berth 7-2 next door, and every one is a day with two ships in port. A cruise terminal opened there in March 2019.

Yes. Kochi Prefecture and Kochi City have run a shuttle from the terminal to Harimaya-bashi Kanko Bus Terminal, taking 25–30 minutes. It was free in early 2026, but a fare is being studied. Some lines sell their own: Princess lists a paid shuttle and Holland America charges from US$18. The last bus gets back to the port only about an hour before departure.

No. The port is 8–10 km from the centre among industrial lots, and the nearest bus stops are about 1.9 km away along industrial roads. Take the shuttle or a taxi. A taxi to Harimaya-bashi costs from about ¥2,720 and takes about 25 minutes in traffic.

By taxi: it is 5.2 km over Urado Bridge, about 10–15 minutes, from about ¥1,840. No public transport runs from the port to the beach. Arrange your return, because we could not confirm that taxis wait at Katsurahama. From town, the MY-YU sightseeing bus and the Tosaden Katsurahama-line bus between them run 1–2 times an hour and take about 30–47 minutes.

Most ships use Ujina Foreign Trade Wharf Berth No.5 in Minami-ku, where a cruise terminal opened in March 2024; the Kaigan-dori tram stop is about 10 minutes' walk and a free shuttle runs to the Hiroshima Port tram terminus. The second berth, Itsukaichi in Saeki-ku, is used mainly when two ships are in port and for some large ships; from there a taxi to JR Itsukaichi station takes about 5 minutes. Of 111 calls on the prefecture's 2026–27 schedule, 94 are at Ujina and 17 at Itsukaichi.

The prefecture's 2026–27 schedule lists 111 calls, 94 at Ujina No.5 and 17 at Itsukaichi; between October and March, Norwegian Jade calls most often (8 times). Big ships are not automatically sent west: Diamond Princess and Sapphire Princess, about 116,000 tons, use Ujina. Itsukaichi takes mainly the second ship on two-ship days — Silver Moon on 8 October 2026, Viking Orion on 21 October — plus very large ships such as MSC Bellissima. Confirm your berth in the ship's daily programme the night before.

The Hiroshima Port Cruise Terminal at Ujina No.5, opened in March 2024, has toilets, an elevator, free Wi-Fi, a currency-exchange machine, a lookout, and bays for taxis, tour coaches and the free port shuttle. Hiroshima City staffs a tourist-information desk there on ship days. The nearest cash machine is at a 7-Eleven about 550 m away. At the Itsukaichi berth, two sheds hold immigration, tourist information, currency exchange and shops, but the quay itself is closed to the public.

The Ujina No.5 berth is about 6 km by road from the A-Bomb Dome and 5.5 km from Hiroshima Station — about 10 minutes by taxi without traffic, or 30–37 minutes by tram for ¥240. Walking all the way would take well over an hour on city streets (our estimate) and wastes port time. The part to walk is the first 10 minutes, to the Kaigan-dori tram stop. From the Itsukaichi berth the Dome is about 13 km away.

At Matsugae International Tourist Ship Wharf, below the Glover Garden hillside: 65 of the 72 calls from October 2026 to March 2027, including every Diamond Princess, Celebrity Millennium, Spectrum of the Seas and Norwegian Jade call. On the seven days when two ships are in port, the second, smaller ship uses Dejima wharf, about 1 km north — this season Star Seeker, Azamara Pursuit, Luminara, Eastern Venus, Nautica or Le Soléal, most of which use Matsugae on other days. Both berths are in the city, and you can walk into town from either. Check your berth in the daily programme.

The Matsugae International Terminal, at Matsugae-machi 7-16, opens 2 hours before your ship berths and closes 1 hour after it sails. Inside are immigration, free Wi-Fi, tourist information, currency exchange and the ¥600 one-day tram pass, plus a barrier-free toilet and a lift to the roof deck. The nearest cash machines are at a post office about 130 m away and a FamilyMart about 190 m away. At Dejima wharf arrangements vary by call, so follow your ship's instructions.

There is no official shuttle from either berth, and you do not need one. From Matsugae, Oura Cathedral is about 5 minutes on foot and Glover Garden 7–10 minutes, uphill at the end; Shinchi Chinatown is about 15 minutes and Dejima about 18. The Oura-kaigan-dori tram stop is 5–7 minutes away, and the Dejima stop about 5 minutes from Dejima wharf. Only the Atomic Bomb Museum, 5.4 km away, needs the tram or a taxi.

Yes — it is one of Japan's easiest ports to do alone. Glover Garden and Oura Cathedral are 5–10 minutes' walk from Matsugae, and the ¥150 tram reaches the Peace Park in about 40–50 minutes door to door with one change. The one thing to arrange before you sail is Gunkanjima, whose boats are booked online only. Whatever you do, plan to be back at the gangway an hour before all-aboard.

At one of three terminals. Osanbashi Yokohama International Passenger Terminal takes most ships (33 of the 46 calls from October to December 2026), including Diamond Princess, Norwegian Jade and Celebrity Millennium; it is 7 minutes' walk from Nihon-odori station. Shinko Pier Cruise Terminal (Yokohama Hammerhead) takes smaller ships and most Mitsui Ocean calls (11), 10 minutes' walk from Bashamichi station. Daikoku Pier takes ships too tall to pass under the Yokohama Bay Bridge (2 calls, Costa Serena and Navigator of the Seas).

42–51 minutes by train from Osanbashi to Tokyo Station (¥760), changing to JR at Yokohama, and 36–46 minutes to Shibuya (¥540) on a through train from Nihon-odori; Asakusa is 57–59 minutes (¥980). The '30 minutes' you will read is Yokohama Station to Tokyo Station. Ships sold as 'Tokyo' usually use Yokohama. On an 8-hour call that leaves about three hours in one Tokyo district, so Tokyo and Kamakura do not both fit one port day: save Tokyo for a pre- or post-cruise day or an overnight call.

35–42 minutes and ¥670 to Kamakura: walk 7 minutes to Nihon-odori, take the Minatomirai Line to Yokohama, then JR (Yokosuka or Shonan-Shinjuku line) to Kamakura. For the Great Buddha, change at Kamakura to the Enoden for the 4-minute ride to Hase: 46–60 minutes and ¥870 in all, then 7 minutes on foot to Kotoku-in. One contactless card or Suica covers every leg. From Shinko Pier, start at Bashamichi instead and add about 5 minutes.

Yes, on the commonest 8-hour call. Leaving Osanbashi at 09:30, the 09:44 from Nihon-odori reaches Hase at 10:34; the Great Buddha and Hase-dera take about two hours, and the 13:23 back gets you to the terminal about 14:30, an hour before a 15:30 gangway target on a 09:00–17:00 call. On a 6-hour call the Buddha alone is possible but tight.

At one of two terminals. The Tokyo International Cruise Terminal in Aomi, Odaiba, takes the big ships and most international calls (24 of 33 international calls from October 2026 to February 2027). Harumi Passenger Terminal in Chuo-ku, which reopened to cruise ships in June 2025, takes ships of about 70,000 tons and under — Seabourn Encore, Luminara, Viking Orion, Azamara Pursuit and some Silver Moon calls. Smaller ships sometimes use the Odaiba terminal too, so check the terminal name on your documents.

On the Tokyo port bureau's October 2026–February 2027 calendar, Royal Princess and Sapphire Princess (12 December and 23 January), MSC Bellissima, Westerdam, Norwegian Jade, Costa, Carnival Luminosa, Navigator of the Seas, Seven Seas Explorer and Star Seeker all use the Tokyo International Cruise Terminal in Odaiba, as Celebrity Millennium did in September 2026. Azamara Pursuit, Viking Orion, Seabourn Encore and Luminara use Harumi. Silversea's Silver Moon uses both: Odaiba on 3 and 17 October, Harumi on 31 October.

The Tokyo International Cruise Terminal (東京国際クルーズターミナル) is at Aomi 2-chome-jisaki, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0064, 8 minutes' walk from Tokyo International Cruise Terminal station on the Yurikamome. Harumi Passenger Terminal (晴海客船ターミナル) is at Harumi 5-7-1, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0053, a minute from the Harumi Futo bus stop. Show a taxi driver the Japanese name: the two are about 20 minutes apart by car and often confused.

Yes. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Bureau of Port and Harbor publishes a Cruise Call Calendar, linked from its cruise page, with the ship, date, times and terminal. It lists 46 calls from October 2026 to February 2027, 29 at the Odaiba terminal and 17 at Harumi, with 20 in October alone; no March 2027 calls were listed on 30 September 2026. It shows only confirmed calls, and times can change at short notice.

At No.4 Pier of Beppu International Tourist Port, in the Ishigaki district on the north side of town, which opened as a cruise-only pier in 2011. Every call in the 2025–26 record (48) and the 2026–27 list (34) is there, so there is no second berth to worry about. The overnight ferries to Osaka use the Sunflower terminal next door; do not confuse the two.

Eight calls are listed from October 2026, all at No.4 Pier: Viking Venus (Sun 4 Oct), Azamara Pursuit (Fri 9 Oct), Viking Orion (Fri 23 Oct), Seven Seas Explorer (Thu 29 Oct), Seabourn Encore (Sun 8 and Thu 12 Nov), Diamond Princess (Fri 20 Nov) and Eastern Venus (Sat 21 Nov). They run 6½ to 8½ hours. The city's 2026–27 list has 34 calls in all, 12 of them in April, and none yet for December to March, although ships did call in every winter month of 2025–26.

No public shuttle is published by the city, the prefecture or the bus company. Some cruise lines may run their own, so check your ship's daily programme. Without one, walk about 12 minutes to the Shiomicho or Mochigahama bus stops, or take a taxi.

Umi Jigoku, the first of the Kannawa hells, is about 4.5 km from No.4 Pier: 13 minutes on the route 24 bus from Shiomicho (¥260, after a 12-minute walk), or about 15 minutes by taxi from about ¥1,650. Chinoike and Tatsumaki are about 3 km beyond Kannawa, 15–20 minutes and from about ¥2,300 by taxi from the ship.

Most at Muryoji Wharf, where the Kanazawa Port Cruise Terminal opened in June 2020: 12 of the 17 calls from October to mid-November 2026. MSC Bellissima, the largest ship, uses Ohama Wharf, a cargo quay about 2 km north with no terminal building (4 calls). Tonomizu Wharf, across the basin from the terminal, takes a second ship when Muryoji is busy (1 call, Mitsui Ocean Sakura on 19 October).

No official source describes one. The port association and the terminal list only public bus 04 and taxis. Some ships may arrange their own — check the daily programme. The terminal has a bus apron for 80 coaches, so ship shuttles and tours can use it.

Fastest: a taxi from the terminal, about 15–20 minutes and from about ¥3,700 (from Ohama, about ¥4,700). By public transport: bus 04 to Kanazawa Station West (28–35 minutes, ¥310), walk through to the East exit, then the Loop Bus right loop to Kenrokuen-shita (18 minutes, ¥220). Allow 60–75 minutes door to door.

No. Hokutetsu route buses, including bus 04 between the cruise terminal and Kanazawa Station, do not take Suica, ICOCA, PASMO or other national IC cards. They take cash, the local ICa card, and contactless Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Amex, Diners, Discover and UnionPay cards; one card can pay for several people if you tell the driver first. The Castle Town Loop Bus in the centre does take Suica.

At the Sakai Yumeminato Terminal on Takenouchi South Quay, south-east of town — all 14 calls from October to December 2026 and 49 of 59 in 2026 as a whole. It is 6.2 km by road from Sakaiminato Station and the Mizuki Shigeru Road. The Showa quays, beside the fish market in town, took the other 10 calls in 2026, all small expedition ships or second ships on two-ship days.

By taxi, about 15 minutes and about ¥2,300 to Sakaiminato Station, where the road begins. Or walk about 20 minutes to the Miho-cho-iriguchi stop and take bus 41 (12 minutes, ¥250, IC cards accepted; weekday departures include 10:11 and 12:07). Or walk about 30 minutes to Takamatsucho and take the JR Sakai Line (10 minutes, ¥190), which runs roughly hourly.

Not as a standing service. The terminal announced a paid shuttle to Sakaiminato Station for one Diamond Princess call in August 2026 and has published no fare or timetable for other calls. Ask your ship; if nothing runs, take a taxi (about ¥2,300) or bus 41 from a stop 20 minutes' walk away. The city's ¥100 Minatoru on-demand bus must be booked by app, LINE or phone, and the app asks for a Japanese mobile number.

Estimates from the official Tottori tariff, before any time charges: about ¥2,300 to Sakaiminato Station, ¥1,700 to the fish market, ¥5,700 to Yonago Station, ¥8,800 to Matsue Castle and ¥11,400 to the Adachi Museum, each way. Hourly hire is ¥3,300 per 30 minutes for up to four passengers. Book ahead — the fleet is small.

At Nakajima Wharf No.2 and No.3 in Akita Port, two 185 m quays in the Tsuchizaki district north-west of the city, at the Akita Port Cruise Terminal. Every 2026 call at Akita Port uses it, and ships tie up alongside, so there is no tender. The terminal has toilets, Wi-Fi and English-speaking tourist information; the Selion tower is 800 m away, about 10 minutes on foot.

No. Akita Station is 9.3 km from the ship by road, about two hours on foot, and the port's own facility sheet puts downtown 13 km and 30 minutes away by car. What you can walk to is the Selion tower (800 m, 10 minutes), the Tsuchizaki Minato History Museum (17–20 minutes) and JR Tsuchizaki station (28 minutes). For the city, take the ¥550 Selion bus or a taxi of about ¥4,500.

Walk 10 minutes to the Selion tower and take the Akita Chuo Kotsu Selion Line bus to Akita Station West Exit: 26 minutes, ¥550, cash or Suica-type IC card. Or take a taxi from the terminal's taxi pool: 25–30 minutes and about ¥4,500 per car. A third, cheaper option is a 28-minute walk to JR Tsuchizaki station and a 9–10-minute local train for ¥210, roughly hourly.

No standing service of either. The cruise train from Akita Port to Akita Station ended by March 2026 and JR Freight abolished the line on 1 July 2026, although the Japan Tourism Agency's English page still describes it. The port's facility sheet says shuttles to downtown have to be arranged, so check your ship's daily programme. If nothing is listed, use the Selion bus (¥550, 26 minutes) or a taxi (about ¥4,500).

At one of two berths. Mid-size ships use the Naha Cruise Terminal on Tomari Wharf No.8 in Wakasa, 1.5 km (about 20 minutes' walk) from Kencho-mae station and the south end of Kokusai-dori. The biggest ships — Spectrum of the Seas, MSC Bellissima and Adora Flora City — and the second ship on two-ship days normally use the 2nd Cruise Berth on Shinko Wharf No.12, 5.6 km from downtown, with temporary tents and no station. Of 155 calls from October 2026 to March 2027, 86 are at Wakasa and 69 at Shinko. Both are quays: no tenders.

From the Wakasa terminal, yes: about 20 minutes (1.5 km) on foot to the Kencho-mae end of Kokusai-dori, or a taxi of about 5 minutes and ¥850. From the 2nd Cruise Berth at Shinko, no: it is 5.6 km through a cargo district, and the official port sheet says a shuttle is needed. Take the ship's shuttle if one runs, or a taxi — about 10 minutes without traffic and about ¥1,750.

Sometimes. A ¥240 trial shuttle ran from Wakasa to Kokusai-dori about every 30 minutes until at least March 2026, and the prefecture has tendered a 2026–27 programme for shuttles at both berths, running until 16 February 2027, for participating cruise lines. Whether one runs on your call, and at what fare, is up to the ship: check the daily programme. Wakasa is walkable without one; Shinko is not.

With about 2 usable hours (a 4-hour call at Wakasa), walk 12 minutes to Naminoue Shrine, or take a 7-minute, ¥1,050 taxi to the Makishi market for soba. With about 4 usable hours (6-hour call), choose one: Shuri Castle by monorail, about 3 hours door to door; the market, Tsuboya and Kokusai-dori; or the Peace Memorial Park by taxi. At the Shinko berth, add about 10 minutes of taxi each way and skip Shuri on a 4-hour call.

