Set Sail Through Romantic Japan

A LAWYER friend once confessed that when she really wants to unplug and be uncontactable (by the office, of course) when she's on leave, she goes on a cruise holiday. It's practically the only option left for her to truthfully say that she's incommunicado because she's out at sea where the WiFi doesn't work.

I got to test her sly tactic recently, on Costa neoRomantica's eight-night cruise from Japan to Taiwan on board its 1800-passenger ship. Who knows how many were there for the same reason, but I discovered enough unique traits of a cruise - imagine a town's tourism office putting on a show to welcome you when you dock - that make it an experience quite unlike other forms of travel.

Among the draws of cruising is its sailing route. In this case, passengers board the Costa neoRomantica at Oi Terminal in Tokyo, and set off to islands that are difficult to access by land or air, such as Miyakojima in the Okinawan islands. The itinerary includes four to eight-hour stops in Kobe and Kochi, Keelung in Taiwan, Miyakojima, and three full days in total at sea before the liner docks at Yokohama.