Day 51 - 31 Aug - At Sea to Nagasaki, Japan

There's nothing quite like having one's TV set come on at 6am to wake one up. Fortunately it did or I would have missed the scenic cruising through the Kanmon Straits. So on the day commemorating my 74th year of being on this planet, I quickly dressed and headed up to Deck 14 and joined a small group to watch our passage through this narrow and strategic passage. It's the 3rd time in the past 4 weeks we traversed it. For much of the time I spent chatting with Alex and Barb.

Ron Orenstein was the guest in the morning coffee chat and Bruce Petty presented an interesting talk on the Missing Persons from WWII. This was followed by Lance's port talk on Nagasaki.

 For my birthday, Angela invited two other couples to join us for a nice lunch in the Pinnacle Grill. After 500 plus days of cruising we had never eaten there for lunch. We ate a leisurely lunch with lots of conversation and memories of cruising together and more. It went so well we missed the presentation on Pluto as well as the showing of black and white photographs of the aftermath of the Atomic blast at Hiroshima.

We had a short but good interdenominational Bible study in the Hudson Room but were rudely interrupted by one member of the 'Friends of Bill W' group. Later I was able to find a probable change in venue. We'll see if that comes to pass on our next sea day.

Since lunch was so filling, dinner in the Lido was light and we attended the 7:30pm entertainment which was Pingxin Xu, a masterful player of the Hammered Dulcimer. We went to a short repeat of Terry Greenberg's Behind the Mask: Hidden Culture of Japan. We finished up the evening watching a documentary film, Last Flight Home, about searching for MIA soldiers of which there are 88,000 still missing. The film focused on airmen and was very good.

Tomorrow we have a long port day in Nagasaki which will be our third visit in three years. Stay tuned.

Day 50 - 30 Aug - Hiroshima, Japan

This was our second visit to this city which was leveled by the first atomic bomb in history on August 6, 1945 and 25 days before I was born. We arrived and were docked at 10am to a small welcoming committee. Our plan for the day was to independently tour with Alex and Barb whom we've previously cruised with.  

We caught the second shuttle which took us downtown to City Hall from which we walked to the tram a few blocks away. It was two stops to reach the Peace Memorial Park where we were to spend the bulk of our time. The remains of the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall (now known as the A-Bomb Dome) was our first stop. It marks close to ground zero where the bomb detonated in the air above it.

From there we made our way to the Flame of Peace (never to be extinguished until there are no more nuclear bombs), the Memorial Museum, the Victims' Memorial Hall, the Children's Peace monument, the Memorial Mound (70,000 persons buried there), and several other memorials. They are all a somber reminder of the effects of the use of nuclear weapons. Here's a layout of the park.

From the park we walked to the Hiroshima Castle and toured it before walking over to the wonderful Shukkeien Gardens where we spent a relaxing couple of hours walking the pond, feeding the carp and turtles, watching fish jump high out of the water, finding beautiful land crabs, and admiring the manicured beauty of the garden. There was virtually nobody there and we closed it up at 6pm.  

We walked back to the location of a tram we could take back to the ship as the last shuttle left an hour earlier. We ended up hailing a taxi which dropped us off in 20 minutes at the ship. A tram ride would have been close to an hour plus a 10 minute walk.

We grabbed a quick dinner and were joined by Ann and John and we chatted as the ship slowly left its berth at 8pm and headed out to sea in pitch black darkness. We went to an 8:30pm repeat of Terry Greenberg's Japanese culture lecture and then participated in the comedy show of Tim Kaminski. It was fun. I played the scarecrow in a recreation of the Wizard of Oz. We finished off our night at the 10:30 feeding before retiring.

Tomorrow is a sea day and we're passing through the Kanmon Straights for the 3rd time this cruise. Stay tuned.

 

Day 49 - 29 Aug - At Sea to Hiroshima, Japan

All day today we sailed as fast as we could against a stiff headwind. At noon the Captain announced that we would be arriving in Hiroshima two hours late tomorrow at 10am due to the strong headwinds. Our departure time will be set back two hours. As we sail south it's also been getting warmer again.

The last Cruise Critic meet and greet for me of this long voyage was held at 10am in the Crow's Nest with over 100 attending. Everyone seemed to have a good time. Someone 'borrowed' both my Sharpie pens which I use for other purposes than making name tags.

There was a full set of EXC lectures today along with Gala Night. Terry led off with his repeat lecture on Japanese customs. Lance presented two Hiroshima port talks, and Bruce Petty gave his first WWII talk on an introduction to the causes of WWII. Greg Redfern presented his first talk on being an Astrophotographer during the 6:30 and 8:30 time slots.

The Emperors of Soul, a black quartet presented their first set of the cruise. They sang mainly soul music classics in a style similar to the Jersey Tenors. Before their first show, there was a Captain's toast but we missed it because the 6:30 talk went long. Afterwards we watched 'Letters from Iwo Jima' on DVD in our stateroom.

Day 46 - 27 Aug - At Sea to Yokohama, Japan

Today was our final sea day of this leg of the cruise. First on the agenda was the group EXE coffee chat in the Showroom At Sea. Frankly it wasn't well attended and the questions weren't flowing from the audience that was there. Terry Greenberg followed with his excellent talk on the two major religions in Japan: Shintoism and Buddhism with a smattering of time spent on the "modern" religions which are principally quite cult like. Lance gave his port talk on Yokohama.

After lunch Nigel Atherton presented a slide show of some of the earliest photographs taken in Japan or of Japanese people. At 2pm I felt there was a major snafu in the programming: Two EXE presenters gave presentations. Terry took questions in the Wajang Theatre and Ron Orenstein gave a presentation on Whaling History in Japan, I elected to attend the whaling lecture while my wife sat in on Terry's Q&A session. Then at 3pm Nigel was back with a super black * white slide show of crew members throughout the ship. At 4pm I led the final interdenominational Bible study of this segment,

We attended the Guest Chef's dinner and sat once again with Don & Barbara. This meal was much better than the previous one and featured a Kobe beef steak that was probably the best cut of meat I've ever eaten. We were then able to catch the final show by Tom Suha, the very good rock and pop and classical violinist. My tummy wasn't doing well for some reason so we retired to our stateroom. It was sure good to not have to pack!

Throughout the day we sailed at over 17 knots and per the Captain, we had to deviate from a straight course in order to not enter a restricted area used by the Japanese Air Force for practice maneuvers.

Tomorrow is the turnaround day in Yokohama and we'll do something near the ship as the weather wasn't projected to be all that nice. Stay tuned.

Day 45 - 26 Aug - Hakodate, Japan

Tiredness must have caught up with us as we didn't set an alarm and woke up at 8:30am. Turning on the TV bow cam indicated we were in the final stages of docking. Since our plans were open today, we casually got ready and enjoyed a relaxing breakfast before boarding the complementary shuttle to down's JR rail station. At the drop off point, we were once again greeted by helpful local high school students eager to help us and practice their English. Their teacher was with them and I thanked him for doing this.

The students helped us find the best way to the Ropeway (cable car) up Mt. Hakodate which was to take the tram (600 Yen ($6) for an all day tram pass) to the Jujigai station and walk up the hill to the Ropeway station. There we bought a one way cable car ride and took the cable car to the top where we took in the views for about an hour before beginning our walk down the mountain using a marked path and a hand drawn map that the Ropeway ticket seller provided us.

We walked the forest path down the mountain and somewhere the trail didn't follow the map. But we hiked on and the trail narrowed to just wide enough for a person to walk between the undergrowth. And all along the trail were shrines which I took pictures of every one. Finally at the bottom we came out at a large cemetery and the burial place of one of Japan's most famous modern sculptors: Nakahara Teijiro. Since the Ropeway wasn't nearby like we expected, I consulted my electronic maps and determined that the tram line was nearby and down the hill.  

So we walked down the hill and headed to the Hakodate Dock-mae station (end of the line). Along the way an American classic car in a building caught my eye and we went in. There was a black '59 Chevrolet convertible and light metallic green '63 Chevrolet convertible. Both were immaculate. In the back of the store was the trunk area of a '71 Thunderbird that was customized into a sofa. When I verbally identified the vehicles, the proprietor was visibly stunned. That led to me sharing pictures of my classic cars and despite our English/Japanese language difficulties, the language of cars transcended it. It was a wonderful encounter that only happens when one walks around with eyes open and a sharing heart.