Almost all at the Busan Port International Passenger Terminal in North Port (206 Chungjang-daero, Dong-gu), next to Busan Station: 69 of the 73 calls from October 2026 to March 2027, including every Diamond Princess, Sapphire Princess and Celebrity Millennium call. Its main berth, MBF-1, takes ships up to 170,000 GT, so even Spectrum of the Seas docks there. The Yeongdo Cruise Terminal, on Yeongdo island across the harbour, takes MSC Bellissima and ships that cannot fit at North Port that day: four calls in that period. Your ship's daily programme confirms the berth.

At North Port, cruise passengers come out through the 2F arrivals hall, which has a Busan Bank exchange desk (bring your passport), a city tourist information desk (09:00–18:00), a 7-Eleven (06:00–19:30), a café and Zim Carry luggage storage and delivery (10:00–19:00). On 3F are a Korean restaurant (06:30–14:30), a snack bar, a pharmacy (08:00–18:00) and a second 7-Eleven. The Yeongdo Cruise Terminal lists only immigration, waiting rooms and baggage areas: no exchange desk, café or cash machine.

From North Port, yes to Busan Station: about 10–15 minutes along a covered pedestrian deck with a moving walkway, signed from the terminal. From the station, metro Line 1 reaches Nampo, Jagalchi and Toseong (for Gamcheon) in a few stops, and Choryang Ibagu-gil and Chinatown are close by. The markets and Gamcheon are not walkable. From Yeongdo, only the National Maritime Museum is walkable, about 0.8 km along the same road.

Taejongdae's sea cliffs are 6 minutes by taxi (3 km) and the free National Maritime Museum, closed on Mondays, is 0.8 km along the terminal's own road. Beyond that, plan on taxis: Yeongdo has no metro, and the bus stop the port authority names, Dongsam Samgeori, is about 15 minutes' walk away. By the official figures, Jagalchi and Nampo are about 20 minutes by taxi, Gamcheon Culture Village 25 and Haeundae 40. The terminal lists no exchange desk, café or cash machine, so bring won from the ship.

At one of two terminals on opposite coasts, about 52 km and 70 minutes apart by road. Ships under 100,000 GT normally use Jeju Port International Passenger Terminal in Jeju City, on the north coast. Larger ships use Seogwipo Gangjeong Cruise Terminal on the south coast, which opened in 2017 and can take two 220,000-GT ships at once. From October 2026 to March 2027 the Province's list has 113 calls at Gangjeong and 69 at Jeju Port. Most Western ships are at Jeju Port, but MSC Bellissima, Spectrum of the Seas, Navigator of the Seas and Carnival Luminosa are at Gangjeong.

From Jeju Port, yes if you are a steady walker: Dongmun Market is 2.8 km, about 37 minutes on foot (our estimate), and Black Pork Street about 30 minutes. Most people take the City Tour bus (7 minutes, ₩5,000, card only, not Mondays) or a taxi of about ₩4,800. From Gangjeong, no: Seogwipo old town is 10 km away, and the only thing within walking distance is the Gangjeong Haenyeo-ui-jip next door, the women divers' restaurant serving sea-urchin noodles (closed Mondays).

From Jeju Port, the City Tour bus leaves the terminal hourly from 09:00 to 17:00 and reaches Dongmun in 7 minutes. A ride costs ₩5,000 by card only, and the bus does not run on Mondays. A taxi takes about 5 minutes and costs about ₩4,800. On foot it is 2.8 km, about 37 minutes. The bus is a one-way loop, so come back by taxi. From Gangjeong, Dongmun is about 70 minutes and ₩46,000 away by taxi.

Not a ship shuttle you can plan around. At Jeju Port, downtown merchants began a free shuttle towards Dongmun in April 2025, but no 2026 route or timetable is published. The hop-on hop-off Jeju City Tour bus from the terminal (₩5,000 a ride, ₩12,000 a day, card only, not Mondays) is the dependable option. At Gangjeong, public bus 680 runs a circuit to Seogwipo and Maeil Olle Market gate 7 for ₩1,150 by card, but its times are not published.

At the Incheon Port Cruise Terminal, 438 Gukjehangman-daero, Yeonsu-gu, at the southern tip of Songdo. Every call on the port authority's schedule for October–December 2026 is a single ship there. It is not the International Passenger Terminal, which handles China ferries. Nothing is walkable from the terminal: the nearest subway station, International Business District on Incheon Line 1, is 7 km away, about 15 minutes by taxi.

About 48 km by road to Seoul Station or Gyeongbokgung. A taxi takes about 70–110 minutes in daytime traffic and costs about ₩50,000–75,000 each way with the 30% out-of-city surcharge and tolls (our estimates). Taxi plus Incheon Line 1 and the AREX train takes about 2 hours to Seoul Station and about ₩2,400–2,700 in fares. A Seoul round trip costs 2.5–4.5 hours of travel. Passengers report Seoul taxis declining the run back to the terminal; the train from Seoul Station is the fallback.

Yes, on a call of about 12 hours, if you choose one area. By taxi you get about 5 hours on the ground, by train about 4: enough for Gyeongbokgung, the guard ceremony and Bukchon. On 10 hours it is possible by taxi with about 3.5 hours in Seoul, and a tour that promises the return in writing is the safer choice. On 8 hours or less, do Incheon instead.

About 2 hours to Seoul Station and ₩2,400–2,700 each way on T-money (our estimates). There is no station at the terminal: take a taxi from the Gate 2 rank to International Business District station, about 15 minutes and ₩8,000–9,000, then Incheon Line 1 to Gyeyang (about 57 minutes) and the AREX all-stop train to Seoul Station (about 30 minutes). Gyeongbokgung is about 10 minutes further by taxi. Buy a T-money card with won cash: foreign cards cannot be tapped at the gates.

At one of two terminals on either side of the harbour head, both downtown: the West Cruise Terminal (berth West 3), 4 minutes' walk from Keelung Station's North Exit, and the East Cruise Terminal (berths East 2 and East 4), 8 minutes from the South Exit. Of 46 port-of-call visits on the port operator's October 2026–March 2027 schedule, 22 are at West 3, 23 at East 2 and 1 at East 4. Big mainstream ships mostly use West 3.

There are two, about 450 m apart. The West Cruise Terminal (基隆港西岸旅客中心) is at 16 Gangxi Street, Ren'ai District, Keelung, beside Keelung Station's North Exit. The East Cruise Terminal (基隆港東岸旅客中心) is at 1 Zhongzheng Road, Zhongzheng District, Keelung, 8 minutes' walk from the station's South Exit. Your ship's daily programme names the terminal; showing a taxi driver the Chinese name is the easiest way back.

Yes. Taipei is inland, 23–28 km away by road, and cruise lines' 'Taipei' calls dock at Keelung; the port operator's cruise list for northern Taiwan names Keelung, not the separate Port of Taipei. Taipei Main Station is 42–51 minutes away by a NT$62 local train from Keelung Station, 4–8 minutes' walk from the terminals. A taxi is from about NT$635–760 plus tolls and slow at rush hour.

Neither the port operator nor Keelung City publishes one, and you do not need it: both terminals are in the city centre, about 450 m apart, with the station, the bus station and Miaokou within a 4–15-minute walk. Some cruise lines are reported to run their own shuttle to Maritime Plaza — check your daily programme.

Large ships use one of two quays in the cargo port, Mariyama North or Mariyama South, about 4 km (5 minutes by car) from downtown. Both October 2026 calls — Westerdam on the 5th and Diamond Princess on the 14th — are listed at Mariyama North, marked provisional. Neither quay has a terminal building; on ship days there are temporary toilets, a kiosk, tourist information and currency exchange. Small ships occasionally use Kanegasaki Quay, beside the museums: Seabourn Quest did in October 2025.

Two calls remain on the official list, both at Mariyama North and both marked provisional: Westerdam on Monday 5 October 2026, 08:00–17:00 (about 1,960 passengers), and Diamond Princess on Wednesday 14 October 2026, 08:00–18:00 (about 2,700). No calls are listed from November 2026 to March 2027. Earlier in 2026, Westerdam, Hanseatic Inspiration and Diamond Princess called in April, June and July; 2025 had nine calls between April and November. The Tsuruga Port Promotion Association's schedule is the list to check.

Yes, for a reason no other Japanese port shares: the Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum (¥500, about an hour) tells how Polish orphans in the 1920s and Jewish refugees with Chiune Sugihara's visas in 1940–41 came ashore here. Add Kehi Jingu's 10.9-metre torii of 1645 (free, 30–40 minutes), the Red Brick Warehouse diorama, the free Railway Museum and a sauce katsudon lunch. On a 9- or 10-hour call that is a full, unhurried day, all linked by the free shuttle.

Yes, a free one run by the city side and published for each call. For Westerdam on 5 October 2026 it loops every 30 minutes from 08:00 to 15:30: Mariyama North → Kirameki Minato Hall (museum quarter) → Aioi-cho-dori (Kehi Jingu) → Tsuruga Station and back. The 14 October plan had not been posted by 30 September; check the Tsuruga Port Promotion Association's notice or your ship's daily programme.

They do not dock: Toba is a tender port. Ships anchor off Toba Marine Terminal and run their own tenders, with local launches, to the Sadahama pier at the terminal. The Toba cruise council's call list gives the landing for every call: of the 10 calls from October 2026 to March 2027, 9 land at Sadahama and 1 — Mitsui Ocean Sakura on 12 November — at the Mikimoto Pearl Island pier.

You walk. From Sadahama, Toba Station and the bus center are a 5–10-minute walk, Mikimoto Pearl Island 10–12 minutes and Toba Aquarium about 15 minutes, all on the flat waterfront along National Route 42. No shuttle is needed and none is officially run. The Toba Visitor Center on the terminal's ground floor hands out free maps.

Yes. The Inner Shrine is 40–50 minutes each way by Kintetsu local and bus, and a comfortable visit with lunch in Okage Yokocho needs about 4 hours ashore plus the tenders. That fits the usual 9-hour Toba call: on a 07:00–16:00 call you can be at Naiku by about 9:05 and back at the tender pier by about 13:55.

About 40–50 minutes and ¥660 each way. Walk 5–10 minutes from the Sadahama tender pier to Toba Station, take a Kintetsu local to Isuzugawa (11 minutes, ¥360, at :25 and :55 past the hour midday), then a Mie Kotsu bus to Naiku-mae (about 9 minutes, ¥300, 4–5 an hour); IC cards work on both. The hourly CAN bus runs direct from Toba Bus Center to Naiku-mae in 41 minutes for ¥1,050, and the ¥1,300 Ise-Toba Michikusa day pass only pays off if you ride it both ways. A metered taxi takes about 20 minutes and costs about ¥6,400 or more.

Yes, for history and food rather than big-name sights. Sakata grew rich shipping Shonai rice on the Kitamaebune coastal trade, and it shows: the 1893 Sankyo rice warehouses, the Homma merchant family's 1768 residence, seafood bowls at the fish market, its own wonton-men noodles, and maiko who still dance at Somaro, a restaurant for over a century. The old town fits an 8.5-hour call; Mt. Haguro's National Treasure pagoda is an hour inland.

At Kominato Wharf in Sakata North Port, in the Miyaumi district, for every call on the city's 2026 schedule. The national facility sheet puts it about 6 km and 15 minutes by car from the town centre and JR Sakata Station. There is no terminal building. On ship days the quay has temporary toilets, a kiosk, a tourist-information desk and a US-dollar exchange desk. The only exception in 2026 was one small expedition ship moved to Takasago Wharf in September.

Not sensibly. Somaro is 4.7 km and the Sankyo Warehouses 5.7 km on foot, about 63 and 76 minutes, through the cargo district and along Route 112. Take your ship's shuttle or a taxi, about 15 minutes. Once you are in the old town, the main sights lie within about 1.5 km of each other.

The port expects the cruise line to arrange one; the facility sheet says shuttles to downtown must be arranged, and there is no public shuttle service. The drop point, fare and frequency depend on your ship and are not published, so check the daily programme. A city bus runs past the port on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays only, from a stop about 1.1 km from the berth, four times a day for ¥200.

At Takamatsu Wharf No.2 in the Sendai port district of Sendai–Shiogama port, in Miyagino-ku. Every 2026 call with a published berth uses it; Nakano Wharf No.1 next door is the other designated cruise berth, and a ship of the 140,000-ton class would span both. No cruise call is scheduled at the Shiogama port district itself, and Marine Gate Shiogama is the sightseeing-boat pier, not a cruise berth.

No on both counts. Takamatsu Wharf No.2 is a working cargo quay closed to the public, and the nearest station, JR Nakanosakae, is about 4 km by road. There is no terminal building: the prefecture's layout plan shows only tents for the welcome team and customs, a taxi waiting area and a bus waiting area beside the gangway. Do not count on a cash machine on the quay; the nearest is a FamilyMart 60 m from JR Nakanosakae.

Asuka III runs a free shuttle to JR Tagajo on 7 November 2026, about 15 minutes, with no booking and the first bus about 09:30; return times are announced on board. For Seabourn Encore, Norwegian Jade and Mitsui Ocean Sakura no shuttle has been published — check the ship's daily programme. A taxi to JR Nakanosakae takes about 7–10 minutes and costs about ¥1,800 a car.

Matsushima, 45–80 minutes from the ship, is the reason to get off: the bay of about 260 pine islands, Godaido and Zuiganji temple. Shiogama, 11–20 minutes by taxi, has the tuna fish market (closed Wednesdays), Shiogama Shrine up 202 steps and the 50-minute Basho boat to Matsushima. Sendai Station, 35–45 minutes away, has gyutan on its third floor. On about four hours, the Umino-Mori Aquarium, 10 minutes by taxi, is the closest sight.

No. This guide is Miyako in Iwate Prefecture, a port on the Sanriku coast of northern Honshu, known for Jodogahama and for Taro's seawall. Miyakojima is a coral island in Okinawa, at the other end of Japan, with its own cruise port and its own guide on this site.

Alongside at Fujiwara Wharf (berths F8 and F9), which every cruise call from 2024 to 2026 has used, so Miyako is not a tender port. It is about 3.3 km by road from Miyako Station and 1.2 km from Sokei station on the Sanriku Railway. The 2018 Miyako Port Ferry Terminal stands beside it, with a free public lounge and Wi-Fi on the second floor on weekdays and a rooftop tsunami evacuation space.

Yes. On a 9–10-hour call, do two things: Jodogahama, 10–15 minutes from the ship by taxi, with the ¥2,000 Blue Cave sappa boat, and Taro, 20 minutes up the coast by train, where a local guide shows you the 10 m seawall the 2011 tsunami overtopped and the Taro Kanko Hotel ruin. Add a bin-don seafood lunch at the Gyosai Market or Seatopia Naado, and the Umineko-maru bay cruise past Rōsoku-iwa, a 40 m candle rock. Ryusendo Cave, 50 minutes inland, suits only the longest calls. The full list is our Miyako top 10.

A taxi takes about 10–15 minutes to the Visitor Center stop and costs roughly ¥2,000–2,500 (our estimate; we could not find the official local tariff). The prettier way is a 6-minute taxi to Seatopia Naado on Desaki pier and the Umineko-maru boat, 10 minutes and ¥600, not on Tuesdays from September to December. By bus, go first to Miyako Station and take the Kenpoku bus to Oku-Jodogahama, 24 minutes. Allow about two hours at Jodogahama with the sappa boat.

At one of two berths about 24 km apart by road. Smaller ships — Seabourn Encore, Azamara Pursuit, Nautica, about 42,000 tons and under — use West Port Yamanoshita Wharf (North), near the city centre, where the E2 bus stop is 11 minutes' walk. Larger ships — Spectrum of the Seas, Diamond Princess, about 50,000 tons and up — use East Port Central Wharf, an industrial port where the quay is closed to the public and to private cars on call days. Of seven port calls from October 2026 to March 2027, five are at West Port and two at East Port.

Walk 11 minutes to the Suehirobashi stop and take bus E2 (Airport–Matsuhama line): 11–12 minutes to Bandai City, 15–16 minutes to Niigata Station, ¥260, three to four buses an hour. Some morning 'D' runs go via Furumachi and skip the station. A taxi takes about 9 minutes without traffic and costs from about ¥2,900.

