Tianjin is the port city closest to Beijing. We did arrive on time after leaving late last night. We were to meet Demi, our guide, outside the terminal at 8:30 am. Demi sent me a note at 8 am and she was here and ready to go. The tour director notified passengers that debarkation was being delayed because of an electrical problem on the port side. No way to get the ramp into position. China requires that ships use the port ramps, not their own. By 8:30 we were good to go. 3 hour drive to the great wall. Not much to see along the way. Demi gave us some history of the wall. We are going to see the best preserved portion of the wall at Mutianyu. We arrived at 11:30 and stopped for lunch.
Port side photos and lunch. The wall was quite amazing. This section from 16c.
From our parking spot, a shuttle bus took is up to an area where we were loaded onto a ski lift. The way down, we took toboggan’s on a metal chute.
We hiked along the path between guard houses. Another construction marvel. It is possible to see other sections of the wall. Some in disrepair from time and weather.
Our next stop was the Chinese acrobats. We were in NW Beijing and the acrobat show and our hotel were in central downtown. It was a 2 hour ride with traffic. The show was quite amazing.
The show lasted one hour and it couldn’t have been more exciting. Demi said they used to have 8 motorcycles in the sphere. Some kind of accident made them change. The flexible young girls are from the countryside. They are sought out each year and tested for flexibility before they are asked to join.
After the show we were dropped off at the hotel. Clerk asked for passports. We gave the copies that the ship gave us. He wanted the Visa. That was back on the ship. After a lot of back and forth and a call from Demi, we were allowed to stay. Dinner at the hotel and then bed. …
Dalian is a much larger city than I anticipated. Supposedly the fashion capital of China. We are on our own today.
There is a shuttle bus to the center of the city. It is only a mile or so but the port area is not friendly for walking. The shuttle bus dropped us off in front of a shopping mall.
Not sure what kind of statement is being made here.
We decided we would go into the mall on our way back to the ship. Our goal was to first get some cash at the ATM. There were many to be found. The first one had a button that allowed you to select the language. English. The word was in English but everything that followed was in Chinese. I gave up after a few attempts. The second machine allowed me to put in my password. Great so far. Withdrawal. Yes. 1000 yuan. Yes. No money. I did receive a receipt. No explanation. Third machine was the winner. English. Insufficient funds. I tried a lesser amount. Bingo. I took the cash and then opened my fidelity app to add more cash.
We started on a walk to an underground shopping area hoping we could continue the haggling on merchandise that we did in Shanghai. We did find the mall. 5 stories of underground shopping. Nothing on the surface suggested that this shopping area was there. If there was a sign, I couldn’t read it.
The mall was rather dumpy and had seen its’ better day. The most current information that I could find while doing research was years before the pandemic. We did spend some time here. Terri was trying on high end dresses in a small little store. Prices about 1/3 of those at home but no purchases. The owner took us to her shop next door. I tried on a shirt and made a purchase. We left and decided to go to the more legitimate shopping mall across the street. Five stories above ground. Lot’s of nice shops here.
We walked through a department store, cut through the food court and made it into the mall.
We browsed around and then decided to start back toward the bus. We ducked into some greasy spoon on the way back for lunch. Again, no English for them and no Chinese for us. We ordered a dish to share and also had a beer each. The waitress brought us a dish, spoon, cup, and chopsticks all wrapped in plastic. She also brought two separate dished that had what appeared to be appetizers. Something akin to peanuts at the bar. One tasted like cereal from my childhood. Quisp. Anyone remember? The other was like a large Necco wafer. Had a taste I didn’t recognize. We asked the waiter what it was. Haw Flakes, said translate app. I later looked it up. Candy made in China from the Hawthorne plant. We paid our bill. Cash only. Total? $7 USD for all of it.
black fungus was part of lunch
We took a few photos of some interesting things. Sunday. Catholic Church in China holding mass. Probably a rare thing. Not many Christians in China.