We caught the tram (it runs every 10 minutes) at station number D23 and rode it across town to near the airport and stop D2 where the Botanical Garden and the monkeys were located. A small group of Japanese high school students were headed to the same place so they 'adopted' us and we chatted along the way so they could practice their English. Just before the Botanical Garden there was a yard with a sheep and a goat in it.

At the Botanical Garden, we paid the 300 yen ($3) per person entry fee and headed straight for the monkeys. There were about 50 of them in a large enclosure and we fed them monkey food pellets that the students had purchased. Some of the monkeys were very adept at catching the pellets and some even gestured for us to throw pellets to them. It was a cool encounter.

We briefly toured the Botanical Garden which was a large dome with lots of plants and a fish pond with coi and turtles and a few parakeet type birds. Outside the dome building was a covered shelter over a hot water pool, so we soaked our feet for a bit. It was then time to head back. We walked a few blocks and stopped at Lawson convenience store for a very late lunch of some sushi and a zero calorie Japan cola. Just a tip when traveling in Japan: the convenience stores (Lawson, 7/11, Family Mart, etc.) generally have healthy food items and are relatively inexpensive. 

We got on our tram at stop #D02 and rode it back to the JR Railway station (stop D17) where we did a quick tour of it before boarding our shuttle bus back to the port. Back onboard the ship, the Lido was serving a Japanese themed dinner so I enjoyed my fill of sashimi along with Bok Choi and short ribs. And Captain Arno ate his dinner wearing a Japanese robe. I thanked him for the credit we received and we shared my observation about being still on the ship for another month. He noted that after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, all the ports are new for him until we reach Papua New Guinea.

Terry Greenberg gave a presentation on Japanese proverbs and etiquette which was quite good. The only other evening entertainment was a showing of Avengers End Game. About 7:45pm the ship left the dock so I went outside to watch the night departure before heading up to the Crow's Nest to watch the continuing sail away. There we chatted with another couple for several hours while watching the bright lights emanating from the numerous fishing boats. 

Tomorrow is a sea day before reaching our turn around port of Yokohama.

Day 44 - 25 Aug - Otaru, Japan

After a very leisurely overnight sailing, we arrived in a wet Otaru around 8am. The Japanese immigration authorities would not flex on their timetable of arriving at 9am and setting up their equipment for a full face to passport inspection of all passengers starting at just before 10am. We were assigned group two so we started a group two line before group one was finished. But HAL held our line until 10:20 and we were done by 11:00.

We gathered our day packs and left the ship and walked to the north end of the Otaru Canal (where we ate a Lawson Convenience store lunch last segment) which is a half mile long remaining fragment of a former commercial canal used to move goods from the main harbor to warehouses adjoining the canal. Now the whole area is a tourist with canal boats taking rides plus many local vendors plying their wares from 10x10 pop up tents.  

From the north end of the canal we walked one block west to Ironaiodori Street which at its southern portion becomes a major shopping and tourist street. There are many shops, restaurants, cafes, hotels & historical buildings. Numerous stores provide samples and glass shops are a significant shopping opportunity.

At south end of Ironaiodori Street, there's a nice music box store and free museum which we enjoyed before eating a late noodle lunch at the Snoopy Cafe. The Japanese definitely have a fetish for Snoopy as well as Hello Kitty. The lunch was so filling we didn't bother to go to the final Gala dinner after returning to the ship.

We walked back to our ship with a couple from Puyallup and the drummers were set up alongside the ship to perform at the sailaway. About 4:30pm, about 9 HAL tour buses arrived nearly simultaneously and the line to reboard the ship stretched across the parking lot! It was the longest last minute port call line I've seen for a HAL ship. We listened to the drummers and let the line dissipate before reboarding just before 5pm. Passengers continued to board until after the on board time of 5. At 5:10pm the gangway was stowed and by 5:15 the Maasdam silently slipped away from the dock to the accompaniment of the Japanese Hula dancers and the drum corps. Shortly after departure (usually it's given before departure), the Captain gave his departure message indicating we'd sail at a brisk 18 knots to reach Hakodate by 9am tomorrow.  

The Jersey Tenors performed their final shows tonight and we attended both performances. Their theme was Broadway and More and it was really good and different from the same show on the last segment. Tonight was the Indonesian crew show, but it was a bit late for us plus we've seen it many times. It was also the chocolate surprize night on deck 8.

The promised $100 per person credit was posted to our shipboard account today along with refunds of the 3 missed ports port charges. We're currently sitting on an over $1100 credit balance in our shipboard account. We'll likely use it for an internet package, some nice dinners, and maybe a shore excursion. We have prepaid gratuities so that won't be a way to reduce the credit balance.

 Tomorrow is our last port of call on this segment before our sea day on the way to Yokohama and the start of our final month on the ship this cruise. Stay tuned.

Day 43 - 24 Aug - Almost Korsakov

Overnight I slept like a baby rocked in our bed by the constant motion of the ship. My wife, on the other hand, didn't fare as well and was kept awake by the motion. When my alarm went off at 6:30 and I turned on the bow camera in our inside room it was obvious we weren't yet near our moorage as we were still sailing at 16 plus knots. I showered and dressed and headed up to the Lido for breakfast expecting to see land. But the low clouds and drizzle obscured it until finally it came into view and the lonely pilot boat first came out, we anchored, and a larger boat containing the immigration team arrived with their important passengers.  

About this time Captain Arno came on the PA system for his first announcement that it was not looking promising to be able to tender with 6 foot swells and a 35 knot wind. From the Lido it really didn't look bad. Lance came on the PA system to tell all guests to not proceed to the locations on their HAL shore excursion tickets or the Ocean Bar for those going ashore independently. We were to wait for further instructions.. 

At 8:35 am Captain Arno announced he was cancelling the port call as the tenders were experiencing a 5 foot swell while at the tender platform. Later in his noon update Captain Arno said the winds were so strong we were dragging the anchor and even the thrusters running at full power couldn't keep us in position. So, after disembarking the immigration authorities, the test tender was retrieved, the anchor retrieved, we pivoted clockwise and slowly proceeded out of the harbor into the rougher open seas.

Lance came back on the PA system and announced a change in the programming and that a revised When & Where would be distributed. He'd re-present his Japanese ports talk at 10am and at 11am Terry Greenberg would share some personal travel history in a talk called Tairy Tales which we've seen before on the Volendam. Ron did a a special talk on Guano which turned out to be quite interesting.

During lunch my wife and I both saw a pair of flying squid that Ron had described in a previous talk. They fly using a jet boost of water and their flukes flutter as they fly about 10 feet before touching down and relaunching. The 2pm movie wasn't of interest, so I took a nap in the library before participating in the rescheduled 4pm interdenominational Bible study.

Tomono Kawamura performed her last piano concert of this cruise. At 10pm the Orange party was held up in the Crow's Nest and it was well attended. Much of our time was spent with a Japanese couple communicating with the aid of Google Translate. They have 9 cruises booked after this one primarily on MSC.

We also received a letter tonight from the Captain apologizing once again for the missed ports and extending a $100 per person shipboard credit plus another Future Cruise Credit usable within a year amounting to 15% of the value of the 14 day segment. While it was certainly not expected, it was a nice gesture.

Tomorrow we are in Otaru and have the lengthy arrival immigration inspection. We think we have an interesting day planned. Stay tuned.

    

Day 42 - 23 Aug - At Sea to Korsakov

We lost another hour last night to synchronize our time with Korsakov. There was a little motion to the ocean overnight but not as much as two weeks ago.  

Today was a heavy day of EXC lecture programming with Lance giving his Port Talk on Otaru and Hakodate. In the after noon were 4 lectures. Our guest chef gave another food demo; Ronald Orenstein presented on sea life around Japan, Nigel Aronson shared an excellent history of cameras; and Terry Greenberg talked about the Anai people and matters about Hokkaido Island where our next two Japanese ports are located.

Our evening entertainment was Monique Delaney.  

Korsakov is scheduled for tomorrow. Will we make it? Stay tuned.