Not on foot: the nearest station, JR Toyosaka, is about 10.5 km away, and private cars cannot reach the quay. Use the transport your ship arranges or a ship tour. A taxi to Niigata Station is about 24 km — 20 minutes without traffic, allow 40 — and costs from about ¥9,000 each way; check with the ship's port desk that taxis can meet you at the quay.

We could not find any official description of a shuttle at either berth: no operator, fare or drop point is published. At East Port you depend on whatever your ship provides, so read the daily programme. At West Port you do not need one: the E2 bus is an 11-minute walk.

At Maizuru West Port No.2 Wharf (Dai-2), which has the Umitobira passenger terminal, about 2 km from JR Nishi-Maizuru Station. Of 23 calls on the city's 2026 list, 20 were at Dai-2. The three others were all Spectrum of the Seas (169,300 GT), which uses the Maizuru International Wharf about 2 km further north. The International Wharf has no terminal building and nothing within walking distance.

About 2 km from Nishi-Maizuru Station, the Umitobira passenger terminal at West Port No.2 Wharf (Dai-2) has toilets, an accessible toilet, a nursing room, free Wi-Fi and a taxi pool of about 10 cars. A 7-Eleven is about 330 m away. The International Wharf, used by Spectrum of the Seas, has no terminal building: toilets, Wi-Fi and a shop depend on the call, and there is no cash machine within 1.5 km, so bring yen from the ship.

44–51 minutes by local train (¥650) from Nishi-Maizuru Station takes you to Amanohashidate, the pine sandbar counted among Japan's Three Views, and the best day you can do alone. The other good day is the navy harbour across the bay: Red Brick Park's eight brick warehouses of 1902–1918, the 30-minute harbour cruise past Maritime Self-Defense Force ships (¥1,800), navy curry, the Repatriation Memorial Museum and Goro Sky Tower, linked by taxi. Toretore Center, the fish-market hall, is 15 minutes' walk from Dai-2.

From Dai-2, Nishi-Maizuru Station is about 30 minutes on foot according to the port's own embarkation notice, and Toretore Center about 15 minutes (1.1 km). The prefecture's port page says, however, that reaching the town needs a shuttle bus, so follow your ship's instructions for leaving the wharf. From the International Wharf, walking is not realistic: the station is 4.5 km away.

At one of two berths, both alongside a quay, so Kushiro is not a tender port. Most ships use the downtown quake-resistant passenger ship terminal in the East Port, next to Fisherman's Wharf MOO: about 5 minutes on foot to MOO, 15 to Washo Market and 15 to Kushiro Station. Ships of roughly 50,000 GT and over usually use West Port No.4 Wharf, 8 km west of downtown, where nothing is walkable. In the 2026 season 7 calls used the downtown terminal and 4 used West Port.

Very little. The downtown berth is a 310 m open quay with no terminal building and no rain shelter. It has toilets, vending machines, free Wi-Fi, a 15-car taxi pool with a sightseeing-taxi booth, and on ship days a temporary information desk with English speakers (8:00–14:00 on 5 October 2026). There is no currency exchange; the nearest cash machine is a 7-Eleven about 365 m from MOO. West Port No.4 has only temporary toilets, temporary mobile Wi-Fi and an English desk.

11 calls in the 2026 season: 13 were listed and 2 were cancelled by wind. They ran from April to October, most for 9 hours, 7 at the downtown terminal and 4 at West Port; Asuka III and Asuka II were the Japanese ships. Two remain, both downtown: Seabourn Encore on Monday 5 October (07:00–16:00) and Seven Seas Explorer on Wednesday 14 October (10:00–17:00). Most international ships here are on Alaska and Aleutian legs. The City of Kushiro has not yet published its 2027 list.

From the downtown terminal none is needed. From West Port No.4, a shuttle is essential, but whether one runs depends on the call: it was free when the cruise line arranged it in April 2025 and cost ¥1,800 return on the October 2025 trial, sold at a wharf booth for card or cash. It runs about 20 minutes to the KKS Convention Center, 240 m from MOO. Ask your ship whether one runs on your call.

Yokohama roundtrips from February to November — about 50 departures across 35 itineraries, covering ports like Shimizu, Kochi, Kagoshima, Hiroshima, Aomori, Hakodate and Nagasaki, with Busan as the usual Korea call and festival sailings timed to Nebuta and Awa Odori.

Rather than full overnights, Princess schedules “More Ashore” late-night stays (departures up to midnight) in festival and nightlife ports such as Aomori, Kochi and Tokushima on select 2026 sailings.

Tokyo-region roundtrips from March to November 2027 — 41 departures visiting 35 cities across Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, announced by Princess as part of its largest-ever Japan deployment alongside Diamond Princess. Named ports include Hakodate, Kanazawa, Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Kochi, Naha and Busan.

Near enough to plan by: they are sister ships, both built at Mitsubishi’s Nagasaki yard, running the same line’s Japan program. Cabin layouts, onboard rhythm and — usefully — port logistics are essentially shared, so every Diamond-era port note on this site applies.

Short roundtrips of five to six nights based in Naha (Okinawa) and Keelung (Taipei), looping the islands: Ishigaki, Miyakojima, Naha and Keelung in varying order. It is the largest ship working the Okinawa–Taiwan corridor, and the pattern runs across the 2026–27 seasons.

It docks. Ishigaki’s New Port quay and Naha both take big ships alongside (Ishigaki runs shuttles into town), and Miyakojima’s Hirara Port was developed as an international cruise hub that takes Bellissima alongside — no tenders on the standard loop. What varies is distance to the sights: read each port’s guide before choosing where to spend your hours.

Yes — every 2026 Japan sailing includes an overnight in Kobe or Osaka, scheduled so passengers can make a full Kyoto day. It is the single most valuable day of the itinerary to plan well.

The 12-night pattern runs Tokyo or Yokohama roundtrip via Shimizu, Kobe/Osaka (overnight), Kochi, Busan, Nagasaki and Kagoshima, with Hiroshima on some departures and special sailings for Aomori’s Nebuta festival.

From October to December 2026, Jade runs 9–14-night itineraries between Yokohama/Tokyo and Seoul (Incheon), plus a 14-night Japan circle — combining the northern ports (Hakodate, Aomori, Akita, Kanazawa, Sakaiminato) with Kobe, Kochi, Hiroshima, Kagoshima, Nagasaki and Shimizu.

On the 2026 Far Eastern Horizons itinerary (Hong Kong ↔ Tokyo, Venus and Orion), Viking overnights in Tokyo, Shimizu and Hiroshima — plus Hong Kong — giving two full days in the Mt. Fuji port and Hiroshima that day-calling ships never get.

Yes — the 2026 Tokyo roundtrips spend two days alongside in Kobe, positioned for a full Kyoto day. Excursions are included in Regent fares, so reserve the Kyoto program early; independent private cars from the pier remain an option if the slots are gone.

Two ships split the year: Silver Nova runs an April 14-night Tokyo roundtrip (Shimizu, Kobe overnight, Fukuoka, Busan, Kanazawa, Hakodate, Miyako), and Silver Moon runs a 17-day October voyage adding Korea — Kochi, Hiroshima, Busan, Jeju, Incheon, Sasebo, Kagoshima and Shimizu.

Overnight stays (Kobe, Nagasaki, Maizuru) and small ports the large ships skip — Toba, Hososhima, Shimonoseki. The 2026 program runs spring loops from Tokyo/Yokohama, a trans-Pacific crossing from Vancouver in autumn, and a November Tokyo-to-Osaka finale.

Both, on different itineraries: the long February and October–November Asia voyages call at Shimizu, while the September–October Circle Japan loops use Omaezaki further down the Shizuoka coast. They are different ports — verify which is on your line-by-line itinerary before planning.

Yes. The operator’s booking guide names agents for guests outside Japan: Distinct Cruises International for the USA and Canada (English site, US-dollar fares, a selection of sailings), Cruise Traveller in Australia, Cruise World in New Zealand, Luxe Travel in Taiwan and Miramar Express in Hong Kong. The main site is in Japanese, and Japanese is the working language on board, with English support.

Almost always the Chuo Wharf Cruise Center at Hakata Port: Chuo Wharf Berth 5 took 176 of the city's 208 recorded calls in 2025 and 18 of the 20 scheduled for October 2026. On busy days a second ship goes to Chuo Berth 6 (which shares the Cruise Center) or to Hakozaki Wharf Berth 5, a separate wharf further east, which has no terminal building or bus stop described in any official source. Kashii Park Port, named on some websites, is a container terminal: it had no cruise calls in 2025 and none in the city's schedule to the end of November 2026.

Check the City of Fukuoka's published cruise schedule, which lists ship, date, times and berth about two months ahead, then confirm against your line's own documents. Check your exact date, not the ship: in October 2026 Asuka II is scheduled at Chuo Wharf on 1, 3 and 5 October but at Hakozaki Wharf on 4 October, because a larger ship has Berth 5 that day.

From the domestic terminal, take the subway to Hakata Station (5 minutes, about ¥260), then the BRT or route 88 bus from stop F to Hakata Port International Terminal (about 20 minutes, ¥260) and walk about 500 m to the Cruise Center. Allow about an hour. From the international terminal, take Nishitetsu bus A to Hakata Station (about 18 minutes, ¥400). It stops at the Chikushi (east) exit, and stop F is on the Hakata (west) side, so walk through the station to it. With large suitcases, a taxi is the practical choice: the city puts the drive at about 20 minutes; our estimate of the meter is ¥2,300–3,600 before any expressway toll.

We could not find one in the airport's or the bus operator's published information. The official public-transport route is subway or bus to Hakata Station, then a second bus to the port. With luggage, that means two changes and a 500 m walk at the end, which is why most passengers with large cases will be better off in a taxi.

About 4 km by road (the city says 3 km). The BRT and route 88 from stop F (Hakata-eki Nishi-Nippon City Bank-mae) reach Hakata Port International Terminal in about 20 minutes for ¥260, with a BRT every 15 minutes in the daytime; the Cruise Center is a further 500 m (about 7 minutes) on foot. A taxi is about 7 minutes without traffic and from about ¥1,700 by our estimate from the official fare table.

Not through any public service we could verify. Yamato's same-day delivery in Fukuoka goes from Fukuoka Airport and Hakata Station to hotels in limited areas of the city, not to the Cruise Center. Japanese lines such as Asuka Cruise tell passengers to use a courier before sailing, but the arrangements come with their cruise documents. Ask your line in writing before you send anything.

Yamato's same-day delivery from Fukuoka Airport to Fukuoka City hotels (limited areas) costs ¥1,500 per piece; hand the bag in by 12:00 and it is delivered from 14:00. From the Hakata Station Ming counter the cut-offs are 11:00 (delivered from 13:00) and 14:30 (from 15:30), also ¥1,500. Ordinary next-day TA-Q-BIN within Fukuoka Prefecture costs ¥2,090 for a 140-size case or ¥2,410 for 160 size, cash, with ¥100 off if you bring it to a counter.

Hakata Station or Tenjin. Hakata Station has the airport subway (5 minutes), the Shinkansen, a Yamato luggage counter and the port bus from stop F every 15 minutes in the daytime. Tenjin has the BRT and route 80 to the port's International Terminal stop in 15–20 minutes for ¥210. Both are about 10 minutes from the port by car, according to the city.

The Cruise Center car park is for tour buses only. The Hakata Port International Terminal car park, about 500 m away, has 153 spaces, is open 24 hours and costs ¥100 per 30 minutes up to 4.5 hours, then ¥1,000 per 24 hours. It takes no reservations and the operator warns it can fill up when cruise ships are in. Whether it accepts multi-day parking for a cruise is not stated, so confirm with the operator first.

Our working assumption: ship alongside by about 08:00, off by about 09:30, taxi about 20 minutes. That makes about 11:30 the earliest realistic domestic flight and about 13:00 the earliest international one. If your cruise arrives in Fukuoka from Korea or another foreign port, every foreign passenger goes through face-to-face immigration first; add one to two hours.

No official source lists an ATM, restaurant or shop there. The Cruise Center has free Wi-Fi, a four-language information desk and a currency-exchange machine that turns foreign cash into yen only. The nearest convenience stores are about 400–700 m from the International Terminal bus stop by map; a 7-Eleven about 650 m away has an ATM. Eat and get cash before you go.

No. The last leg is a Nishitetsu bus or a taxi, and the airport link is the city subway; no JR pass covers either. The national Japan Rail Pass covers the Shinkansen to Hakata, with conditions on Nozomi and Mizuho trains. The JR Kyushu Rail Pass does not cover the Hakata–Kokura Shinkansen, which JR West runs. For buses and subway, an IC card or a contactless credit card on the subway is simpler.

It depends on the ship. Kobe has two cruise terminals: Kobe Port Terminal on Shinko Pier No.4, and Naka Pier Cruise Terminal beside Port Tower. On the official schedule for October to December 2026, every call marked as starting or ending a voyage in Kobe is a Japanese-market ship (Asuka II, Asuka III or Mitsui Ocean Sakura) at Naka Pier. International lines use Port Terminal for every call in the same period except one (Silver Moon, at Naka Pier on 5–6 October). Earlier in 2026, though, Asuka II turned around at Port Terminal in March, so the split is a pattern, not a rule. If you join or leave an international ship here, expect Port Terminal, but check your documents and the port's schedule.

The Bay Shuttle ferry is the quickest. A free bus takes you from KIX to the pier, the crossing to Kobe Airport takes about 31 minutes, and the ¥1,880 ticket with the Port Liner fare included takes you on to Port Terminal station, 13 minutes up the line. Allow about 70–80 minutes in total. The other option is the airport limousine bus to Sannomiya: ¥2,200 and about 65 minutes, then the Port Liner (¥210) or a short taxi.

Take the airport bus to Kobe Sannomiya: ¥1,200, about 40 minutes, with departures from Itami from 07:50 to 21:15. It takes IC cards and contactless bank cards. From Sannomiya, take the Port Liner two stops to Port Terminal (¥210), or a taxi to Naka Pier (the city gives about 8 minutes). By rail it is about an hour with two changes. One taxi company publishes a pre-booked fixed fare of ¥11,500–12,500 to central Kobe, plus tolls.

To Port Terminal: the subway one stop to Sannomiya (2 minutes, ¥210), a short walk, then the Port Liner two stops (¥210). That is about 20 minutes and ¥420 in all. To Naka Pier: the Port Loop bus from Shin-Kobe to Meriken Park (¥230, about every 20–25 minutes from 09:25 on weekdays, about 28 minutes), or a taxi, which the city puts at about 12 minutes.

Our assumption is that you are off the ship and out of the terminal by 09:00. On that basis, book no earlier than about 11:00 for a domestic flight from Kobe Airport and 11:30 from Itami. From KIX, an international flight should leave no earlier than about 13:30 if you take the Bay Shuttle or a taxi. Japanese ships ending a voyage in Kobe in late 2026 are due in at 09:00, so on those add about an hour and a half.

From Itami, Kobe Airport, Kyoto and the main Osaka station counters, yes. Yamato's same-day service delivers to hotels in Kobe's Chuo, Hyogo, Kita, Nagata, Suma, Tarumi and Nishi wards. Cut-off is 11:30 at the airports and Osaka counters, delivery is from 20:00, and the fee is the standard rate plus ¥550–1,100. From KIX, no: the KIX counter's same-day hotel delivery covers Osaka and Kyoto city hotels only.

Sannomiya, for most people. The KIX and Itami airport buses terminate there, Port Terminal is two Port Liner stops away, and it is in Chuo ward, so Yamato delivers there on the same day. If your ship uses Naka Pier, the waterfront by Meriken Park and Motomachi is shortest; the terminal is in the same building as a hotel. If you arrive by Shinkansen and leave by Shinkansen, Shin-Kobe works too.

Yes, but there are few and they take ¥100 coins only, and neither terminal has a change machine. Port Terminal has 13 lockers on 3F, of which 4 are large. Naka Pier has 20 on 2F, of which 5 are large. Both charge ¥600 a day for large (113 × 46 × 69 cm), ¥500 for medium and ¥200 for small, with another day's fee each time midnight passes. At both terminals the lockers can only be used while the terminal is open, and they cannot be reserved.

Port Terminal has an information desk and an automatic currency-exchange machine, but nothing close by. The nearest convenience stores are 600–800 m away, so use the ATMs at Sannomiya first. Naka Pier has an information corner and shares its building with a hotel; convenience-store ATMs are 650–750 m away. Wi-Fi is not listed for either terminal on the city's page. We could not confirm it, so do not count on it.

