The Immigration officers had arrived with complete on line system and finger and face scanners and so they were able to scan our passports and fingers and faces and see online whether we should be allowed in to the country and thankfully they did and we are cleared to stay until the end of 20128, except we have to go homer earlier than this. Following this we went for breakfast and then down to the quayside to join our tour to the Highlights of Kushiro.
To the North of Kushiro lies one of its well know attractions called the Kushiro Shitsugen, Japan’s largest marshland and accounts for about 60% of all Japans wetland. It was confirmed as a National park in 1987 . There is a considerable amount of flora and fauna in this area which is now protected.Back on the bus and this time to the City Museum which was in a purpose built building and was laid out very well and covered many aspects of Japanese life including one floor dedicated to the Ainu people who used to frequent this area who’s race was nearly stamped out by the land hungry Southern Japanese. The town now has about 200000 resident's and is a large base for deep sea fishing and fishing boats are dotted all over the harbour where we parked up for the day.
Back in the bus again to Washo Fish Market where we really had insufficient time to fully explore and enjoy but the tour was running late due to some guests not following the timing schedule proposed by the guide and hence we only had time to sample some sushi which was excellent and not expensive. Had we more time then we could have investigated the complete site and perhaps had some additional food to fill us up. One coupler ordered some prawn tempura but it took so long to make they had to bring it back to the bus to eat and boy it smelt good.
Finally back to the ship and as were still a bit hungry went to the pool patio bar for a lunchtime snack. Having a very early breakfast when you are not used to it messes you up a bit but never mind it was an entertaining morning and a lot better that the Highlight tour in Russia, in fact there was no comparison.
A quiet afternoon and to be honest we had a quick zizz after getting up so early and then dinner in our usual restaurant before retiring to the suite to finish blogs and some reading etc. Tomorrow we arrive in Hakodate where we have a tour but the ship will not leave until late evening allowing us to to some evening and night exploring