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. … Continue reading Looking for Fuji, Finding Halloween
Our first stop in Tokyo was the Asakusa district. It had started as a fishing village the Suida River. The legend is that some fishermen in the 7th century, caught a small statue in their nets. They built a temple … Continue reading Holiday Kimonos
The thing I noticed about Tokyo this trip is that I could breathe. The first time we spent the night in Tokyo I had trouble breathing. It was1969, Suzi and I were on our way to a summer study program … Continue reading When Tokyo was Edo
When we got back to the ship the air conditioning was working again and the engineer we spoke with said the ship had already cooled down by 3o Celsius. The view of downtown Yokohama at night from our balcony was … Continue reading Yokohama Comes to Us.
When I was kid there were a lot of myths about Japanese Baseball that I later learned were not true, like the myth that they ran the based clockwise go give more advantage to right handers. Not true. On … Continue reading …and Baseball!
After our son, Brian, graduated from college he and his roommate bought a house in South Minneapolis with the intention of fixing it up and flipping it. Halloween completely slipped their minds so when goblins started knocking they gave out … Continue reading In Praise of Ramen!
I stepped onto our balcony as we pulled into Hakodate. A group of school girls in white uniforms with sailor collars waved enthusiastically calling out “good morning mister.” I waved back and called out “ohayō.” They started jumping up and … Continue reading Hakodate
Gori was a Japanese student at Sitka’s Outer Coast College. We worked together to produce a radio program on the Japanese nature photographer Michio Hoshino who was killed in a bear mauling and was beloved in Alaska. I asked for … Continue reading …and Bears, Oh My!
At breakfast this morning the omelette ladies asked me if I was excited about getting to Japan tomorrow. The proper answer, of course, is yes. But while interested in Japan, I love the sea days. One of the reasons we … Continue reading A (Sea) Day in the Life
Friday the 13th does not exist for me. It’s the day we cross the dateline, we move directly from the 12th to the 14th. To compensate we will have two October 12ths on the way back. A lost day at … Continue reading Cruise Conundrum
When I first started cruising, I suffered from FOMO, Fear of Missing Out. There was so much to do, I didn’t know where to start, but I wanted to get my money’s worth. Now I’ve relaxed a bit, I’m choosier … Continue reading FOMO and ROMO
I started this blog to share photographs. When working in international media development I wrote weekly letters to family and friends. I asked then not to share them because I made observations that may, if publicized, compromise my work. But … Continue reading Unalaska Photo Gallery
A Coast Guard Cutter pulled rank and Westerdam had stand offshore and tender passengers into Dutch Harbor, the port for Unalaska. We disembarked at the Carl E. Moses small boat harbor. “Small” is a relative term in Alaska. The harbor … Continue reading Fresh Blueberries
In 1986 the Hubbard Glacier was a circus and Raven Radio covered it. In May pressure from the Valorie Glacier, that feeds the Hubbard Glacier, Alaska’s biggest tidewater glacier, pushed the glacier forward. The glacier pushed the glacial till of … Continue reading Covering the Hubbard Glacier.
The glacier is singing, at least if you like modern music. Alaska composer John Luther Adams won the Pulitzer Prize for Music with his symphonic composition “Become Ocean” about glaciers becoming part of the sea. It has been performed by … Continue reading The Hubbard Glacier Speaks for Itself. (Become Ocean.)
September 6, 2024 Some of our cruise mates balked at the $25 admission to the American Bald Eagle Foundation Natural History Museum and Raptor Center in Haines. The Sitka Raptor Center, which is larger and has more birds, is only … Continue reading Eagle Intake
September 5, 2024. We know most people in Sitka, in the winter. But in the summer a whole new crop of newbies arrive in town. I don’t know as many of them. As we walk from Westerdam to the Sitka … Continue reading Our Hailing Port
Wednesday, Sept 4, Calling today “Scenic Cruising the Inside Passage” was a bit of an oversell by Holland America. But time and tide… We left Vancouver after 3 PM to get to Seymour Narrows by half past midnight. I was … Continue reading Dark Passage
Canada Place Cruise Terminal in Vancouver must be run by PHD Candidate Graduate Assistants conducting psychological tests. We are the rats in the maze. You go from one end to the other and back again, and on the return is … Continue reading A Four Hour Coffee
When I saw that there was a place in Victoria called “Abkhazi Gardens” I had to learn more. Abkhazia is a region of the Republic of Georgia that was invaded and is occupied by the Russians. I advised a radio … Continue reading Georgia in Victoria
Sept 1, 2024 I woke up this morning with a fever. I suspect it was a reaction to having gotten two shots yesterday, flu and COVID. So it was a slow start. The Norwegian line berths its ships right in … Continue reading And We’re Off!
View Post We are off again on a 53 day cruise from Seattle to Seattle via Alaska, Japan and Hawaii. The map, below, is updated from the one I first posted. 240830 How We Almost Outsmarted Ourselves. 240831 The Colonial … Continue reading Westerdam 2024 Legendary Japan.
It’s common wisdom to arrive at your cruise port a day or two early. Our Japan cruise starts Sept 1, so we had planned to arrive Aug. 31 but after some fog in Southeast Alaska and what looked like a … Continue reading How We Almost Outsmarted Ourselves.
In an early blog post on this cruise, I wrote about how many of our boarding cruise mates thought of this as a “long cruise,” 22 days. We thought of it as a short cruise, 22 days. At the end … Continue reading Coda, I think this really is my final post on this cruise.