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.
Day 2 in Tokyo. We decided that today we wanted to experience more of the present day culture by doing a walking tour of downtown. There is so much yet to see in Tokyo but we just aren’t going to have the time to do it all.
The population of Tokyo is about 37 million. I know from talking with Janet and Brian that this is larger than the population of Canada. The population of Japan is over 120 million. About one third of the United States.
We started today’s adventure by taking a shuttle bus from the port to a bus parking area about 1.5 miles from the ship. This at least took us out of the busy port area that can be too busy to walk through. We use an app called GpsMyCity and decided we wanted to try the Ginza Shopping Tour. Often compared with New York’s Fifth Avenue, Ginza is the most luxurious shopping district in Tokyo.
The shopping district was about a five mile walk. Since my acupuncture visits with Dr. Kim, I am now able to walk again. It feels great. We started out toward our goal and reached a river we needed to cross. The map I used lead us to a ferry but we were unsure where the ferry would take us and the schedule wasn’t clear.
We usually aren’t afraid of exploring but time was an issue and the city is big. I’ll let you look up why the Statue of Liberty is here. Lot’s of cherry blossoms in the area. Reminds me of Washington DC where Japan gifted these to the US.
We knew we needed to get onto the bridge but it didn’t look pedestrian friendly so we grabbed a cab. First stop was the toy store! Hakuhinkan Toy Park. Many businesses in Tokyo open at 11 am out timing was perfect. 5 levels of toys with about 200,000 items. According to Guinness Book of Records, the largest toy store in Japan. It reminded us of what FAO Schwartz was like in Chicago. We had some shopping in mind for the grandkids but it was still fun to go in to just experience it.
Granted, this is the high end shopping district but when comparing it to Chicago’s Miracle Mile there is no comparison. No street people with paper cups and a hand out. No guys beating on home depot buckets. No people sleeping on the streets. No tents, strips of cardboard, shopping carts. No stray needles, or people trying to survive living on the sidewalk. Nobody in a trench coat lined with wristwatches, or gold necklaces offered to sell me anything. Tokyo is New York, or Chicago like they were many decades ago. People were dressed nicely and were very polite. I really miss this back home.
Non Japanese could be spotted a block away. Usually they were the size of two people or a head taller than everyone around.
The Ginza Six Shopping Center was next. Nothing we needed. Just fun to look around. It was after noon and we decided to look for a place to have lunch. Terri was looking on her phone for a place with a nice Japanese name. I told her a place called Bill’s was right down the street. When in Tokyo, eat at Bill’s. It was actually a very nice Japanese restaurant that was on the 12th floor of a building so we had a nice view of the city.
We split a buckwheet and kinoa salad. Absolutely delicious. I had a local draft beer and Terri some red wine. The ordering process was all online but we struggled with that so the waitress took the order by hand on a scrap piece of paper.
Terri snapped some photos that reminded us of shops we have seen in Paris or Rome. Next stop was Itoya. This is Japan’s renowned stationery specialty store established in 1904. It has 12 themed floors. The first floor has greeting cards and post cards. The second floor is the “Letter” floor where one can find everything need for writing a letter. Does anyone even write anymore? Yes. The store was packed with people. When I saw men looking through stationery I knew that this was a culture we have lost.
A floor with pens, a floor with paints, a floor with colored pencils, frames, etc, etc. It was amazing. I don’t even write anymore. I found the cartridge ink pen that I used in college to write music by hand. No more of that.
I bought some origami paper to impress the grandkids with some fancy folding. The woman at the checkout made me think of when I was a kid. A professional at the sales counter. Dressed appropriately and treated customers with respect. I was handed my receipt on a tray. Where has our country gone?
The Japanese government was run by Americans for 7 years after the war while they wrote a constitution for the people. Some refer to it as the MacArthur Constitution. Japan is a solid country while a great economy and very advanced society. We talked about spending a month here next year.
We finished out tour and decided that 5 miles back to the bus was doable. We kept talking about how clean and modern everything was.
I forgot about the Olympics. They were delayed for almost a year because of the pandemic.
