Random thoughts from the sea
Day 23, Grand Asia 2017 Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017 – Tianjin/Beijing, China Pictures don’t do the Great Wall justice. The reality of actually standing on the centuries-old wall would have taken my breath away, had I had any breath by then. Reaching the wall was the culmination of a shin-burning
Continue readingDay 22, Grand Asia 2017 Monday, Oct. 23, 2017 – At Sea As we sail toward tomorrow morning’s port of Tianjin, China, the ship traffic surrounding us continues to increase, and we pass dozens of fishing boats. After so many sea days crossing the North Pacific Ocean with no sights
Continue readingDay 21, Grand Asia 2017 Sunday, Oct. 22, 2017 – At Sea I had a great night’s sleep, despite or perhaps because of the rolling of the ship as we sailed through the edges of Typhoon Lan. My stateroom preparations paid off, as nothing had fallen to the floor. The
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Day 19, Grand Asia 2017 Friday, Oct. 20, 2017 – Hososhima, Japan According to Japanese mythology, the first Japanese emperor, Jimmu, set sail from the small seaside village of Mimitsu to conquer central Japan. Today I visited the village during our stop in Hososhima on Kyushu, the southwestern-most of the
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Day 18, Grand Asia 2017 Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017 – Beppu, Japan We’re more than halfway through our week of Japanese ports. Our original itinerary had five stops in Japan followed by two in Korea. But the Chinese government decided it would not admit ships that had stopped in Korea.
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Day 17, Grand Asia 2017 Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2017 – Osaka/Kyoto As we sailed into Osaka this morning, an unfamiliar sight greeted us: sun and blue sky. The mood of the entire ship seemed to lift after days of rainy Japanese ports. We cruised through Osaka Bay and docked at
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Day 16, Grand Asia 2017 Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2017 – Shimizu, Japan Do you see Mount Fuji here? No? Neither did I. Today we docked in Shimizu, Japan, a beautiful port considered the gateway to Mount Fuji. But it was another cold rainy day with low cloud cover. It isn’t
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Day 15, Grand Asia 2017 Monday, Oct. 16, 2017 – Yokohama/Tokyo Today started with a wonderful moment of serendipity. Our tour guide was running late and while we waited I used the port terminal’s free WIFI to pop onto Snapchat and ask if anyone in our family group was around.
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Day 14, Grand Asia 2017 Sunday, Oct. 15, 2017 – Yokohama/Tokyo I pictured Tokyo as a city of bright neon lights, skyscrapers and millions of people densely packed into a small space. We didn’t see that Tokyo today. Our Tokyo was a city of dreary drizzle and millions of umbrellas.
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Day 13, Grand Asia 2017 Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017 – At Sea Mangoes and papayas showed up at breakfast today just as the berries are disappearing. We will reprovision in Yokohama tomorrow, I presume. They say you should eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like
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