For the first time on this trip, we woke up to inclement weather. Arriving in the small port town of Tsuruga, we were greeted with cloudy skies and showers. We had booked another excursion “Highlights of Tsuruga” for today but Trudy and Rob decided to have a day on the ship. Despite the weather, we enjoyed this excursion, exploring what was once a very important port town. Our first stop was a beautiful beach and bay, surrounded by a forest of 17,000 pine trees. Here the sun came out, and the water was flat calm. The bays around the harbour are protected and a good place for fishing, swimming and recreation. We continued from here to visit a new Crab Factory which only opened last year. This factory was set up to encourage families and tourists to visit. We watched people packing the meat from huge King crabs before they were going to be snap frozen. There were many “crab centred” activities for children to do when visiting the factory. Rob enjoyed a plate of crab meat for a mid-morning snack and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a bit early in the day for me. Following this our coach took us back into the centre of Tsuruga, to visit another Shinto Shrine and Tori gate. The original shrine dated back to the 1300’s and the actual Tori gate was over 400 years old, and still standing. We were so lucky managing to dodge the rain and being inside when it was raining (Crab Factory) and outside (the shrine) when it was fine. From here we visited two fascinating museums, the first was called Red Brick Museum. Here we saw a magnificent, extensive diorama of the town of Tsuruga from 120 years ago. The town was a bustling port busy with ships, trains and other forms of transport. It was fascinating to walk around the diorama and observe all the moving parts. Not only trains, ships, vehicles etc but also small models of people in parades and animals. We watched a video here which was about the diorama and all the moving parts to it. From this museum we proceeded to “The Port of Humanity, Tsuruga Museum”. The port of Tsuruga is quite close to Russia and has assisted with two humanitarian transportation rescues over the years. The first was in the 1920’s when a large group of Polish orphans arrived. Many had parents who had died while working under extreme conditions in Siberia for the Russians. The orphans were taken across Russia in trains and then put on ships at Vladivostok before taking a ship across the Sea of Japan to Tsuruga. Here they were greeted with kindness, fed, clothed and looked after. After a year or two the orphans were able to return to a children’s home in Poland in much better health. Later in the 1940’s many Jewish refugees, fleeing Germany took the same journey. Here, they were treated with kindness, protected, granted visas and then after a few months were able to migrate to places like the US, Australia and New Zealand. A thoroughly interesting excursion about a place we had never heard of! By the time we were back on the ship, the weather had changed again. It was very windy and wet. The ship appears to have a few spots where there are leaks. I’m glad the leaks are from the top of the ship (rain) rather than the bottom of the ship. Just a quick word about travelling with a large percentage of Japanese people. It really is delightful. The Japanese are gentle, patient, reserved, respectful and so nice to travel with. Even when on the roads in busy places like Tokyo, you very rarely heard the horn of a vehicle. The traffic moves at a good pace without anybody revving their cars and making a show.
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