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.