Japanese immigration is very strict.
Because we’ve come from a foreign country – our brief sojourn in South Korea yesterday – we’ve been made to leave the ship this morning to go through immigration, but with the kicker that none of us are allowed back on board until everyone has been processed. So, here we are kicking our heels in the terminal building, looking longingly back up to our ship where we could be sipping a cocktail in the garden lounge. We had a desultory look around the duty free on offer but there’s nothing really tempting.
To fill time, since I’ve left my kindle behind in our room, I’ll describe the toilets. The seats are electronically warmed, which I find slightly creepy, as if you’ve got on to the toilet straight after someone else has been on it. It’s all quite intimidatingly complicated, in spite of the soothing waterfall sounds coming through the speakers. I guess that explains the poster describing how to use it.
In fact if you just want to use it like a straightforward western toilet, the flush button is quite hard to find. It’s down there on the right.
The sinks are more familiar, with a separate nozzle that dispenses soap. The strange part is the lack of anywhere to dry your hands. I finally found the hand dryer but it was taped off, with an explanatory note in Japanese. I assumed it was broken, but here google translate was my friend.
The hand dryer has been disabled to prevent the spread of COVID. No matter any other germs around.
Oh, they’re letting us back on board now. Time for a quick pub lunch.