Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

March 31, 2019

Our second day in Tokyo, and we had a full day tour. Today our guide was Himoto. She was really amazing – good English speaker and full of facts about Japan and Tokyo. She even showed us the meaning of some of the alphabet figures by holding up the symbol and having us guess what they were.  And she showed statistics and had us also guess the meanings.  Very interesting approach.  Real estate in Japan is expensive as is almost everything else.  A small condo is about $700,000 US.  But they do not pay as much in taxes.  She pays 10% of her income in taxes and she said only the very rich pay about 20%.   Public university is about $5000/year but private universities are about the same cost as in the US.  Medical schools are much more expensive.

The most serious issue, as I mentioned before, is the aging of the population. They have always resisted bringing in foreigners but a law was passed and goes into effect on April 1 to allow it as they need the workers and caregivers.

Tokyo is the capital of Japan (it was formerly known as Edo). The word Tokyo means eastern capital. The bay is 18 miles long which is why it took us some time to get into the port.

We again passed by the Olympic Village under construction.  Himoto says it will be very hot during the Olympics – their summers are quite hot and humid but winters are quite mild.  It was very chilly this morning, started at 41 degrees but warmed to 50 as we started our tour. Still, jackets, jeans and scarves were the wardrobe of the day.

Our first visit was to the Imperial Palace, home of the emperor of Japan.  This is in the heart of the city.  For 2 weeks each spring and fall, the palace is open to visitors.  This is the spring open time, but the overwhelming crowds enabled us to just have time to see the outside of the palace and hear about the government.  The current emperor is 86 years old and is  retiring in April and the crown prince will take his place on May 1.  The new era will be called “Good fortune with peace”. The emperor and his wife live here at the Palace, but the crown prince now lives in a separate residence surrounded by gardens.  This is for security reasons.  The emperor has no real power, the government is run by a prime minister.  Here are pictures of Emperor Akihito and his family.

The palace grounds and waterways are beautiful. The bridge is called the Nijubashi Bridge and spans the moat.

I can’t stop writing about the bathrooms, I guess.  All with the amazing toilets.  As I have mentioned before, all of the restrooms are ultra modern and spotless.  Many even have solution in them to clean them. But here was a first for me – what do you do with your baby when you are in the stall?  toilet seat.

Our next stop was the Meiji Shrine which is the most renowned Shinto shrine in Tokyo.  People here generally practice Shinto or Buddhist religions – Himoto said 80 % Shinto and 90% Buddhist which adds up to more than 100% because many people practice both.  Shinto is quite interesting. Shinto or kami-no-michi (as well as other names) is the traditional religion of Japan that focuses on ritual practices to be carried out diligently to establish a connection between present-day Japan and its ancient past. They believe that spirits live in natural places. As I mentioned in the Kyoto post, when at a shrine, you bow twice, clap hands twice, pray then bow again.  They believe in many spirits who are quite busy so you have to get their attention before you pray!  There is no founder, no holy book and not even the concept of religious conversion. Shinto values harmony with nature and a sincere heart.  Ancestors are revered and tied to many of the celebrations.

The Meiji Shrine is surrounded by a 200 acre park and while somewhat crowded, it was nothing like what we saw on the streets and in the Palace area.

Here, you pay respect at the font.  First you rinse your left hand, then your right hand. You pour water into your left hand and rinse your mouth.  Last you rinse your left hand and rinse the dipper.

Emperor Meiji passed away in 1912 and Empress Shoken in 1914.  After their deaths, people wished to commemorate their virtues and to venerate them forever, so they donated 100,000 trees from all over Japan and overseas and they worked voluntarily to create the forest.  The shrine was established in 1920 so will celebrate 100 years next year.

We were lucky to see two wedding processions while in the shrine. Notice the hair covering on the brides.

Another interesting thing we noticed here is the wishes that people wrote – they are all displayed openly and are in many languages. They are on what is called Ema boards or Japanese wishing planks.  Here is what the area looks like and here are some of the wishes in English. Had to include one I spotted from “Philly”!