Both terminals have car parks, according to the City of Kobe. Port Terminal's has 119 spaces, open 24 hours, at ¥160 an hour with a maximum of ¥960 a day (the cap resets at midnight), so about ¥6,700 for a week by our arithmetic. It cannot be reserved and can fill on big-ship days. Naka Pier's (133 spaces, under the hotel) charges ¥210 per 30 minutes, capped at ¥840 only overnight (20:00–08:00), so a week there costs far more. Both are cash only and take no ¥5,000 or ¥10,000 notes.

Your line sets it, and your boarding documents give your time. Asuka Cruise, for example, tells passengers that check-in for its Japanese cruises usually runs from about two hours to about ninety minutes before departure. The city lists Port Terminal as open from 8:30 to 17:30 and Naka Pier from 8:00 to 22:30, with both hours changed to suit ship calls. Do not arrive hours early.

You can no longer buy it. JR West stopped selling the Kansai Area Pass on 30 September 2026, though passes bought before then stay valid. It never covered the Port Liner, the airport buses or the Bay Shuttle, which are the legs that matter here. An IC card or a contactless bank card covers the trains and the Port Liner.

There are two berths. The Naha Cruise Terminal at Tomari Wharf No.8 in Wakasa is a permanent building with immigration, toilets and free Wi-Fi, 1.5 km from Kokusai-dori. The 2nd Cruise Berth at Shinko Wharf No.12, 5.6 km from downtown in a cargo district, has no terminal building: immigration is in tents, there is no station, and on our map check no shop or ATM within 1 km. Of 404 calls filed from October 2026 to December 2027, 234 are at Wakasa and 170 at Shinko.

Look up your exact date and ship on the Naha Port Authority's cruise schedule (the NACRU booking system linked from nahaport.jp), then confirm against your line's embarkation documents. The pattern in the filings: mid-size ships go to Wakasa when they are alone; the biggest ships, and the second ship on a two-ship day, go to Shinko No.12. Of the ships that start or end voyages in Naha, Mitsui Ocean Fuji, Mitsui Ocean Sakura and Asuka II are filed at Wakasa and MSC Bellissima at Shinko.

With suitcases, take a taxi. The Japan Tourism Agency puts the Wakasa terminal 10 minutes from the airport. Our map estimate is 4–5 km via the Naha West Road and a metered floor of about ¥1,450–1,550; on surface roads through town it is about 7.5 km and ¥2,350. Shinko No.12 is about 8 km and from about ¥2,550 by our estimate; the Japan Tourism Agency puts it 20 minutes from the airport (14 minutes free-flow on our map routing). With a carry-on only, Yui Rail to Kencho-mae is 13 minutes and ¥290, then a 20-minute walk or a short taxi to Wakasa.

We found none in the airport's or the Port Authority's published information. The airport's limousine bus desk serves resort routes, and its bus page lists Kokusai-dori but not the cruise berths. A bus stop named for the Naha Cruise Terminal exists about 490 m from the Wakasa building, but we could not verify which routes serve it. Plan on a taxi, or the monorail plus a taxi.

On the timetable in force from 6 September 2026, the last regular Yui Rail departure from Naha Airport towards the city is 23:30 on weekdays and on weekends and holidays. On Fridays a late train leaves the airport at 00:00 and runs as far as Makishi. The first train from Kencho-mae towards the airport leaves at 05:44.

To your hotel, yes. Yamato's same-day delivery counters on the 1st and 2nd floors of Naha Airport take bags until 13:00 and deliver anywhere on the main island of Okinawa by 19:00, for ¥1,000 a piece (Yamato's list dated 1 September 2026). A second airport counter, Before U Go, also offers same-day hotel delivery and takes cashless payment only. We found no public service that delivers to the ship; Japanese lines arrange their own couriers, so ask your line in writing.

Yes. Yamato's counters store bags for ¥600 (under 119 cm), ¥800 (120–149 cm) or ¥1,000 (150–250 cm) per item per day, for up to one month; the 1st-floor arrivals counter is open 07:30–20:00. Before U Go charges ¥400–1,000 a day, Sagawa ¥800–1,000. There are also coin lockers on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors. Kencho-mae monorail station, 20 minutes' walk from Wakasa, has coin lockers too.

Kencho-mae, Kumoji or Asahibashi, at the south-west end of Kokusai-dori. They are on the airport monorail (11–13 minutes, ¥290) and about 1.4–1.8 km from the Wakasa terminal, a taxi of a few minutes from about ¥650–850 by our estimate. Miebashi is similar. For Shinko No.12 these districts are 5–6 km away, about 10 minutes and ¥1,750–1,850 by taxi.

We found no car park for cruise passengers. The Port Authority's parking page lists only monthly contract lots allocated by lottery, and the Japan Tourism Agency sheet lists bus and taxi spaces, not passenger parking. If you are driving a rental car, return it at the airport and take a taxi.

Our working assumption: ship alongside at 07:00 (the commonest arrival time in Naha's schedule), you are off by about 09:00, the taxi queue and the ride take up to about an hour at Wakasa. That makes about 11:30 the earliest realistic domestic flight and about 13:00 the earliest international one. If the ship arrives from a foreign port, every foreign passenger clears immigration first; add one to two hours.

Not inside. The Wakasa terminal has two vending machines, no kiosk, free Wi-Fi and, on ship days, a temporary currency-exchange counter that takes US dollars, euros, sterling, Australian dollars and four other currencies. The nearest 24-hour convenience store is about 600 m away by our map check. Shinko No.12 has no vending machines and no Wi-Fi (Japan Tourism Agency), and on our map check no ATM or shop within 1 km. Get yen at the airport, which has ATMs on the domestic 2nd floor and the international 1st floor.

No. There are no JR lines in Okinawa and no Shinkansen. The only railway is Yui Rail, the monorail from the airport through Kencho-mae to Shuri and Tedako-Uranishi. It takes Suica and the other national IC cards (but does not sell them), contactless bank cards and QR tickets from machines. A 1-day pass costs ¥1,000 and pays only on three or more rides.

Tempozan. 79 of the 83 calls on the Osaka Port Promotion Association's 2026 schedule use Tempozan Quay and its passenger terminal, including all 22 calls from 1 October to 27 November. The other four were two small expedition calls at Chuo Pier North and two calls by a 3,013-ton Japanese boutique ship at Kaiyukan West Pier. No 2026 cruise call uses the Nanko ferry terminals or Sakishima.

Check your booking, not a map. The two ports are about 22 km apart and run separate schedules. Osaka's 2026 schedule lists the previous and next port for every ship and does not mark turnarounds. Kobe is a home port for Japanese lines: Mitsui Ocean Cruises, for example, starts or ends several late-2026 voyages there. If your documents say Kobe, the Kobe terminal guide applies, not this one.

The simplest option is the Kansai Airport Limousine Bus (Nanko/Tempozan/USJ route) to the Tempozan (Kaiyukan) stop: ¥1,800, about an hour, no reservations. Only some buses stop there. The first leaves Terminal 1 at 09:50 and the last at 17:10. By rail, the JR Kansai Airport Rapid runs to Bentencho without a change, then the Chuo line goes to Osakako: about 80 minutes from the arrivals hall and ¥1,420 on an IC card. By taxi it is about 46 km. Our estimate of the meter is ¥17,800 plus tolls.

No direct bus serves Tempozan that we could find. By rail, take the monorail to Hotarugaike, then Hankyu to Umeda, then the subway via Hommachi: about 1 hour 7 minutes and ¥730. That is three changes, which is hard with big cases. A taxi is about 21 km and 34 minutes in free-flowing traffic. Our estimate of the meter is about ¥8,100 plus any expressway toll.

Take the Midosuji subway line to Hommachi and change to the Chuo line for Osakako: 30–35 minutes and ¥290. Osakako station is about 5 minutes on foot from the terminal. A taxi is about 13 km and 20 minutes in free-flowing traffic. Our estimate is about ¥5,100 before time charges.

On our assumptions, book a domestic flight from Itami no earlier than about 11:30. From Kansai, book an international flight no earlier than about 13:00 if you take a taxi, or later if you take the train. The assumptions are: the ship is alongside by 08:00, you are off by about 09:00, and you allow the airport's usual check-in margins. If you want the airport bus, plan on 15:00 or later, because the first bus leaves Tempozan at 11:23. If the ship comes in from a foreign port and clears immigration in Osaka, add time.

Same-day delivery from Yamato counters at KIX, Itami, Shin-Osaka, Umeda and Namba goes only to hotels in listed wards: Kita, Nishi, Konohana, Chuo, Naniwa and Yodogawa (plus Higashiyodogawa from most counters). The terminal's ward, Minato, is not on the list. For a flight home, Yamato's airport service needs your bags two days before departure (three in some areas). Whether your cruise line accepts parcels sent to the ship is a question for the line.

It depends how you are arriving. The USJ area is good if you fly into KIX, because the airport bus stops there and Yamato delivers same-day to Konohana ward. Bentencho is 4 minutes from Osakako by subway and on the JR line from KIX. Umeda (Osaka Station) and Namba are 18–25 minutes away, and have the most rooms and the most luggage counters. The bay area by the terminal is the shortest morning, but it is outside Yamato's same-day delivery wards.

On ship days the terminal has temporary Wi-Fi, a currency-exchange desk and a tourist-information desk. Both desks usually keep 8:00–17:00, varying by ship. There is no shop or vending machine inside. The Tempozan Market Place mall is next door. By our map check, 7-Eleven, Lawson and FamilyMart stores are a few hundred metres away, and Seven Bank machines in 7-Eleven generally take foreign cards.

You can no longer buy it. JR West ended sales of the Kansai Area Pass on 30 September 2026, though passes bought by then stay valid. It never covered the Osaka Metro, which you need for the last leg to Osakako. For a turnaround in Osaka, an IC card or a contactless bank card covers everything except the limited-express surcharges.

We found no official long-stay parking for cruise passengers. The national port specification lists parking for 24 tour buses at the quay and about 100 more about 1.8 km away, plus a taxi pool for 28 cars. Ask your cruise line before driving there.

Your line sets it, and your boarding documents give your time. Asuka Cruise, for example, tells passengers on its Japanese cruises that check-in usually runs from about two hours to about ninety minutes before departure. International lines assign their own check-in times. Do not arrive hours early: there is no shop or vending machine inside the terminal, although the mall next door has both.

Tokyo has two. Big ships use the Tokyo International Cruise Terminal in Aomi, on the Odaiba waterfront. Many ships of about 70,000 tons and under use the Harumi Passenger Terminal, but not all of them: Silver Moon used both in October 2026. From October 2026 to February 2027 the city's schedule lists 29 calls at the Odaiba terminal and 17 at Harumi. Your cruise documents name the terminal. Check them, because the operator warns that passengers often go to the wrong one.

Yes, and many do. Yokohama has its own terminals 30 km away, and some lines label a Yokohama departure as Tokyo. Look for the terminal's name, not just the city. If your documents say Osanbashi, Shinko (Hammerhead) or Daikoku, this guide is the wrong one: read our Tokyo or Yokohama terminal guide instead.

By taxi it is about 13 km. The terminal operator says about 25 minutes. Our estimate of the meter is at least ¥5,800, plus expressway tolls and any time in traffic. The airport limousine bus to the Hilton Tokyo Odaiba stop costs ¥1,000 and takes about 35 minutes. From there it is 2 minutes on the Yurikamome to the terminal station. By train it takes about 55 minutes and costs ¥893 on an IC card, changing at Shimbashi.

The simplest option is the limousine bus to the Odaiba hotels or Toyosu Station: ¥3,100 and about 1 hour 30 to 1 hour 50 minutes to the Odaiba hotels on the bus timetable. A fixed-fare taxi costs ¥21,000 plus tolls to Koto ward or Daiba, which includes the Odaiba terminal, and ¥26,000 plus tolls to Chuo ward, which includes Harumi. The Tokyo Hire-Taxi Association says to book these in advance. By train, the Access Express runs to Shimbashi and you change to the Yurikamome there: about 1 hour 50 minutes and ¥1,802 on an IC card.

No train station is within walking distance. Toei bus 都05-1 runs from Tokyo Station (Marunouchi South Exit) via Ginza to the Harumi Futo stop, which is 1 minute from the terminal. It takes about 30 minutes from Tokyo Station, by the terminal operator's figure, and less from Ginza. By taxi it is about 5.6 km from Tokyo Station, and our estimate of the meter is at least ¥2,500. From either airport, the limousine bus goes to Toyosu Station, which the operator puts at about 10 minutes from Harumi by car.

On our assumptions, book an international flight from Haneda no earlier than about 12:30, a domestic flight from Haneda no earlier than about 11:30, and an international flight from Narita no earlier than about 14:00. The assumptions are: the ship is alongside at 08:00, you are off by about 09:30, you take a taxi, and you allow about three hours at the airport for an international flight. If the ship is coming from a foreign port and passengers clear immigration in Tokyo, add time.

Yes. Yamato's counters at Haneda's terminals take bags until 11:00 for same-day delivery to hotels in Tokyo's 23 wards, from 18:00. Its Narita counters take bags until 10:30 (9:50 at Terminal 3) for delivery from 18:00 to 21:00 anywhere in Tokyo. If you land after those cut-offs, it means next-day delivery. That still works if you have two nights before the ship. Yamato's listed cash rate within Kanto is ¥3,020 for a size-160 case.

Only if you stay on in Tokyo. Yamato's Airport TA-Q-BIN needs bags two days before your flight (three days from some areas). For a same-day evening flight, some Yamato offices in Ginza and Shinagawa take bags until 11:00 for delivery to Haneda from 17:00. The Odaiba terminal has a courier counter on its arrivals floor, but it does not publish cut-offs or prices.

It depends on your terminal. For the Odaiba terminal, Odaiba, Shimbashi and Toyosu are easiest: the airport buses stop at the Odaiba hotels and Toyosu Station, and the Yurikamome starts at Shimbashi. For Harumi, Ginza and Tokyo Station are easiest, because bus 都05-1 runs from both to the terminal door. Shinagawa and Tokyo Station suit you if you are arriving by Shinkansen.

Do not count on any of them. The Odaiba terminal's facility page lists check-in, immigration, a baggage hall, a courier counter and an observation deck. It lists no restaurant, shop, ATM, currency exchange or Wi-Fi. Harumi lists vending machines and waiting space. Get yen at the airport or a convenience store before the day. Bring food if you are arriving hours early.

There is limited space, and it is set call by call. At the Odaiba terminal, passenger vehicles must reserve on the operator's website by 16:00 the day before. On some big-ship turnaround days a temporary Aomi South lot was offered for long stays, first come first served. At Harumi the general car park is closed for works, so you can only set down and pick up. Other vehicles also need a reservation by 16:00 the day before.

Not for the last leg. The Yurikamome and the Rinkai Line, the two lines that reach Odaiba, are not JR lines, and the Tokyo Subway Ticket covers only the Tokyo Metro and Toei subways. An IC card covers every train and bus in this guide. The Yurikamome also takes contactless Visa, Mastercard, JCB and Amex cards at the gate.

Usually Osanbashi: 33 of the 46 calls on the city's schedule from October to December 2026, including every Diamond Princess, Norwegian Jade and Celebrity Millennium call. Small luxury ships and many Japanese ships use Shinko Pier (Yokohama Hammerhead), and the few ships too tall to pass under the Bay Bridge use Daikoku Pier. Your boarding documents are the final word. The city's schedule lists the berth for every call.

The easiest way is Keikyu Bus's Haneda to Yamashita Park and Minato Mirai route. It costs ¥1,000 and stops at Osanbashi-iriguchi, about 3 minutes on foot from the Osanbashi terminal. On weekdays, buses from Terminal 3 leave between 08:40 and 19:10 and take about 40 minutes. Not every bus stops there. Alternatively, take the ¥800 airport bus to YCAT at Yokohama Station and a taxi from there. By train, Keikyu and the Minatomirai Line take 40–45 minutes and cost ¥600, with one or two changes.