Day 41 - 22 Aug - Vladivostok

Our new room is very quiet. We're not hearing thruster motors, chains, or windlaces. While we were still in dreamland at 6am the Maasdam quietly and without so much of a bump nestled up to its berth at the now familiar Vladivostok cruise terminal. However, missing were the 3 Russian frigates with their imposing missile launchers that stood guard close to us during our last visit exactly two weeks ago.

While I didn't watch them, Angela reported to me that there were Russian musicians who performed a short program just before 8am while I was eating breakfast. emEven though the daily program and the PA announcements said passport pickup time was to be 8:30, at 8am I gathered our passports from the distribution point in the ocean bar. There was no line basically because most people who were getting off the ship were on HAL tours. The rest of our group. We gathered up our day packs, travel voucher, walkers and key cards and met our group in the 6th floor atrium.

Dina, our guide from ExplorePrimore.Com was waiting for us and we walked a short distance to the two vehicles that would take our little group if 8 out to the Safari Park. Dina, who spoke perfect English drove our vehicle but the other driver spoke no English. For the return trip the couples switched cars so all would have the benefit of her commentary. It was about an hour and 15 minutes drive out to the park on both 4 lane and 2 lane roads.

The park is located in a wooded area and there are large open but fenced areas for the larger animals to wander around it. For the 3 Amur tigers and the leopards and bears, there was a nice elevated steel walkway from which we could easily view the animals. The park served as both a conservancy (providing a home to injured animals and a breeding facility where endangered species could be propagated. Deer and elk were in large fenced enclosures and we could enter those to pet and feed the animals.

There were two other sections to the Park. The first was a large open area where small predators were allowed to roam free among the visitors. This included a badger, two moon bear cubs, river otters, a raccoon dog, a small cat like an ocelot, & a black fox, It was pretty cool to be so close to the animals even though we couldn't touch them. The third enclosure was for the birds. Eagles, owls, various raptors, and a huge vulture made up the collection.  

After visiting the park, we had a traditional Russian meal at the Forest Fairy restaurant. It was composed of bread, vegetable soup, spaghetti and a cabbage roll, tea, and a crepe like dessert. Back at the city 4 of us were dropped off near the U-56 submarine park, one couple went to one of the local museums and one couple went back to the ship. GARY and I toured the submarine while our wives visited the souvenir shop and afterwards we toured the train station and cruise terminal before reboarding the ship.

After a quick Lido dinner, once again there were a good number of people on the dock accompanied by Russian march music to wish us goodbye as we slowly slipped away from the pier, rotated 180° counterclockwise and sailed out of the harbor and under the Russky Bridge which is the longest suspension bridge in the world and 3rd tallest.

Our evening entertainment was Mark Winter, aka Mr. Sandman, from New Zealand who produced exquisite drawings using sand and others from acrylics.

Tomorrow is a sea day on our way to Korsakov where once again we'll tender.

Day 40 - 21 Aug - At Sea to Vladivostok

After our clocks were set forward one hour last night, it was a challenge to get up this morning. But I made it to the 9am coffee chat with Terry Greenberg. It wasn't as well attended as I expected. Nigel Atherton presented a main stage photo presentation on his choice of the best all time photos. I had seen about 25% of these; and it was a good representation of photos including the famous Iwo Jima flag raising photo, the napalmed Vietnamese girl, and the Afghan lady with the penetrating eyes. He also gave the backgrounds behind all of the photos.  

Lance gave his port talk for the two upcoming Russian ports including his warning that one has to be on a HAL or independent tour or hold a visit from a Russian friendly country in order to leave the ship. After lunch we watched a sushi demonstration by Hiroko Shimbo, guest chef. The Captain gave his Ask the Captain and Virtual Bridge Tour presentation. He also included a time lapse GoPro camera footage of our harbor entry and docking process. This is a hobby for him. The last presentation of the day was on Japanese cranes by Ronald Orenstein. Before dinner, I led a brief interdenominational Bible study in Colossians Chapter 2.

After dinner, we attended both the 6:30 and 8:30 Evening Insight presentation on European Occupation of Asia North by Terry Greenberg. In between Tom Suha, violinist, rocked the Showroom At Sea stage.

The seas were very flat today which was a stark comparison to two weeks ago when we raced at 22 knots to reach Vladivostok by midnight. At our current pace, we should arrive around 6am. Stay tuned. We have an exciting adventure planned for Vladivostok.

Day 39 - 20 Aug - Kanazawa, Japan

In the words of the song it seemed like yesterday once more as we returned to Kanazawa. Except this time we weren't greeted by searing heat but by torrential rains. The Maasdam was tied up by 8:30am and quickly cleared for guests to go ashore. The now familiar large collection of tents were erected on the dock and they were definitely in use as rain protection.

Some might say that returning to a port that one visited just two weeks earlier would be a waste of time. But on the contrary, it has proved to be so valuable to once again experience the sites, sounds, culture, and people. With the first visit one gets oriented to the area. On the second visit one can absorb more details and appreciate the culture. I highly recommend where possible that a repeat visit be scheduled in your travels. You'll not be disappointed.

As for us on this rainy start of the day, we watched the sail-in and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast in a very crowded Lido. Our independent shore excursion wasn't scheduled to start until noon so we left the ship just before 10am in a deluge and caught the shuttle to the JR station and took the opportunity to explore the shops and restaurants all over station.  

Just before noon we met up with our small group of 7 (one person was sick and quarantined to her cabin) at the mascot meeting point in front of the TI office. Noon cane and our guide wasn't there so I sent an email to the tour company. I received a reply that she was on a train held up by the rain. Around 12:30 Kazu, our guide, made it to our location and we began our tour by taking a bus to the Nagamachi Samurai district where we walked through it once again.

From the Samurai district we walked to a department store where we ate a quick snack for lunch. This was the same building we ate a more formal lunch up on the 8th floor 2 weeks earlier. Interestingly, in the lobby was a crowd of people of all ages intently watching a baseball game on a large television screen. After our brief lunch break we learned that it was a semi-final championship high school game.

Kanazawa Castle Park was our next stop. We entered the grounds through the gate behind the grandmother's garden. We had exited the park through that gate two weeks earlier so we had s totally different perspective. We strolled through the Park and visited one watchtower but didn't visit the Kenrokuen Garden.

Another crowded bus ride took us over to the Higashi Chayagai or Geisha District. We visited the same gold leaf shop only this time we were able to make our own gold foil chopsticks. It was a very fun and memorable activity! Afterwards we were left on our own to stroll the Geisha district.

Promptly at 6pm, our night tour guide, Nozomi, met us at the Asanogawa Ohashi Bridge where we said our goodbyes to Kazu. Nozami then lead us on a detailed walk through the Geisha district before walking to another Geisha District (Kanazawa has three of them) where our restaurant was located. The restaurant was located in a former Geisha house. We sat on the floor which was a bit uncomfortable for many of us, but the multi course meal was very good. Another tour group shared the room with us and the leader of that group lived near us in Seattle while she was attending college.

Just before 9pm we all caught cabs back to the port (2,610 yen) and were onboard by 9:20pm. We immediately went through Japanese immigration for exiting the country. We learned there that we were number 23 and 24 yet to get on the ship. Terry Greenberg shared a travel story about Morocco and cultural stereotypes.  

As has been the case in many of our Japanese ports, there was colorful send off by a dance troupe and flag bearers which was acknowledged by toots from the ship's horn. Finally at 10:40pm the lines were released and we silently slipped away from our berth and out into the black night skies into the Sea of Japan on a course to our next Port of Call at Vladivostok. It was another nice port stop and we have a sea day tomorrow. Stay tuned. And if you have the opportunity to do a loop cruise twice, just do it! 

Day 38 - 19 Aug - At Sea to Kanazawa, Japan

Due to tidal conditions we had to enter the Kanmon Strait early today. So we got up at 6am. After a Lido breakfast, I went up to the Crow's Nest to watch the sailing through the narrow channel. I spotted Angela down on deck 11 outside in front of the gym so I joined her there. If was really hazy and we were following the Diamond Princess. The current today was quite strong flowing against us requiring the ship to follow navigation alignment markers. This was especially important when setting up for turns of which there is a sharp left to pass under the highway bridge followed by a sharp right. By 9am we were done and and the Diamond Princess set a course for South Korea while we turned right on a NE course towards Kanazawa. Most of the while I chatted with Stu from Australia with whom we are on tour with in Korsakov.  

