October 1 – October 13
We sailed October 1 from San Diego. Our departure was
delayed over three hours due to difficulties getting the luggage loaded and
delivered to cabins. Because our cabin number had changed since our bags were
collected September 18, one of our bags was delivered correctly to our new
cabin, two to our original cabin and one somewhere else. However, by the end of
the day we were reunited with all four of our bags. During that time, three bags
belonging to someone else who had originally booked our current cabin were
erroneously delivered to us. And so we were underway.
The itinerary called for us to be at sea six days before our
first port of call in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Unfortunately the weather in Dutch
Harbor prevented us from docking there and so onward we sailed to Japan. Eleven
days at sea – the most we had ever experienced – before we finally arrived at
Kushiro, Japan on Hokkaido Island.
Life at sea isn’t bad. Lots of things to do aboard and/or
lots of places to hide and just read or nap. I joined a total body conditioning
class that meets every day at 5:00 p.m. The instructor is a personable young
man from South Africa who guides us through planks, curls, presses, jumps and
any number of other difficult and painful activities. By the end of the
30-minutes we are breathing heavily and sweating. Oh, and there is occasional
pain. But, as they say, what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.
During our voyage we crossed the International Date Line,
which put us almost a day ahead of our home time zone. For us, Monday, October
9, did not exist in 2017. There was a palpable sense of anticipation among
guests and crew as we neared our first dry land in almost two weeks. Kushiro,
the “town of mist” certainly lived up to its name as we approached in thick
fog. The ship kept sounding its fog horn and, somehow, the pilot boat was able
to find us and take us into port. However, by the time we got ashore the sun
had come out and the temperature had reached the high 50s.
Japan has the most stringent entry requirements we have ever
experienced – even more stringent than Israel. We were assigned group numbers. As
our group was called we presented ourselves with passports and completed entry
documents before a customs/immigration official who checked our credentials,
fingerprinted us and took our photos. We are required to keep our passports
with us at all times while ashore – another difference from other countries we
have visited.
Kushiro isn’t the biggest city on Hokkaido, but has long
been considered an important port and the cultural capital on the eastern part
of the island. We passed up the tours to the near-by Kushiro Marsh National
Park and the Kushiro Tancho Nature Park in exchange for walking about in the
city and visits to the Washo Fish Market, where we saw the largest octopus
tentacles we have ever seen, and the Fisherman’s Wharf Shopping Mall. The city
itself isn’t what one might call “picturesque” and the streets seemed very
empty – especially considering we were there on a Friday.
Just prior to leaving we were entertained by a group of
young women performing hula dances. We are not sure why. We were also serenaded
by a man who had achieved some level of recording success in Japan. He wasn’t
too bad. Then, as we pulled away from the dock a small group waived orange
flags to see us on our way.
Now we are on our way to Yokohama/Tokyo where we’ll be
docked for two days.
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