The Kanagawa Taxi Association lists a fixed fare of ¥8,800 between Haneda and Nishi ward or the Minato Mirai part of Naka ward, plus expressway tolls. Ask for the fixed fare when you book or before you set off. Between 22:00 and 05:00 it is ¥10,300. Osanbashi is in Naka ward but outside Minato Mirai, so ask the company whether it qualifies. Holland America quotes about ¥12,000 for the trip. Until 31 January 2027, the Terminal 3 rank for Kanagawa-bound fixed-fare taxis is closed, so fixed-fare riders use the Terminal 1 and 2 ranks.

By limousine bus to YCAT at Yokohama Station: ¥4,000, about 100 minutes. You can book from a month ahead until 5 minutes before departure. The last bus leaves Narita Terminal 1 at 21:55. By train, the Narita Express costs ¥4,480 and takes about 1 hour 25–30 minutes on the trains that run through to Yokohama. In the middle of the day you change at Shinagawa: ¥3,820, about 1 hour 37 minutes. From Yokohama Station a taxi to the pier is about ¥2,000 by our estimate. The association's fixed taxi fare from Yokohama to Narita is ¥37,500 plus tolls (¥44,500 from 22:00 to 05:00).

On our assumptions, book an international flight from Haneda no earlier than about 13:00, a domestic one from Haneda no earlier than about 12:00, and an international flight from Narita no earlier than about 15:00. The assumptions are: the ship is alongside by about 07:00, you are off by 09:00, and you are at the airport 2.5 hours before an international departure. Traffic on the expressways into Haneda is the main thing that can go wrong.

Yes. Yamato Transport's counters at Haneda Terminals 1, 2 and 3 take bags until 11:00. They deliver the same evening, from 18:00, to hotels in seven Yokohama wards: Nishi, Naka, Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Hodogaya, Minami and Konan. Those wards include Minato Mirai, Kannai and Yokohama Station. You pay an extra charge on top of the standard rate. Narita's counters take bags until 10:30 (09:50 at Terminal 3) and deliver anywhere in Kanagawa from 18:00 to 21:00. A large 160-size case costs ¥3,020 at Yamato's standard Kanto-to-Kanto cash rate.

Not through the terminal. Osanbashi's own FAQ says the terminal does not accept luggage on passengers' behalf and has no permanent courier counter. It tells passengers to ask their cruise line about sending bags ahead and about any temporary courier service. Japanese lines such as Asuka Cruise do offer an advance courier service. International lines vary, so ask yours.

For Osanbashi, stay in Kannai, Yamashita Park or Minato Mirai. Kannai and Yamashita Park are walking or short-taxi distance. Minato Mirai is also on the Haneda airport bus route. For Shinko Pier (Hammerhead), stay in Minato Mirai. Yokohama Station is best if you are arriving late from Narita or want the airport buses at YCAT on the way home. Shin-Yokohama only makes sense if you arrive by Shinkansen late at night. For Daikoku, Yokohama Station is the practical base. All of these except Shin-Yokohama are in wards that Yamato serves same-day from Haneda.

At Osanbashi, yes. The covered, 24-hour car park has 400 spaces and a cruise discount of ¥1,000 per 24 hours for up to 31 days. It is only for passengers sailing from Osanbashi. Register at the 2F information desk or the 1F disaster-prevention centre on the day you board or leave, and show your parking ticket and cruise ticket. Hammerhead's car park lists ¥350 per 30 minutes with no cruise rate that we could find. Daikoku has no public car park listed.

Food, yes. Osanbashi has cafés, a restaurant and shops, though hours vary by shop. The terminal's 2F floor map marks an ATM next to the information desk, but its services page does not describe it, so we cannot say which cards it takes. Do not rely on it: the nearest Japan Post Bank ATM is about 430 m away and a 7-Eleven about 470 m, measured in a straight line on the map. Osanbashi has a currency-exchange machine for 12 currencies, including US, Australian and Canadian dollars, pounds and euros, plus free Wi-Fi in the 2F lobby and coin lockers. Hammerhead has a 24-hour 7-Eleven. Daikoku has nothing: no café, no shop and no convenience store nearby.

Change at Yokohama to the Minatomirai Line and get off at Nihon-odori, 7 minutes on foot from Osanbashi. The trip takes about 29 minutes and costs ¥480. The quickest train goes via Kikuna and takes about 17 minutes for ¥570. For Shinko Pier, get off at Bashamichi instead, 10 minutes on foot. A taxi from Shin-Yokohama is about 10 km. On the meter we estimate about ¥4,900 to Osanbashi and ¥3,600 to Hammerhead, before time charges.

Plan on a taxi. Daikoku is an industrial pier that opens only on ship days and only passengers may enter. The city says there is no café, shop or convenience store nearby. Its own advice is to take a taxi, because the city buses (109 from Yokohama Station, 17 from Tsurumi) get very crowded on ship days. Both stops are 8–9 minutes' walk from the terminal. Some lines run their own shuttle buses on Daikoku days. Check your line's notice.

On the Viator listings this site checks, a private car or minivan day at a Japanese cruise port runs from about US$200 to US$900 for the vehicle, usually for six to eight hours and up to six to eight people. Split four ways that is roughly US$60–230 a head. Where the operator prices per person instead, expect US$180–480. The table on this page shows the current figure for each port beside the verified taxi fare.

For anything in town, no: Japanese taxis are metered, honest and cheap over short distances, and the port shuttle is often free. A driver wins when the day is outside town — Chiran from Kagoshima, Kyoto from Kobe, Hirosaki from Aomori, Seoul from Incheon — where two or three taxi legs plus waiting would cost as much as the car and leave you watching the clock alone.

They are different products at different prices. A driver takes you there and waits; a guide explains what you are looking at and handles tickets. Many listings on this page are driver-plus-guide, and the page for each one says exactly which. If the day is about places, a driver is enough; if it is about a story — Hiroshima, Nagasaki — pay for the guide.

Not always. Several operators list hotel pickups and treat the cruise terminal as a custom request, and a few meet only at a station in town. The page for each car day on this site states the meeting point from the operator's own listing, and where it is a hotel we say so — confirm terminal pickup in writing before you pay.

Shorter and earlier than the brochures imply. By JMA 30-year normals, first bloom hits the southern and Pacific-coast ports in a tight late-March cluster — Fukuoka and Kochi Mar 21, Tokyo Mar 24, Kagoshima Mar 26 — with full bloom about a week later and petals mostly gone a week after that. The front then climbs north alone: Kanazawa Apr 3, Akita Apr 17, Aomori Apr 22, Hakodate Apr 28, Kushiro mid-May. And the last decade has run 5–6 days earlier than those normals at most ports.

Now. Cherry-blossom departures are the first Japan sailings to sell out every year — cabins for late March and April 2027 are on sale and the pattern is consistent: waiting until winter means leftovers. The catch nobody mentions: a late-March Pacific-circuit sailing bets everything on one week, while a mid-to-late April northern itinerary (Kanazawa, Akita, Aomori, Hakodate) rides the front for two to three weeks.

The honest answer from the data: mid-April northbound. A single late-March week around Tokyo, Kobe and Kyoto either lands on the bloom or misses it entirely. But Kanazawa (Apr 3), Niigata (Apr 8), Akita (Apr 17), Aomori (Apr 22) and Hakodate (Apr 28) bloom in sequence, almost port by port as a northbound ship meets them — and Aomori's call puts you an hour from Hirosaki Park, arguably Japan's single best blossom spot, which peaks exactly when the mainland's famous sites have finished.

For any one port, roughly one week of full bloom against a date that wanders by a week or more each year — so treat a single-port bet as a coin flip. Recent years bloomed 5–6 days earlier than the 30-year normals (Tokyo opened Mar 14 in 2020, 2021 and 2023, then Mar 29 in 2024), which is exactly why an itinerary spanning several latitudes beats any itinerary promising one famous garden.

Yes, but a different flower: Okinawa's hikan-zakura (a deep-pink bell-shaped species) opens around Jan 18 in Naha and Ishigaki by the official normals — the first blossom in Japan, months before the mainland's somei-yoshino. A January or February Okinawa-loop cruise can genuinely see cherry blossoms; just don't expect the pale clouds of the postcards.

Late March in the south, climbing north through May. By JMA 30-year normals, first bloom reaches Fukuoka and Kochi on March 21, Tokyo March 24, Kagoshima March 26 and Kobe and Osaka March 27, with full bloom about a week later and petals gone a week after that. The front then takes seven weeks to reach Kanazawa April 3, Akita April 17, Aomori April 22, Hakodate April 28 and Kushiro May 16. The last decade ran five to six days earlier than those normals.

The clean pattern: one person books and pays the van or guide (Japanese operators strongly prefer one payer — often in cash), everyone logs what was fronted as the day goes on, and the group settles once at the end instead of passing wads of yen around the vehicle. The friction point is never the math, it's the mixed nationalities: a US-UK-Australian group shares no common payment app. Use a tool that shows each person their share in their own currency — we built the free, no-signup SplitJapan for exactly this — then settle by cash or whatever app each pair happens to share.

Not for this. Venmo transfers only work between US-based accounts — fine for settling with your American cabin-mates after the trip, useless the moment your van group includes the couple from Manchester and the sisters from Perth. Zelle is US-banks-only too. For mixed-nationality cruise groups the realistic options are cash in yen on the spot, or tracking shares digitally and letting each pair settle in whatever they share.

Three reasons stack up: many small restaurants, taxis and market stalls are cash-first and will not split a bill across several cards; the prices are in yen while everyone's mental math runs in dollars or pounds; and exchange rates drift during a two-week cruise, so 'I'll pay you back later' becomes a small argument about which day's rate. The fix is boring and effective: one payer per bill, log it immediately with the rate locked, settle once.

SplitJapan (splitjapan.com) is free, needs no app install and no account — the group lives in a shared link, each traveler picks their home currency, and every expense locks its exchange rate the moment it is logged. Full disclosure: it was built by this site's editor after watching one too many roll-call groups do long division in a parking lot. General-purpose alternatives like Splitwise work too, though its free tier now limits how many expenses you can log per day.

Later than most people book for. By JMA 30-year normals, maples at the northern ports (Kushiro, Sapporo area) turn in mid-to-late October, Hakodate and Aomori in early November — but the Pacific-coast classics run late: Tokyo Nov 28, Shimizu area Dec 5, Kagoshima Dec 15. An October 'fall cruise' on the classic southern loop is mostly green trees; the honest foliage window for the main circuit is mid-November through early December.

The northern run — Hakodate, Aomori, Akita, Kanazawa in late October to mid-November — matches the foliage front almost port for port: Hakodate maples turn Nov 2, Aomori Nov 13, Akita Nov 12, Kanazawa Nov 24 by JMA normals. Bonus: those weeks also carry the season's best Mt. Fuji visibility odds for your Shimizu day, and a fraction of the typhoon risk.

On the main Pacific circuit, usually yes — Tokyo's maples turn around Nov 28 and Kyoto's Dec 5 by the 30-year normals, and recent years have trended even later. In October the reliable color is up north: Kushiro's maples turn around Oct 16 and the Sapporo area around Oct 28. Match the itinerary to the front, not the calendar page.

The Japan Meteorological Agency's phenological observation program, which has recorded the first day maples turn red (kaede kōyō) and ginkgo turn gold at official specimen trees in each city for decades. We use the official 1991-2020 normals, downloaded from JMA's own data files. One honest caveat: the specimen trees stand at city observatories, so famous mountain foliage spots nearby often peak one to two weeks earlier.

Later than most people book for. By JMA 30-year normals, maples turn at Kushiro around October 16, Hakodate November 2, Akita November 12, Aomori November 13, Kanazawa November 24, Tokyo November 28, Kobe and Osaka December 1, Shimizu and Kyoto December 5, Nagasaki December 7 and Kagoshima December 15. An October sailing on the classic southern loop is mostly green trees; the honest window for the main circuit is mid-November to early December, and recent years have run even later.

By raw 2026 scheduled calls, Naha (Okinawa) leads with 177, followed by Nagasaki with 160. But two caveats matter: Hakata (Fukuoka) publishes its schedule only about two months ahead and logged 209 actual calls in 2025, so its full-year 2026 number will likely rival the top — and about three-quarters of Okinawa's calls are Taiwan-based short cruises rather than the ocean ships most Western passengers sail.

Nagasaki, by our count: strip out the Asia-market short-cruise traffic and Nagasaki still hosts around 130 ocean-ship calls in 2026 — Diamond Princess alone calls 23 times, Celebrity Millennium 18. Kochi (around 100 calls, nearly all Western-market ships) and Kagoshima are close behind, while Naha's Western-ship count is only about 25 despite its huge headline total.

More than 60 harbors received or scheduled cruise calls in recent years, from Wakkanai at the top of Hokkaido to Ishigaki near Taiwan. About 20 of them see 20+ calls a year. This site carries full timed guides for 31 of them and reference notes for the rest.

Royal Caribbean's Spectrum and Ovation of the Seas (about 169,000 gross tons) are the largest regulars — Ovation's Aomori call in May 2026 was the biggest ship that port has ever received. MSC Bellissima (171,598 GT) is in the same class and ranges from Hokkaido to Okinawa.

Okinawa, by a wide margin. JMA 30-year normals (1991–2020) put 7.7 typhoon approaches a year on the Okinawa region, 4.3 on the Amami islands, 3.9 on southern Kyushu, 3.3–3.5 on the Pacific coast of Honshu, under 3 on the Sea of Japan coast and 1.9 on Hokkaido. An Okinawa island-hopping cruise in early September carries the highest itinerary-change risk in Japan cruising; a Hokkaido or Sea of Japan loop the same week is among the lowest.

The captain re-routes — that is the whole playbook. Modern forecasting gives ships days of warning, and a cruise ship at sea can simply put distance between itself and the storm. In practice you'll see one of four outcomes: a port swapped for another, a port skipped in favor of a sea day, arrival/departure times shifted, or the order of ports shuffled. Passengers describe rough-but-manageable seas far more often than anything dramatic. The one place a typhoon genuinely disrupts plans is embarkation day — flight cancellations are the bigger risk, which is why arriving a day or two early matters in this season.

For the missed port itself, standard practice across major lines is a refund of that port's taxes and fees to your onboard account — typically a small amount — and pre-booked shore excursions through the cruise line are refunded in full. The cruise contract you agreed to allows the line to change the itinerary for safety without broader compensation. Independent tours booked directly are governed by each operator's own policy — most reputable Japan operators refund when the ship doesn't dock, but confirm the ship-doesn't-arrive clause before you book.

Not necessarily — but book August–October with open eyes, and match the itinerary to the risk. JMA normals show 3.3 typhoons approaching Japan in an average August and September each; October halves that, and November through May is largely clear. If you want late summer, a Hokkaido or Sea of Japan itinerary sees roughly a third of the August typhoons an Okinawa loop does. If the itinerary you love only sails in September, book it — arrive a day or two early and insure the flight.

It depends on the coast and the month. JMA 30-year normals put 7.7 typhoon approaches a year on Okinawa, 4.3 on southern Kyushu, 3.3 to 3.5 on the Pacific coast of Honshu, under 3 on the Sea of Japan coast and 1.9 on Hokkaido. Nationally about 3.3 typhoons approach Japan in each of August and September, 1.7 in October and few in other months. When one threatens, ships usually swap or skip a port rather than sail into it, and tender ports such as Toba cancel first.

Google Maps — and it is not close. Its Japan transit data is superb: type or tap a destination and it returns the exact bus number, the exact stop, today's live departure times and the fare, automatically adjusted for weekday, weekend and holiday schedules. That last part matters at ports, where timetables genuinely change by day. Every Port of Japan port page has one-tap buttons that open it pre-loaded with the right destination in Japanese.

On most regional buses: board through the REAR door, take the small numbered ticket (seiri-ken) from the machine — or tap an IC card — then watch the fare board at the front, which shows the fare for each ticket number as you ride. Pay into the driver's fare box as you exit at the FRONT, using the change machine on the box if you need coins. With a Suica/IC card you skip all of it: tap on, tap off. Big-city buses often flip the pattern — front entry, flat fare, pay on boarding.

Use GO — Japan's dominant taxi app: it works in all 47 prefectures, has a full English interface, accepts foreign phone numbers and foreign credit cards, and holds about 80% of taxi-app usage in Japan. Uber exists but thins out fast beyond central Tokyo and Osaka; DiDi covers the major metro areas. At a regional cruise port, GO is the one that will actually find you a car.