Our EXC photographer, Nigel was the subject of the 9am coffee chat. The 10am lecture by Ron Orenstein on Japanese sea birds was very well attended, but I was leading the Cruise Critic meet and greet attended by about 30 people. After a quick Lido lunch, I met with our Korsakov tour group to brief them on the tendering and passport procedures.

Angela attended the 1pm Guest chef presentation on summer vegetables while I saved a seat for the 2pm history lecture by Terry Greenberg. He sprinted through a 2,000 year history of Japan in 45 minutes in his typical engaging style. Lance re-presented his Kanazawa port talk which we didn't attend, but took a break and walked a mile on deck. I led a short interdenominational Bible study just before our customary Lido dinner. It was gala night tonight, but the main dining room menu selections were not appealing plus we wanted to attend the 6:30pm Evening Insight that Terry Greenberg presented on how Japan's geography afftects it's cultural practices. It was full as was the 8:30pm show.

The Jersey Tenors performed another great show. Angela was invited up on stage to join them in a dance routine accompanying a song. It was great fun for her! Additionally there was a Down's syndrome lady who got to dance with Danny and was totally enthralled.

Tomorrow is Kanazawa and it's our last Japanese port for a while as we visit two Russian ports. We have two excursions off the ship in Kanazawa, but I'm not sure how they will fit in. Stay tuned.

Day 37 - 18 Aug - Kochi, Japan

It was smooth sailing overnight to Kochi. The Maasdam was once again greeted by an enthusiastic community even with the Diamond Princess berthed 90° to our bow at the dock we were at last time. When I went to the first Sunday interdenominational service at 8am, there was a retired chaplain, Bill from Texas, who was prepared to lead it as was I. Since he is ordained I deferred to him. He'll do the other Sunday service for this 14 day cruise and I'll be ready to do the services on the last month on our way to Sydney.

After the service we made our way off the ship and headed for the shuttle bus which takes passengers to the bus station in the middle of town. Before boarding the bus a fellow came up to me and said, "You're Tim and I've been following your blog and the tips for these ports." Tom from Florida was so gracious and I appreciated the live feedback.

Some of you readers may not know that I also have an "Almost Live from the Maasdam" thread going on the Cruise Critic internet message board. Another passenger told me today that I've had over 10,000 views on that thread. Again, I'm humbled at the response.

But back to our day. We reached the bus terminal and we headed out to first walk the Sunday Market with its collection of produce and other food products plus handicrafts and lots of knives. It was hot and crowded even at 10am, and we ate some sushi for a late breakfast and just did some serious people watching.

We also took the opportunity to visit the Hirome market which is essentially a collection of small food venders on the perimeter with craft and clothing items on the interior. It was very hot and crowded in there so we decided not to eat there. Instead we wandered over to the main covered shopping street and returned to the McDonald's we ate at last time. This time I had a pepper burger and Angela had a salad. Sometimes it's just plain good to eat some more familiar food after enjoying an uncounted number of more Asian type meals.  

The remainder of our shore time was spent wandering the covered shopping mall, visiting a flea market in their Central Park, finding the famous Harimaya red bridge, visiting the 100 Yen store twice, and walking back to the bus station for our shuttle to the ship. Back at the pier we did one last perusal of the small vendors selling their wares and observing all the passengers sitting out in the humidity and heat using the free WiFi. Fortunately we don't have to do that as we have portable WIFI using our GlocalMe device.

Onboard the ship, I left my travel backpack in the stateroom and took a Coke Zero up to the Crow's Nest to watch the Sailaway. I caught the end of the 4pm daily trivia session, and shortly after 5pm following the Captain's departure announcement, the mooring lines were let go and the Maasdam slipped away from the pier to the enthusiastic goodbye from the locals plus many toots of the ship's horn in acknowledgement. The ship rotated about 120° clockwise and sailed out through the narrow opening in the breakwater into the open ocean. Just outside the breakwater, the pilot was transferred from our ship to his tender, and we set a course for the Kanmon Straits which we'll pass though early tomorrow with the Diamond Princess on our tail.  

After a light pasta dinner, we really enjoyed another great Terry Greenberg presentation on Japanese Aesthetics. It was held in the small Wajang theatre midship and was packed. Monique Dehaney, a Jamaican singer living in Japan, presented an enthusiastic show. She's fluent in Japanese and could address our fellow Japanese guests in their native tongue plus she sang a song in Japanese. We've seen her before in the Volendam.

I'll close out today's blog with three people pictures from today that convey the personality of of this fine little Japanese town.

The first is a garden plants vendor in the Sunday market. She consented to the picture and I so admired her dedication to growing her plants.

The second is a little girl enjoying her ice cream. Ice cream is good anywhere and it's especially good when plopped down on a sidewalk. Seize the moment.

The last is of my wife on the Harimaya bridge where history recounts the sad love story of a monk named Junshin and a woman named Ouna who were found out and driven from the town. Fortunately our love story is not a sad one.

Day 35 - 16 Aug - At Sea to Kobe, Japan

We woke up this morning with the ship moving around a bit more than the past 36 hours waiting out the cyclone in Tokyo Bay. At 6am the Maasdam left its anchorage and proceeded to its new next scheduled port stop at Kobe. The missing ports for this section of the itinerary are Shimizu and Takashima, both of which we thoroughly enjoyed, and Shimizu we've also enjoyed on several prior cruises on the Volendam.

Throughout the day there was significant ship motion which was mainly what I call porpoising or up and down motion in the ship's direction. There's very little sideways motion due to the stabilizers. A little after 3:15pm there was a first stage alarm for smoke in a galley. Subsequent announcements by Captain Arno indicated it was only an overheated electric motor. Weather wise we've had low level clouds but not dense enough to require use of the fog horn. Plus the sun has tried to peek through. At the noon briefing Captain Arno indicated that the Diamond Princess was having to also alter its itinerary due to the Typhoon Krosa. Throughout the day the waters calmed down as the typhoon headed away from us.

Program wise, the Jersey Tenors were the guests at the coffee chat and even did a little impromptu brief a cappella tune. We had a presentation by Ronald Orenstein on Natural Monuments which is a special classification of monuments devoted to not just physical places, but also to animals, festivals, Lance gave a port talk on Kochi which is the port stop planned after Kobe. The only planned afternoon activity was Sommelier wine tasting. A presentation by Terry Greenberg was cancelled for some unknown reason. The Evening Insight was a Travel Photography Session by Nigel Atherton which was quite good. I look forward to more of his presentations. Tomono Kawamura returned with her classical piano set for the evening entertainment.

We continue to have some problems with our new room's air conditioning. We can't get the temperature below 70°. Last night it was 72°f overnight. The technical department claims it's fixed, but it's not. There also have been areas of the Lido that are also very warm.

  

I'll leave you with a food picture of our room's fruit bowl.

 

Day 34 - 15 Aug - Sea Day in the Bay - Yokohama, Japan

We woke up this morning unsure if we would stay here today or sail towards Kobe. That question was answered late morning with a PA Captain's announcement that we would remain at anchor until 6am tomorrow (Fri - 16 Aug) when as of that announcement we would begin to sail to Kobe. The sea swells outside the harbor were reported to be 24 feet or about 8 meters), but were expected to decrease overnight. Late in the day the Diamond Princess slowly entered the anchorage area and set its anchor. If the waves are too big for the much larger Princess ship, they're too large for us. This marks the first time in nearly 500 sea days that we have anchored in a bay on a Sea Day.

Programming wise, Lance was the coffee chat guest, Terry presented a talk on the Pilgrimage Walk of the 88 Temples of Shikoku, Lance gave a port talk on Kobe and repeated it at 3pm, and Terry presented another new session on observations on Japanese Culture. Both of his presentations were really good. Terry's wife, Yoko, gave the Evening Insight presentation into Japanese language and culture.

Tonight was Gala night but we went to the Pinnacle Grill for one of our free dinners where Angela had the Scallops and I had the King Crab.

The Jersey Tenors were the Evening entertainment and were great as always. Two of the cast were new. Sitting in the front was a young lady with Down's Syndrome and she was totally engaged in and loving the concert. It was cool to see her raw unrestrained enjoyment of the concert. Angela was selected again to dance with one of the Tenors.