We made it back to where the bus dropped us off and visited the mall. Very high end shops here also. We browsed a bit and then got on the bus.
Dinner and then group trivia. The topic was Space. What does space smell like? How many constellations are there? Which planet has the largest ocean (we said Earth. Wrong.) What is the disc that encircles a black hole called? Which constellation features a bow and arrow and a horse? What is the largest type of star? We finished in the middle. One group answered nearly all of them correctly.
The evening entertainment was a third set of Kenny Martyn. He covered Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty for his opening. His sax skills are the weakest. It was a 5. He did more clarinet playing and that is way beyond a 10. Very enjoyable performance. Canned music again. I give it a 9.
Some kind of Chinese issue prevented us from leaving on time. It was 7 pm when we finally left. We were supposed to leave at 4:30.
We have one day to travel to our next stop. Dalian, China. It is nice to have a day to recover. Port days can be stressful when you are your own. HAL tours are like being on the ship. The only thing missing are staff holding trays of muffins at each stop. The independent travelers are much more prepared, knowledgeable, and concerned at each port. There aren’t many of these travelers on this cruise.
The ship feels empty. Over half of the passengers went on the HAL overland tour to see the Terra Cotta warriors. We considered the tour during our planning stages last year. It just didn’t interest us. This tour left Shanghai and will return to the ship when we port in Tianjin. This is a 5 day tour and we need to be highly motivated join this kind of tour. We aren’t.
There was a putting challenge today. 5 holes. One was down a set of stairs. We had fun. Terri and I took the first two places again.
We are still trying to book excursions on the new stops made after the change in the itinerary. There was a tour offered by HAL that had 4 spaces open. We were highly motivated to book this excursion. It left at our stop in Maputo and rejoined the ship in Cape Town. A few nights were to be spent on a train that has been made into a hotel. The train is parked on a bridge that overlooks a national park.
We knew that this excursion would book fast. Booking the tour was to begin at 2 pm. At 1:30 pm, we each had our phone, laptop, and ipad connected to the booking site. We continually refreshed our devices and waited for “book now” to appear. At 2 pm, we saw 4 spaces left drop to 2. The site then crashed and by the time it was back up, all spots were gone. We went and spoke with the excursion director on the ship, Niran. We are number one on the waitlist if anymore space opens up. It doesn’t look hopeful.
We played group trivia. It was a lightning round. Which commonly known tone is a combination of a 350 mhz and 440 mhz tone. Did you get dialtone? Who went on to a successful musical career after writing music for McDonalds and State Farm? tell me you said Barry Manilow. Which name did the British ecological party adopt in 1985? Green Party. How many wives does Islamic law limit a man to have? We said 40 but the answer is 4. I actually thought there was no limit. Which continent are black swans found in? Australia. Which French Polynesian Island did James Michener christen to be the “most beautiful”. Correct if you said Bora, Bora. Which company gave women the pantsuit in 1969? Ives Saint Lauren. We didn’t win but did rather well. There is always a team that gets close to 100%.
Evening entertainment was the return of the Four Stations. We didn’t they were very good on their first set and skipped them to play some cards.…
Our second day in Shanghai. No tour today. We are on our own. We took the ship shuttle into Shanghai. It was again about an hour drive because of traffic. The bus had only passengers that had obtained the Chinese visa. We were on the first bus out at 8am. The port terminal is large and it was about an 8 minute walk to get to the bus. All aboard. 4:30 pm. Last shuttle left Shanghai for the ship at 3 pm.
When we arrived at the drop off point I quickly snapped a picture of it and marked the location on my map app. This way I could show the taxi driver where I wanted to go.
Our destination was the Shanghai Tower. It was party sunny but it was supposed to clear up. It was about 9:30 am and we decided it was now or never. We hailed a cab and were on our way. There is now way that I know of to walk to the tower. No bridges in the area. Lots of tunnels under the river but none that I could find that pedestrians could use.
