First, the website list didn't list Tokyo for embarkation. This. our second cruise on Silversea Shadow, was a reposition with fascinating ports of call: embarking from Tokyo, then to Hokkaido, Kamchatka, the Aleutian Islands, Kodiak and Homer, AK. Like many of the folks we met aboard, we viewed this as an adventure, not a primarily a luxury cruise.

Even Tokyo is visited by relatively few cruise ships, because a bridge over its harbor is too low for the behemoth ships that are more common now. So our embarkation was an event, with the Tokyo Youth Orchestra playing and waving to see us off.

The Shadow is a small ship, able to conveniently dock at all but a few of our ports. The two ports in Hokkaido, Hakodate and Kushiro, see very few cruise ships: In Hakodate, high school students in uniform were posted on nearly every corner to practice their English and help the gaijin. It was charming. In smaller Kushiro, banners welcomed us and local families brought their kids to the dock to wave us goodbye. Read more