From the cow kings to an Empress, Norton goes on a little Sojourn

[wripro]

It was mentioned to an assistant Maitre d'. I don't recall ever seeing the HD. I heard he was visible at the formal events however.

He has an office on Deck 5, I believe, I'd hunt him down there.

[Emperor Norton]

We were visiting the Hirosaki castle while it was undergoing renovation (timing was a bit off).

 

There was a watch tower at the top of a hill that was to be our first stop on the grounds.

 

Eventually all the blueberries were assembled.

 

 

They did like their moats.

 

It took a little bit for the march of the blueberries to get into/through the tower.

 

Oddly, no one wanted to pose for a picture.

[Emperor Norton]

Across the bridge was shelter.

 

We were in a gift shop/cafe with the fantabulous opportunity to pay to wear a costume and have our picture taken. Again no one availed themselves of this option.

 

I did avail myself of the opportunity to sample a local apple flavored hot Amazake. It had a very nice apple flavor and the warmth it spread as it went down my throat was a welcome change from the cold and wet we'd experienced outside.

 

 

After our stop here it was a relatively quick walk back to the street and to our next stop (this was probably one of the few tours where I found the walking pace to my liking).

[Emperor Norton]

After the castle we walked to a museum/storage building for the floats/equipment used in the local Neputa Festival ((A Neputa Festival is a festival where the Neputa (fan shaped floats) are paraded around town in an effort to banish the sleep demon that would cause the rice farmers to be less productive)).

 

They had many different sizes of Neputa on display (one so large it was a demo model only). The tour was mostly self guided/paced but initially we were all gathered together and seated to listen to a talk and demonstration on the festival and the drumming. Part of this involved audience participation. It took a bit of time to get volunteers. I was afraid people were going to end up being voluntold.

[YOUTUBE]TmWF9jHp4cE[/YOUTUBE]

[Emperor Norton]

 

Side A

 

Side B

 

The Neputa were two sided. One side was to be displayed to other cities groups the other side was to be displayed to your own group.

 

 



 

[Emperor Norton]

Continuing our walking tour of the building I encountered what was supposed to be a photographic spot. I figure the person who made and posted the sign enjoys messing with tourists.

 

First - shooting through windows is bad. Secondly shooting through windows with mesh is generally pointless unless you're using the mesh as part of the image (yes this window was the photographic spot:mad:).

 

 

We strolled through some crafting spaces

 

Before a musical demonstration and then an hour bus ride back to the ship.

[Emperor Norton]

Dinner tonight was in the Colonnade for a Thomas Keller menu. The main entree was "BBQ" baby back ribs. The salad was good, the ribs were a ten minute argument (also light on the meat) and dessert was nice. In another wonderful service experience on of the people in the group had the audacity to ask for the sauce not to be put on the ribs after they came out of the oven. The horror. The first word out of the servers mouth: No. In the past on Seabourn the crew tried to avoid using the word no. At some point when someone was being dense they would have to resort to it but generally they found a way around using that specific word. This cruise it seemed with several members the attitude was "say no first and hope I'm not corrected":mad:

 

It took the person who wanted the ribs sans sauce about ten minutes of talking, discussing and arguing with the server before someone else came over to see what the issue was. After listening to the issue it took the new server all of two seconds to respond with "Of course, that's not a problem". That made for an interesting dinner.:rolleyes:

 

Salad

 

 

Ribs

 

Blueberry "cheesecake" the consistency was more batter than cake.

 

 

We were informed that due to inclement weather we would be spending another day in Aomori. They added a single tour for the day, the other option was to entertain yourself.

[Emperor Norton]

Day two in Aomori dawned with overcast skies and a chance of rain.

 

I had a job to do today. Track down a Starbucks Japan cup for a collector. In a previous port someone who was a collector of the city cups took the last country cup.:mad:

 

My first stop was the Starbucks by the JR station. Not surprisingly a small outlet on the commuter route didn't have much in the way of tourist items. It did however offer up a really nice frappuccino.

 

Recalling that somewhere along the line the previous day we had driven past a Starbucks I figured I could use my amazing sense of direction to find the place. This should be fun.

 

Apparently I was up and out a bit early as aside from some commuters and students I hadn't really seen anyone on the streets yet.

 

I did see a few things that I hadn't seen in the US in quite some time.

 



 

 

I'm not sure what it said but it wouldn't surprise me if it said "abandon all hope all ye Google map users for they're near useless here"

[Emperor Norton]

The walk was taking a bit longer than I'd thought it would but eventually I found what I was looking for.

 

I'm not sure how much information an English reader could glean from this (other than you go down to play pachinko)

 

Were there really that many ne'er do wells that read English in the area?

 

Apparently you can obtain your much needed ions by drinking the sweat of a pocari.

 

A hot pink car with the line name of Hustler? I wonder if she paid extra for the paint job.

 

So while my sense of direction was on point, my sense of distance, not so much. My short trip turned into a 7.6 Km/4.7 mile wander.

[Emperor Norton]

Dinner tonight was in the Restaurant with special orders. I'd special ordered bone marrow and I was part of a duo order for steak tartar. This was the first and last time I special ordered anything on the cruise.

 

Our group was seated promptly at 1900. We quickly let the server know that our meal was special orders. About 1915 we were informed the kitchen was having trouble with the bone marrow. Uh oh. About every 15 minutes or so thereafter we were given updates along the lines of "still having trouble". Had this been a land based restaurant we would have walked out. Eventually at 2010 the bone marrow arrived. At least that's what I was told it was. It looked like elongated rabbit pellets. It had the consistency of rubber BBs. It tasted like salt with a little bit of caramelization ('twas the only time on the cruise I felt the food was too salty - usually the inverse was true). They also managed to lose the bones and toast points. That was a strike out. At least they couldn't destroy the steak tartar. Could they?