We saw many school groups with kids wearing the same color caps. During the day the groups appeared to be in a daycare but around 3:30 all of the kids were running home from school in colored caps. Lots of kids on the streets. Very young ones walking home. Remember those days? I do. Now parents don’t even trust having a child next to them unless they are on a leash and I don’t blame them. There are all kinds of people running around our country and we have no idea who they are.
The walk back was nice. We made it back to the bus at about 4:30 and took the 1.5 mile ride back to the ship. 11 miles for the day and it felt …
We boarded busses for this HAL tour of Mt. Fuji. This is the largest mountain in Japan. The first stop was an outdoor art museum and then lunch. The museum was full of modern art. I guess I call any art I don’t like modern art. This was the Hakone Open Air Museum.
We walked through the museum and each piece of art had the artists name and place of creation. There were works from all over the world. Nothing I’d want in my backyard. There was a Picasso Museum and a stained glass structure next to it.
We did go to the Picasso Museum. Nothing I’d hang on our walls or even take a picture of. I know I’m missing something when I see others staring at a creation that looked like it took 3 minutes to create.
Lunch was next to the museum. Chokuku-no-mori. It was buffet style and we sat with Joe and Ann who were also on this tour. I asked Joe if this picture I snapped brought back memories.
He said of course it did. Joe and Ann grew up in Cleveland and Lawson was an Ohio company with stores in Michigan also. There was a Lawson in the neighborhood I grew up in. One day all of them closed. What I didn’t know was that they moved to Japan!
Lunch was great. Everything looked fresh and tasted great. We talked about our similar view on the art we saw. Lunch took about an hour and we boarded the bus to get to the dock where our boat would take us on a cruise on Lake Ashi. Lake Ashi is about 2000m above sea level and the boat took us to the Hakone Komagatake Ropeway. The Ropeway, thankfully is a cable car that goes up to the top of Mt. Komagatake. The pictures of Mt. Fuji are worth the seven minute ride to the top.
There was snow at the top and had to be careful walking around the path that circled the top. Mt. Fuji can be seen from anywhere in Tokyo. It sticks out on the horizon and it looks as if it’s the only mountain around.
We had about an hour at the top and then it was time to take the car down and board the busses for the ship. I like Tokyo. Very modern, clean and interesting. I don’t know much about the government. I would have to vet them before moving here.
We got back to the ship about 6:30 and went to the Lido for dinner. The evening entertainment was a group of young local musicians from Tokyo. Takarabune was the groups name. 5 adults and one child. I think it was 3 guys and two girls but who am I to say.
I added this youtube video of the group. Interesting performance. Very entertaining!
Another day preparing for Japan. Our Viator tour is not going to work with timing of the ship. We were able to book a last minute HAL tour to Mt. Fuji. We try to avoid the HAL trips but not much choice here.
Our guides in future ports have been messaging me through WhatsApp. Our guide in Kobe, Japan and our guide for Vietnam and Beijing have kept in touch. The countries that really need us as tourists communicate in our language. I don’t think Japan needs us so communication is up to us. My 2 words of Japanese doesn’t cut it.
We played group trivia and lightning trivia. Lightning trivia went well because the topic was math and history. In lightning trivia, 30 seconds are given for each question. Answers are given after 30 seconds. Perpendicular line bisecting a curve? What polygon has 4 unequal sides? Another name for Charles the Great? We tied for first place. Tie Breaker ? The team that can express pi to the greatest number of digits. I knew 3.14159, the other team had that plus about 6 more digits, some were incorrect but ours was perfect. Thomas gave it the other team because more numbers that were correct. Huh? Obviously he never uses pi. Wrong numbers don’t cut it.
Cards after dinner in the Crow’s nest. Too cold outside. …
Getting much cooler here. At times it is warmer back home.
I hurt my back at one of golf games and have been seeing the doctor on board, texting my doc back home and working with the acupuncturist Dr. Kim. The goal is to complete the journey without getting off the ship. If I need some testing done, Japan is the place to get it. I’ve decided against getting an MRI off the ship because it will only confirm what I already know. I had an MRI done 6 years ago that showed some problems with my spine.
The drugs the doctor on ship gave work but they are very powerful opioids. They really just mess up your mind so you can ignore the pain and they are very addictive and you can build a tolerance to them. The anti inflammatory has done nothing. The acupuncture has yielded the best results. 4 visits to Dr. Kim and I am nearly pain free. Hopefully it will last through May.
