13 nights, Shanghai to Tokyo

The itinerary, port by port

11 calls over 13 nights, Shanghai to Tokyo. Open any port for my full day-ashore guide, what to see, when to go, and how the day actually runs.

Getting there: Flights to Shanghai (PVG) open around April 2027, about 11 months before you sail. I track that window for booked clients and flag it the moment it is worth booking. When to book your flights →

1. Embark
   Shanghai

   Shanghai is China's largest city and its financial center, where a colonial-era riverfront faces a wall of 21st-century towers across the Huangpu. Port guide →

2. 2
   Shimonoseki

   Shimonoseki sits at the western tip of Honshu, on the narrow Kanmon Strait that separates it from Kyushu, and is Japan's self-styled fugu (pufferfish) capital. Port guide →

3. 3
   Kochi

   Kochi is the historic spice port of Kerala on India's southwest coast, where Portuguese, Dutch, Arab, Chinese, and Jewish trading layers all left something standing. Port guide →

4. 4
   Osaka

   Osaka is Kansai's big, brash food and merchant city, and the cruise day is a genuine metropolis rather than a harbor stroll. Port guide →

5. 5
   Toba (Ise)

   Toba is the birthplace of the cultured pearl and the gateway to Ise Jingu, the most sacred shrine in Shinto. Port guide →

6. 6
   Tokyo

   A cruise call on Tokyo lands you on Odaiba, a reclaimed island in Tokyo Bay that is itself a waterfront entertainment and shopping district, with the Rainbow Bridge and the city skyline directly across the… Port guide →

7. 7
   Nagoya

   Nagoya is Japan's industrial heartland on Ise Bay, a working manufacturing city better known for Toyota and Nagoya Castle than for tourism. Port guide →

8. 8
   Busan

   Busan is South Korea's second city and busiest port, a coastal sprawl of beaches, mountain temples, seafood markets, and a hillside village painted every color. Port guide →

9. 9
   Hakata (Fukuoka)

   Hakata is the working heart of Fukuoka, Kyushu's largest city and the one most Japanese people name when they talk about ramen.

10. 10
    Nagasaki

    Nagasaki spent two centuries as Japan's only window to the West, and the result is a port city where a Chinese quarter, a Dutch trading post, and hillside Western mansions sit within a few tram stops of… Port guide →

11. Disembark
    Shimizu

    Shimizu is the cruise gateway to Mount Fuji, which rises across Suruga Bay and is often visible from the deck on arrival. Port guide →