Most of my free time today was spent updating my blog. In case you are wondering, most of this blog is typed on an iPhone with one finger. Sometimes I hook up a Bluetooth keyboard to do the typing.  

It remains to be seen if we leave at 6am, but I am optimistic that we will. Stay tuned.

Day 33- 14 Aug - Yokohama, Japan

We woke up in the calm waters of the Yokohama Harbor berthed at the Osanbashi Cruise Terminal to a knock on our door by a room steward at 7:30am. Today was a turnaround day and we had to change rooms by 9am. We dressed, said goodbyes to our stewards, and ate some breakfast in the Lido while the disembarkation process took place. Before nine I went down to deck 5 to see if our new room was available. As I reached our room I saw our personal belongings on a cart being wheeled to our room which had a do not disturb sign in the card key slot. I waited for a few minutes with the attendant who called to find out when the people were going to vacate. It seems that they were going to stay in the room until their departure color/number was called. I went back to our previous room and cleaned out the safe and then we went to the front desk to get new key cards before returning to the new room where our stuff was still waiting outside the room, Finally near 9:30 Pink 3 was called and the people immediately.came out and departed. In my opinion, since we had to vacate by 9am, they should have received a letter that they had to vacate by 9am and wait in a public area as well.

After depositing our valuables in the safe, we checked our day packs and headed out for our day's plans in Yokohama. On the way out I asked Lance if there were any changes to the schedule, and he indicated there were none so far. Inside the terminal we ran into Gary and Marty who decided to come with us to the Ramen Museum for lunch. We did a bit of WIFI and then caught a shuttle bus to the nearby train station where with the help of a local guide were directed to the overhead train to go to Shin-Yokohama (new Yokohama). 

We first caught a local train to the Main Yokohama train station and then transferred to a local train which would stop at the Shin-Yokohama station, From that station it was "relatively" easy to navigate to the Ramen Museum where we enjoyed some excellent Japanese ramen from shop #6. We were able to visit the museum as well. It was very hot in the museum and outside was hot and humid as well.  Incidentally, I am using an APP, Rome2Rio which allows for downloading of offline use maps which eliminates the need for WIFI although I have my GlocalMe portable WiFi device with me.  I purchased a $50 data plan that theoretically gives me unlimited high speed data for 30 days. I'll add a smaller data package for Russia. I'm going to use that for most of this 14 day segment before purchasing a HAL ship internet plan for the remote places we'll be on the way to Australia.

After lunch we caught the subway back to the Yokohama station and explored the underground shops there before deciding to head towards Chinatown. We happened to walk through a building housing the world headquarters of Nissan and they had a large car display plus a brass quintet entertaining the guests, It was an impressive display.

Continuing our walk we came across the Mitsubishi Industries museum and Gary and Marty continued on while we visited the museum which was essentially a hands on children's museum not unlike the Kawasaki museum we visited in Kobe a few weeks ago. Afterwards we continued our walk towards the port and stopped at the Main Post Office to get some more cash from the ATM (international cash machines can be generally found at Post Offices). We walked to the cruise terminal and walked the entire roof structure before reboarding the ship.

Our new room keys wouldn't work, so we had to wait in line at the front desk for new ones. Then back at the room, I tried to set up access to our Navigator app but it wouldn't let me. When I called the front desk, they said to just use our old room login until the new guests set up access, then perhaps we can set it up for our new room number. We also reported an inability to reduce the room heat below 76ºf.

Also waiting for us was a letter from the Captain indicating that Shimizu and Takamatzu ports were cancelled and Kobe's visit was delayed a day. Later he announced that due to high seas outside the port here and the need for the Diamond Princess to dock, we would leave the pier at 10pm and anchor outside the bridge for the night. The next day he'd make a decision on when we would sail.

The only evening programming of interest was the 9pm introduction to this segment of the cruise and the introduction by Lance of the EXC presenters. They are:

Dr. Ronald Orenstein - ZoologistNigel Atherton - Photographer 

Chef Hiroko Shimbo

Terry Greenberg - History & Culture

Yoko Oikawa - Japanese culture & women's issues 

As we listened to each presentation of what they would be speaking on, it was encouraging to hear how different each would be from the previous set of presenters. Terry is probably my favorite HAL presenter and knows Asian culture and issues very well and is able to present them in an engaging and intellectually stimulating manner.

We felt rumblings emanating from deep in the ship so we went up to deck 13 outside to see that the Maasdam had left its berth and was headed to sail under the Bay Bridge and find an anchorage. It was very windy up there with a bit of drizzle.

We caught the end of what I affectionately call the 10:30pm feeding and I saw the Captain there and thanked him for anchoring out of the typhoon's side effects.

It was a good day and we'll see tomorrow if we enjoy what will be our first sea day in the bay at anchor in view of our last port of call. Stay tuned.

Day 32- 13 Aug - At Sea to Yokohama, Japan

Overnight we sailed at 22 knots (near top speed). There wasn't much wind but the swells were constant throughout the day with the ship porpoising depending upon the wave patterns.

Given that it was the last sea day on the ship, the morning coffee chat was in the Showroom at Sea with 4 presenters (less the chef who was prepping the food for the chef's dinner to be held later today). Dr, Kam once again received the most questions,

Joe Holliday presented his last session on the top environmental Issues of the Planet that threat oceans. Dr, Kam followed with his last presentation on key historical cultural items in Japan like Sumo Wrestling, Geishas, Bonzai, and the like. It was really good.  

At 2pm Marc Wilson gave his presentation of photos he took throughout the cruise, and Lance followed with his port talk on Yokohama. We had our final interdenominational Bible study wrapping up a brief study in the book of James. We met a Dutch couple from Aruba who we may be able to connect with when we visit there laster this year,

The Guest Chef's Japanese dinner was held in the Pinnacle and it was quite good although for the first time I couldn't eat all my sushi as I was too full. Our table mates were Don & his wife, Barbara who we ate at a similar event in the Pinnacle on the Polynesia leg of this trip last fall, 2018.

Around 4pm I was able to access the internet using our Ship's internet package, but when I tried accessing the service in the early evening I couldn't even though I was supposed to have access until midnight. Celine at the front desk got me a one day pass to use the internet as I needed to print a tour document and I couldn't use my portable internet.  

Tom Sula played his last energetic violin show. 

 

The seas had really calmed down once we entered the Tokyo Bay. A few of us went up to the outside deck 13 and watched the sail in under the Bay Bridge and the docking process. We docked on the Ferris wheel side of the Osanbashi Cruise Terminal Pier around 11:40pm. There were even a few locals who came out to greet our arrival!

Then reality set in. We had to pack for the move to a new room tomorrow. We really like room 417 on deck 6 with its easy access to the walking deck. We move to 520 on the front side. So, within an hour our loose items were in our suitcases and / or back packs or shopping bags, and a short night's sleep was ahead. But we were docked in a safe place out of the storm's way. Would we leave tomorrow?

Day 31 - 12 Aug - Hakodate, Japan

We arrived promptly by 9am and were tied up at the pier. Wait a minute, this doesn't look anything like the pier that Lance presented in his port talk! And there were shuttle buses waiting to take us into the city. As we departed the ship I inquired of Florin (Hotel Director) about the docking change and mentioned it was different than what Lance presented us. It then took a few minutes to get oriented to the new port location. Having a mapping app on my phone helped (Maps.me). The impeccable shuttle took us about 20 minutes downtown to the JR train station and bus depot which is in the heart of the city and near a few high value tourist attractions.

When we got off the bus, Gary and Marty approached us and asked if they could tag along. We've traveled with them before and they are super people. We conferred with a local high school student who was there as a guide and learned where the Morning Market was located. We had considered taking the tram out to the National Park to see the monkeys bathing in the hot springs. But another guest alerted us that it's really only in the winter that they do that. So our plan for today was to visit the Morning Market, Goryokakucho Fort, possibly the Goryokakucho Tower, and a student craft display. With our early departure announced yesterday, that seemed like a reasonable plan.

We strolled through the market and this was clearly the most congenial market we have ever visited. The vendors were happy to share their wares and there were many samples. There was all manner of fish and fish related items along with dry goods. One could jig for squid and the catch could be immediately cooked. There were lots of live crabs, cooked crabs, ice cream vendors and much more. It was total shopping overload and since it was a Japanese holiday, it was a bit crowded. We even bought some dried haddock that is yummy. And there were Welcome Maasdam signs throughout the market. They truly appreciated we were here.