My doctor back home gave me stretches to do and they are also helping. I’ll keep doing these. He also given me great advice. I’m glad he is part of my team.
Group trivia went fairly well. Some of them are just beyond what we know. What does the WD in WD40 stand for? The Communist Manifesto was originally written in which language? Which was the first state first state to make alcohol illegal? Which creature has a tongue that weighs more than a full size elephant?
Tours that we have planned for Japan are difficult to manage. Very little English spoken. Doesn’t matter if you call or write. It’s difficult to know if the tours’ pickup location is with a short traveling distance from the ship. I have been dealing a lot with Viator and Trip Advisor. The tour company I spoke with today would have made a great hour long comedy show. Very little communication although when she asked me the same question the 5th time she seemed to understand when I gave her the same answer.
We did dinner a bit later and then called it a night in the room. The back is wearing me out but it is getting better. I’m ready for the next tour. …
Today we met our guide at the entrance to the port station. Masayuki Shinjo. Shin would be our guide all day. We did stop at the ATM yesterday and picked up some yen. 10 – 1,000 yen bills. Each 1,00 bill was worth about $8 USD. It is a pain dealing with currency that has been inflated like this. Coins are practically worthless. Now that I think about it, coins at home are too.
Our first stop would be one of the US military bases. We did a bus ride out and started to walk to the entrance of the station. When we arrived, we saw what looked like a young American on his cell phone. “Hey guys, how are you doing”, he said. We said fine and then he said “The cab driver dropped me off at the wrong entrance last night” Lot’s of colorful language followed. “I haven’t slept in over 24 hours”. I asked if this was his base and he said “This is my f*&*^&^g base”. He also said for the three years he has been here, he didn’t know this gate existed. No one was at the gate. Finally a friend came by and picked him up. He said good bye and then screamed out more colorful language. Maybe there is hope for our military?
looking out of the restaurant
We boarded another bus and went to lunch. Traditional Japanese food was served here. Upper left, bitter cucumbers, lettuce, below that is seaweed, some vegetable that resembles spaghetti, a piece of pork with the skin still on, below that is soup, fried melons pieces, tofu that looked like ice cream and finally rice. Delicious meal. For desert? Home made ice cream with a brown sugar syrup. It is not sold anywhere and it is to die for. I put a business card here. It would be worth the trip.The translation is interesting.
Next stop was the Shuri Castle. We grabbed another taxi for this.
Between 1429 and 1879 it was the palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom. In 1945, the US navy almost completely destroyed this. After the war, the castle was repurposed as a University. In 1992, the walls were reconstructed and many of the university buildings were removed. It is very difficult to tell what was original and what was rebuilt.
Seiden Hall of Shuri Castle was destroyed by fire in 2019. Completely burned to the ground. A new Seiden Hall is being constructed on the same site. It will be exactly as the old and all joints are connected using tenon joints, posts and other non-nail techniques.
Inside this building is the where the new hall is being constructed. Fascinating inside.
View of Naha from the castle.
We spent a good amount of time at the castle and then walked over to the monorail.
We took the monorail over to the Prefectural Museum. We didn’t have a lot of time in the museum but we did enjoy it. It was time to go back to the ship. We hopped into a cab and were back in about 20 minutes. We said goodbye to Shin and went up for dinner.
After dinner was fun and games on the Lido. A carnival atmosphere. We played a number of games and called it a night.
The ship left Okinawa for Tokyo at about 10:30 pm. Rough sees again. Everything on the desk is secured!…
Today we had planned on golfing on Kadena Joint Base but cancelled to give my back a bit more recovery time.
We chose to hire a taxi to visit the old Japanese Navy Headquarters that is underground.
Naha is the capital of the Okinawa Prefecture. The population as of 2019 is 317,000. It looks like it holds many more people as the view reminded me of a large American city.
Not many people here speak English (just a casual observation). This surprised me because of the large military base that is here. In many of the countries we visit, English is taught in school along with the native language. Maybe that is not done here.