We were at the tower in no time. It was obvious that this was a popular place for tourists because of the length of the areas that held people until they could get on one of the elevators. It was quite empty at this time. The elevators travel at a top speed of 45 mph. We were at the top in 70 seconds. Very smooth ride. The view from the top was tremendous.
It was hazy and we sat and had a cup of coffee at the top. $5 per cup. More than the cab ride.
the building with the shperes is a hotel
Beautiful looking city. Very impressive. We finished our coffee and left. Clear sky wasn’t going to happen. We hailed another cab that was to take us to a shopping area. Not just any area, 500 stores, underground. Stores where there is no bottom price. A hagglers dream.
many cyclists wore this to stay warm
The taxi driver dropped us off and pointed down. Underground. We weren’t sure where to go. We were in the middle of a plaza with neatly trimmed gardens. A young girl said “sir, you want watch?” I nodded. “You come to my shop”. We followed her into a covered area with escalators in it. Down we went. We had arrived. Our only disappointment was the amount of time we had. It was already noon and I wan’t to be back where the bus dropped us off by 2 pm. I didn’t want to mess around with missing the bus.
scarf shopping
I look at electronic items and Terri looked at some silk. We are expert hagglers and had a blast. I bought a case for my phone and a cordless charger for the car. Terri was haggling with every silk supplier in the place.
It was past lunch time and we took a recommendation on lunch with one of Terri’s new “friends” from the market. We looked over the menu and I asked if they took credit. They did not. ATM around? No. I did have 310 yuan. Lunch would be 105. I wanted some cash for the taxi back.
Lunch was great. More dumplings and more fried rice. It was so tasty I could almost stand eating with chopsticks. It was 1:40 and Terri said she wanted to try and catch the 2 pm bus. I didn’t think we had a chance. We had to walk outside and hail a cab. The ride back means back through the tunnels. 2:30 I thought.
We paid our bill and made our way up the stairs. No cabs to be seen around this area. Not enough traffic. We walked a few blocks to a busy street. We hailed and hailed. Most waved back because they had a fair or they just kept going. We continued walking and hailing. The walk back was about 4.3 miles. Very doable but no way to get over the river. We could take a ferry but I didn’t know the location or time schedule.
We walked and hailed for 45 mins with no luck. Terri finally went into the middle of the street and opened a cab door. He nodded and we hopped in. Traffic was bad. We went into one of the tunnels and we were at a standstill. 30 mins to the bus. If we miss the bus we had to take a cab all of the way back to the port.
Getting to the area where the bus would pick us up was not easy. The driver had to get out of the tunnel. pass the area by almost a mile, turn around, turn right and then do a crazy Michigan left. It was 3 pm and we were at the building. The bus was 2 levels down and we would never get there in time. We told the driver that we needed to go to the port. We used the translate app back and forth. I gave him the location and he nodded a yes. I didn’t think I would have enough money to pay him but there wasn’t anytime to worry about that. If we missed all aboard there was a good chance the ship would leave us.
It was only 12 miles to the port but traffic was a mess. The driver told me there was an accident up ahead. The clock was ticking. At 3:45 I suggested we call the port agent. Maybe they would wait for us. The port agent spoke little English and wanted to talk to the driver. I was just glad I had all of this information on my phone. The driver and agent spoke for a few minutes. “What did he say”, I asked the driver. “Call him back at 4:30”.
We finally passed the car wreck and we began to move. It was about 4:10. I told the driver that if he didn’t take a credit card I would need an ATM. He nodded yes but the meter was only at 180. I still had enough cash. “I increase the horsepower”, the driver …
Today we had a third party tour. China requires a Visa for USA citizens. Visas’s are waived for cruise ship passengers if they are on an approved, organized tour. All of the HAL tours met this approval. Would the third party tour we booked meet this requirement? No one knew the answer so we decided to get our Chinese Visa back in October. This also allowed us to spend the night in China if we chose to do so.
