Our 5:45am alarm came mighty early! After a quick breakfast, we left the ship before 7 and met our traveling companions at 7am. We secured a cab rental for 13,100 yen or $131US or about $34US per person. Our driver took us across town to the north to Urasoe City Park which is the site of the famous WWII battle of Hacksaw Ridge which was the subject of a film of the same name from 2016. The film is excellent!
We spent 2 hours in the park examining it and we enjoyed it immensely. There were no other tourists there until we were leaving. The park also has a little museum with a 109 Yen entry fee. We watched a nice local movie about the battle that was fair in its approach. Promptly at 10am we headed back to the ship. In downtown, we spotted some friends who were walking back to the ship, so I left Yen with Dan to pay the driver and we walked back to the ship and were able to purchase a postcard for our door.
Ospreys at a Marine base below Hacksaw Ridge
After clearing our exit immigration from Japan, I was 35th from the end to reboard the ship at 11:32am. We watched our just after 12 departure before enjoying a late Lido lunch. Angela attended a movie (Paradise Road) about Indonesian girls imprisoned by Japanese in WWII and how they used music to survive. I attended the Bermuda Triangle EXC presentation by Greg Redfern and Lance's Secret Language of ships. Afterwards I used the time to begin catching up my blog and moving pictures from my Canon camera to my iPhone.
I was also out on deck with friends and we watched a brown Boobie bird suddenly go vertical and then dive into the ocean for its next meal. It was impressive to watch.
Tonight's Lido dinner was the last Japanese themed one and was excellent! Greg Redfern gave a talk on The Life of Stars, and the Emperors of Soul did a Motown set that I really liked and we had better seats for this show.
After departing the port, the seas got progressively worse as we approached Typhoon Lingling. After we reached the closest we would be to the storm (several hundred miles away) the seas have gotten progressively smoother, but there is still motion to the ocean at 10pm as I write this.
3 sea days are ahead of us on our way to Iwo Jima. Stay tuned.
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