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| Sasebo International Cruise Terminal. Just a short walk away from the city center. |
It isn’t always the case, but it sure is nice when the port is located close to the city center. With Sasebo, it’s about as easy and convenient as possible. The city center was only an 8-10 minute walk from where we docked.
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| There are advantages to being early risers! |
We were off the ship quickly. Our hopes were to beat most of our fellow passengers to the popular destination of the Kujukushima Pearl Sea Resort. It’s not a “resort” in our traditional way of thinking. There are no hotels, or at least we didn’t see any. There is a park, marina, aquarium, shops and restaurants. It is designated as a National Aquatic Park that is within the much larger Saikai National Park. We enjoyed a fifty minute narrated cruise that weaved through many of the small islands within the park.
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| Oyster Farm. Some of the farms were growing oysters to eat, while others were for cultivating pearls |
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| There were also fish farms |
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| When in port, why not get on another boat? |
Based on the line forming at the pier for the next boat tour, the off quick strategy worked. We shared a cab with a nice Australian couple both to the park and then. Back into town. Once we were back near the city center we enjoyed roaming the 1 km long Saruku City Shopping arcade. The covered “pedestrian only” arcade is Listed as Japan’s longest.
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| It was a sunny day in Sasebo. We appreciated that the outdoor shopping arcade was covered! |
After a couple of hours we headed back to the ship. Another nice day in a country we grow fonder of daily!
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| There is a 7-11 every few blocks. It’s a great place to pick up some snacks. They also have ATM’s so they’ve become our bank. |