This rope between the trees is the marriage tree and you are supposed to have your picture taken under it. The lightning symbols are lucky because lightning signifies rain which is needed for rice to grow.

There was a display of these colorful sake barrels and also wine barrels as we left the shrine area.

After our visit here, it was time to go to the Jojoen restaurant for our Japanese lunch.  It was both interesting and delicious. We were seated at tables for 4 (Ken and Ellen were with us).  The center of the table had a fire grill and we were each presented with a plate of well marbled beef and one piece of pork to grill.  We also had beer, salad, appetizers, tofu, rice and soup and a heart shaped ice cream for dessert.  What fun!

After lunch we traveled to the Asakusa Kannon, the oldest temple in Japan dating to the 7th century.  It is dedicated to Kannon, the Buddhist goddess of compassion. First we took a walk along the river where there were so many beautiful cherry trees in bloom.  Here we saw a lot of young girls in their own or rented kimonos.  These are not geishas in training (who avoid photos) but girls who want to be seen in their traditional dress.  Some boys were seen in samurai dress as well.

The temple area was VERY crowded and we actually got separated in the crowds.  Lucky to have text messages in that situation.

You could not take pictures in the Shinto shrine or in the temple. Here are some of the outside of the temple.

After our temple visit, we braved the crowds and did some wandering around the shops.  I was looking for some of the Japanese cookies which I finally found in a store called Family Food Mart. They also have a 100 yen store which is our “dollar store”!  The city streets and markets were very crowded with people but no motorbikes like in other Asian cities.  Many of the streets are closed off on weekends, so since it was Sunday, we were walking in the streets.  Many of the restaurants here have “fake food” on display so that people can point to what they want.  Many vending machines are everywhere.  Empty sake containers are for sale and many people use them for stools or just for decoration. The liquor stores have the full ones.

The building behind us is meant to look like a glass of beer with the foam on top!

We stopped in to a pachinko parlor – there are many gaming parlors in this area of the city.

They have Uber here.

And yes, they make fun of our president.

There were lots of families out and about, and having picnics along the river too.

Most of the buildings in the shopping areas have signs on the side to let you know what is on each of the floors. The worst earthquake was in 1923 when 140,000 people died so now most buildings are designed to withstand the worst.  They have had many.

This is the Honda headquarters which is designed so that if windows break in an earthquake, the glass will fall into the balconies and not onto the street.

Ginza area is like 5th Avenue in New York, every high end store you can imagine is located here. There are plenty of Starbucks and all kinds of other American chain stores and restaurants. Here are some other sights of the city.

No overtime is allowed at work on Wednesdays.  The main subway station has 40, yes, 40 different entrances.  There are 13 subway lines but we didn’t try to use them – apparently they are not so easy to figure out. During rush hour, professional pushers are employed to push people along into the cars!

Our sail away was in the dark – here is the city by night as we left.

Tokyo is very clean and safe yet very crowded. We can’t wait to spend more time here next year!

March 30, 2019

Our arrival in Tokyo was quite spectacular.  We didn’t know that it was the first time that the Insignia was in this port of call and there was a ceremony with the captain which our friends Karin and Bill got to attend.  They are the most traveled passengers on Oceania.

Fireboats greeted us at around 3:30 with the spray of their hoses. I did put a video that Norm took on Facebook while on shore. But here are the photos.

Arrival had been planned for 4 PM and we were just a little later than that.  The temperature is only in the 50’s!

Here are some other pictures of our approach.

We had a wonderful Around the World special event tonight at the Hotel Gajoen Tokyo.  It was a 30 minute bus ride to get there and we had a guide on the bus named Kitty.  We passed the Olympic Village which is under construction for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.  There will be 10,000 condominium units built there and guess what – they are already sold to people who will move in after the Olympics. The village is very close to the port.

127 million people live in Japan and 13 million live in Tokyo.  It is very crowded.  Many people are wearing masks here too, and unlike Kyoto, here in Tokyo the cherry blossoms are in full bloom.  The cherry blossom season is very significant in Japan and means new beginnings to them.  School starts in early April, university graduates get their first jobs, and this year, the emperor will abdicate the throne and the crown prince will become the new emperor.