Increasingly yes in cities, and the GO app makes it automatic — but at small-port taxi ranks, treat cash as the default and carry ¥5,000 or so in small notes. Two customs to know: the rear passenger door opens and closes by itself (don't touch it), and there is no tipping — drivers will chase you down the street to return it.

At stations, largely yes — station names, platform numbers and exits carry romaji, and the big-city networks are signed in English throughout. Where English runs out is everything between the gangway and the station: local bus ranks, fare boards, the numbered slip system on regional buses, and taxi destinations. That is the gap this article is about, and the answer is an app plus a written destination rather than a timetable you cannot read.

Only if your ship or the port runs one, and you usually learn that from the daily program the night before. When a shuttle exists it is normally a coach parked nearest the terminal exit with a ship-name placard, and the program is its only reliable timetable, so photograph the return times before boarding. At 8 of the 24 ports covered here the town starts at the gangway and no shuttle is needed; at some small ports the plaza is simply empty and a taxi app is the answer.

Yes, once you know the system. Google Maps transit directions are exceptional in Japan, returning the bus number, the exact stop, live departures for today and the fare. Regional buses work one way everywhere: board at the rear door, take the numbered ticket or tap an IC card, watch the fare board, and pay at the front when you get off. Station signs carry English; local bus ranks and fare boards usually do not, which is why an app plus a written destination beats a timetable.

No. There is no tipping in Japanese taxis, genuinely none, and drivers will chase you down the street to return it. Taxis run on the meter with no negotiation, overcharging foreigners is effectively unheard of, and the rear passenger door opens and closes by itself, so step back and let it swing. At small-port taxi ranks treat cash as the default and carry around 5,000 yen in small notes; city taxis and the GO app increasingly take cards.

Do not count on it beyond the station. Station names, platform numbers and exits carry romaji and big-city rail networks are signed in English throughout, but English runs out between the gangway and the station: local bus ranks, fare boards, the numbered-ticket system on regional buses and taxi destinations. The fix is to show rather than say, with the destination written in Japanese, and to use Google Maps for transit and the GO app, which has a full English interface, for taxis.

Show, don't say. Port of Japan's printable Port Day Sheets carry each port's destinations in large-print Japanese, plus the one line that matters at 3 pm: クルーズ船乗り場までお願いします, meaning to the cruise ship, please. Taxis are metered with no negotiation and no tipping, and the rear door opens by itself. If the rank is empty, common at small ports on ship days, order through the GO app, which covers all 47 prefectures with an English interface and accepts foreign cards; install it at home before you sail.

Fewer than you think, because showing written Japanese beats speaking it. The one line to carry is the taxi request クルーズ船乗り場までお願いします, to the cruise ship, please, printed on every Port Day Sheet alongside each port's destinations in large-print Japanese. Paste the same Japanese place names into Google Maps so the routing never mishears you. The regional bus needs no words at all: rear door, numbered ticket or IC card tap, pay at the front on exit.

Any port with an immigration presence can be your port of entry — in practice the first Japanese call on your itinerary, most often Yokohama, Tokyo, Kobe, Osaka, Fukuoka (Hakata), Nagasaki, Kagoshima or Naha. Immigration officers travel to the ship for the inspection, so smaller ports such as Shimizu, Kochi or Hakodate also serve as first calls. What matters is not the port but the order: the face-to-face inspection happens once, at whichever Japanese port comes first.

Plan for one to two hours from the queue forming to your group being ashore, on a large ship. Every foreign passenger clears a face-to-face inspection with fingerprints and a photo at the first Japanese port — it happens once, not at every port. Ships call passengers in groups; ship-excursion guests are typically called first.

No — once you have landed at the first Japanese port, later Japanese ports are simply a walk off the ship. The exception is any itinerary that leaves Japan mid-cruise: a Busan or Taiwan call means you exit Japan at the last port before it and re-enter — with a second inspection — at the first Japanese port after it.

Many lines collect foreign passports on Japan itineraries to handle immigration manifests, and return them before independent travel days or at the end. Japanese law expects foreign visitors to carry their passport or landing permit ashore, so carry whatever you were given — the landing-permission slip, a passport copy and your cruise card — and ask the ship for the original if you plan to travel far from the port on your own.

If your nationality is visa-exempt for Japan as a tourist (the US, UK, Canada, Australia, NZ and most of Europe are), no visa is needed for cruise calls — you receive ordinary temporary-visitor landing permission at the first port. A separate scheme, the ship-tourism landing permit, exists mainly so that visa-required nationalities on designated cruise ships can also come ashore.

Japanese law expects foreign visitors to carry their passport or landing permit at all times, but many cruise lines collect foreign passports on Japan itineraries to handle immigration manifests. The practical resolution is to carry ashore whatever the ship gives you, typically the landing-permission slip from the first-port inspection, plus your cruise card and a paper copy of your passport photo page. If you are going far inland on your own, for a domestic flight or an overnight, ask reception for the original.

The inspection itself, with fingerprints and a photograph, is fast; the queue is the slow part. On a large ship plan for one to two hours between the start of disembarkation and your group walking free, depending on ship size, officer numbers and your place in the calling order, with ship-excursion guests usually called first. It happens once, at your first Japanese port, and again only if the itinerary leaves Japan for Busan or Taiwan and re-enters.

Earlier than most guides say: 7:30am year-round as of 2026 — with closing at 7pm in most months, 8pm in August, and 6pm December–February. The first hour (7:30–8:30) and the final evening slots are fully reservation-based via the museum's official web tickets, which also cover regular hours in 30-minute entry windows bookable 90 days ahead.

Very — cruise passengers have compared midday inside to a rush-hour subway car, four and five rows deep at the exhibits. The museum itself warns of waits up to an hour at the ticket windows and recommends web tickets. Mid-morning through early afternoon is the peak, when school groups and tour buses overlap.

The 7:30–8:30am reserved slot, bought on the official site, is the closest thing to having the museum at a contemplative pace — and it fits a cruise day perfectly: museum first, Peace Park after, and the whole morning is done before the buses mass. The last evening entry window is the alternative for late-departure calls.

It is a known, widespread issue: several Japanese online systems — shinkansen reservations (Smart-EX) most famously — decline many foreign-issued Visa cards at checkout while accepting Mastercard and Amex. The same physical card usually works fine in shops. The fix is simple: carry a second card on a different network, and use it for any Japanese website.

On an iPhone, yes — Welcome Suica Mobile (launched March 2025) sets up in minutes, valid 180 days, no deposit. On a non-Japanese Android phone, no: the required FeliCa chip is absent, with Samsung announcing support for overseas Galaxy models only from 2027. Android travellers should buy a physical card — regular Suica and Pasmo returned to normal sale in March 2025, and Welcome Suica is sold at the airports.

Yes — set a travel notice in your banking app, or expect the fraud algorithm to freeze the card the first time a Kanazawa fish market appears on your statement. Bring two cards on different networks, keep one in the safe, and know your card's PIN: some Japanese terminals ask for it where your home country uses signatures.

The announced 2027 season is the largest ever: Princess runs both Diamond Princess and Sapphire Princess from the Tokyo region (78 departures across 50 itineraries, March–December), joined by Celebrity Millennium (Yokohama, March–September), Seabourn Encore (Tokyo, 14-day sailings), Holland America's Westerdam (April and September), MSC Bellissima (Okinawa–Taiwan loops), Norwegian Jade (through April 2027), and small-ship programs from Viking and Silversea running through 2029.

Now-ish. Japan itineraries are booked 6–12 months out and the pattern is consistent: cherry-blossom departures (late March–mid April) sell out first, festival sailings (Nebuta, early August) second. Princess's 2027 program is on sale already — waiting until 2027 to book spring 2027 usually means leftovers.

Naha opens its new cruise terminal building in November 2027, built with cruise-line investment for the Okinawa loops. It joins a wave of recent upgrades: Kagoshima's 220,000-ton berth (2022), Otaru's big-ship Wharf No.3 (2024), and Sasebo's Uragashira center (2020).

Yes. Princess put its 2028 Japan season on sale in April 2026, and it is its largest ever: Diamond Princess and Sapphire Princess both homeport in Tokyo for the full season, with 85 departures across 52 itineraries to 41 destinations, 7 to 29 days, and late-night stays in Aomori, Hakodate, Hiroshima, Kochi, Osaka and Tokushima for summer festivals.

They are sister ships running the same program, so pick by itinerary and date, not by hull. Both were built in Nagasaki, both sail from the Tokyo region, and every port note on this site applies equally to both.

Until 31 October 2026, the old system applies: show your passport at the store's tax-free counter, spend ¥5,000+ in that store that day, and the 10% consumption tax comes off at the till. Consumables get sealed in a bag you must not open in Japan. Nothing happens at departure — the ship simply sails.

Japan switches to a refund model: stores charge full price including tax, and you claim the tax back when you leave the country — after customs electronically confirms you are taking the goods out. The sealed-bag rules and the ¥500,000 consumables cap disappear; the ¥5,000-per-store-per-day minimum stays (calculated pre-tax); refunds must be claimed within 90 days of purchase.

Per the Japan Tourism Agency's official FAQ: if your cruise leaves Japan for a foreign port, you complete the process at your final Japanese port, at an electronic terminal, before checking any bags — with the goods on you. If your cruise returns to Japan and you fly home afterwards, you do nothing at the ship and claim at your departure airport instead.

Not at the customs terminal — the terminal only confirms export. The refund itself comes from the store or its refund agent, by whatever method that store supports: card reversal, app transfer, bank transfer, or a cash counter at major airports. Ask the store how they refund when you buy — it varies, and that is the system working as designed, not something going wrong.

No. Amphetamine-based medications including Adderall cannot be imported into Japan even for treatment purposes, with a doctor's prescription — there is no permit that makes it legal. Vyvanse (lisdexamfetamine) is different: it is classed as a stimulant raw material and can be brought only with advance permission from a Narcotics Control Department. Talk to your doctor about alternatives well before sailing.

Up to one month's supply of prescription drugs, and up to two months' of over-the-counter medicines, need no permit. Injectables are allowed up to one month's supply only in pre-filled form — so insulin pens and EpiPens are fine without paperwork, vials and syringes are not. Beyond those amounts you apply online for an Import Confirmation (the system that replaced the old Yakkan Shoumei in 2023).

Common psychotropics are legal within official limits: zolpidem (Ambien) up to 300mg total, alprazolam (Xanax) up to 72mg, diazepam (Valium) up to 1.2g, lorazepam (Ativan) up to 90mg, clonazepam up to 180mg. Within those amounts, no permit and no declaration is needed; above them, carry a doctor's certificate. The full official table is published by the Narcotics Control Department.

Medical cannabis: absolutely not — a foreign prescription has no legal force in Japan, and since the December 2024 law change even use is a crime carrying up to seven years. CBD products are legal only within strict residual-THC limits that you, in practice, cannot prove at the border — the only sensible advice for a cruise visitor is to leave all of it at home.

Two nights minimum, three if you can — one is the most commonly regretted decision in Japan cruising. You cross up to 16 time zones; at 55-plus, the adjustment is measured in days, not hours. Night one you sleep badly at the wrong hour; night two you start becoming a person again; a third buys you a real sightseeing day and an absolute buffer against flight delays.

Where your ship is. Most "Tokyo" departures sail from Yokohama — where hotels run cheaper than Tokyo's, there is no lodging tax at all, and the pier is minutes away instead of an hour with luggage. Central Tokyo remains 30 minutes by frequent trains for your day trips. Only ships using the Tokyo International Cruise Terminal at Odaiba justify Tokyo-side hotels — check our ship-by-ship table first.

Dramatically, and cruisers rarely know their names. Japanese business-hotel chains — Dormy Inn, Mitsui Garden, JR-affiliated hotels, Toyoko Inn — deliver spotless compact rooms, superb breakfasts and often a rooftop bath, at prices far below the international brands a Western cruise passenger books by default. The room is smaller; everything else is usually better.

It now varies sharply by city, which changes where a bargain lives: Yokohama has no lodging tax; Tokyo charges ¥100–200 a night; Osaka up to ¥500 (since September 2025); Kyoto up to ¥10,000 a night at the top tier (since March 2026) — the highest in Japan. On a three-night pre-cruise stay for two, city choice alone can move the bill by thousands of yen.

For three specific jobs: priority disembarkation at your first Japanese port, guaranteed return on tight schedules, and far sights that genuinely need wheels (Kakunodate from Akita, Adachi from Sakaiminato). For city ports they typically cost two to three times the DIY equivalent, move at 40-passenger bus pace, and passengers report guides without microphones and walking speeds that leave older guests behind. Buy them for the job, not by default.

When you book the cruise — not later. Japan sailings sell excursions out months ahead: passengers on spring departures report most ship tours already gone the autumn before. Independent operators' English-speaking capacity is even thinner and also cancels: multiple passengers report privately booked tours cancelled weeks or days out when no guide could be found.

Local volunteer guide societies across Japan — coordinated under a JNTO-listed system — offer free guiding by residents, often retirees with good English who want the practice and the company. You pay their transport and lunch. The catches: book weeks ahead, they have no vehicle, and it is conversation-paced rather than logistics-machine. For a walking port, that is exactly what you want.

The regulars are Viking, Silversea, Seabourn and Regent Seven Seas, joined by Windstar — whose Japan sailings have sold well enough that departures were added — and Japan's own Mitsui Ocean Cruises, whose Fuji and Sakura run short domestic voyages year-round. Azamara has announced its first autumn Japan season for 2026.

Berths. Small ships fit the near berth in ports where big ships are pushed out: central Miura Wharf in Sasebo rather than distant Uragashira, the town-side wharves in Hakodate and Otaru, and small ports like Sakaiminato, Takamatsu or Uno that large ships rarely visit at all. In Japan, where the whole game is distance from gangway to town, that is worth more than any onboard amenity.

If you value ports over ship life, often yes: closer berths, smaller ports, overnight calls and fewer passengers per gangway minute. If your itinerary only visits the big ports — Yokohama, Kobe, Nagasaki — a large ship docks just as centrally there, and the premium buys you comfort rather than access.

Rarely — that is the point. Japanese harbors are deep and well-equipped, and a 200–700 passenger ship fits alongside almost everywhere. The exceptions are scenic anchorages some luxury lines choose deliberately, such as Miyajima, where the tender is the excursion.

More than the excursion brochures suggest: working fish markets, sake and whisky tasting, volcano ferries, bridge crossings over coral sea, noodle-making, festival museums where you can lift the floats, retro arcades, onsen sand baths and the world's densest food streets. Every port on this site has at least one first-class day that involves nothing religious or castellated.

Because the standard product at every port is the same template — a temple, a garden, a castle, a viewpoint — and by the second week they genuinely blur. Passengers on luxury lines report exactly this fatigue. The fix is alternation: temple day, then market day, then industry-or-nature day. The itinerary supports it; the brochure just doesn't suggest it.

Usually Yokohama. Most "Tokyo" itineraries use Yokohama's Osanbashi Pier, 30-45 minutes from central Tokyo — a genuinely better embarkation port. A growing minority, including MSC Bellissima and Celebrity Millennium's summer sailings, use the Tokyo International Cruise Terminal at Odaiba. Your cruise documents' fine print, not the itinerary title, is the truth — and this page lists who used which in 2026.

In 2026, per the official port schedules: MSC Bellissima and Celebrity Millennium's May-August sailings; Sapphire Princess is announced for Tokyo in 2027. Access: the Yurikamome line's Tokyo International Cruise Terminal station is about 8 minutes' walk from the terminal, ~16 minutes and ¥390 from Shimbashi.

The biggest ships — anything too tall to pass under the Yokohama Bay Bridge, like Ovation of the Seas — berth at Daikoku Pier, a working pier with nothing walkable; shuttles are the only way out. Diamond Princess, Westerdam, Viking and most foreign-flag regulars use Osanbashi, downtown.

From Haneda: the Keikyu airport bus to YCAT (Yokohama City Air Terminal) takes ~25-30 minutes (¥800, 2026 fare), then a ~10-minute taxi to Osanbashi. From Narita: the airport limousine bus to YCAT runs ~85-110 minutes (~¥3,700). Trains work too, but with cruise luggage the bus-plus-taxi combination is the one older travellers thank us for.

