Port Power

It’s gone midnight and all is calm. The ship is staying in the shelter of Honshu. There are some white caps on the sea, but it has been pretty calm for hours. There was a big turnout at the solo drinks tonight, and we invited the assistant cruise director and the female singer to join us for dinner. So two tables for six. Both tables had a great night. ”Liar, Liar” was a lot of fun tonight. We then proceeded to Dolce Vita where André was playing guitar, followed by the lovely Greek piano man. Just a few of us solos and a large group of Quebecois. A great end to a fun day. My trivia team are having lunch together in Atlantide tomorrow. We have been pretty successful; certainly enough to have a good time. Two from England, two from Texas, two from Newcastle, NSW, me from Perth and one from New Zealand. The latter is a whiz at geography. I have a confirmed booking for 3 at Kaiseki the night after next; my first dinner there for dinner. I will take photos. I promise! (If I remember.) 🙂

No lying about on deck chairs today!

Yesterday’s lecture in lieu of Akita was about a Japanese diplomat who saved tens of thousands of (mainly) Polish Jews during WWII. Chiune Sugihara. He went against his government’s orders, instead following his samurai code, and he provided visas for the fleeing Jews to transit through Japan. He and his wife wrote hundreds of visas per day before they had to leave Lithuania. On return to Japan, he was sacked. He is one of those unknown heroes we should hear more about. There is a statue of him in Israel.

Crisis over. I slept like a lamb and on opening the curtains this morning, the sky was sunny with some cloud. Now at 8:00am there are more clouds, and they are quite dark. However, the sea is calm and reasonably flat. No white caps in sight, nor any noticeable swell. The butler passed on that we should have a good day. But he wants a port stop! I will have to take photos around the ship to keep the story going until Hakodate.

Some of the guests took the bus to the gardens this morning and, yes, found entry was free anyway. They also spent quality time in the castle grounds. I did not have an ice cream wrapped in gold leaf this visit, but have enjoyed one before. Decadent. When I bought the gold leaf serums and lotions, I had multiple samples rubbed into my arms. I can confirm that I did not sparkle under the lights when I returned to Dolce Vita! 🌟

BREAKING NEWS! There is actually a huge storm to the east and west of the ship. Akita has closed its port, which is why the ship isn’t going there. Aomori, which was Friday’s destination, has also now closed its port, so we are all at sea. Literally! From the weather map, the ship is steering more or less north between the storm fronts to reach safer waters. Eventually it will track back around to the strait between Honshu and Hokkaido. There is some fine rain right now, or perhaps spray, but not much rocking and rolling. Some motion, of course, and there may be more in the wee hours. The cruise director is madly rewriting the Chronicles and adding in sea day events. The destination lecturer is going to do another interesting historical lecture instead of destination Aomori. The other excellent lecturer is pulling out one of his standby talks. “Liar Liar” will be on again in the Panorama Lounge tomorrow night. Mark Farris, the fabulous permanent guest piano player and entertainer is going to do another 6:30pm show in the Venetian Lounge. It’s a good thing the ship stocked up with fruit, vegetables and booze in Kanazawa!

Wednesday, October 9th: Kanazawa. Ship departs at 2:00pm Again a pleasant 25C. So much nicer after the heat and humidity of the southern cities. The Captain just made an announcement before we pushed off that Silver Muse would not be visiting Akita tomorrow. There is a major storm brewing, so he is altering course to better avoid it. He said if we did manage to dock in Akita, we would have to leave an hour later anyway. So tomorrow will be a day at sea, which is not bad alternative. The Captain is certain we will dock in Amori as planned. That is a full day until 11:00pm. I’m off to Evelyn’s destination lecture about Akita. She is an historian and is very enjoyable to listen to. We can see what we are missing.

Kanazawa is know for gold leaf. A farmer had been digging up his sweet potatoes when he discovered gold, and there it started. I went to a gold leaf producing business last visit, and took this opportunity to actually do some shopping for the gold leaf skin care products they produced with the offcuts of gold leaf. They are very good products at very reasonable prices. Christmas presents sorted! There are many products contains gold leaf, from jewellery to glassware. A few from the solo group had done the “Gold Leaf Experience” tour and actually covered the top half of chopsticks with gold leaf (after finely taping a pattern). They all had great fun, and brought home something to show. On Monday night I cancelled my tour for this morning. It was the Samurai, Geishas and Gold Leaf Experience” they had done, but the first two sites were just repeat shopping trips in period buildings. Pity I miss out on chopsticks. 😢 😂 My bus arrived back just after 6:00pm. As I walked past my trivia group (we always sat on for another hour chatting!) they informed me they had won. And handed me a 5-point card! They still want me to come along tonight though. 😀 Jonathan performed his solo show again last night. Once again, fantastic! We followed that up in the Dolce Vita lounge until midnight.

The second part of the tour was to the Higashi Chaka District, also known as the geisha district. Geisha perform in Chayas. In the morning I noticed a huge cruise ship across in the outer harbour. Binoculars helped ,e identify it as MSC Insignia. There were many other buses in the parking lot, presumably with groups from that ship. (Shudder!) During the initial walk, the guide seemed to be constantly saying, “on your left is a shop, on your right is a shop, on your left is a restaurant” ad infinitum. This seemed to be only a shopping stop. Fortunately during my April tour our group of 12 had been taken through a private house, so I was lucky.

There are beautiful views everywhere you look in these gardens.

Tuesday, October 3rd: Kanazawa overnight. I was on an afternoon excursion, so used the morning to do a load of washing and emerald relax and read. My excursion first went to the Kenroku-en Garden, which I had visited at the beginning of April this year and looked forward to seeing again. They are next to the Castle, which we did not visit. And in April this year… Once again the trees were beautifully shaped. There were gardeners up ladders gentry plucking pine needs off to continue that shaping. The two-legged stone lantern here is famous. Usually these lamps have three or five legs.