When we were through walking the Morning Market, we walked back to the shuttle bus drop off area and consulted with one of the high school girls one which tram to take and where was it located. With that instruction, we headed for the tram stop and practiced our best Japanese compaction procedures as the tram was totally packed. I had a map to the Fort which showed the tram stops, and fortunately it coincided with the brief English announcement made before each stop. At the fort, most of the tram passengers got off with us. We paid our 230Y ($2.30) and followed the hordes to the Fort. Lots of people went into the tower structure so we elected to walk into the fort and walk its perimeter. It was 500 Yen to visit the Magistrate's Building so we passed on that. This star shaped fortress was designed after European forts and has very pretty grounds. 

With a tight time table we exited the Fort grounds and went through the first floor of the Tower building. It was definitely too crowded to go up in the tower. So we caught the tram back to the JR station. We attempted to find where the student craft display was, but were unsuccessful.  

We then did a quick tour of the JR station (clean, neat, and no graffiti!) before catching a shuttle back to the ship and arrived there just before 3pm. We received a travel tip from another guest to take the tram to the top and then walk down the mountain. We may do that next time. We're finding it refreshing to get out of the cities and visit more natural things.

There were no vendors on the pier so we re-boarded the ship immediately. After dropping my backpack off at the stateroom I gathered up my tour materials from the past three days and headed up to the Crow's Nest to update my blog and watch the sail away.

The Captain announced our immediate departure and that we would be sailing at top speed for Yokohama in order to arrive by midnight on 13 August which is 6 hours ahead of schedule. He also noted that the seas ahead starting in the afternoon tomorrow will be around 15 feet and there will definitely be motion onboard and to use care when moving around the ship.

I finished my Korsakov blog entry during the sail away and after dinner (Japanese night) with Erik & Marilyn, we went to the last Evening Insight which was a presentation on Coastal Features by Joe Holliday. Afterwards, I headed up to the LIDO where I've been for almost 3 hours updating the last two days of my blog. I've caught a cold and drinking tea while writing has brought some relief.

We are sailing at 22 knots (that's fast for this ship) and I'm starting to feel a bit more porpoising (up and down movement of the bow or front of the ship) as the evening goes on. There's no pitching (side to side motion). For a while we were in a fog bank and the fog horn went off every 2 minutes.

That's all for today. Things should begin to get very interesting weather wise tomorrow and over the next few days. Stay tuned.

Day 30 - 11 Aug - Otaru, Japan

Overnight we sailed from Russia to Japan. While we were scheduled to arrive at 9am, we wouldn't be able to get off the ship until we passed through immigration. At 8am I led the interdenominational Sunday service and then watched a bit of the sail in. It took about an hour until 10am for the immigration officials to set up their computers, finger scanners and cameras in the Exploration Cafe lounge in order to process us. The night before we were assigned group #1 by our tour leader as we had a tour leaving 11am. I expressed my concern then that the timing was a bit tight based upon my previous experiences with Japan immigration.

At 10am Group #1 was called and we were in line within 10 minutes, but the line was halfway through the casino and doubled behind us within a few minutes. It took 45 minutes for us the clear immigration and it turned out the rest of the group lined up early and breezed through it in less than 15 minutes. Lesson learned. For our next visit to Otaru in two weeks, we're holding on to our number 1 letter in case we need to use it. We won't be on a tour that day.

In any event after immigration, we gathered up our things and met the group and left the ship and met our guide, Kunihiro Oikawa (Kuni for short), boarded our very clean and neat jumbo van and drove to our first stop at the Yoichi Distillery where we were treated to a sample of two types of whisky and some apple wine. I'm not a drinker of hard liquor and found that the small tastes I took to be far too strong for my taste. The apple wine, on the other hand, was delicious especially when cut with a bit of soda water. We then toured the little museum and walked all over the manicured grounds with stops in warehouses which handled the various aspects of the production of whiskey.  

One might be wondering about why the apple wine was included, It seems that when Mr, Taketsuru travelled to Scotland to study making whisky and finished a course of study there. He was already an accomplished sake brewer following in his family tradition. While in Scotland, he met and married his Scottish wife, He returned to Japan, taught for a while and then in 1924, established the first whisky distillery in Japan. After completion of a 10 year contract, he started his own distillery. Since whiskey requires long aging periods (5+ years), he needed a cash crop and making apple wine satisfied that need as it didn't need the long aging process. And the apple growers were thrilled as well.

After the distillery visit we visited the villa (second home) of the Aiyana family (Herring Goten Otaru VIP Hall. This exquisitely designed second home belonged to a wealthy fishing family and is an architectural masterpiece.

For a late lunch we all agreed to skip a restaurant and went to a Lawson convenience store (think 7-11) where Angela and I enjoyed some steamy buns and sushi. It was really good.

We also visited a promontory where we could see across the bay to Sapporo. We wrapped up our short visit to Otaru by visiting the canal district and sampled our way with food from various vendors. This is one area we will return to on our return visit in two weeks,

Back at the port we said our goodbyes to Mr. Kuni and did a little shopping on the pier. I will add that our little cruise group was super fun to travel with ( we did several excursions together) and most of the group will be getting off in Yokohama.  One couple will be continuing with us to Sydney. Many of us have iPhones and we were constantly sharing photos using Airdrop.

 When chatting with one vendor I mentioned we would be back in two weeks. She looked incredulous at me and said in her best English, "I want be like you!" It was humbling and I will truly look forward to seeing her in two weeks.  

A high school drum corps was playing a super loud serenade. The beating of the drums was so energetic that they had to spell one another after about 2 minutes of hammering away on the drums. They played nonstop for at least 30 minutes.

Once on board the ship, when we were ready to leave, the Captain gave his customary announcement, but included these words, "I want you to carefully listen to the following words!" And he proceeded to update us about the typhoon that is on target to hit southern Japan the day we are scheduled to arrive in Yokohama (14 Aug). He then announced that the next port stop would have an early on board time of 3:30pm in order for the Maasdam to begin a high speed sailing to Yokohama and be at the Oshanbashi berth at midnight (6 hours earlier than scheduled). He emphasized that the seas will get rougher as we approach Yokohama but that the Maasdam was equipped to handle these storms. All but about 50 are getting off in Yokohama and a similar number need to board. Based upon how he handled the storm at Easter Island last year, I have confidence in him.

We enjoyed a regular dinner in the Pinnacle Grill and it was quite good, We were even able to make the 7:30pm final performance of the Jersey Tenors which was once again very nice, Dr, Kam gave his final presentation on Japanese culture regarding tea ceremonies and flow arranging. The final Voyager chat was with Joe Holliday, our naturalist and we ended up with a small group with him sharing bear and buffalo travel stories. It was really good.

We're certainly looking forward to returning to this port in two weeks. Stay tuned.

Day 29 - 10 Aug - Korsakov, Russia

The night before we arrived I wouldn't have put money on our chances of making the port as the seas were choppy and the wind was blowing as side effects of hurricane Francisco. But when we woke up, the harbor area was totally flat.  

Since we were anchored about 1 1/2 miles off shore today, it was necessary to tender. Since we are 5 star mariners, we were able to get a #1 tender ticket after getting our passports. Those on independent shore excursions had their passports examined by the Russian authorities first.   

Our independent tour group assembled on deck 8 in the atrium, and soon we were escorted down a crew elevator to deck 3 where we boarded a tender. It was about 1/2 hour ride to shore where we disembarked onto a floating barge and then climbed ashore to a gravel area where we met our guide, Sergey, a younger mid 30's redheaded guy.

We boarded an older white Hyundai van with barely enough seats and I ended up sitting in one in the front with my knees almost to my chest. The shock absorbers were shot and the engine was barely powerful enough to get us up even minor hills. The port area was pretty tired appearing with a shimmer of color on the welcome sign to the port. Since there wasn't much to see in Korsakov, we drove about 40 minutes north to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk which is the regional capital of the area.  

