Day 18 Mon. 19th Oct. In Port, Yokohama, Finishing with Gold before Heading Home

Firstly, apologies for making this entry sooo late! Once we were safely home and I completed a few chores etc., I decided to come down with Influenza A and I struggled to get out of bed for a couple of days. Anyway, am on the mend now and taking things slowly. I suppose that by holidaying, taking planes, trains and ships to visit places, contracting a bug is more likely than if we stayed home and I don’t think we’re ready to do that just yet.  Before I go through our last day in Japan and the homeward flight, I wanted to let you know about a medical emergency which occurred as we were returning to our cabin last night. As we were strolling back to our cabin, the Captain came over the speaker to say the “medical emergency response team” was required to go to a cabin on level 5. In fact, the cabin was only a couple of rooms away from our cabin. Within a minute, at least 10 staff, officers and others carrying equipment, including a wheelchair, gurney, a backpack AED, oxygen cylinder etc. swooped past us at great speed. By the time we reached the normal path to our cabin, doors had been closed and we couldn’t reach it. We were all ready to go and sit it out in a lounge area when someone said to try going further on to see if our cabin could be reached another way. We did this and found that we were able to go into our cabin, although the cabin to the left of ours could not be accessed due to a dividing door being locked. Can’t give any updates at to what happened but we didn’t hear anymore about it. Anyway, we made an easy disembarkation, deciding to take care of our own luggage. The whole thing was done very quickly and efficiently. We met our new guide early! He was very impressed and after just checking which of us were going to which airport (one couple Narita, all the rest of us Haneda) we were on the coach and off to our first stop. Yokohama is about 45 km from Tokyo and has plenty of attractions. Our guide explained that it is more “westernised” than other parts of Japan not only being the major port but boasting IT, AI companies. As we arrived early at the magnificent Sankeien Garden, and they had not opened, our guide, who was quite the comedian, spent time extolling the finer points of the Japanese toilet, with its heated seats, sprays, music etc. etc. He gave us tips for surviving an earthquake and many other interesting facts.  He also mentioned how “historically accurate” The Last Samuri, movie was. The Sankeien Garden was another area that few tourists visit but plenty of Japanese people do, especially for weddings, photos etc. It was truly a beautiful experience to walk around the many paths in the garden and see the trees starting to change colour for Autumn. There were many old, heritage Japanese style homes and small shrines as well as lakes. We climbed one path to view the harbour and saw Mt Fuji. There was also a three-storey Pagoda in the in the garden. It was extremely quiet and the members of our group were about the only people there. On weekends, it gets busier with the locals visiting. Our next stop on the excursion was “Japanese Style, China Town”. This was an intriguing little place, and we enjoyed wandering the beautifully decorated streets and alleys. I think the “Japanese Style” might have meant the low noise level and orderliness of the area, which is quite different to many China Towns I’ve visited. We stopped here to have a coffee and at one stage saw something rather strange……well it seemed strange. Here we were in Japanese China Town when we saw a man who was quite obviously a Jew, opening his Gold and Jewellery shop, in Japanese, China Town. From this enjoyable stop we headed to a famous building once more back close to the port, called “The Red Brick Warehouse”. This historic building now offers views over the harbour as well as a myriad of local craft shops. We arrived around lunchtime and all things considered; it was reasonably quiet. We managed to find a good place to enjoy lunch before exploring the shops. The restaurants and other eateries are also a popular place for the Japanese to come for lunch, and we noticed a few business meetings being conducted while people were waiting for lunch. Soon it was time for us to be taken to the nearby Haneda airport. We had no issues getting through immigration and checking in, and our flight from Haneda to Hong Kong which left at 4.30pm was smooth and comfortable. In the Hong Kong terminal, we had a short wait before boarding our flight to Sydney. I am proud to say I managed about six hours sleep on this flight so felt pretty good when we arrived in Sydney. In Sydney, we needed to go through customs and immigration as we were re-entering the country. The meant we had to collect our luggage. We had a reasonable window of time to do this before transferring to the domestic terminal to catch our flight to Adelaide, as long as there weren’t any “hiccups”. Our first one was at customs. I declared a wooden spatula and some dried fruit which was not a problem and then the officer asked would I mind helping out by lining up with my luggage, in a 3-person group as they had a dog that was doing “sniffer” training. I really couldn’t say no. Anyway, they placed a bag of “something” on my backpack and then the dog had to walk around all three of us and try to detect the contraband, which it did successfully. Time was ticking away so I asked if I was able to leave now and they said sorry but, no. The bag of contraband was removed and once again the dog was asked to walk around all three of us again for a check. The dog was a gorgeous labrador, so it was difficult to be mad with the situation, anyway it probably burnt up about 20 minutes of our time. Next was an issue at the QANTAS luggage transfer desk. Surprise, surprise, it was not busy at all! This was because the main luggage belt was broken so we had to take our bags to the “oversized” drop-off. We did this and then started to head for the bus to transfer us to the domestic terminal. I know there is a lot happening infrastructure wise at Sydney Airport but a bus taking you across the tarmac to reach the terminal seems archaic for a large airport. We hopped on the bus, and all was going well and we were saying we had plenty of time until a huge QANTAS double deck plane (A380), started to be pushed out onto the tarmac. We were probably held up here for at least 15 minutes as the plane was being pushed out. Anyway, we finally made it to the Domestic terminal and our gate with about 20 minutes to spare. We had a quick and comfortable flight back to Adelaide and arrived home safely around 2.30pm. on Tuesday. Considering Adelaide is an hour and a half ahead of Tokyo time, “jetlag” was not an issue. Well, I thought I was going to finish here when today in our local paper, there was an article and photos about a rare Dusky shark in a manmade inlet, in Bosun, South Korera. I couldn’t believe it! When we were in Busan, our guide kept telling us about this shark and saying how close it was to our ship and that if we had time we should go for a walk and see it, I didn’t write about it because it didn’t seem that important. From the ship you could see hundreds of people on the walkways and pedestrian bridges watching the shark and now it has made our local paper!