When we left the ship, we were diverted to one of two different paths. One path for folks walking to town and one for those who were taking a taxi. Those who had HAL tours went a third way. We chose the taxi line as it was a bit too far to walk. At the end of the line was a taxi and a Japanese woman who also spoke some English. She handed me a piece of paper that had a checklist of commonly visited places, all in Japanese. On the back, the location of the port we were at. Again in Japanese. How handy and how nice. We told her where we wanted to go and she put a check in one of the boxes. I told her we wanted to visit the site and then go to the big shopping area on Kokusai street. She spoke with the driver. He offered to wait while we were in the Navy Headquarters because there is a limited number of taxi’s to hail in that area and then take us to the shopping street. 6000 Japanese Yen was the price. $24 USD. What a bargain! We spent $140 getting to and from the golf course on Guam.
Our driver pointed out things on the way. Pointing was all he could do. When we got to our destination I confirmed that he would wait for us for 30 mins using the translate app. He pointed to the area he would wait. It had many busses there. Probably a HAL tour.
4000 men committed suicide in this bunker rather than face disgrace by surrendering.
entrance to Navy Headquarters. It is all undergroundcommunications roomprisoners of war being rounded up and then sent to Hawaiiremnants of suicidewhere it all began for the USA. USS Arizona
The photos of mounted pictures were difficult to take. Some were taken with the translate app so the description could be read.
This trip was well worth the time. I don’t believe it makes the top of the list for sights to see in Okinawa as history has a way of being lost. The pictures say a lot. Often more than history books. We probably spent an hour or so here. This bunker is where soldiers lived and commanded the defense of Okinawa.
The taxi driver was waiting for us when we were finished. He took us down to the center of the shopping district. Loads of stores. We ducked into an arcade full of shops and walked around until we found a place for lunch.
The place we chose was empty but looked very inviting. Nice, large comfortable chairs and some great jazz playing on the speakers. No English menus. Very little if any English spoken. The translate app was our friend again. We shared a salad and then some cheese. I had an Orion draft beer and Terri some red wine.
After lunch we wondered around the shops and started to head back to the ship. We had about a 2 miles or so until we got back to the port. On the way, we found a little dress shop where Terri found a blouse she liked. She tried it on and found the buttons on the sleeves to be in the wrong position. The shop owner marked the spot where Terri wanted the buttons and then took them off and sewed them on in the new position.
We made our purchase and walked back to the ship.
We had dinner and then went up to our spot to play cards. It is much cooler here than in our previous stops. I had to go back and put a sweatshirt on. Winter clothes are coming out as we head North.
Today we arrived in Ishigaki. One of the many islands of Japan and part of the Okinawa prefecture. The Captain arrived an hour early so that customs officials can board, set up their machinery in the main dining room, grab a complimentary muffin, and begin with the face to face inspection. Every passenger was required to meet with customs officials. It didn’t matter if you were getting off of the ship or staying aboard.
The process started at 8 am and HAL officials always take those on the HAL excursions first. After those folks are cleared we began deck by deck to clear all passengers. It’s done a little differently each time so that other decks have a chance to be first in line. Today we started with deck one and moved up very slowly. After a while, it began to move faster.
Deck 6 was called and we went down to stand in line. The staff went up and down the line and offered water or muffins. We were without food for at least an hour so I guess an assumption was made that it is feeding time.
We were not in a hurry. Late last evening I was on WhatsApp chatting with our tour guide for Ishigaki. We booked a tour to go snorkeling in the Blue Cave. The tour guide asked many questions. We went back and forth a few times about where to meet and what time we would be picked up. Snorkeling equipment was provided but we brought our own. Next question was shoe size. They provided shoes. Height and weight. They provided a wet suit and needed that info. Next was age. After I provided the answer the guide told us that they do not take anyone over 59. Sorry, the excursion is cancelled. We had booked this excursion a long, long time ago. Maybe they could have posted something on the description.
I guess we have reached a new part of life. Age discrimination is back in our lives. 16 to drive, 18 to vote, 21 to drink. Younger than 60 to snorkel. What else do we have to look forward to?
We managed to get off of the ship at about 10 am. We were going to hire a taxi and go see the stalactite cave. Taxi was about 1/10 of the cost we spent in Guam for a similar distance. Communication with the driver was done with the translate app on the iphone. Incredible and very useful tool.