Usually Yokohama. Most itineraries sold as Tokyo use Yokohama's Osanbashi Pier, a downtown landmark 30 to 45 minutes from central Tokyo. Ships too tall for the Yokohama Bay Bridge, such as Ovation of the Seas, berth at Daikoku Pier, which is shuttle-only. A growing minority, including MSC Bellissima and Celebrity Millennium's May to August 2026 sailings, use the Tokyo International Cruise Terminal at Odaiba. Your cruise documents, not the brochure title, say which pier you get.

From the official 2026 Yokohama and Tokyo port schedules: Diamond Princess, home-ported at Yokohama's Osanbashi Pier from February to September; Celebrity Millennium, using Yokohama in March and April and the Tokyo International Cruise Terminal from May to August; MSC Bellissima at Tokyo; Westerdam at Osanbashi from February to April; Seabourn Encore and Viking at Yokohama's Shinko Pier; and Ovation of the Seas at Daikoku Pier. Norwegian Jade and Azamara Pursuit were not yet confirmed on either port's published schedule as of August 2026.

It depends almost entirely on the month. Fuji City's official observation record — kept daily since 1990 — shows the mountain fully visible around 22 days in February but as few as 2 days in June. Winter (November–February) is excellent, summer (June–August) is poor, and spring hazes over. Time of day matters too: 8am observations score best, with visibility falling through the afternoon.

Early morning. The official three-times-daily record shows visibility highest at the 8am observation and declining through midday and afternoon — which matches every local's advice: look at the mountain first, then do everything else. On a summer call, the deck at sail-in may beat any tour bus later in the day.

Honestly, no — and this is the most expensive mistake at Shimizu. If the mountain is hidden at sail-in, a coach to a viewpoint buys you a closer look at the same cloud. Passengers have reported seeing Fuji better from their balcony than from the paid tour. Spend the day on the port's excellent Plan B instead, and let the mountain decide.

Shimizu is the Mt. Fuji port on Japan cruise itineraries. It sits on Suruga Bay, the same coast where Fuji City has recorded the mountain's visibility three times a day since 1990, and Miho no Matsubara across the water is a UNESCO cultural site about the view of Fuji. Your best sight of the mountain is usually from the deck at sail-in, since visibility peaks at the 8 am observation and falls through the afternoon. If Fuji hides, the tuna market, a 20–25-minute walk or a free shuttle ride from Hinode Pier, is the Plan B.

Roughly one day in three across the year. Fuji City's official record, kept three times daily since 1990, shows the mountain fully visible on 136 days, partly visible on 95 and invisible on 134 in the most recent annual report. The month decides everything: February peaks at around 22 fully visible days, while June can drop to as few as two. November to February is the golden window, June to August the floor, and the 8 am observation scores best every month.

Email it via the Ask the Editor page, ideally with your ship, date and hours ashore. Answers go out by reply where possible, and a selection of the most broadly useful questions is published in the Journal roughly monthly — first names or initials only, and only with permission.

About ¥10,000 per person per port day covers a market lunch, local transport, small shrines and snacks almost everywhere we cover. Cards work in cities, but markets, small shrines, buses and many of the best counters still prefer cash. Get yen from a 7-Eleven ATM rather than the ship's desk.

Most Japanese ports reward independence: they are safe, punctual and walkable, and our free timed plans exist precisely for that. A booking earns its price in specific cases — when it solves language, queue risk or scattered logistics — which is the entire test behind our editor's picks list.

Yes, with two tools: a translation app for menus and signs, and the name of your destination written in Japanese to show a taxi driver — every port guide on this site includes those search strings for exactly this reason. Politeness travels further than vocabulary.

Well over a hundred Japanese harbours have received cruise calls, but the set that appears regularly on international itineraries is far smaller — around eighty, counting the Korean and Taiwanese calls most Japan loops include. Our reference list covers those, region by region.

Because most Japanese ports serve domestic cruising and cargo, and their tourist material is written in Japanese for Japanese visitors. English coverage concentrates on eight or ten famous ports. A harbour like Ofunato or Hososhima can be a genuinely good day and still return almost nothing useful in an English search.

Usually more so than the famous ones. Small ports berth you close to the town, there is no queue, prices are local rather than tourist, and the people you meet are not tired of visitors. The trade-off is that there is rarely an obvious headline attraction, so you need to know what is actually there before you land.

Find the market, the covered shopping arcade and the one local dish, in that order. Almost every Japanese port town has all three within twenty minutes of the berth, they are cheap, and they are what the town actually is. That is a better day than a long transfer to a viewpoint.

Use the formula that works in almost any Japanese port town: find the market, the covered shopping arcade and the one local dish, in that order. Nearly every port has all three within twenty minutes of the berth, they are cheap, and together they take about three hours. Then build the day backwards from the rule that does not change: be back on board sixty minutes before all-aboard. Small ports are forgiving here, since a fifteen-minute walk has a much smaller failure mode than a fifty-minute train.

Aomori and Yokohama are the flattest and most walkable straight from the berth — museums, markets and promenades within 500 flat metres. Kagoshima and Kanazawa are easy once you accept a vehicle transfer. The hardest for walkers are Hakodate's Motomachi slopes, Nagasaki's hillsides and Kochi Castle's original stairs.

Terminals themselves are generally modern and step-free, but the gangway and the transfer are where problems start: some berths use stairs rather than ramps, and shuttle buses to city centres are frequently not wheelchair accessible. If you use a wheelchair, arrange a WAV (wheelchair-accessible vehicle) taxi in advance — they sell out on cruise days.

Toilets, yes — abundant, free, clean, and in every station, convenience store, park and department store. Benches are scarcer than in Europe: parks and station concourses have them, shopping streets often do not. Cafés and convenience-store seating areas are the reliable rest stops.

Yes — it is a car ferry with lifts and step-free boarding, and the crossing takes 15 minutes with seating throughout. The lava trail on the far side is flat and paved for its first section, and the foot bath has bench seating. It is one of Japan's most accessible volcano experiences.

Yokohama's Osanbashi Pier is the reliable exception, fully accessible end to end: a wooden deck with ramps and no steps, a level promenade to Yamashita Park and flat Chinatown. Aomori is the flattest port day in Japan, with the museum 400 metres and the market 1.2 kilometres away on smooth pavement. Elsewhere the terminal is usually step-free but the gangway and shuttle are the problem, since some berths still use stairs and shuttle coaches often have steps. Ask your line in writing whether each gangway is ramped.

October, for the itinerary as a whole. It gives clear air for Mount Fuji from Shimizu, comfortable walking everywhere, autumn colour inland, the end of typhoon season, and the Busan film festival. May is the close second — dry, mild and long-lit, with the Tokyo sumo tournament and Asakusa's Sanja Matsuri. The trap is August, which is peak cruise season and peak humidity at the same time.

Naha is the only Japanese port with a genuine winter season — around 17–19°C in January and February, with Japan's first cherry blossom opening in late January. Beppu and Kagoshima are mild and the hot springs make more sense in cold air. Hakodate, Kanazawa and Sakaiminato have their best food of the year in winter — crab, uni and squid — but very few ships call.

Only for Aomori's Nebuta (2–7 August) and Akita's Kanto (3–6 August), which are worth building an itinerary around and which lines schedule late stays for. Everything else — Asakusa's Sanja Matsuri in May, Awa Odori in mid-August, Keelung's ghost month festival in August or September — is a bonus if it lands, not a reason to book.

Snow crab season on the Sea of Japan coast opens in early November and runs to around March. That covers Kanazawa, Sakaiminato and the northern ports. Outside those months an honest shop will tell you the crab is frozen or imported — and the right answer is to order something else, like nodoguro in Kanazawa or rock oysters in Sakaiminato.

August is the trap: peak cruise season because of school holidays and peak humidity at the same time, with typhoon watch beginning late in the month. The redeeming reasons to sail then are the two Tohoku festivals, Nebuta in Aomori on 2 to 7 August and Kanto in Akita on 3 to 6 August, which lines schedule late stays for. Otherwise October is the best month overall, with clear Fuji air and comfortable walking, and May is the close second.

Beppu, Yokohama and Keelung. Beppu's steam cooking and sand bath are unaffected by weather and the steam is more visible in cool damp air. Yokohama does Chinatown, the Red Brick Warehouse and a hotel lunch almost entirely under cover, all within a short walk of Osanbashi. Keelung's Miaokou night market has a covered main lane ten minutes from the berth.

Anything that is a view, a garden a long way from the ship, or a hillside of stairs. Specifically: Mount Fuji from Shimizu or Nihondaira, Miho no Matsubara, Sankeien in Yokohama, Kenroku-en in Kanazawa, Gamcheon and Taejongdae in Busan, Jiufen in Keelung, and Katsurahama in Kochi. None of them stop being beautiful; they stop being worth the transfer.

June is the rainy season across most of the country, and September brings typhoons to Kyushu, Okinawa and Taiwan. Kochi has Japan's heaviest annual rainfall, Keelung is nicknamed the rainy port, and Kanazawa's local advice is that you should not forget your umbrella even if you forget your lunch. Every port guide on this site carries a dedicated rainy-day plan for this reason.

Almost always yes — but change the plan rather than executing the sunny one badly. Japanese cities are built for rain: covered shopping arcades, department store food halls, markets under roof, and museums. The mistake is spending your only day in a port travelling to an outdoor viewpoint you cannot see.

A limited one, and it runs south. Naha and the Okinawan islands sit at around 17–19°C in January and February and take ships all winter; Keelung and Taiwan are similar. Kyushu ports like Kagoshima and Beppu are mild and rarely freeze. The main islands north of Kansai largely stop taking international ships between December and March.

Around 17–19°C in January and February, dry and often clear. It is not beach weather by Okinawan standards and locals wear coats, but for a visitor from a northern winter it is comfortable walking weather. Japan's first cherry blossom opens on Okinawa in late January, months before the mainland.

For food and clear air, yes. Snow crab season runs early November to March on the Sea of Japan coast, Hakodate's squid and uni are at their best, and Japan's clearest views of Mount Fuji are in January and February. The catch is that very few ships call at those northern ports in winter, so most winter itineraries put you in Okinawa, Kyushu and Taiwan instead.

Kanazawa and Sakaiminato, for snow crab from early November to around March, plus nodoguro and yellowtail at their fattest. Hakodate is close behind for squid, uni and kelp. All three are Sea of Japan or northern ports where the cold, rough, shallow water that makes fishing hard makes the fish excellent.

A forum thread (traditionally on Cruise Critic, increasingly mirrored in Facebook groups and WhatsApp) for passengers booked on one specific sailing. People introduce themselves, share port plans, and — most usefully — assemble small groups to share private guides and vans that would be unaffordable alone.

Private cars and vans in Japan typically price per vehicle, not per person: roughly ¥60,000–120,000 (about US$400–800) for a full day with a licensed English-speaking guide-driver. Split between eight or ten people that is US$40–100 each — routinely less than the cruise line's per-person coach excursion for the same route.

It is standard practice and generally low-risk, with one rule: book through the operator directly, pay the operator directly, and never send money to another passenger. Reputable Japanese operators will take individual payments or invoice on the day. If someone insists on collecting cash from everyone in advance, decline politely.

Three to six months before sailing. Earlier than that and Roll Calls are too quiet; later and the good operators are booked, especially for cherry-blossom and autumn dates. Post your specific port and plan — vague 'anyone want to do something?' posts get no replies.

Use your sailing's Roll Call, a forum thread on Cruise Critic, often mirrored on Facebook and WhatsApp, three to six months before departure. Post a specific plan with port, date, route, timing, price and seats remaining rather than a vague invitation. Private vans in Japan are priced per vehicle, roughly 60,000 to 120,000 yen a day with a licensed English-speaking guide-driver, so eight to ten people pay about 40 to 100 US dollars each. Book and pay the operator directly and never send money to another passenger.

Two: Aomori's Nebuta Matsuri, 2–7 August every year, and Akita's Kanto Matsuri, 3–6 August. Neither date has ever moved, cruise lines schedule late port stays for both, and both are genuinely spectacular rather than merely pleasant. Everything else is a bonus if your itinerary happens to land on it.

January, May and September, each running fifteen days at the Ryogoku Kokugikan. The other three of Japan's six annual tournaments are held in Osaka in March, Nagoya in July and Fukuoka in November. Outside those forty-five days there is no professional sumo in Tokyo at all, though the Ryogoku museum and chanko-nabe restaurants operate year round.

Yes, at the Kabuki-za in Ginza, which sells single-act tickets on the day from a separate window on the left of the building. An act runs sixty to ninety minutes against about four hours for a full programme, at roughly a tenth of the price, and two programmes run most days.

The Zhongyuan festival, held during the seventh lunar month — usually August or September. Keelung's is the oldest and largest in Taiwan, running since 1855, when two feuding immigrant communities agreed to compete over ceremonies for the dead instead of fighting. The main night, on the fourteenth day, ends with burning paper lantern houses floated out to sea.

No. Daikoku is a man-made industrial island reached by expressway bridges with no pedestrian access, inside a working container terminal. The shuttle bus is the only way off it. That single fact reshapes your entire day: everything depends on the shuttle timetable rather than on your own legs.

Osanbashi is in the middle of Yokohama — a step-free wooden deck with a public rooftop park, twenty flat minutes from Chinatown and ten from the Red Brick Warehouse. Daikoku is an industrial berth on a man-made island with no walking exit, used when a ship is too large for Osanbashi. Same city, completely different day.

From Osanbashi, roughly forty-five to sixty minutes each way to central Tokyo including the walk to a station. From Daikoku, add the shuttle and its timetable, which typically pushes the round trip past two and a half hours. On a call of eight hours or more Tokyo is feasible from either; below that it is a poor trade.

Check the port authority's published cruise schedule, which lists vessel, date and berth, and cross-check the ship's own port guide, which usually names the terminal a few weeks out. Roll Call threads on Cruise Critic often have it earlier. Ask before you book anything time-sensitive — the answer changes what is possible.

It means you cannot walk off. Yokohama's Daikoku Pier is the clearest example: a man-made industrial island reached by expressway bridges, inside a working container terminal, with no pedestrian exit at all. It is used when a ship is too large for Osanbashi. The shuttle bus is the only way out, so its timetable becomes the spine of your day and everything depends on it rather than on your own legs. Same city, completely different day.

Most passenger calls use Shin-Chuo Pier, a 5–10 minute flat walk from the Nebuta museum and A-Factory. Larger ships and busy days can be assigned Okidate Wharf, about 3km west — from there, use the shuttle and treat its last departure as your real all-aboard.

Your ship's daily program states the pier the evening before, and the port's public schedule lists berth assignments. If the program mentions a shuttle, you are almost certainly at Okidate — plan around the shuttle timetable, not walking.

Not what — only how. From Shin-Chuo everything on our short plan is walkable. From Okidate, the same plan works but budget 20–30 minutes each way for the shuttle and board one earlier than the last.

Only barely, and we don't recommend it. Six hours leaves under two hours in Hirosaki after trains, transfers and the 60-minute rule — you'd see the castle keep and sprint back. Hirosaki honestly needs an 8h+ call; with 6 hours, Aomori's waterfront and market give a better day.

About 45 minutes on the JR Ou line, roughly twice an hour, from Aomori Station (10 minutes by taxi from the cruise berths). Add bus or taxi time in Hirosaki — the castle park is not at the station.

An 8h+ call, an early start, and a screenshot of the return timetable taken at arrival — or a guided tour that owns the clock. Our full-day plan maps it minute by minute.

International itineraries include a foreign port call, and Busan — close, huge, spectacular — is the natural choice. Roughly nine in ten Japan roundtrips we mapped include it. Treat it as a destination, not a formality; many passengers rank it their favorite day.

Most cruise nationalities enter visa-free for a port day (your ship handles the formalities — follow their guidance). Cards work broadly; a small amount of won helps for street food. K-ETA requirements have shifted over the years, so confirm current rules with your cruise line before sailing.

Gamcheon Culture Village — the pastel hillside of lanes, lookouts and art that no other city in the region resembles. Pair it with a Jagalchi market lunch. If your call is long, add Haeundae's Sky Capsule on the coast — booked or queued early.

