I am looking for a ship that goes via Japan (preferably) to the west coast of America or Canada. I live in Australia and need to get to US without flying. Something more interesting than direct. Any suggestions will be helpful. Thanks.

Have you looked at freighter travel?
HAL goes from
Australia to Vancouver in April
Or to California in Nov

I don't know of any trans-pacific cruises. Nor have I heard of any passenger service shipping lines. If you are not flying, how would you get to Japan?

I have seen some freighters offering limited passenger space, but those are not in the main stream of bookable travel choices.

Check Princess itineraries. I don't think they do Japan to the US, but they do do Australia to the US when they reposition. However, they do world cruises, so it might be possible.

Next April the Royal Caribbean ship Rhapsody Of The Seas repositions from Australia to British Columbia. It is done with two cruises. The first leaves from Sydney and ends at Honolulu. Then the ship departs from Honolulu for Vancouver. It is a long time though - 16 days for the first cruise and 10 for the second one.

But it is certainly interesting and you see a lot of places.

April 12, 2010, from Sydney. The ship arrives in Hawaii on April 27 and then turns around and leaves that same evening. (Yes, it seems a day is missing - International Date Line).

Well I guess I stand corrected then. But I assume the original poster was looking for something more "regular" than that. And I assumed they need to get BACK to Australia at some point and those repositioning cruises only happen twice a year....

What is needed is more detail from the OP. Preferred dates, how long they will stay, etc.

I guess coming to America on RCI would work and perhaps then catching a leg of a world cruise heading to the far east for the return trip.

For perspective on flight times, it is 9 hours from Tokyo to Sydney, and around 14 hours from Sydney to LAX.

Thanks for all your feedback. We are senior cits and have done much travelling but need to return to UK for a while next year. My husband can no longer fly for health reasons so we are looking at alternatives. Time not critical. I'd love to go via Mongolia or the Silk Route but he's not so keen. Sailing back through Panama would be preferable (I've done it the other way) and we'd love to do more travel in US, so other things are not a problem. The main problem is getting there and I think via Pacific would be the most sensible. I'm sure I've seen ships go via Japan in the past, but can't find anything at the moment. Friends of ours have just come back from Hawaii on the Rhapsody of the Seas and said they were bored as there were only four ports in 3 weeks. We prefer the smaller ships. I have been looking at freighter travel but haven't been able to find anything in the Pacific. Will check the ones listed, thanks.

BTW, "looking" is now "sampep" - gone back to my original name and new PW.