Our tour guide, “Mary”, was to meet us at 9am in the terminal. I’m sure her name is not actually Mary but is some name we would have difficulty pronouncing. The ship was cleared at 8:30 am and we made our way into the terminal. Last night, a stamped copy of our passport picture page was delivered to our room. We would use this to get in and out of China.
The process went smoother than expected. I have to laugh at all of the things you can get people to do with no apparent reason. We walked by a scanner machine with a conveyor belt. The belt was operating but there was no one around to monitor anything that was happening. We, of course, just walked past it as ship passengers continually loaded their belongings into it and then recovered them from the other side. How ridiculous. I’m sure all of these people felt better when they did this. Improved security.
Mary was waiting for us in the lobby. The tour we had with Mary will use taxi’s for transportation. We were to pay for the taxi. Cash only. There was a money exchange place in the lobby but the line was long and the ship people always have lot’s of questions. Mary suggested we exchange money somewhere else. She would cover the taxi.
We boarded our taxi and left for downtown Shanghai. The ship was almost 20 miles from downtown. One hour with traffic. On the way we were at a stop light and a policeman came over to the taxi. Papers please! (my translation). The driver showed him some papers and we were off again. “He needs to have a license to drive a taxi”, Mary said.
Our first stop was in an area known as the ChinaTown in China. An older area of Shanghai with original Chinese structures.
Next was a shrine to Buddha. This religion was brought over from India. It is the largest religion in China.
There were people praying to Buddha. Burning incense so their message would travel up to Buddha with the smoke.
I found an atm in this area and quickly withdrew some local currency.
Lunch was next. We ate at what we would call a food court in the basement of a building. Yun dumplings was a chain restaurant. Yummy. Eating with chopsticks requires one to stick their face almost into the plate when eating things like this. I should bring my own fork.
Mary said a few things that stuck with me through the day. Most of the visitors to China come from the USA. The tourist areas were packed with people. It was obvious that it was mainly Americans. Another things she said is that the political party is Communist. The economy is not. If you don’t work hard, you don’t eat. America has a lot of social programs, she said. China does not. I thought that this was Mary towing the political line for her country. She was close to our age and grew up with this system. I imagine her parents told about how bad the hyperinflation was before the communists took over in 1949 and the nationalists fled to Taiwan. She kept referring to 1949 as the beginning of the “New China”. The government took control of everything and all of the foreigners left.
The Huangpu River separates the two sides of Shanghai. The older, British influenced section and the new modern Chinese section. The buildings in the section across the river began in 2006. Nothing was there prior to that year. The older section is about 100 years old.
old section on one side of the river
The city of Shanghai is very clean. Lot’s of flowers, trimmed gardens, parks. It felt very safe. High end retail stores everywhere. Lot’s and lot’s of money here. Lot’s of police. Lot’s of cameras. No homeless to be seen. No one begging. People seemed very happy, very friendly, very helpful. I don’t remember any negativity when we struggled with the language. Everyone was willing to help with communication. I can still remember the head shaking when we were in France and I know a lot more French than I do Chinese.
I tried to think of an American city that I could compare to what I saw here. I couldn’t think of one. I did think of huge amounts of government regulation, corruption, and government spending on social programs. Wasn’t I being constantly monitored here in Shanghai? Cameras everywhere. Police everywhere. Wait a minute, I thought, isn’t this the way it is back home? Cameras everywhere? My online activities being monitored? Which country is the free one?
We finished our tour with Mary in the new section of Shanghai. No bridges to be seen in this area. There are 18 tunnels taking traffic under the river. All of them very new. Very modern.
The 2nd largest building in the world is right here in Shanghai. The tallest is in Dubai. We had planned a visit to that but we are no longer visiting Dubai on this cruise.
The world’s longest suspension bridge is here. Longer than the Golden Gate. The new section was immaculate.
It was time to head back to the port. About an hour with traffic. We said our goodbye’s and paid Mary for the taxi. $400 for the day. This included the one hour each way and all of the different tax’s we used during our tour. $400 Chinese Yuan Renminbi = about $30 USD. 8 hrs with a private guide and transportation cost us under $250 USD. Tipping is not done here. “They do the job they are paid to do”, is the attitude.
