It was a three-day weekend in Japan.  Sunday, September 22 is the first day of fall.  We had blustery weather throughout the night and the captain aborted his first attempt to enter Shimizu harbor because of high winds and squalls.  He stood off the harbor for 25 minutes before making a successful attempt to bring us in and tie us up.  That meant that we were late and some of the people on the tours got late starts.

Suzi and I slept in.  We didn’t get to breakfast until 9, enjoying our Sunday treat of sticky buns (Gooy rolls?) before getting off the ship at 11.   The reason most people go to Shimizu is it is the jumping off spot to visit Mt. Fuji.  But sailing in we saw no possibility of even a glimpse of the mountain.  We were socked in.

But by 11 there were some breaks in the clouds.  Suzi and I took a cab to the Nihondaira Yume Terrace. Yume Terrace means Dream Terrace. It is about1000 feet above the town and surrounds a communications tower.  It is designed to show off views of the city, the bay and Mt. Fuji, which was absent, surrounded by clouds. But we did catch a sucker hole and got good views of the town and bays.  On the first floor there is an interactive natural history exhibit explaining that this bay, which is the deepest in Japan, 2 KM deep, is at the conjunction of three plates, the Eurasian, Philippine and Pacific plates. The Pacific plate is being forced under both the other plates, making this a place of frequent earthquakes.  Mt Fuji, Japan’s tallest mountain, at more than 12,380 feet high is still considered an active volcano, last eruption about 300 years ago.

After leaving the Dream Terrace, we went to the Dream Plaza shopping mall.  This mall is different from American malls.  Instead of big brand stores, it is filled with stalls, along with a Starbuck’s Coffee.  It is foodie’s mecca. 

There is not only a food court but different groceries for sale and a sushi museum.  I decided not to attend this museum because sushi once tried to assassinate me. The Sitka Summer Music Festival flew in a sushi chef from Anchorage, I tried it and disrupted the fund raiser by being rushed off to the hospital with anaphylactic shock. That’s how I learned I was allergic to seafood.   

Some of the displays of food were plastic, some not, but with the lighting it was sometimes hard to tell. 

We have watched Halloween take over the world.  When we first went to work Eastern Europe in1993 the holiday was unknown, by 2000 everyone was celebrating it everywhere.  Halloween is relatively new to Japan, introduced by Tokyo Disneyland as a promotion in 2000.  One of the Japanese women we were talking to said that while they are selling trick or treat supplies, don’ take it as a kid’s holiday.  It really boosts alcohol sales in Japan. And although over a month away, lots of Halloween snacks on offer. I saw no Halloween branded Ramen. 

Just as we were about to leave a squall swept through.  Lots of heavy rain driven by wind.  We took an open air, passage between two of the buildings of the Dream Mall.  The passage was covered but the rain was horizontal.  We took refuge in the Starbucks. 

As the storm subsided, we walked back to the ship.  I started writing but, on a whim, went out on the balcony as Mt. Fuji was emerging from the clouds accompanied by the hint of a rainbow.  We saw the mountain after all.  I posted a picture of Fuji on our cruise’s Facebook page to alert others who had come in out of the rain.