 

Sadly and resoundingly, not only could they manage to destroy the steak tartar they earned the dubious distinction of serving me the worst steak tartar I've ever had (this even beat out one I had in Bordeaux where I believe the protein source was cheval rather than boeuf). The person I was splitting it with had requested no capers. That part was met. Somehow no capers had morphed into: no capers, very little onion/herbs, no salt, no mustard, no Worcestershire sauce, no egg and please turn the meat into a mushy paste consistency. So I took a few bites of my steak flavored mush and called it a night in the restaurant.

 

 

 

 

I tried to drown my sorrows over the dinner food massacre in the Observation bar. My drink wasn't deep enough.

 

 

Foreshadowing: Something in the above picture would be gone before the end of the cruise.

Gallery for both days in Aomori

[Isklaar]

Enjoying these very much. The photos of Japan make me want to return.

The steak tartare? UGH. It looks awful, can't imagine the taste without any seasoning and so mushy.

[galeforce9]

Who was this chef? Please warn us for future reference?? Sounds like our Alaska chef last year on sojourn (after Jes)

 

 

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[Emperor Norton]

Enjoying these very much. The photos of Japan make me want to return.

The steak tartare? UGH. It looks awful, can't imagine the taste without any seasoning and so mushy.

 

As a child did you ever try raw ground beef? Kind of like that but the ground beef had a better texture.;)

[Emperor Norton]

Who was this chef? Please warn us for future reference?? Sounds like our Alaska chef last year on sojourn (after Jes)

 

 

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I will try to track that down when I get home. I know it wasn't Jes, John or Pascal.

[galeforce9]

I will try to track that down when I get home. I know it wasn't Jes, John or Pascal.

 

 

 

Thanks. No, they would have excelled at steak tartare! Jes made us a few in Antarctica this year and they had a little mound of caviar on top. Stunning!!

 

 

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[galeforce9]

 

 

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[Emperor Norton]

This makes me think Seabourn needs an option to list which chef will be on the cruise.

[Isklaar]

This makes me think Seabourn needs an option to list which chef will be on the cruise.

 

But of course should not be necessary. At these prices we should reasonably expect consistency.

 

How can the same cruise line justify what you were served up compared to Galeforce's?

[Jim Avery]

This makes me think Seabourn needs an option to list which chef will be on the cruise.

Good idea. We are hoping Chef Jes is onboard Sojourn end of July.:cool:

[Emperor Norton]

But of course should not be necessary. At these prices we should reasonably expect consistency.

 

How can the same cruise line justify what you were served up compared to Galeforce's?

 

I agree, but my experience with Seabourn chefs (and more so the Hotel Managers/Directors) has been a bit...scattered.

[DUHCAR]

Dinner tonight was in the Restaurant with special orders. I'd special ordered bone marrow and I was part of a duo order for steak tartar. This was the first and last time I special ordered anything on the cruise.

 

Our group was seated promptly at 1900. We quickly let the server know that our meal was special orders. About 1915 we were informed the kitchen was having trouble with the bone marrow. ........... They also managed to lose the bones .......

 

I don't think Seabourn would even have marrow bones on board, would they?

[Emperor Norton]

I don't think Seabourn would even have marrow bones on board, would they?

 

The bones for the Osso Bucco contain marrow (foreshadowing;)). If I had to guess they tried to speed thaw them, take out the marrow and cooked the marrow on its own.

 

Im thinking that bones for marrows sake they didn't have.

[Covepointcruiser]

Apparently the third try was the charm for my attempts at a good breakfast that wasn't at a snails pace or served with a side of surly server.

 

Into the Colonnade again for breakfast. I didn't see the server from yesterday so things are looking up. I seated myself and shortly thereafter I had placed my drink order (OJ - I always ask for a large glass - I don't understand the little shot sized glasses for this beverage), coffee order and food order. I was now free to roam along the buffet and see what was on offer today.

 

In the past I've found the doughnuts to have a less than pleasant texture as well as lacking in the flavor department. Taking a chance I took a doughnut. Both texture and flavor were vastly improved from previous cruises. Good to know, yet bad to know as they were now to me good to eat.

 

It always amuses me to see the sugar bomb cereals on cruise ships that don't cater to the family crowd. I wonder how many boxes of Fruit Loops and Frosted Flakes they go through on a cruise.:confused:

 

The food arrived quickly and was what I'd actually ordered. It was also cooked correctly.(y)

 

For the rest of the cruise whenever I took breakfast in the Colonnade I sought out that seat. The only quibble I had for the remainder of the cruise for breakfast was with the American style breakfast sausage. I'm not sure how they were cooked but they seemed to be lacking any visible sign of having undergone the Maillard reaction. They were these pale grey limp things. Ah well - everything else was good. The specials of the morning were interesting I think my favorite was the goat cheese omelet.

 

There was no “American” style sausage served on this ship! We all (Americans) thought those sausages were English or German style. There was nothing that remotely resembled our Jimmy Dean or Bob Evans style breakfast sausage. Could they have been Australian Style?

[Emperor Norton]

The little flaccid grey things lacking in the Maillard reaction department reminded me of some of the pre-cooked links you see in the grocery store (or frozen sausage that hasn't been cooked). They were next to the German sausages IIRC.

[Robisan]

I was afraid people were going to end up being voluntold.

 

This is the point where excursion fees reverse direction.