We spent roughly an hour in the cave. It wasn’t snorkeling but it was fun. We had the taxi driver take us to Eugena Mall and drop us off. The mall was an arcade and filled with many shops. We did buy a few items to take back on the ship. Again the translate was amazing. Use the camera feature and it will automatically translate what it sees through the lens. I bought some coffee liquor and some items for the grandkids.
Lunchtime. Terri likes to use Yelp and she found us a place not too far away. Small place with about 6 small tables and a counter. We sat at the counter. They had a menu in English and we ordered the burger plate to split. Terri had wine and I had a local beer.
We watched the cook prepare the meal. The waiter assisted. I’m guessing a husband and wife team. She was preparing some soup or a stew and would add some spices, stir it in and then took a small spoon to taste it. Everything was fresh. We watched her cut the veggies. He went outside to grab a leaf off a plant for a garnish.
White rice, Ishigaki burger, chicken noodle soup, some kind of spiced meat in the bowl, lettuce and tomato, red cabbage, a bowl of egg or yogurt, fried leaves with seasoning. Wow. Fantastic!
We finished our lunch, snapped the photos and said our good byes. They knew enough English to understand.
We visited a few more stores and then started back toward the ship. It was about a mile and one half and we enjoyed the walk.
The evening entertainment was trumpeter Chaw. Chaw is his nickname and his real name is very long and difficult to pronounce. Chaw is from Thailand. The house band backed him up and he did a marvelous performance. Great chops and a lot of endurance. I had to laugh when he performed the tune called “The Chicken”. The DHS jazz band used to perform this and other tunes by the same composer. Great performance. His last tune was “Feels So Good” by Chuck Mangione. I’m not sure why but he decided to do an unrequested encore. He probably should have ended after the Mangione tune because we didn’t feel as good when he did the encore. I gave it a 9. Eliminate the encore and it is a 10.…
It has been the windy and the ship has been rockin’ and a rollin’.
Team trivia for the day. Which actor played the role of Ghandi in the movie? What question is asked in the Nursery Rhyme “Mary, Mary, quite contrary….”? Who wrote the music in the movie “The Graduate” Here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson…. Which group recorded the tune “California Dreamin'” What were the names of the engines that powered the Apollo Rockets? Which company created the Pentium processor. Prior to the movie Titanic, which Kevin Costner movie was the most expensive. (Did you say Waterworld?) Which brand of underwear did Marty wear in Back to the Future?
There are 15 questions in team trivia and then a bonus question worth two points. The fun questions are the those that none of our team members have a clue on such as “What was the day of the week that the stock market crashed in 1929”.
People take this game quite seriously. Today a passenger took up his ipad to educate the team trivia host on a particular answer. Most of the guests are twice the age or more than the host. Give me a break.
We had dinner with Ann and Joe. We met them on the Grand Africa crew and we enjoy talking with them. Brother and sister, Joe and Ann have been traveling together for years. Both have lost spouses and they decided traveling together would be fun.
Ann spent her career teaching. Joe was a teacher for about half of career. They grew up in the Cleveland area and have a similar cultural upbringing and political view. Ann does a lot of knitting and craft making. She sells her creations at the many craft shows she does. There is a project on the ship where blankets are being knitted or crocheted and then donated. The project is called project “Linus” and the blankets are donated to children who are in need. Over 500 blankets have been created on this cruise so far. It really is amazing.
We met Joe and for drinks prior to dinner and the conversation continued through dinner. Very enjoyable time. Joe currently resides in Arizona and Ann lives in Kansas City.
The evening entertainment was Japanese Balloon Artist Syan. Syan is considered one of the top balloon artists of Japan. He is widely known for his speed, his polished skills, and special technique called “Areal Twist”! Watching Syan is what you might expect. A street artist performing making balloon animals. It was quite entertaining as he was in a traditional Japanese costume and used interesting traditional Japanese music as part of his act. The pentatonic scale was quite prevalent and his timing was fantastic. I gave him an 8. Terri fell asleep. (it is dark and comfortable in the theater). …
One more day closer to Japan. We are now on Tokyo time. 14 hours ahead of home.