When we arrived at the hotel for the special event (and remember, there are over 340 world cruise passengers, so this was a real feat to pull off), we were mesmerized by the beauty and the size of the hotel.  Just walking to the ballroom where we would have our dinner and entertainment was a delight.  Here are some of the beautiful sights.

We were welcomed by performers on the Japanese harp.

We had a traditional Japanese meal – of 8 small courses.  Here is the menu.  The sushi was not listed on the menu.

And some pictures of our friends,  the venue and the food.

You can bet I didn’t put that raw egg in my dish.  But Norm did… We also had wine and saki with our meal. We could watch the sushi making demonstration, although we can see that every day on the ship!

During and after the meal, we were entertained by Miyabiya Japan Show which consisted of kabuki (only men are allowed to do kabuki dancing), geisha, ninja, samurai, shamisen, Japanese magic and more.  Some of the dances go back as far as the 17th century in Japan. And of course we could have photos taken.

After the event, we went back to the ship – it was too late already for the evening show which was from Tokyo, flute and Japanese harp.  Luckily we had the harp at our event.

Early departure tomorrow for our tour of Tokyo.

Last night we had a Japanese dinner in the Terrace Café and I have to say that Mario again outdid himself.  Both the food and the decorations were outstanding.

Our port today, Kobe, is the fifth largest city in Japan with a population of about 1.5 million people.  It is where the famous Kobe beef is raised.  It is also famous for good saki because of the quality of the water coming from the mountains. Many international corporations have their Japanese headquarters here, including Procter and Gamble, Asics,  Nestle and Eli Lilly.  It is a huge port.  Here is a picture as we arrived.

The tour we chose today was to Kyoto which was the imperial capital of Japan for over a thousand years.  It is known as the cultural and artistic heart of the nation, best known for its Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, beautiful gardens and historically priceless buildings. There are no high rise buildings in the city and no freeways run through it.  There is also no smoke in the city. We got out our jackets and jeans as the temperature was only 59 F.  A delight after our hot weather days.

Our tour guide was Mari.  She was both delightful and informative. Kyoto is 47 miles northeast of the cruise port so our bus ride was about 1 1/2 hours long.  The bus driver had to take an alternate route due to an accident on the road.  This gave Mari plenty of time to tell us about Kobe, Kyoto and Japanese traditions. We have learned a lot about Japan from our guides and from Becky who does the book club and Japanese culture discussions.  More about that later, but first, here is what we did in Kyoto.

Our first visit was to the Golden Pavilion – Rokuon-Ji Temple.  This was built by Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimutsu in 1397.  It was a three story home and was converted to a temple by his son.  It is, as many temples are, positioned at the edge of a tranquil pond.  The walls and eaves of the second and third stories are covered in shimmering gold leaf.  No one is allowed into the Golden Pavilion but just seeing it, the peaceful gardens and the reflections in the pond are simply spectacular.  It was VERY crowded there and so some of our pictures have other people in them and I took one of the crowds. I can only imagine what it must be like when there are fewer people there. Does this sign remind you of Trader Joe’s?

At the shrine, you pull the ropes, clap two times and bow to get the attention of the gods before your prayer. There were also candles and incense for offerings.

We don’t know what kind of bird this was but Norm tried hard to get a picture.

After our visit to the Golden Pavilion, we went to the Nijo Castle, a fortification of cypress wood built in 1603 as the residence of the Tokugawa clan.  It is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  It is protected by a moat, stone walls and most interestingly, nightingale floors, which chirp like a bird when walked upon to alert the guards of potential intruders!!

Despite its defensive elements, the castle was primarily a home.  It is adorned with wooden carvings, artistically painted sliding doors and rooms decorated with extensive paintings.  Unfortunately no pictures are allowed inside so all of these photos are of the outside. As we toured the inside, Mari explained each room and the significance of the drawings.  The ceilings are also quite beautiful.  Many of the wall paintings are reproductions with the originals in the museums.

Mari is holding a picture of the Shogun at the time he was at the castle.  It was not a residence, just a place to conduct business and receive visitors.

