I finally got so caught up that I played Bridge on the sea day of Thursday, September 30.  Andrea has been playing all along.  It’s a nice group, I wish I had had more free time.  One of my couples won again, which is very nice.  We had dinner in the main dining room, with the Rands, and went to see trumpeter Nathan Samuelson again.  There were more people, without the competing 6:30 show, but still not nearly enough.  The people don’t know what they are missing.

The next day, Friday, September 27, we docked n Kushiro, Japan.  After all those sea days, it was nice to be getting off.  Our tour wasn’t until the afternoon, so I worked some and was ready to get off at one.  Our first stop was the Tancho Crane Reserve.  The Japanese Red-crowned Crane is a seriously endangered, species, but not as seriously endangered as it was earlier this century.  They were down to triple digits.  This reserve is one of the few places in the world where their population is increasing.  I wasn’t nuts about the way they were exhibited, though and had to do quite a bit of PhotoShopping to get rid of the chain link fence:

Yes, I know, he’s still behind a fence, the fences were two deep.  Their wings are clipped, too.  All they are meant to do is breed.  But this group are saving a species, so they need to put up with it. 

Then we went to a tower outside Kushiro and looked out at a wildlife park, where we saw a lot of trees, and there were doubtless bears, but they were doubtless beneath the foliage.  Next stop, Kushiro City Museum, where we went up to its observatory to look at the city and down to the ground floor, where there was a lot of stuffed wildlife, some of it very well done.  Many of the animals were similar to ours, as the continents were once joined before all the Pacific Rim volcanic activity.  Back on board, Kushiro sent us a brass marching band, and we could see it from our own balcony:

They were very good.  It was about the only night we could do it, so we had the Rands over to our suite at 6:00pm to drink the free champagne we had found in our fridge.  Our butler kindly provided ample snacks, plus a cheese plate, and another bottle of bubbly.  Here we are:

The girls, at least.  Serge took the picture.  On to dinner and another great “Broadway” show from our singers and dancers.

Saturday, September 28, meant another port, another bus, another very nice Japanese guide with a very thick accent.  They seem to use retired professors a lot for this work in Japan.  First we went to the Goryokaku Tower.  It’s by the star-shaped ruins of an old fortress, now beautiful gardens.

The last two cities we have been in are small and made of very boring looking apartment buildings and even more boring houses. It finally dawned on me: There were no trees. There were park lands here and there, but the residential areas were pretty baren, with  featureless houses, and no trees.  Not moving to Northern Japan any time soon.  The cars were cute and came in interesting colors, though. And what was really interesting was the food!  Morning market next stop, just in time for lunch. 

When the guide released us for half an hour, I immediately asked where I could have a bowl of rice with sashimi on it.  He led us out of the market to a street facing restaurant on its perimeter, where we were able to get this:

It was just wonderful, possibly the freshest raw fish I have ever had.  The salmon roe were a challenge for my chopsticks, but just bursting with texture and flavour.  Oh, yum.  Well worth breaking my fast for. 

Next we traveled a ropeway for a spectacular view of the harbour and our ship:

We had dinner in Atlantide and I had a bit more yummy foie gras as my appetizer.  The show was violinist, Jakub Trasak, and he was very easy to listen to. 

Monday, September 29, we hit the Morning Market, in Miykao,  first thing, and I was eating sashimi at 10:30am.  Andrea couldn’t face it at that hour.  It was a lot more complicated too.  There wasn’t time for a sit-down meal.  All we could do was buy the treats, in sample sized portions, and eat them as we walked around.  If I thought picking up salmon roe was hard, when it had rice under it, it was a lot harder out of a tiny dish.  Still perfectly wonderful, though, as was the tuna and squid.  Our guide explained that the only squid that should be eaten raw is still brown.  Once it has gone white, it’s not good enough. 

But when it’s brown, it’s wonderful raw.  The bus moved on to a place, whose name I forgot but which took a direct hit from the 2011 Tsunami.  A “family” of rocks survived it, which the locals now call male rock, female rock and baby rock.  We actually saw a hotel, still standing, but with its two lower floors blown out.  Its iron girders still supported a couple of upper floors.  Yes, thankfully, it had been evacuated and no one was hurt.  The only presumed death was that of an old gent, who refused to be evacuated and just let himself be taken by the sea, to join his wife who had died 15 years before.  There was a little beach there and Andrea got her toes in the water, but no swim.  The “sand” was composed of 2-3 inch sharp flat rocks.  I bought some Japanese crackers in the shop, which were hard as rocks and tasteless.  To each his own.  Mine is chocolate. 

When we got back to the ship, There were food trucks and souvenir vendors on the pier.  Christine from N.Z. had bought six octopus balls with cheese and green onions(sic) mayonnaise.  She shared, and they were surprisingly good.  Another thing I now eat.  But I had to board.  I had a newsletter to get out.  The ship had thrown us another curve, having a Motown show at 6:00pm featuring our beloved singers and dancers.  Needless to say, our cocktail was sparsely attended, but we had some lovely dinner company.  I used the newsletter to provide some useful Japanese phrases, cut and pasted from Google.

Tuesday, September 30, was our last day at Sea.  Serge Rand joined me at the Hospitality Desk to use my computer to do his comment card and to talk about his next cruise.  A couple of people stopped to say “thank you” and “goodbye” and I got hugs from J.P., the Cruise Director and Matias, the Bar Manager.  Then I went back to the cabin to pack.  It really was time to go.  One last happy hour and dinner with the Rands, and it was over ‘til we meet again.