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May & June 2024
When Mikiko, our Japanese Cruise Director offered to show me around in one of the ports, I jumped at the offer. The date was set to go out in Aomori, which I later learned, is a place that is more out of the way than I realized and we were lucky that the ship brought us right there so often.
As we walked through town, I asked Mikiko how she came to be a Cruise Director and she told me how she worked her way up from being an Activities Staff on another Cruise line before she got into interpreting and then when the Cruise Director position became available, they wanted her. This is her 11th year with Princess as a Japanese Cruise Director and she is a major consistency in the Japanese season.
I was so grateful to have someone to guide me to this place that I would have had trouble finding on my own. Mikiko took me to a special fish market where Mikiko treated me to a packet of tickets. We started by collecting a bowl of rice, and then went around to the stalls to use our tickets to complete the meal.
There were lots of different kinds of fish, and Mikiko helped me pick out the best pieces. There was miso soup with scallops and some sweet egg (which is one of my favorite surprises from Japan).
It was delicious. All my favorite sushi flavors were mixed in a bowl!
I had a wonderful time chatting with Mikiko as we walked around the town. Aomori is known for apples, so our last stop was right by the ship where we tried fresh apple juice and we bought apple wine (which tasted a lot like apple cider) and apple pies (which were more like apple pastries) for later. I felt so lucky to share this time with Mikiko and not only get to know her but to have her show me around this piece of her country.
The next time we were in Aomori, Fernando had joined as our English Cruise Director (he’s originally from Mexico, but he’s been living in Arizona since he was a kid), as well as Chris (who is now living in Canada, but is originally from New York) who I had worked with briefly on the Caribbean Princess. I noted that between the three of us, we had representative from all the parts of North America. Chris had been to Aomori on a world cruise several years ago, and was planning to go to a Ramen place that specialized in Curry Ramen with a big chunk of butter. I asked if I could tag along with him, and then Fernando joined the party as well. We arrived at the building (which I never would have guessed from the outside was a restaurant) to find that there was a line that wove around the corner of the entrance and up the stairs. A long line must be an indication that the food was good! After waiting for almost an hour, we were seated at our table after removing our shoes, as per the Japanese custom.
This ramen was amazing.
We slurped and savored our ramen, experimenting with the unidentifiable spices sitting on the table.
After lunch, Chris went to run some errands and I took Fernando to the apple place. I paid Mikiko’s favor forward and treated Fernando to the fresh apple juice and the apple pastry. The next time I come to Aomori it will be Summer Festival season, and my mom will be onboard!