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.