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.
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