First half of the cruise

We arrived at Narita airport in Tokyo pretty early in the morning and had to find our way to the cruise terminal in Yokohama. Japan, unlike Vietnam and other destinations is not big on speaking English. Translating languages is much easier if you have Internet access, so I bought a SIM card at the airport. But unlike in Vietnam, the people at the desk said they were not able to assist me in activating it. So I took photos of the instructions and thought that I wouldn’t have that much trouble.

We were able to catch a train pretty easily into Yokohama. It was about a 1 1/2 hour journey. The trains were spotlessly clean, ran smoothly and impeccably on time.

At the end we needed a taxi, but were faced with the problem of telling the driver where we wanted to go, but were apprehensive because of the language issues. Eventually we did find a driver that spoke a little English and he got us to the ferry terminal. There were heaps of people getting ready for the cruise, we took a number, went through the security checks and I found some free wifi, and I used that to attempt to activate the SIM card. I got as far as I could with the SIM activation, then we boarded the ship.

We got a great cabin, with a balcony, right at the back. Being at the back means that you get to look both left and right, unlike cabins on the side. Our steward, named “Randy” arrived and let us know about the emergency drill that we had to do later that day.

While waiting for the emergency drill I used the time to finish activating the SIM card and hit a massive stumbling block. The instructions required me to enter an APN (Access Point Name), but my phone did not let me do that. I tried for about and hour to get this sorted. It was incredibly frustrating and disappointing. The phone gave me only two choices, the first to find the APN automatically, and the other to choose one of two APNs that appeared manually. There was no option to enter a new one. This meant that I was not going to have Internet access. It turns out that if I “jail break” my phone then this might be possible. No mention of that in the instructions however.

A monument to seafarers

The ship did have wifi, but it was slow, satellite based and very expensive, at around .50c to .80c per minute. Imagine paying that much for slow Internet. Maybe this is a good thing though, as having a break from the Internet, the news and social media can’t be such a bad thing. So, from now on, it was time to just enjoy the cruise.

The first thing was the emergency drill where they warn you about everything that can possibly go wrong and tell you how to put on a life jacket. They are still called life jackets, not personal flotation devices. The safety sermon went on for ages and you could see people falling asleep while it was on. 

The cruise itself has been pretty uneventful. There is plenty of food. You can pick from a smorgasbord of things. So breakfast consists of fruit, sausages, fried or scrambled eggs, bacon, baked beans, toast, tomato, fish, rice, waffles and danish pastries. Lunch is a mixture of casseroles, steaks, vegetables and a selection of Asian foods and condiments. I have become quite fond of the dried fish. They are like sardines, except much smaller and slightly crispy. Another highlight has been the roll-your-own sushi. I watched the Japanese make theirs and added similar things to mine, very tasty. The evening meal could be either the smorgasbord as before, or a restaurant. 

At the restaurant we were seated with four other Australians. Pat and Ros were from Bathurst. They were a really nice, down to earth couple and about my age. Pat was a race horse trainer and worked for his local council. Ros worked in consumer affairs, stitching up the shonks. The other couple were Dale and Jane, from Cairns in Queensland. Dale was an ex-Brit that used to be an air traffic controller that retired in his early fifties and then went sailing full time. I can’t remember what Jane did. Dale was a bit of a ‘shit-stirrer’ and within minutes of meeting us told us how much he did not enjoy his visit to Tasmania and that he would never go there again. It turns out that he had been to Hobart at around New Years Eve, and went to the Taste of Tasmania. The ‘Taste’ was packed, accommodation hard to find and he had to drink from plastic glasses. In keeping with the theme of banter I mentioned that I understood that not all Queenslanders were like Bob Katter and Pauline Hanson, but thought that quite a few of them must be if they were popularly elected by other Queenslanders. By the end of the night we were all getting on really well.

Our first stop in Japan was at the port city of Kushiro. We didn’t do any tours here and just went into the city. We were dropped off at the Kushiro equivalent of the “Maker’s Worksop” in Burnie. There were volunteers working in a big glass hot house like building with big trees inside. The volunteers showed you how to make an origami crane (bird), how to do Japanese calligraphy and dressed people up in traditional Japanese costume. Outside some university students put on a dancing display for the tourists. We went for a bit of a walk across the bridge and found some free wifi. 

We then had another couple of nights at sea before arriving at Korsakov in Russia. Korsakov is the main city in the area that is on a large island off the coast of the Russian mainland. Because the island is close to the Japanese archipelago as well as Russia, it has been a part of both Japanese and Russian territory over the years. After World War II, the island reverted to Russian ownership. In the past it has been the historic homeland of the Ainu indigenous people of Japan.

Our ship in the fog

Coming in to the Russian port was a surreal experience. It was quite foggy, you couldn’t see very far and the buildings and ships looked old, grey and decayed. It was sort of like we imagined Russia to be, in one word, it was bleak. We were quickly put on buses and unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to get a photo.

A decaying shipwreck in Korsakov, Russia

Our ‘organised’ trip into the city was pretty disappointing. After about 50 minutes on a bus we stopped at a church but were told we only had 5 minutes. Then we stopped at the “ice palace” or ice rink, where no ice could be seen, but were told to go upstairs where a few people sold some souvenirs. We were there maybe 15 minutes. Next we were taken to a war memorial park in the city. There were Russian tanks and guns on display and statues and memorials to their war heroes and the those that died. We were reminded that 29 million Russians died in WW2, about 15 million soldiers and 14 million civilians. Our guide told us the point of the display was that people that were reminded of the consequences of war would be less likely to repeat the same mistakes. Then we went to a museum for maybe 20 minutes, which was quite interesting. Finally we were taken to a shopping mall where we had to stop for 30 minutes. I bought some Russian caviar. You end up feeling like a cross between a cow and an automatic teller machine, being herded into places just so you can spend money, while whisking over the historic and interesting places. We were both feeling pretty jaded by the experience as were many of the other tourists.

We are now in our next port, in Japan, of Otaru. At the time of writing we haven’t left the ship yet.