Once there, we visited St. Nicholas church which is a log cabin type structure on nicely manicured grounds. A service was already in progress, so we had a brief wait before we could visit the interior which was gorgeous. When the church opened for visiting, a short helpful Russian fellow associated with the church announced in absolutely perfect English, "May I show you around?" I was a bit taken aback, and asked him, "Where did you learn your perfect English?" Without batting an eye, he said, "Spy School" to which I immediately responded, "I flunked Russian in spy school." It was a fun interchange.

From there we visited the 4 year old Russian Orthodox Cathedral with its beautiful good and blue spires. Right next door was Victory square with a couple of artillery pieces and a tank standing guard in front of the new museum. Nearby we visited the regional museum which is housed in one of the few remaining Japanese style buildings. From there we went to the gondola which took us to the top of the ski hill and a chance to view the city. It's a two stage gondola and each car holds 8 people.

Lunch was served at a little cafeteria and was quite good with soup and a salad. Afterwards we headed back to the port but along the way we stopped at a mall for souvenirs and at a deer farm to photograph the deer. At the port city we drove around and noted how run down it generally was. Lenin Square was in good repair with lots people relaxing and enjoying their Saturday. Our last stop was to visit a viewpoint above the harbor. While there, a fairly new Cadillac limo pulled up with a wedding party inside. The bride and groom affixed a lock to the railing and then facing away from the cliff, the bride threw the keys to the lock over her shoulder and over the cliff. While the wedding party was reboarding the limousine, a couple of the inebriated guys came over and spoke in animated Russian how they liked Americans ( our guide translated). They asked if we liked Russians and my response was, "Why are we spending money to visit your country?" They then clumsily reentered the limousine and it drove away.

We were on the next to last tender and then we hustled to change and make a reservation we thought we had at 5:30pm at the Pinnacle Grill. At the Pinnacle Grill they didn't have a reservation for us for the Sel de Mer night, but there was room for us. The appetizer we had was positively terrible. It was the seafood trio and had great presentation, but the crab was hard to crack with the tools presented us, tough and leathery, the oysters were flat and sticking to the shell. It was not worth the $22 supplement. The rest of the dinner was fine and we were able to make the 7:30pm show featuring Tomono Kawamura, a classical pianist. Evening Insight featured Joe Holliday speaking on ocean productivity.

The Orange party was held at 10pm but I didn't participate as I needed to make final preparations for leading the Inter-denominational service the following morning. Our clocks were set back 2 hours in order tto to sync with our next port in Japan.

Day 28 - 9 Aug - At Sea to Korsakov, Russia

It's pitch black in our cabin when the phone rings. Groggily I roll over and clumsily pick up the handset. "Good morning", I say in my best just been woken out of a dead sleep voice. I hear "Tim, is that you?" "Yes", I replied. "I've been waiting for an hour. Did I wake you up?". "Yes. Sorry, what time is it?" "It's 9:30am. . .". And so began our morning. The exhaustion from the day before caught up with us and today was going to start late, very late.

We made it to the question portion of the 10am Captain's 'Ask The Captain'. Afterwards was the Mariner Awards ceremony and for the first time we witnessed two friends receive awards (one bronze and one gold). A nice luncheon followed which we shared with friends.

Lance presented an interesting port talk on the two upcoming Japanese ports. This was followed by a Future Cruise Consultant slide show of the ports on the Voyage of the Vikings cruise. Dr. Kam finished up the afternoon with his revised presentation on Japanese etiquette. Our 4pm interdenominational Bible study was an excellent time of sharing.

Throughout the day we've had 10 foot seas with a fair amount of wind. The ship is certainly moving around the most it gas this entire cruise. Of greater concern is whether we will tender in Korsakov or midweek next week be able to reach port in Yokohama (a third typhoon is bearing down on Japan).

Marc Wilson shared more pictures from his holocast series and Lorraine Brown belted out the tunes in the evening show. The Voyager Series bedtime stories session showed Dr. Kam, but he didn't show up. I suspect the problem was that it didn't show up in the paper When & Where while the electronic version showed it.

Will we tender tomorrow at Korsakov? I don't know. Stay tuned.

Day 27 - 8 Aug - Vladivostok, Russia

After staying up until 12:30am to watch the docking procedure, 6:30am came mighty early. Day 27 - 8 Aug - Vladivostok, Russia Passports were returned starting at 7:30am and we joined our private shore excursion group in the 6th floor atrium and proceeded off the ship where our passports were checked for the presence of our Russian immigration stamp and a visual comparison of our face to the passport.

Once off the ship we quickly connected with our guide, Sergei, who turned out to be the owner of the company. We did a little walking tour to visit the pretty railway station that's the terminus of the TransSiberian Railroad. Lenin Square and the main post office were located near our bus boarding point.

Our bus journey out to Russky Island took us across the Golden Horn bridge and Russky Island bridge. We got see more Russian submarines and some other warships.

 Once on the island we traveled a few miles on a former gun emplacement (the entire island was under military control for many years). 

From there we could see the Aquarium and the very large university. After coming back across the bridge we visited a viewpoint crowded with many, many Chinese tourists. There was a monument there devoted to the two creators of the Russian alphabet.

We enjoyed a nice lunch in downtown before taking a 1.5 hour walking tour through the old Chinatown which was purged of Chinese in the 1930's. We then drove out to the lighthouse where 3 of us waded out to the lighthouse. On the way to our final stop was a brief visit to a collection of produce and miscellaneous sundry items. We then visited the U-56 submarine display (the hull of that submarine had many patches) and monuments to the soldiers and sailors lost in the second world war. Nearby were a number of guided missile frigates.

Back at the pier we were encouraged to immediately reboard the ship (surrendering our passports in the process). Angela and I, however, elected to visit the port shops before reboarding the ship.

Parenthetically I would note that HAL staff on this cruise are strictly following the US State Department published Russian rules which require a Visa from most visitors unless one is on a tour whether it be a Hal or private tour. 

Back on board we visited with friends before eating an early dinner with friends until the sailaway. Hundreds of locals lined the dock to wave us off to the accompaniment of Russian marching music. 

 We needed to slip sideways away from the dock and rotate counterclockwise within close proximity to 3 Russian guided missile frigates. So we were hooked up to a tug for additional power protection or as the Captain later said, "He did want to be the one captaining a vessel that hit Russian frigates."

Once turned around we sailed out of the harbor and under the Russky Bridge which we had sailed under scarcely 18 hours earlier. After the pilot departed the ship and an exchange of toots and blasts we headed out to the open sea and towards Korsakov.

We missed the early show and Evening Insight, but watched the mentalist, Ace Mc Dermitt's really good late show. Both of us were really tired after a short night and a long day, and we both misinterpreted the clock change requirement thinking that we needed to roll our clocks back instead of setting them forward. I wonder if that would affect us tomorrow? Stay tuned.

Day 26 - 7 Aug - At Sea to Vladivostok, Russia

Outrunning a typhoon

All last night and today we've been sailing at 20 knots (that is fast for this ship). During the Captain's noon briefing, he mentioned that he received permission to dock early in Vladivostok at 12:30am instead of 7am so that we are out of typhoon Francisco's harm. As I write this at 8:30pm local time waiting for our 9:30pm bedtime story, the ship's rocking motion has increased due mainly to winds of up to 38 knots hitting us from the east. The crew is putting away deck furniture and cushions. We even passed through a pretty intense rain squall with a bit of lightning which led to leaking in the Crow's Nest.

Today was a sea day with a number of lectures. Joe Holliday, oceanographer, was the coffee chat guest. Dr. Kam followed with his part 3 history of Japan through modern times. Joe gave an oceanography talk. After lunch Lance gave two port talks on the two upcoming Russian ports (the second was a repeat). In between them Marc Wilson presented some of his pictures and commentary about his holocast project which is almost complete. It was very moving especially since we've visited a few of the Nazi concentration camps and I visited a KGB jail in Lithuania.

We had another quiet dinner in the Lido (salad for me) before attending Dr. Kam's Evening Insight presentation on Japan's culture of karoshi (overwork) leading to high suicide rates. A Hungarian violinist, Tom Suha, entertained us with some excellent music.

At the Voyager meeting (bedtime story for us veterans),the guest chef, Yuji Hariguchi chatted with a very small group about food and it was a good time to ask questions of him or his wife. We also met a delightful family from Belize there along with their bear mascot.

Just before midnight we passed under a major suspension bridge and were tied up at the cruise terminal by midnight.  