Day 17 Sun. 18th Oct. At Sea heading for Tokyo A bit of Rocking and Rolling

We made the most of the fact that we didn’t need to be anywhere at any particular time today and had a relaxing start, alarm free! When we awoke we both had had a very good night’s sleep. Our cabin is located on deck 5 and we have quite a large window overlooking the sea. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I opened the curtains and saw how rough the sea was and we really didn’t feel it down here! We had a later breakfast at 8 am. The breakfast bistro is on level 14 and so it was here we noticed the rough seas, although certainly not rough enough to upset us. Following breakfast, I completed yesterday’s blog J and headed to the gym while Rob did some technical stuff with my lap-top as it seems the battery is failing. Here, in the middle of the ocean, Rob was busy ordering new batteries. Technology, I don’t know! I decided to venture to the gym again today (only for the second time, this cruise). I thought it could be busy, as it was, during the last “at sea” day but was very surprised to find it very quiet. The gym is located on level 15, so it was a bit rocky up there, but I didn’t have to wait to use any of the equipment which was a bonus. I spent over an hour there and was pretty pleased with that. I started packing ready for our disembarkation from the ship in Tokyo, tomorrow. Following lunch, we met most of our fellow “Trip-a-Deal” travellers for drinks in one of the bars. It was a great catch up as they really have been a good group to travel with. Most of us will meet up again tomorrow as we are doing a couple of excursions in Tokyo, before being taken to the airport. One couple is flying to the North Island of Japan, hiring a car and doing some more exploring.

Day 16 Sat, 17th Oct, In Port of Nagasaki Japan, Reflecting, Respecting, Learning and Enjoying