We need one day to move out of the Japanese islands towards Taiwan and Korea and ultimately Shanghai, China.
It is obvious that we are moving closer to China. The internet is getting slower as we approach. China blocks all kinds of internet traffic. There is nothing we can do about it.
Chinese officials have already boarded and they are spending the day going through passports. The whole process is really ridiculous. In the Japanese ports, officials constantly looked at my Mozambique Visa on page 10 instead of my actual picture page. We weren’t in Mozambique, the Visa was from 2022 and is no longer valid. The officials gave the same strict and stern look as they looked at the Visa to try and convince me they were doing their job. I wasn’t convinced and I didn’t care anyway.
We stopped at the front desk and asked about the private tour we had the next morning and asked if we need passports. “More information will come later”. I’m not really convinced of that but since we already have a Visa for China we are in good shape. Most of the passengers do not have one and have to stick with a ship tour.
Group trivia went well. Which city was formerly known as Byzantium? What is the most prestigious award given in Britain? What language did Jesus speak? King Arthur’s wife. Her name? We scored in the top 3. Richard was back with us. He just ignored Mary.
The theme today was country. Not sure exactly what that means. Country and Western dress? Terri wore her new alligator shoes. That seemed to fit.
Today’s evening group trivia was country music. It didn’t sound promising but we did rather well. Johnny Cash, Ring of Fire. Most of us knew it even though Thomas played it half speed. Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Billy Ray Cyrus, Loretta Lynn, etc. We got them all except the bonus.
Evening entertainment was Kenny Martyn. His second set was the same as it was 5 years ago. He opened up with the ukulele banjo and sang Has Anybody Seen My Gal. This set was so much better than the first as the house band accompanied him. He did a cover of Take Five. The alto wasn’t quite the sound I expected. They went around the room with solos. Pianist was good. Bassist was fair at best. He played his “school locker” bass. It isn’t tall enough for him and he isn’t very good. I was surprised by the drum solo. I thought it would be better. I gave him a 1. Guitarist was good. Overall his show was a 10.…
We arrive in Fukuoka late last night and I felt a tug push us next to the dock. Tide was the issue with timing of arrival.
We are able to visit Fukuoka from 7 am until 3:30 pm. It rained during breakfast and we decided we would walk to an arcade and visit some shops. Rain was predicted for most of the day and at least this shopping area would be covered.
We decided to head out for the walk at 9:30. It was close to a three mile walk and the timing would be perfect as most shops open at 10 or 11 am.
Another large and nice city of about 1.6 million. Lots of apartments, auto repair shops, office buildings, convenience stores and the like.
We passed a lot of ship staff walking back. They left early and had to return for their work assignment. I’m glad they can get out at some of these ports to go for a nice walk or do some shopping. The rain stopped just before we left. About 50 f and cloudy.
The ship bus tours left at about 9 am. Usually in a HAL trip, 3 places will be visited. We have seen enough shrines, churches and memorials to last us. I think we are past this and enjoy our interactions with locals or private tour guides.
The Shintencho Arcade was our destination.
Terri couldn’t resist
The clock at the entrance reminded me of Frankenmuth. I took a video at 11 am.
There were lots of stores like this that had nothing but games in them that can be played for 100 yen. We decided to walk over to the subway station and found a place to have lunch.
We split an order of dumplings and one of noodles. To die for. A had a large beer and Terri two glasses of wine. $20 total bill. It’s amazing how far money will go when you don’t need to fund government corruption.
We decided to start back to the ship. Rain started and left no more pictures to be taken. We had a nice walk back for a total of 7.5 miles.
Dinner and group trivia. Group trivia topic was “fashion”. I hung in there but didn’t know many, if any, answers.
What is a bolero? Givenchy’s first name? Which daughter of a Beatle has her own fashion line? Name of the warm up suits from the 80s? What are Levi’s made from? Hush Puppies were popular in which decade? Good luck here.
