5 nights, Shanghai to Tokyo

The itinerary, port by port

6 calls over 5 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. Disembark
   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 →