Group trivia went better today as the whole team, minus Richard, was there. Bet you don’t know which candy was created and named after a nickname for his daughter. What is known as the pig in men’s gymnastics? What is known as the royal disease? Which country did graffiti originate? Which fruit has the most vitamin C (not an orange) The sixth commandment in the King James Version of the bible? Percentage of DNA that is the same in both monkey and human? Which was the first breakfast cereal? We did rather well with these and others.
We had dinner with Janet and Brian. They came down from the 3rd floor to our table on the second. Fascinating learning more about Canada. Brian said that the amount of Military that the US has on Guam equals about a third of the entire military in Canada. He also said that Canada relies on the USA to defend it. I guess we already knew that. Janet said that Canada has sent 8 tanks to help with the effort in Ukraine. This was 10% of all of the tanks that Canada has. It also relies on us for health care. This way it can have “free universal health care” and when someone really needs something done they can come to the USA. We talked about Trudeau and Biden. Lots of head shaking by all. Janet told how they shop in land owned by the “First Nation”. The First Nation, a group of indigenous people, decided to build a Costco. Shopping there is much cheaper than in mainland Canada and gas is cheaper too. They also have casinos to draw in Canadians.
Wapole Island is a first nation island across from Algonac, Michigan. Maybe they plan to open a Costco there?
More forms to fill out for Japan and a mandatory face to face with customs officials. We will be in Japan for 12 days. This should be fascinating. No overnights. We will return the ship each evening. Don’t want to miss dinner!
We finished the evening with a game of cards on the back of the Lido. Nice weather! Terri is up by 2.
Today we spent quite a bit of time with upcoming ports. We plan on golfing at the Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. It’s time to make a tee time and determine distance and travel time to the course. We also received a notice that one of tours through Viator was cancelled because no guide picked up the tour. I’m not sure why this happened but Viator did offer to book another similar tour. That has been taken care of.
Our next port is Ishigaki. Ishigaki is an island that contains Japan’s southern most city, Ishigaki City. Ishigaki is part of the Okinawa prefecture. We have a tour scheduled to do Blue Cave snorkeling. It looks like Blue Cave is on the northern side of the island and the cruise port is on the southern side. We will be picked up and dropped off at the cruise ship port.
It rained a good portion of the day and it was very windy. Another challenging day walking on the ship.
We were able to book a tee time at the Metropolitan Golf course in Cape Town, South Africa today. Email is the preferred method as time zones make calling difficult.
The evening entertainment was violinist Venus Tsai. Venus is 37 and has been playing violin since age 6. She is Taiwanese and currently lives in Seattle. She flew to Guam to get on the ship to entertain us.
Her show started with pictures of her on the big screen. More and more artists seem to be doing this. Many, many pictures of Venus were displayed in many different outfits. The pictures were displayed with her music playing in the background. The house band was already on stage and was waiting for the display to end. I had to check my watch. It was way too long. She is very pretty and looks like she is about 22 but this was about her music. Maybe it wasn’t.
The band was getting bored. The drummer was drumming on his leg and the guitarist was air playing licks from the chart.
Venus finally entered. Tall woman with very long hair. Maybe down to her knees. Very thin and a very nice smile. If the show was about her looks, I would have already given her a 10.
The musical performance.
She says she is on YouTube so you can look her up if you wish. Her musical style was very aggressive. I don’t think her bow moved in one direction more than 4 inches the entire performance. Back and forth it went. Faster and faster. Some of the runs were rhythmically solid. Others, not so much. If it was one number in this style, great. It wasn’t. This was the style. Every entrance was made like Elvis just entered the building. After a few tunes she grabbed the mic and sang a song that she wrote. She sang in Mandarin. Beautiful voice. Not that I listen to words but if it was in English, it may have helped. At one point Venus left the stage and more pictures were shown. After another long period watching her, she came out in a different costume and sat behind the piano. Her skills are definitely better than mine but as a performer they were medium. She played one number on the piano and grabbed her violin again. She finished the show with Evard Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King from Peer Gynt. Her aggressiveness would have been best if she finished the tune with it but she started and finished with it.
Obviously very talented but could use some help arranging a performance for a cruise ship. Performance 3, looks 10. I give her 6.5.
Saipan, Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands CNMI, U.S. Territory
Today we arrived in Saipan and were cleared to go ashore at 8 am.