We had time for a walk through just two of the extensive gardens. It is just the beginning of the cherry blossom season so we wanted to see the ones that were in bloom.

Some of our other sights at the castle. Including one of the people dressed like the Shogun and some tourists in kimonos. 

They have lots of moss on their grass here and some of it is quite decorative.

After our tour of the castle, we went back to the port and were given a bento box lunch to eat on the bus trip back.  Mari was pleased when we took the chopsticks instead of the fork.

Here are some of the sights from the bus, including pavilions and shots of the mountains.

Now for some of the Japanese culture.  Mari talked about the geisha culture.  Young women start their training at about 16 years old.  They do not finish high school but attend a separate school where they learn dance, conversation and the manners and dress of a geisha.  They train until about 20 – until then they are apprentices.  As apprentices, they have their own hair adorned with flowers.  They live in a group home.  When they become full geishas, they wear wigs with kinds of combs but no flowers.

Geisha parties are by invitation only.  They often cost 50,000 yen ($500 US) to attend so Mari says it is primarily older rich men who are there.  There is dancing, drinking games and conversation.  Geishas are not prostitutes but are there to entertain the guests. 

We bought some Eikun lemon and also plum saki, it was served to us cold and it was delicious.  We will need to have a saki party when back on board.

Again with the toilets, they are all heated and even have a music setting in case you don’t want anyone to hear you while in the stall.  And all have the water features.

There are vending machines everywhere and Coke is big.  The machines even dispense hot drinks. And we heard that in places, they dispense puppies.  Yes, puppies.

This is a very clean and orderly society.  One of the passengers saw a woman walking her dog. The dog peed on a tree and the woman got out a spray bottle with some solution in it and sprayed the tree. You don’t see garbage anywhere and you can leave your belongings out in plain sight and no one touches them.  You see bikes not locked up with the helmets just in a basket and all kinds of examples of the formality of the culture. There is virtually no crime and the police have to find things to do.  Shoes must be removed in most places and put in a specific assigned spot. If you are doing something wrong in a restaurant or shop,  someone will chase after you to try to let you know.

98% of the adoptions in Japan are of men aged 26-35 years of age! The reasons are #1 to pass on businesses and #2 to have someone to care for you. They have a significant problem in that there are fewer children and the population is aging.

26% of people are over 65 in Japan as compared with 16% in the US.  The largest population of people over 100 years of age live in Japan.

English is taught in the schools but they are not good at it here and rarely speak it.  Mari and Becky say that is because English is taught by Japanese teachers in most cases so it isn’t really user friendly.

The post offices here are also banks so all business can be done there.  They have stacks of these brochures that show you what you can order directly from the post office and have sent to yourself or anyone else. And they sell everything from soup to very valuable gold pieces!

Yes, they do eat horse meat here.

You see a lot of people wearing face masks.  In some other countries it is because of pollution.  They face some of that here, but it is mostly because of allergies.  Becky’s husband David couldn’t believe how effective they were – he resisted for years and has bad allergies – now he is convinced.  One of the guides said sometimes women wear the large ones if they don’t have time to put their makeup on!

Becky brought all kinds of snacks for us to taste.  The tall package contains a kind of small cookie with chocolate in the center, shown in the first picture.  They have a picture on each of them and one is different.  Kids love to get them and I hope the kids are better at spotting the different one.  We needed all kinds of hints before we got it.  The last two pictures are of Becky and David.

David told us a lot about work culture in Japan. Again it is very regimented  Cleaning is not done by a service, everyone does it, including the CEO.  They get vacations but almost no one takes them.  You can’t leave the workplace before the boss.  You are seated by length of service, with the CEO always furthest from the door and your place moves as new people join. You are expected to be working at the time your shift starts so people have to come in early so they are working at the exact correct time.  There is a morning briefing, at David’s place of work, it happened 5 minutes into the shift.  The boss talks about what is going on, including detailed descriptions of why someone is not there and why.  If ill, the illness and recuperation is discussed.  Lots more to tell, but will save some for future posts.

This first picture is the ticket into the castle.  Beautiful!  The second picture is a brochure we got in one port with very helpful English/Japanese phrases.

