Samurai Shrines – Kanazawa, Hakodate & Kobe

About this cruise

Block out 14 nights from April 9, 2028 and let this sailing from Tokyo do its thing. The route covers Kobe (Osaka), Kochi and Kagoshima, with additional stops along the Japan, Korea, China & Taiwan and there's plenty of room to breathe between each stop. Expect a run of consecutive ports, 10 stops total, with the busiest days packed close together. The sea days around them feel earned. Street food that'll ruin you for takeaway back home, ancient shrines, and cities that run like clockwork. Keep an eye out for Sakata: Japan's historic rice-shipping port of samurai gardens. Roughly 10 hours ashore per stop. No need to rush. Noordam has 7 restaurants on board, which means you could eat somewhere different nearly every night. With more nights comes more time for the ship's rhythm to kick in: morning coffee in the same spot, evening shows, late-night conversations on deck. Tokyo itself is worth spending some time in. Don't just treat it as a departure point. And April is a good time to go. Mild weather, things starting to bloom, and fewer people than summer. That's 14 nights well spent.