Evening entertainment was the HAL singers and dancers. We have opted to miss every show. They aren’t very good. We played cards. I took yesterday, Terri today.…
Today we were at Sea but were close to shore for a good part of the day. To get to Fukuoka, our next port, the ship cruised through the Kanmon Strait which put very close to shore before we got out to the Sea of Japan.
Very calm waters today as we had land on both sides to protect the sea. We had such a rough ride around Japan that it almost felt like we were in port. The Captain said he needed to get into port this evening because he needed the high tide. Passengers would still need to remain on board until the morning.
We did the gym and I had my final acupuncture treatment. Great success here. Haven’t felt this good in weeks.
50s outside today as we headed south again. We are set for our excursion in Shanghai and our overnight in Beijing We are doing this with a third party and all details need to be rapped up. Can’t blame anyone else for missing the ship on this one.
Team trivia is getting a bit stranger as Thomas, our host, gets a lot of kicks out of his mis-pronunciations of words. I guess he thinks that is part of the fun. Largest motor vehicle manufacturer in France? The color of the third ball potted in snooker? (good luck) Who makes the Stratocaster Guitar? Who is considered the fourth estate? Who invented scat singing?
Some tailors from Hong Kong came aboard today. Get measured for a new suit and it will be ready when we arrive in Hong Kong. They have been coming aboard cruise ships in the area for the past 23 years and are very popular.
We already contacted Danny from Tony’s Fashions in Singapore. We are going that route. We met them when we were in Singapore 5 years ago. We can select, size, and final fit on the 2 days in Singapore and the clothes will be sent home. Custom made clothes at prices you wouldn’t believe.
We had dinner with the couple that normally sits at a table near us. Frank and Jean are from Anaheim, CA and have been cruising about 10 years or so. They were on the “half” world cruise in 2020. We talked a bit about that and their effort to get off the ship and to fly home from Perth, Australia. Interesting couple and we had a lot to talk about.
After dinner we did team trivia which was songs from movies. James Bond, Mama Mia, Jaws, Ghostbusters, Grease were some of the easier ones. Exorcist and Harry Potter more difficult. Bonus number was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Disney played backwards. Doesn’t sound much different in either direction!
Today we decided to wing it in Kobe after our tour of Osaka with Tiaga. There is a Chinatown and a shopping mall that we are going to check out.
Stores generally open at 11 am in Japan. There is a shuttle bus provided by the city and we hopped aboard sometime after 10 am. It is a short day today as all aboard is 4:30 pm.
Not as big or as impressive as Chinatown in San Francisco but we decided to check it out. It was still before 11 and not too many business were yet open. Next door was an arcade that had many shops starting to open. Minatomototomachi Mall.
We browsed the many shops. One shop that caught our eye was a vintage clothing store. It had many shoes, boots and other previously worn items but also had some brand new clothing with a classic look. I purchased a cardigan sweater and Terri picked up an overcoat, a scarf, sweater and vest. Great looking stuff. We also stopped in the coffee shop and picked up more coffee. Ours was running a bit low and I don’t want to stoop to ship coffee. Bad stuff.
Lunchtime. We walked back over to Chinatown. We ordered meat dumplings and fried rice. Is it more Japanese than Chinese? We will figure that out in China next week. Very delicious. I had a local draft beer and Terri some local wine.
We left the restaurant and wondered about. We came across a chocolate store and decided we would try some.
We were given samples when we walked in and they were so delicious we had to buy some. We were amazed by the number of people in the street eating and going about their business. Yesterday it was snowing in Osaka and today in Kobe it was only in the 40s at best. Economy not hurting here.
tea roasting?
We enjoyed our time in China Town and boarded the shuttle bus back to the ship.
There was a sail away party on the promenade deck. As we sailed away, a community band played some tunes. Very small group. Good sousaphone player and some understandably out of tune clarinets. They were outside and it was cold. Looked like a fun group.