Early August every year — traditionally August 2–7. For 2027, Princess has announced festival-season sailings (Diamond and Sapphire both sail Japan that August), and lines schedule sailings timed to festival week, with late-night departures so passengers can watch the evening parades.

Yes — that is precisely why the lines schedule 'More Ashore' late stays in Aomori during festival week. The parade route runs through central Aomori, walkable from the waterfront; ships depart near midnight so you see the floats lit and moving.

The Nebuta Museum Wa Rasse on the waterfront keeps real parade floats glowing in a darkened hall year-round, with drum demonstrations most days. It is a genuinely great substitute — and it sits practically beside the cruise berth.

Stalls run from about 6am (some earlier in summer) until early afternoon. For cruise passengers it's perfect reversed logic: dock at 8, and the market is already two hours into its day a few minutes from the berth.

Kaisendon — the seafood rice bowl. Kikuyo Shokudo's three-color version (uni, ikura, crab) is the institution since 1956. Beside it, the live-squid fishing pond at Ekini Market turns breakfast into sport.

From the common wharves it's a short walk or a few tram minutes to the station-side market blocks. Check your daily program: some berths run a shuttle that drops within two blocks of the stalls.

Hakodate is the one Port of Japan singles out: four blocks of crab tanks, uni counters and fruit stalls beside the station, running from about 6 am until early afternoon, so an 8 am ship arrives two hours into its day. Order kaisendon, the seafood rice bowl; Kikuyo Shokudo's three-colour version with uni, ikura and crab has been the institution since 1956, and Ekini Market's live-squid pond turns breakfast into sport. From the common wharves it is a short walk or a few tram minutes.

At market counters the tanks are the menu: point, nod and eat, and English survives fine. Hakodate's Morning Market is the model, where you point at the three-colour kaisendon at Kikuyo Shokudo or catch a squid in Ekini Market's pond and they slice it for you. Small stalls prefer yen while the sit-down shokudo take cards, and it is best to buy nothing perishable until you are on the way back to the ship.

Only if your ship sails late. The view needs darkness: sunset plus queues plus descent takes about two hours, so your all-aboard must be at least two and a half hours after sunset. Check your departure time against sunset before promising anyone the postcard.

Genuinely yes — the two-sided isthmus panorama reads even better in daylight, the queues are shorter, and it fits a normal afternoon call. The night version is more famous; the day version is more available.

Tram or taxi to the base station (~20–25 min from the wharves), 3 minutes up, and allow 45–60 minutes on top. Round trip from the berth: about 2.5 hours with viewing time.

Budget ¥5,000–8,000 per person for a walking port day (lunch, entries, a souvenir) and ¥10,000–15,000 where taxis or ferries are involved. Card acceptance is broad in Tokyo, Yokohama and Kobe but noticeably thinner in market halls, small shrines, buses and family restaurants in the smaller ports.

Increasingly yes for department stores, chains, museums and larger restaurants — and no for exactly the places worth going: market stalls, tiny ramen counters, some temple entries and older buses. Treat cards as the default and cash as the thing that rescues the day.

7-Eleven and Japan Post Bank ATMs accept foreign cards reliably and are the standard answer; you will find 7-Eleven near most port-town stations. Do not count on an international ATM at the terminal itself, especially in smaller ports — draw cash on the first day of the cruise in a big city and ration it across the smaller calls.

Yes, more than you expect. Trams and buses, coin lockers, shrine offering boxes, vending machines and market stalls all live on ¥100 and ¥500 coins. An IC card (Suica, ICOCA, Pasmo) absorbs most of this — one card, tapped, no fumbling at the fare gate with a queue behind you.

Both. Cards work at department stores, museums, chain restaurants, convenience stores, hotels and most city taxis, but the places worth visiting in port towns often refuse them: market stalls, buses and trams, small shrine entries, ramen counters, coin lockers and small onsen. Budget 5,000 to 8,000 yen per person for a walking port day and 10,000 to 15,000 where taxis or ferries are involved. Draw yen once early in a city at a 7-Eleven or Japan Post Bank ATM.

Yes, and it is worth buying one. A Suica, ICOCA or Pasmo from any station machine, loaded with 3,000 to 5,000 yen, pays for trams in Hakodate and Nagasaki, the Sakurajima ferry in Kagoshima, buses in Kanazawa and Beppu, convenience stores and most vending machines with one tap. The one honest exception is Kagoshima's trams and City View bus, which take only the local Rapica card or contactless credit, so carry coins there.

With 10 or more hours ashore, yes — the round trip costs about 3 hours of travel plus the 60-minute rule, leaving roughly 5 hours in Kyoto. With 8 hours you get about 3 hours in the city, which buys one district honestly. With 6 hours or less, do not go: you would spend more time in transit than in Kyoto, and one delayed train ends your cruise.

Plan 85–95 minutes door to door each way. That is 10–20 minutes from your berth to Sannomiya station (Port Liner from Kobe Port Terminal, or a flat walk from Naka Pier), then 50–60 minutes by JR Special Rapid to Kyoto Station, plus the local bus or subway to whichever district you want. The train alone is not the journey.

On an overnight call, independent travel works beautifully — trains are frequent and your margin is measured in hours. On a single-day call, a private car from the pier is the safer purchase: it removes the transfer at Sannomiya, cuts 30–40 minutes each way, and the operator owns your return clock. The cost difference buys certainty, not luxury.

One district, done properly. Fushimi Inari's gate tunnels (closest to the station side, never closes, no ticket) or the Kiyomizu-dera and Sannen-zaka slope walk. Attempting both means seeing neither — Kyoto's headline sights sit 30 minutes apart by bus in traffic.

From Kobe it depends on your hours. The round trip costs about three hours of travel, 85 to 95 minutes door to door each way, plus the 60-minute reserve before all-aboard. With 10 or more hours ashore you get roughly five hours in Kyoto; with 8 hours about three, enough for one district such as Fushimi Inari or Kiyomizu-dera. With 6 hours or less, do not go: you would spend more time in transit than in Kyoto, with no cushion for a delayed train.

No, but it is what the overnight is for. An overnight in Kobe gives you eight hours or more in Kyoto with your margin measured in hours, and independent train travel works well. On a single-day call the arithmetic tightens: about four hours disappear in transit and the 60-minute rule before you see a single gate, so a 10-hour call is comfortable, an 8-hour call buys one district, and a 6-hour call is a flat no. Kobe itself is the better day on short calls.

Marine Port, where most ships dock, is about 7–8 km south of Tenmonkan: about 30 minutes by shuttle and 20–30 minutes by taxi (about ¥2,500–3,100). It is not a practical walk. Smaller ships use Kita-futo instead, which is a 7-minute walk from the Sakurajima ferry and about 20 minutes on foot from Tenmonkan.

From Marine Port, a taxi straight to the ferry terminal takes 25–35 minutes (about ¥3,000–3,700); the shuttle to town plus a tram or walk takes about 45. The ferry runs every 20 minutes by day, no booking, IC cards accepted.

Yes, there is a taxi rank at the terminal, but the prefecture warns of waits of around 30 minutes when a big ship is in. A run to Tenmonkan is about ¥2,500–3,100 and splits well between couples.

From Marine Port, shuttle to the city (about 30 minutes) or taxi straight to the ferry terminal (25–35 minutes); from Kita-futo, walk 7 minutes. Sailings run every 20 minutes through the day, no booking needed, and the crossing takes about 15 minutes. It is the rare world-class sight with commuter logistics.

Sakurajima puffs ash routinely — it is one of the world's most active volcanoes, and also an inhabited, monitored island with marked visitor trails and facilities. Locals carry umbrellas for ashfall the way others do for rain. Follow local guidance on the day; if activity rises, the city-side viewpoints still deliver the spectacle.

Sengan-en — the Shimadzu lords' garden that uses the volcano as borrowed scenery — plus a shirokuma shaved ice in the Tenmonkan arcades. With 8 hours you can honestly do all three.

Yes, with the hour kept, but not with much more. From Marine Port the island is 45–70 minutes away (transfer, the wait for a ferry that leaves every 20 minutes, and the 15-minute crossing); the lava trail and foot bath need about 90 minutes; the round trip comes back in about four hours. A taxi one way buys you slack. If your ship uses Kita-futo, the ferry is a 7-minute walk and it is easy.

No. The city ferry runs constantly, needs no booking, and takes IC cards. Book a tour only if you want the island's far side (Yunohira observatory) — that needs wheels, and doubles honestly with a guide.

Rare, but the pivot is painless: Sengan-en garden gives you the volcano as scenery from a safe, gorgeous distance — 35–50 minutes by taxi from Marine Port, or about 15 from the ferry terminal.

Walk or ride the Port Liner to Sannomiya station, then a direct train toward Kyoto — roughly 50–60 minutes station to station, faster with the Shinkansen from Shin-Kobe. On an overnight call, leave by 8:00 and Kyoto's morning is yours; on a one-day call, a guided car that owns the schedule is the safer bet.

It is the single best argument for your overnight. The vermilion gate tunnels are mobbed by mid-morning, but at 8:00 you will climb through long empty stretches. Go there first, then work back through the city as the crowds arrive elsewhere.

The evening you arrive: a Kobe beef dinner counter (book ahead — they are small) or the Harborland waterfront glowing beside your ship. The second morning: Kitano's hillside foreign houses or the Nada sake district. Kobe rewards the hours around your Kyoto day.

Ship time is the single clock the vessel runs on for the whole voyage — all-aboard times, excursion departures, dining and shows. It does not necessarily match the local time of the port you are visiting, and your phone will not know the difference.

Local time, almost always. Smartphones sync to the nearest cellular network the moment you step ashore, so your lock screen quietly becomes the port's clock. If ship time and local time differ, your phone is now showing you the wrong deadline.

Within Japan itself there is only one time zone, so ship and shore usually agree. The divergence appears on itineraries that include Korea (Busan, Incheon — same UTC+9, so no shift) and especially Taiwan, Hong Kong or China (UTC+8, one hour behind Japan). Ships crossing between those countries often hold their clock rather than change it daily.

Three habits: read all-aboard off the printed daily program, not your phone; set a manual alarm for 90 minutes before all-aboard rather than relying on the displayed clock; and if your itinerary crosses countries, ask at guest services whether ship time changed overnight. Thirty seconds of checking replaces the whole anxiety.

Every plan on this site ends at the gangway sixty minutes before all-aboard. To make that stick, read the all-aboard time from the printed daily program rather than your phone, set a manual alarm for 90 minutes before it as your start-heading-back time, and photograph the program's all-aboard line. Within Japan ship time and local time agree, but on itineraries touching Taiwan, Hong Kong or China the ship may hold Japan time while your phone shows an hour earlier.

The roundtrip circle from Yokohama or Tokyo, 9–12 nights, combining a Pacific-side port (Shimizu for Mt. Fuji), the Inland Sea cluster (Kobe/Osaka, Kochi, Hiroshima), Kyushu (Kagoshima, Nagasaki) and one Korean call, usually Busan. Diamond Princess and Celebrity Millennium both run versions of it all season.

International itineraries include a foreign port call — for Japan loops that's almost always Busan, occasionally Jeju or Incheon. Treat it as a feature: Busan's Gamcheon hillside and coastal Sky Capsule are many passengers' surprise favorite day.

The classic roundtrip circle from Yokohama or Tokyo (9-12 nights). It samples every register of Japan - Mt. Fuji at Shimizu, the Inland Sea, Hiroshima, Kyushu's food cities - with no mid-trip flights and the deepest choice of sailings: Diamond Princess alone turns around in Yokohama 23 times in 2026. If Kyoto matters, book the version with a Kobe or Osaka overnight.

In August-October, the northern and Sea-of-Japan loops. JMA 30-year data puts 7.7 typhoon approaches a year on Okinawa but only 1.9 on Hokkaido and under 3 on the Sea of Japan coast - so an autumn northern run (Hakodate, Aomori, Akita, Kanazawa) carries a fraction of the change-risk of a southern loop in the same weeks.

Spring sells the cherry blossoms, but autumn quietly wins on facts: the year's best Mt. Fuji visibility odds, foliage in the north, and the biggest choice of sailings. Summer is festival season — Nebuta in Aomori is worth planning a whole cruise around.

The Korea call is almost always Busan, added to the classic 9 to 12 night Yokohama circle: Shimizu, Kobe or Osaka, Kochi, often Hiroshima, then Kagoshima and Nagasaki. Taiwan appears on two patterns: the Okinawa–Taiwan loop, and the one-way repositioning cruises such as Hong Kong to Tokyo, where Keelung near Taipei joins as the Taiwan call. Diamond Princess and Celebrity Millennium both run versions of the Busan circle all season.

A comfortable rule for two people: the yen equivalent of US$60–100 per port day covers market lunches, trams, small shrines and souvenirs — the places where cards still falter. Cards work fine at department stores, konbini and most restaurants in port cities; the cash is for the good, small places.

If your phone supports eSIM, it's the easy win: install a Japan data plan before you fly, switch it on when you're ashore, and stop depending on ship Wi-Fi for maps and translation. Buy from a major marketplace before the trip — activating at sea is exactly the kind of task ship Wi-Fi is worst at.

Cruise terminals commonly offer free Wi-Fi, and konbini and stations often do too — but coverage is patchy and login pages are fiddly. Treat free Wi-Fi as a bonus, an eSIM as the plan.

Yes, and the cheap way is a Japan eSIM bought and installed before you sail, then activated once you are ashore — far cheaper than maritime roaming, which is the classic cruise bill shock. Keep the phone in airplane mode at sea unless you are on the ship's Wi-Fi plan. Ashore you want data for maps and transport apps rather than for calls; Japanese cruise terminals generally offer free Wi-Fi, which is enough to download offline maps before you walk out, but not enough to rely on all day.

They help, but an eSIM is the plan. Japanese cruise terminals generally offer free Wi-Fi, which is enough to download offline maps before you walk out, but not enough to rely on all day, and coverage and login pages are patchy. A Japan data eSIM installed and tested at home before you fly, then switched on ashore, runs maps, translation and transport apps on land networks and is far cheaper than maritime roaming. Every port page also has a Print button for a signal-free backup.

The honest walking ports on typical itineraries: Aomori (Nebuta museum and A-Factory on the waterfront), Shimizu (Dream Plaza 10 minutes and the fish market 20–25 from Hinode Pier), Nagasaki (tram city), and much of Hakodate and Yokohama, depending on berth. Always check your daily program — berths change, and a shuttle berth turns a walking port into a bus port.

Where distance blocks you: Kyoto from Kobe on a one-day call, Miyajima plus the Peace Memorial in one Hiroshima day, Kochi's Katsurahama coast, Kagoshima's garden-and-volcano loop, and anything reaching the Mt. Fuji foothills from Shimizu. Pay for logistics, not for company.

Most non-walkable berths provide one, usually to a central drop-off, sometimes free and sometimes a few dollars. The pattern to respect: shuttles run on their own timetable, so treat the last shuttle like a mini all-aboard and keep your 60-minute margin on top of it.

One word: Kyoto. The old capital sits 30–60 minutes inland — too far to visit properly on a normal port day, close enough on an overnight. Cruise lines schedule the night there so passengers get a full Kyoto day; on the itineraries we mapped, Celebrity Millennium overnights there on every 2026 sailing, and Regent, Seabourn and Silversea do the same.

Compare it honestly: ship excursions to Kyoto are priced per person, while a private car from the pier is priced per group — for a couple it is usually comparable or cheaper, and it sees more because it skips the coach-marshalling hour. On a one-day call (no overnight), a tour that owns the schedule is also your safety margin against all-aboard.

The walking ports: Aomori puts the Nebuta museum on the waterfront, Hakodate's morning market sits by the station, and Nagasaki's tram makes the whole city cheap. Spend where distance blocks you — Kyoto from Kobe, Miyajima from Hiroshima's port — and walk the rest.

Pay where distance blocks you: Kyoto from Kobe, Miyajima from Hiroshima's port, and Kakunodate from Akita. The single best-value spend on most itineraries is the Kobe or Osaka overnight, because Kyoto sits 30 to 60 minutes inland and a private car from the pier is priced per group, so for a couple it is usually comparable to or cheaper than the ship's per-person excursion. Walking ports such as Aomori, Hakodate and Nagasaki need almost no budget.