Random thoughts from the sea
Day 25, Grand Asia 2018 Thursday, Oct. 25, 2018, Tianjin, China: After a day in Tianjin yesterday and a two-day trip to Beijing last year, my options for today were limited. The ship offered a 40-minute shuttle ride to a mall, but having heard the descriptions from those who went
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Day 24, Grand Asia 2018 Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2018, Tianjin, China: New York City has about 8.6 million people, according to Wikipedia. Tianjin, China, has 15.6 million residents. And yet I had never heard of Tianjin before cruising to China. For cruisers, Tianjin is best known as the port for
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Day 23, Grand Asia 2018 Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018, At Sea: After six straight days in five ports, we were ready for two lazy sea days. Yesterday we sailed among South Korean islands for much of the day, passing between Jeju and the mainland and eventually heading northwest toward Tianjin,
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Day 21, Grand Asia 2018 Sunday, Oct. 21, 2018, Fukuoka, Japan: With our stop today in Fukuoka, we have visited the four main islands of Japan. Later we will go to the fifth, Okinawa. Fukuoka is known for its food. In 2014, Condé Nast Magazine named it Japan’s Next Great
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Day 20, Grand Asia 2018 Saturday, Oct. 20, 2018, Kochi, Japan: The Japanese coast is dotted with port cities of various sizes. This island nation of mountainous terrain is most easily traversed by water, especially for commercial shipping. A few cities are well known to Americans — Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka,
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Day 19, Grand Asia 2018 Friday, Oct. 19, 2018, Kobe, Japan: There was a time when I wouldn’t eat a meal ashore while on a cruise. After all, I had “paid” for my meals on the ship, and they generally are very good. Today I not only ate ashore, but
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Day 18, Grand Asia 2018 Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018, Shimizu, Japan: I’ll start at the end. Leaving Shimizu was our best sail away ever. A large crowd gathered on the pier and for at least 15 minutes elementary-school children entertained us with song and dance. It was a like halftime
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Day 17, Grand Asia 2018 Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, Yokohama, Japan: I liked the nearby town of Kamakura so much last year that I signed up for a tour to go back. It’s a nice alternative to the hustle and bustle of Tokyo and is less than an hour from
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Day 16, Grand Asia 2018 Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, Yokohama, Japan: I had debated about whether to take a tour to Tokyo today. My strongest memories of last year’s visit there are of rain. I felt like somehow I had missed seeing the Tokyo I expected to see. But the
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Day 14, Grand Asia 2018 Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018, Kushiro, Japan: For the second year in a row, the fog escorted us into Kushiro. It isn’t known as “the town of mist” for no reason. As we neared the port, a fog bank hung just off the balcony. From the
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