It was tough taking this picture. Lots of folks in my way.
Tonights entertainment was Kenny Martyn. Last time we heard Kenny, he was Kenny Martin on the 2019 world cruise. Not sure how the pandemic gave him the Y instead of I.
Great clarinetist. I really wish an entire big band could accompany him. He used canned music. It is ok but live is best. We missed his first show last time we saw him. All clarinet. His second set he will pull out the banjo, sax and other instruments. He is a very accomplished performer. He gets a 10. Live music would give his show a 10. Canned tunes. I can only give a nine.…
Today we arrived in the Kobe port. We have a tour booked with a guide to Osaka. Osaka is west of Kobe and is a city of about 18 million.
We met Tiaga, our guide, at the Kobe terminal. I used Viator to book him. Viator found him through another company called City Unscripted. Communication through all of these levels wasn’t great. Once they chose the guide, I felt much better as I could communicate directly with him.
Tiaga asked what we would like to see and I told him that we would take his recommendations. We hopped in a taxi to the train station. On the way I asked Tiaga where he learned English. “All over the world”, he said. I told him he sounded Australian. He said that he did spend a year and a half out in the bush teaching. He also said that he lived in Cleveland for a few years. He asked about sports. Of course I knew Japan loved baseball. He knew nothing about American football. We talked about golf a bit and he invited us to the Masters next year. We will see if we can make that happen.
We boarded the JR train first. Japan Railway is the large, government owned commuter train. There are a handful of other private trains also. A somewhat confusing system. Tickets are purchased by selecting the stop you will get off. One thing that worried us about travels to Asian countries in the past is the difficulty in deciphering the characters. We were happy that there was a lot of English used to direct people around. On the JR trains, the next 5 stops were announced in Japanese and then English. It seemed that most folks knew at least a few words of English. Probably more than the Japanese we knew. Konnichiwa, ohayou, and arigato were about it for us.
The most fascinating take away about our trip here is our complete ignorance when it comes to Japan. Our first stop is the Osaka Castle. Lots of history to learn. This castle housed the last Shogun in Japan. There area, along with most of Osaka, was burned to the ground in WWII. I have included pictures but the historical context is best researched online.
The castle reminded me of the construction of the pyramids. Huge blocks of different sizes and shapes somehow pieced together and standing here today. It is really quite remarkable. We spent a good amount of time here trying to absorb all of the history. Lots of people here.
Lunch was next. “Eat like a local” was the motto Tiaga followed. We boarded another train. Subways were immaculate.
We left the train and after a few minutes arrived at this arcade.
All kinds of places that locals shopped in. Food, games, one shop was full of men playing Japanese chess and other board games. Archery, arcade games, rifle shooting.
We stopped at this local eatery.
This was a place that served fried food on a stick. You only needed to order the kind of food that you wanted on a stick. Tiaga ordered shrimp, salmon, and some kind of Japanese vegetable. The fried goods were delivered on a tray and a pot of dipping sauce was delivered also. The pot was used amongst many tables over its life so the motto was “only one dip”, “no double dipping”. The food was great. The sauce was a mixture of Worcestershire sauce and vinegar and other goodies. Each establishment had its own sauce.
Billiken is the king of the fried food on a stick. This guy reminds patrons of “no double dipping”.
We finished lunch and walked further through the arcade. When in Japan, why not try archery? We sat and did ten arrows a piece. We didn’t score high enough to have our names carved into the wall but did earn a few beatings of the drum.
Finished with archery, we went to a place that had a very popular local game. Similar to pinball, but the only user controlled portion of the game was launching the ball. No flippers. Once the ball went up, it came down, bounced around and was gone. Get it in one of the holes and more balls came crashing down on the screen. We played for about 40 minutes or so. It was a blast.
