Random thoughts from the sea
Day 31, Grand Asia 2018 Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018, Naha, Okinawa, Japan: After a month of near-perfect weather, the tide is turning and affecting our itinerary. While I was in the city of Naha on Okinawa, Capt. Eversen announced that our stop tomorrow in Ishigaki, Japan, is canceled due to
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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 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 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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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 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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