Our voyage begins in Aomori, the seaside city on the northern tip of Japan's Honsu island. It's famous for its delicious apples and fresh seafood - try a selection of the latter with some rice, nokke-don, at the city's Furukawa Fish Market. Next, we visit Kushiro, on the east coast of Hokkaido, close to wetlands beloved by birds including the red-crown crane, a national symbol of happiness and long life. Now we have some serious relaxing to do onboard the ship as we sail across the ocean - and the International Date Line - bound for Alaska. We reach land at Kodiak Island, a wilderness patrolled by bears, wolves, and moose, then travel to the fishing harbor of Homer. Next comes the sleepy town of Seward to hike to the fjords and dine on fresh halibut. We travel southwards along the dramatic west coast of Alaska and Canada, literally starting with a bang at the awe-inspiring Hubbard Glacier, where colossal ice chunks calve into the sea. Then, we sail through Glacier Bay National Park to historic Sitka, Alaska's original capital, before setting a course for Icy Strait Point, where bear- and whale-watching are among the exhilarating activities. At Wrangell, there are 8,000-year-old carvings to see on Petroglyph Beach, while the historic town of Ketchikan has a fascinating display of totem poles. Now, we enter Canadian waters, passing the pine-fringed islets of British Columbia and following the Seymour Narrows to our final stop, Vancouver.