During our planning stages, we didn’t find any tours that appealed to us and decided we would wing it once we arrived. A few days ago I found a place to rent cars and decided we would do that.
The walk into town was about 2 miles. The Port authorities decided at the last minute that they didn’t want people walking through the port so they offered complimentary shuttle services to town. We hopped on the bus and were taken to a closed shopping mall in the center of town. It is a holiday and many businesses and schools would be closed. I’m guessing because of the presence of military bases on these islands that this holiday is observed. Do we do this back home?
The car rental place was a few blocks away and renting a car was much less expensive than one of the ship tours.
We had a map and decided that Suicide Cliff was our first stop. This was one of many locations that civilians and military hurled themselves over to avoid capture. I have seen videos of families throwing their children off first and then themselves. The brainwashing that the Japanese did to their own people convinced them that they would be tortured mercilessly by American forces if they were captured. The military had no choice as there was no place to go. There was no honor in surrendering. Good thing our own government never engages in brainwashing.
The 2d pictures cannot show any depth. Just beyond the cactus is a drop of several hundred feet. There is a youtube video showing a woman jumping to her death from this very spot. The last photo shows a triangular shaped piece of land that is an American veterans cemetery. We did visit that on the way up but there wasn’t really anything to see.
We stopped at all of the sites at the northern end of the island. Great views but not much else to see. Our next stop is the top of Mt. Topachau. The drive was interesting and dangerous. The road to the top was washed out gravel at best. Cliff on both sides of part of the road. Careful attention is required.
way down from suicide cliffwater breaking on the reefbird island
Once at the top, there were some stairs and a small sidewalk. Signs described and showed what the marines did back in the 1940s. The landscape hasn’t changed much in 80 years. The airstrip shown in one of the pictures is now a highway.
We spent a good amount of time at the top taking in the view. From this point, every portion of the island can be seen. This is why it was so valuable.
We left the mountain top and headed south. There really wasn’t much left to see but we did find this structure that looked like it had been used to house a good sized gun.
We decided to find a place to sit down and have a drink near the car rental place. We did find a nice place. Only one other person was in the place and I recognized him from the ship. He was the cellar master and handled the wine.
Jacques has been working for HAL for 17 years and is from Cape Town, South Africa. He was on the 2020 world cruise and we spent a lot of time talking about that. The cruise was originally Ft. Lauderdale, around the world and back to Ft. Lauderdale. He told me that some time in March, the Captain got on the intercom and announced that tomorrow they all would be getting off of the ship. This of course started panic. Perth, Australia was where they all would disembark. How was one to get home? No one was working anywhere. I can only imagine what was happening on this ship.
We agreed that the whole world when nuts with the pandemic and this should have never happened the way it did. He said that his government outlawed flip-flops. What a great idea. This is the way covid spreads. The flipping motion sends the virus off of the flop and directly into one’s lungs. Sounds like brilliant government officials in South Africa. Maybe those in South Africa called our governor to share some of these great ideas. Maybe they decided to implement the “alcohol yes, exercise no” policy that was in place in Michigan. Or possibly the people standing in restaurants need masks. I remember when the governor discovered that the virus can only be transmitted while standing in a restaurant. While sitting at a table, a person is able to confuse the virus and keep it under control. No mask needed. Brilliant.
We agreed that we need more of these people in control of our lives since they obviously know much more than we do.
We finished our drinks and stopped to fuel up the car. 2 gallons of gas that we used translated into $12. When I pulled into the Mobile Gas station, an attendant pumped the gas. That hasn’t happened in decades. He asked if I was an officer and I said no. “How did you find our island? We are not even on some maps.” I told him about the cruise and he was fascinated. He directed me inside to pay with a credit card. The woman behind the counter said “Mr. Jeff, are you an officer?” Maybe there is the officer rate. She asked “Can I see your ID?” I pulled out my drivers license and I pointed at it and joked with her. “What a great looking guy”, I said. The young lady next to her said, “Bruce Willis. You look like Bruce Willis”. I laughed. Yippee Ki- Ay.
We dropped the car off and decided to walk back to the ship. Under 2 miles. We did take the wrong entrance to the port, walked right past security and went toward the ship. Shipping containers and a chain link fence block the entrance. We were able to talk to a security officer on the other …