Onward we went back out into the neighborhood. “One more local item you have to try”, Tiaga said. Octupus ball. Deep fried octopus. I felt some bubbling in the belly and a small attempt to hurl. I managed to carry on and we did try the octopus. Tiaga first showed us how to eat it. It comes burning hot on a dish, stab it with skewer, put it in the back of your mouth so as not to burn your tongue. Slosh it around while biting it. Keep moving it around. Don’t let any of the legs escape. Chew, then swallow.
Look like a French puffed pastry? Try again. Japanese octopus. Purple on the inside. Mmmmmmmmm.
Back out the street we were amazed by the number of people and thriving businesses. Don’t they have government regulations like we do to deal with here?
One of the places we passed was a restaurant where you fished for your dinner. You had to eat what you caught. No throwing back. You can have the chef prepare it anyway you like.
Glico is a huge multinational food processing company. Pocky? I never heard of it.
Tiaga took us down a narrow street that had walls full of images of how western civilization began to influence Japan.
Osaka in 1930sOsaka in 1945 following firebombings
The most sacred shrine in the city. Survived 2 major burnings of the city.
It was time for dinner and we started to head back to Kobe. Tiaga made reservations for us to have a Kobe beef dinner at a restaurant back in Kobe. It’s not a Kobe beef dinner if it is not prepared and served in Kobe. The beef is very expensive and they are many places that try to serve regular beef at Kobe prices.
I think the only place we have had a Japanese dinner in …
As predicted, the Captain cancelled the port of Omaezaki today. Much too rough. The port authorities closed the port because of the rough seas. The Captain investigated other ports but none in traveling distance had free berths for the ship.
We had a Viator excursion planned for the area but the meeting location was farther from the port than I originally thought when I booked the tour. The port was not listed anywhere on the web where I could find it. Normally I use the website whatsinport to find this information. Maybe the port is too new? I’m glad we cancelled.
The ship wandered around in the Suruga Bay. The Captain had to kill some time. He had already left yesterday’s port hours later than we were supposed to. We did approach the city of Fuji and when the ship turned around, we were able to see Mt. Fuiji from our room.
10 – 15 ft swells and whitecaps all day. Another rough ride. Weather is cold. Supposed to be in the 40s tomorrow. We have an excursion planned from Kobe to Osaka.
We did team trivia and lighting trivia today. Lightning trivia was 15 riddles. We did do fairly well. What has a thumb and 4 fingers but is not alive? What has cities but no houses, mountains but no trees, lakes but no water? What has been around for millions of years but not more than a month old? I grow shorter the longer I stand? What can you still have in your pocket even though it is empty? What has thirteen hearts but is not alive? You see a boat full of people. You look again and there is not a single person on it. Why? (they didn’t leave) What has keys but no locks, space but no rooms, you can enter but you can’t come in? What is full of holes but still holds water? You buy me to eat but you can’t eat me. What belongs to you but is mainly used by others? What goes up but never comes down? Bonus – When is the only time that Friday comes before Thursday?
Good luck. Let me know if are stumped.
The evening entertainment was a group called the Four Stations. Four men from different cities in Spain. They did covers. English versions with a Spanish accent. They covered “My Way” in Spanish. I didn’t think they were that good. They covered “Somewhere” from West Side Story. Nah. Missed entrances, harmony was ok, accent was troublesome. I gave them a 4. Terri flashed a 2. People seemed relieved when they said it was their last number but they did two planned encores. I think it was them clapping backstage because the audience was ready to leave. When you have to plan them because no one wants calls for them, that’s a problem.
We finished listening to Caleb’s group, Third Avenue West. Yesterday Caleb let a passenger who said he played bass guitar up on stage. Caleb has guts. The passenger played very well. When they did “Spain”, I knew he could play. Today, one of the lecturers got up to sing. He said he had a 40 year career as a vocalist. When he sang, I believed him. Pianist seemed to be lost on these tunes that they were sight reading. They have a pretty tight playlist and these tunes were obviously not on it. Maybe growing up in Shanghai he never heard “Mustang Sally”. It was the guitarist’s choice. The vocalist knew the tune but not the words. His BS lyrics were quite good.
