Random thoughts from the sea
Day 19, Grand Asia 2017 Friday, Oct. 20, 2017 – Hososhima, Japan According to Japanese mythology, the first Japanese emperor, Jimmu, set sail from the small seaside village of Mimitsu to conquer central Japan. Today I visited the village during our stop in Hososhima on Kyushu, the southwestern-most of the
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Day 18, Grand Asia 2017 Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017 – Beppu, Japan We’re more than halfway through our week of Japanese ports. Our original itinerary had five stops in Japan followed by two in Korea. But the Chinese government decided it would not admit ships that had stopped in Korea.
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Day 17, Grand Asia 2017 Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2017 – Osaka/Kyoto As we sailed into Osaka this morning, an unfamiliar sight greeted us: sun and blue sky. The mood of the entire ship seemed to lift after days of rainy Japanese ports. We cruised through Osaka Bay and docked at
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Day 16, Grand Asia 2017 Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2017 – Shimizu, Japan Do you see Mount Fuji here? No? Neither did I. Today we docked in Shimizu, Japan, a beautiful port considered the gateway to Mount Fuji. But it was another cold rainy day with low cloud cover. It isn’t
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Day 15, Grand Asia 2017 Monday, Oct. 16, 2017 – Yokohama/Tokyo Today started with a wonderful moment of serendipity. Our tour guide was running late and while we waited I used the port terminal’s free WIFI to pop onto Snapchat and ask if anyone in our family group was around.
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Day 14, Grand Asia 2017 Sunday, Oct. 15, 2017 – Yokohama/Tokyo I pictured Tokyo as a city of bright neon lights, skyscrapers and millions of people densely packed into a small space. We didn’t see that Tokyo today. Our Tokyo was a city of dreary drizzle and millions of umbrellas.
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Day 13, Grand Asia 2017 Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017 – At Sea Mangoes and papayas showed up at breakfast today just as the berries are disappearing. We will reprovision in Yokohama tomorrow, I presume. They say you should eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like
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Day 12, Grand Asia 2017 Friday, Oct. 13, 2017 – Kushiro, Japan If you like sashimi, then you must go to the Washo Ichiba when in Kushiro and try its famous “katte-don.” After just a few minutes of observation in this fish market about a kilometer from the pier, I
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Day 11, Grand Asia 2017 Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017 – At Sea After all these lazy sea days, we are in high anticipation of our first port tomorrow. Kushira is the one of seven Japanese ports we will visit. I will be exploring it independently (not on a tour) with
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Day 10, Grand Asia 2017 Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017 – At Sea When I started cruising about 25 years ago, there was no Internet at sea. Phone calls from the ship cost $16 a minute, as I recall. I never called anyone at that rate. I liked being out of
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