When we were ready to leave the port, a band came out and played several songs including “It’s a small world after all, stars and stripes forever, YMCA (and people on the balconies on the ship and on the pier acted it out) and when we pulled away from the pier – Anchors Aweigh. I did take video but sadly can’t upload it so pictures will have to do.  And these young ladies were not tourists and neither were the ones on the pier.

Then it was up to the cabaret in Horizons where Stephanie had her last performance – she will leave us in Tokyo, as will Damien and many of the guests who have traveled on this segment.

On to Tokyo where we arrive at 4 PM and have an overnight stay.  We have an ATW event the first evening and a full day tour the second day.  I have mentioned that we like to be off the ship when it is an embarkation day and the next segment guests will join on our second day in Tokyo.

Oh, and due to local regulations, the casino is closed when we are at sea around the Japanese ports.

After that we have three more ports in Japan so I will save some of the culture discussions for those posts.  It is a fascinating place and very different in many ways than most of the places we have visited in the world. 

March 25, 2019

Keelung is a major port city located in the northeastern part of Taiwan.  It forms a metropolitan area with Taipei.  It is nicknamed the “rainy port” and we could immediately see why.  It was raining on our arrival and remained rainy in the morning and cloudy most of the day. Taipei is the capital of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and its largest city. The population is 23.5 million and 40% live in this area.

We joined our tour shortly after we reached the port.  The port itself is very large and many containers are on land and being loaded onto ships. Here’s the view as we sailed in.

Our tour was to the Yangmingshan National Park and the mineral hot springs – a full day tour.  Our guide was Jesse.  He lived in the US from 1978 – 1992 and is a USC graduate.

He told us that they get 3000 earthquakes a MONTH here in Taiwan and most of them are not even able to be felt by people – they are just detected by the equipment.  They did have a very big one in February 2018.

Taiwan is very clean, as I mentioned in yesterday’s post.  Jesse said that we would not find any trash containers on the streets, people have to bring their trash home with them and it is collected twice a day.  Imagine that..They have a 56% recycling rate.

People are quite poor in general. A salary for a typical worker is about $1500 US/ month and rents range about $600 US.  So there isn’t much left for them to spend once their expenses come out of their salaries.  On the other hand, his prescriptions and all doctor’s visits costs him $10 for 3 months.

There are lots of motorbikes here too, on a workday between 8:30 – 9 there are 1.3 million motorbikes on the road. But not too many on weekends.

A Mercedes vehicle costs about $100,000 US here and parking spots cost about that amount too. 

Taiwan is #1 in building yachts, but most of the other industries (such as athletic shoes) have moved to mainland China which is a problem for the Taiwanese. There is still a healthy biotech industry.

It took about an hour to get to the park and on the way, Jesse gave us all yellow ponchos to wear in the rain.  By the way, the bus was equipped with wifi and usb ports too.  I was able to back up my iPhone while we traveled. The buses are quite fancy here, lots of lights and even curtains!

The drive to and through the park was just stunningly beautiful.  Forests, mountains and hot springs are all part of this park.  Here are some pictures of our walk.  The cherry blossoms were still out but at the end of their blossoming. But the azaleas were beautiful.

After that part of the park, we went to the area of the bubbling hot springs.  It was pretty overcast still but you can see some of these hot springs in these next shots. There was also a long walkway with lush bamboo on both sides.  How do you like the poncho??

After the park we went to the Cal La Yong Garden Resort. Here we had a delicious Taiwanese lunch and then had several hours in the mineral hot springs.  There was also a cold pool, high speed hot mineral showers and one pool with jets.  Amazing afternoon.  We were soooo relaxed at the end of the day.  We even had a tea before we got on the bus to go back to the ship.

Yes, we did need to wear those dumb caps!

Here are some pictures as we traveled back to the port after a wonderful day.

You can see that this is an area of contrasts in economic levels.

Tonight in the terrace it was a pan Asian dinner and it was, as usual, fabulous. There were plenty of dumplings and noodle dishes too but I didn’t take pictures of those.

As we sailed away, the Keelung sign lit up the sky.