 Another day and a new port, this time it was the large Japanese city of Nagasaki. We had booked into a long excursion for the day, while Trudy and Rob chosen a shorter one.  An early departure time for the excursion and the fact that we had to clear immigration because we were entering back into Japan meant we had to set the alarm for 5.30am. Nagasaki is a very large port city, well known now for it’s ship building capabilities. The housing is very dense with many high-rise units and tall buildings in the city and all around the nearby hills and mountains. It actually looked a bit like Busan. Our excursion took us to first to Ground Zero, Peace Park, a park similar to Peace Park in Hiroshima. The park had the remnants of foundations that had once been buildings, standing in the area, as well as beautiful, statues and sculptures sent from countries all over the world to the people of Nagasaki, to inspire peace. From here we drove to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, which was opened in 1996 as part of the 50^th anniversary. The museum was spacious and housed many artifacts from the bombing as well as a number of photos. Again, it was very confronting but something the world cannot ignore. Although there were quite a number of tourist busses from the ship, visiting the museum, it was very large and spacious and we certainly were able to view exhibits easily and move around with out any issues, unlike the museum at Peace Park in Hiroshima. We were then taken to a fascinating man-made island called Dejima. It was built back in 1636, initially to confine the Portuguese and Spanish. This was the start of the time when the Japanese wanted to remove all foreigners due to the spread and threat Christianity posed. The island became a prison first and then a Dutch trading post as the Japanese still wanted to trade with the Dutch for essentials. When Japan opened its borders once again in 1859, land around the island was reclaimed and new buildings sprung up around the island. Today the people of Nagasaki have restored the buildings which were once on the island and so we were able to walk around and in and out of the buildings, read stories about the people who lived and worked here and the way trade was conducted during those years from 1636 to 1859. I, of course, was in my element! Following this enjoyable activity, we were taken to the Plaza Hotel for a delicious traditional Japanese lunch. The next part of our excursion was to be done on foot and as it was quite warm, at least half of the group nominated to return to the ship, so that left a nice little group to tour the nearby Glover Garden. A short but steep walk away from the hotel were the gardens. Our guide said that the gardens were beautiful, but the area was actually a museum, showcasing “western style” housing from the 1860’s onwards. There were many period homes built in this area and we enjoyed exploring them. Many of the people who lived in these homes came to Nagasaki to start new industries when Japan opened up to the rest of the world. I did have a little chuckle when our guide looked in on one of the large dining rooms of one of the homes and said these rooms are just “too big”. We had to walk up quite a few steps to visit the homes but every now and then there would be an escalator to help us along. We had great views from the top of the Garden and could see our ship which was moored only a short distance away. The return walk to the ship was very easy as it was all downhill!

Day 15 Fri.16th Oct. Port Of Busan, South Korea, Big, Busy, Busan

Waking up in a new country, we were up reasonably early today because we were heading off on an early excursion. We could not believe the size of the city and port. Busan is the second largest city in South Korea and has one of the biggest container ports in the world.  Our guide told us that the area of Busan is 772 sq. Kms and 3.3million people live in there. Rob looked up the details for Adelaide, which showed Adelaide is 2,260 sq kms. and has 1.45million people living there. Many high-rise buildings fill the sky, and the area is very hilly so many are built on hills. In fact, in Korean, “san” means mountains.  Our first stop on the excursion was a lovely skywalk over parts of the harbour and the first man-made public beach in Korea, constructed in 1917. We had great views of the harbour and surrounding area from this spot. Our guide was very keen for us to then hop on the bus to go the Gamcheon Cultural Village before the area became too busy. This fascinating village in set on the hillsides close to the centre of Busan has become famous for the artistic works that decorate the lanes and alleys. It is full of small shops, some offering food and drinks, others souvenirs and some with high-end pieces of artworks produced in the village. Originally in the 1920’s the village was a poor-working class area with people living in small wooden homes with community washing, bathing and bathroom facilities. In the 1970’s, the government attempted to improve things by building bigger 2 level cement houses, but poverty persisted. The houses were painted with whatever leftover paints could be found and so form a very colourful conglomeration. In 2009 the government sponsored an art themed renovation which seemed to have the desired effect, and it has now become a huge attraction. We enjoyed walking the busy streets and alleys and as we were leaving, noted the large crowds and traffic jams as vehicles tried to find places to stop and park.  From this spot we were then taken to a huge fish market. Busan’s fish market is the 6^th largest one in the world and it was fascinating. First, we walked down long street lined with fish sellers, before entering a building which had aisles and aisles of the same. Everywhere you looked you saw tanks with a huge array of live fish, shellfish, crabs, prawns, eels, sea cucumbers, sea worms, sea urchins etc. All of these creatures were being kept alive. You could go and pick your food out live from the tank. Above this area, on the second level was the seafood restaurant where your food would be cooked for you if you desired. We finished this excursion with a visit to a nearby “International Market” where you could buy almost anything. Many people were busy buying gifts and souvenirs.  We arrived back and after clearing immigration, visited the bistro on the 14^th level for lunch. Following this, Rob and I went for a walk around the ship on a higher level to get good views of both the harbour and the city. Very close to the main shipping wharf is a camping/caravan park. We found this very curious, but we could see people erecting their tents etc. One of our passengers asked our guide about this and she just said it was just a caravan park on the wharf as though it was nothing out of the ordinary.