Another beautiful calm day at sea. Seven straight is a record for us. We have done five days before when crossing the Atlantic. (We have done a bunch of those – NYC to Southampton on the Queen Mary, Montreal to Southampton, Southampton to NYC, Fort Lauderdale to Marseilles, and Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale) This Pacific Ocean has not been like the one we see raging when we stay in Trinidad, California or Depoe Bay, Oregon. From the pictures from our balcony early this morning (7 am), you can see the sun raising behind the boat as we sail almost due west at the moment. And there is increasingly other marine traffic visible – commercial tankers and container ships. Last night was the last night that we turned the clocks back to gain an hour. We will be on Japan time now until we fly out of Haneda Airport in Tokyo next Sunday night.
The good weather and calm seas continued all day. The temperature was around 70º. Great for sitting on the balcony. And we did see some actual volcanos. Dormant ones, I think.. Japan is the most volcano dense country in the world and sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire.. It has more than 100 active ones. More pics from the balcony.
Dinner was in the World Cafe with Don and Donna.
Then we four were off to the Explorer’s Lounge for nightcaps. It was more crowded than usual because instead of the usual piano music, the ventriloquist (and his dummy) were entertaining. We caught the end of the show and his Q&A session. He was pretty good. Elaine had a chance to chat with him. Nice guy.
Tomorrow morning we dock in Otaru, a city near Sapporo, Japan on Hokkaido Island. Every guest on board has to personally clear customs with a Japanese border agent. Then we will be off on an excursion to see the Highlights of Hokkaido. We stay docked in Otaru for another night and see more of Sapporo the following day. Then it’s a another sea day as we sail south to Honshu Island and Tokyo.
History update: For those who wondered and may not have seen the reply to a comment: Of the Aleuts that were taken off Attu and imprisoned in Japan, half died in Japan of malnutrition or disease. When the survivors returned from Japan at the end of the war, they were not allowed to go back to Attu, but were taken to the village of Atka in the Aleutian Islands.
I guess all the prayers for calm seas worked. Japan sure has a lot of geographical interest with the volcanoes and the 14,000 plus islands. Who knew? What a sad story about those Aleuts.
That’s one good looking dummy!