That night we had a Korean dance troupe come aboard to perform. They were fabulous! First there was a flower dance… …then a fan dance, which was supposed to depict animals, but I could see any. Beautiful dance, though. Three ladies then played traditional instruments, which I couldn’t photograph. A long board with twelve strings that sounded at various times like a harp, guitar or harpsichord. Then another group of ladies played drums set in stands. Magnificent! One woman on the left beat just the one drum, and a man sat to the far right with an oversized drum. Unfortunately my short video will not load: maybe it’s too large. 😩 (No teenagers on board to ask for help, either!). I will try and ask our very IT savvy assistant cruise director for help when I see him next. 🙂

After Temple by the Sea, the bus drove to the Sky Walk. This was only a glass bottom platform that jutted out over the coastline. Shoe covers were provided to reduce scratching of the glass floor. Definitely take it or leave it as a place to visit, but the actual area was pretty. There were a few men down on the rocks fishing. The apartment blocks facing the sea were obviously the choice flats. Lot of grass around, so a very nice place to live. At least some outside area kids here.

Yes, that is similar to the net I have. My net is green, which is good for blocking the sun a bit more. I’m glad you found one. The net is actually enough. Keep those corks for a pin board.

I could see another terrace a bit further down, so headed that way, again having to hold out my arm to pass through the lines of people. That’s when I know I would not be going any further down. I could see the main temple quite clearly from the terrace, and also hear the monks chanting. This view is from the upper terrace. This view is from the lower terrace that can be seen in the above photo. Over to my left was another gold leaf covered statue. I didn’t go any further, but stayed for fifteen minutes looking out to sea and watching people move over the bridge. A fellow tour member joined me until we decided to walk only 50 steps as well as the path through rock back up to the entrance. Despite the crowd, the temple was well worth visiting.

Through the temple entry, there are 108 stairs to the temple at the bottom. “Keep to the right!” signs were pained on the past and steps. A few people were even carrying their small dogs. I could see a landing down to my left. To turn off the main line I actually had to put my arm out to go in front of people coming in the other direction! This landing contain a small Buddha. There was also a stone carving of this god with the eleven faces. I cannot remember her name, but others will know.

My tour was to the Buddhist Temple by the Sea. In fact, I think nearly every tour went there as I saw many familiar faces as we filed through the very crowded temple area. This was the last day of a 4-day public holiday, a type of thanksgiving holiday. The guide and driver were very pleased we went there first as the traffic later on was even worse! I found Busan to be very neat and pleasing to the eye. The high apartment blocks were all the same in each grouping, so there was more symmetry. Eighty per cent of the city lives in high rise apartments. However there are so many mountains and hills that there is a lot of greenery in between and behind. We could see a few playgrounds along the drive, but there are few if any playgrounds around the apartment blocks. Our guide children are encouraged to study, not play outside. 🙁 The highway was also high rise! It ran above the water, giving views of beaches and marinas. Busan is the second largest container port in the world. It went on forever!

Sunday, October 1st: Busan, Korea Arriving back to the ship on Saturday, we went through the Japanese departure process had our passports stamped to exit the country. On Sunday morning the Korean authorities came aboard and we all filed through the Venetian Lounge to complete Korean immigration. The visa sticker was put on the back cover of our passports to facilitate re-entry. Then off we went on our various tours.

Special guest entertainers are a Japanese violin duo. They also underwent further studies in London. They have done two shows, playing a range from classical music through to modern songs. Many of us felt we could practically hear their violins singing! Their short talks and movements around the stage completed their excellent shows.

Saturday 30th September: Hiroshima. There were many excursions to the Peace Park, but as I had done that at the beginning of April this year, I elected to visit Hiroshima Castle and the Shukkeien Garden. For me the castle was t anything special, although there was a memorial there for the young teenagers who had died from the atom bomb. 13-14 year olds manned communication posts to free older boys to fight. The garden was lovely, as most Japanese garden parks are. There were several tea houses. Our guide had been to one the previous night to participate in a tea ceremony for the full moon. There was a very large pond and sections with imported plants. The usual bonsai-styled trees were gorgeous. The lake also included koi and terrapins. A shogun’s armour displayed in the castle.

I can’t wait any longer! I just have to post some photos from the chocolate extravaganza night. to

“Report” your post and ask the host to change the title of this thread. Something like “questions about pre and post tours in Japan” would be more helpful.

Friday, September 29th. Today is a relaxing sea day before we reach Hiroshima. I have really noticed the difference on board between an ocean crossing and a port-intensive cruise. Nevertheless, I am still not cooking dinner, so am very happy. The CD’s department had the solo gathering scheduled too late and often at the same time as the early show. However, they have moved it back to 6:15pm at our request. That allows solos to meet up even if briefly, and then move to the show together or in small groups, or arrange to meet for dinner later. Last night’s performance was a violin duo, two very talented young Japanese ladies. They varied their show with classics and contemporary tunes and moved around the stage gracefully to add movement. I look forward to their second show. It is a lovely, sunny day and people are out and about on deck and in the pool. Silver Note again tonight, this time with a Texan couple from my trivia team and a solo gentleman.

In the middle of Osaka, 2.2 million people living in “the city”, there is this lovely veggie garden, including a rice paddy and scarecrows, right next to the Umeda buildings. This structure is 30 years old and is in the top 20 buildings of the world (some sort of architectural designation). My excellent travel agent had never heard of it, nor had I before today.

This is my absolute favourite photograph, inspired by one take by our destination lecturer.