Shortly after that a troop of 22-24 passport checkers marched up to the gangway to begin their process. This should make getting off the ship in the morning easier.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for more.

Day 25 - 6 Aug - Kanazawa, Japan

Japan is known as the Land of the Rising Sun. After today and the last 4 port visits I'd say its really time to call it the land of the blazing sun! It was 99°f in Kanazawa today and that's plenty hot when one is walking around.

While we were scheduled to arrive at 11am, the Captain announced the day before that he would try to dock by 10am. And he did well before 10am. The sail into the harbor is very pretty along a fairly narrow channel. Once docked, the ship provided a shuttle bus to the downtown train/bus station which puts many of the tourist attractions within walking distance. The whole station is quite nice and modern and a bullet train to Tokyo leaves from here (2.5 hours & 6 stops).

Our Tours by Locals guide, Takashi, greeted us at the gangway and rode with us to the bus station where we purchased our 500¥ all day bus ticket which we used to get around the city. Our first stop was at the local fish market which was much like other fish markets we've visited.

We caught another bus and rode it to the Kenrokuen Garden. Entry was free for seniors and it's a very large garden (not a park) poised on a hill. There are lots of photographic opportunities. From here we walked down the hill and across a bridge to the Kanazawa Castle Park. Inside the park is the castle which was once again free for seniors. It, too, had the steep stairs (ladder-like) but only two stories tall.

Leaving the Castle Park, I found myself quite overheated so we stopped for a few minutes in a rest area which had cooling fans. We wandered by a shrine over to a tall building with sort of a food court on the 8th floor and the group chose to eat at the Kohrinbo Daiwa restaurant.

After lunch and a chance to cool and rehydrate we took a bus over to the Geisha district where we walked around and visited a place where gold leaf is made. It was fascinating to watch the process. It's also possible to purchase ice cream that is wrapped in the gold leaf and we sampled cold tea with gold leaf in it.

From there we headed to the samurai district and walked around before briefly visiting the Museum of Modern Art. It was then time to take a bus back to the bus station where we boarded our 7pmish shuttle back to the ship. By now it was dark and the Maasdam glistened in its blue and white paint scheme and the LED lighted Maasdam letters sparkled their white invitation to identify the ship.

Upon boarding we went through Japanese immigration in the Explorations Cafe to leave Japan and surrender our passports for the upcoming Russian immigration procedures in Vladivostok. With the heat of the day it was time to once again rehydrate, get cool, eat something and prepare to be entertained by an all women's drum group. We went to the second showing of the drum program before catching the last part of Dr. Kam's travel story in the Crow's Nest.

Just after 10:30pm without public announcement, the Maasdam released its lines and moved away from its berth. The drummers waved us off and a few of us up on deck 12 returned the waves using cell phone lights like in a concert. And we headed down the now dark waterway led by a lighted tugboat. Near the end of the jetty, the pilot transfer boat picked up our pilot and we headed off into a very dark ocean with an upcoming sea day on our way across the Sea of Japan to Vladivostok. We later learned that we sailed at 20 knots overnight in an effort to miss the current typhoon that was to our southwest. Would we miss the storm? Stay tuned.

Day 24 - 5 Aug - At Sea to Kanazawa, Japan

This was our first sea day on this leg of the cruise. Early in the day we passed through the Kanmon Straits which were quite scenic and up close and personal with lots of ship traffic and shoreline views. I'm looking forward to our return sailing through here in two weeks. It was great scenic cruising.

The morning coffee chat was with Marc Wilson, the EXC photographer. It wasn't well attended. Dr. Kam gave his second talk on the history of Japan up to WWII. Joe Holliday followed with his presentation on the geology of Japan.  

After lunch we watched a sushi demonstration by our EXC chef Yuji Haraguchi. The Future Cruise Consultant, Joanne, shared a canned presentation on 2020 and 2021 cruises. Marc Wilson presented a series of travel pictures, and Lance shared a port talk about Kanazawa.

After dinner in the Lido (even though it was Gala Night), we watched the first show by the Jersey Tenors and then a sobering talk by Dr. Kam on Japan's rapidly declining population and it's effects on the culture, society, and politics.  

Tomorrow we're in Kanazawa which is our last Japanese port before two Russian ports. Stay tuned.

Day 23 - 4 Aug - Kochi, Japan

Each of the ports in Japan except for Yokohama have treated us royally as it's the first time the Maasdam has visited Japan. And Kochi was no exception. We had a fire boat water cannon salute along with a band and drums to greet us. They are also no longer checking passports when we leave or reboard the ship.

With an 8am scheduled arrival, we were actually docked about 15 minutes earlier. I led the 8am interdenominational service again and a couple, Jim & Sue, from Hawaii did a Hawaiian worship hula that was really good. Afterwards we ate breakfast in the Lido before heading out for the day.

  

The cruise terminal is about a 20 minute drive from the city and excellent shuttle service was provided. There was even a welcome to Sochi video played on the bus in English and Japanese. The bus drops one off at the bus terminal which is in the center of the city with major attractions within walking distance. There were tourist information facilities at both ends of the ride.

We elected to walk to the Sochi castle via the Sunday market street with its myriad of food and produce vendors along with general merchandise including lots of knife vendors. It was once again blazing hot with temperatures hitting 88°f. The humidity was a bit lower today.

We hiked up the many steps to the Sochi castle, one of Japan's best preserved castles. For more information, use your favorite search engine for details. Once we reached the castle, one buys a ticket from a machine for ¥420, takes ones shoes off, stores them in a locking locker and re-presents the ticket in exchange for another ticket, and enters the castle building. There are a number of exhibits on most of the 7 floors but the stairs between each floor are steep like a ladder. But we made it to the top floor with its commanding views of the city.

Getting back to the castle entrance is the reverse process which I found to be harder. We then walked over to the covered Ichibangai shopping street which was busy with Sunday shoppers. We stopped at the Golden Arches for Bacon McPork and a Teriyaki burger and cold Coke Zeros. It was our first McD's visit in a month and first in Japan and first to try these sandwitches.

We wandered back to the bus and caught a full shuttle to the port where we experienced more Japanese hospitality. It seems that one of the vendors had sold out of the very tasty Wasabi chips we sampled in the morning. We tried to explain to the lady vendor that we'd be back in two weeks but she would have nothing of this. She held up 4 fingers and with help of Google translate, we figured out she requested more chips be brought and they would be here in 40 minutes by 4pm. Not 15 minutes later they arrived, so we purchased a couple bags and we reboarded the ship.

We had a mandatory passenger emergency drill for those who boarded in SFO or SEA at 4:30pm so our starboard side of the vessel couldn't see the departure ceremonies. But we did have the shady side of the ship! We had one lady feign being able to walk to her life boat station 20 feet away so the crew let her stay in her lounge chair. Interestingly, at the end of the drill she walked over 40 feet to the entry door.

We enjoyed a very pleasant dinner with our new friends Roger & Caroline before watching an extremely good singer, Lorraine Brown. And Joe Holiday wrapped up our evening with his Evening Insight at 8:30pm on the topic of the top 10 challenges to man from volcanic activity in the Pacific Rim.

Before I leave today's blog, I need to express a bit of feeling about the fragility of life. Earlier today one guest fell and broke a leg before entering the Sochi Castle. A friend of ours who was on the tour with the lady stayed with her through the day including admittance to a local hospital. Fortunately she has excellent travel insurance, but the frustrating and I would call it negligent aspect of the day that our friend encountered was that the telephone number to the port agent on the port documents given to the passengers does not connect to the agent but to a number that nobody answered AND racked up charges at $8 per minute! This compounded with the tour guide not having any ship contact information nor no ship's personnel on the tour, compounded the communication problem. As a passenger, I'm disappointed to not have a direct manned line back to the ship particularly when on a HAL sponsored shore excursion.

Later during the sailaway after we cleared the breakwater, the Captain came in the PA system announcing we would return to the port with a medical evacuation. The ship came to a complete stop, and the passenger ended up being evacuated using the pilot boat.

On top of these two events I received word that a friend of ours was killed earlier today our time in a head-on motorcycle crash on a road I have frequently ridden and recently driven.

Yes, life is fragile. Hug the ones you love and tell them the same.

That's all for today. We have our first sea day tomorrow.