Welcome to Asia. At last. Sometimes it takes like the crossing to get here takes forever! And along the way we’ve even gone so far as to dodge typhoons! But finally last night we saw the lights of the Japanese islands slide by us and knew that our destination was close at hand.
Of course, there’s still the question of immigration before anyone can get off the ship. For an entire week each crew member will be granted possession of their passport to carry while we’re here. The crew is pre-cleared, but we have to have proof of that clearance on our person at all times, and since the shore-passes are fastened into our passports, that means that the most important document in our lives (without a passport they won’t even let us on the ship), has to rest securely in our hands for the rest of our time in Japan. Thankfully for me, my room comes equipped with a safe. Which is also currently holding my Japanese yen. I love visiting china, it always makes me feel so wealthy, you hand the crew office $200US and they hand you back 14,000YEN, oooh so pretty!
Sadly I have IPM on our first port, mostly because it was supposed to be our second port but the aforementioned typhoon somewhat required us to alter our course and therefore miss our scheduled call at Kushido. Thankfully the rest of the voyage appears to be proceeding as planned, and I refuse to jinx that by saying ‘as long as nothing else happens’.
Right now the ship is like a ghost town, at the first opportunity the guests have practically run ashore. I suppose 9 days of inconsistently high seas has left all of us a little jumpy.
Since I’m shackled to the desk this afternoon I can’t give much in the way of first impressions of Japan. But I will say the weather looks stunning! A quick walk down the promenade deck brought with it sunshine and much clearer air than I anticipated. Unlike China, in which I can’t go outside without suffering a watery-eyed sneezing fit. At any rate, from this vantage point the port doesn’t seem to have a great deal to offer. The usual glimmering cars zip by in the distance and nearer to us a huge crane crunches through heaps of metal that might have at one point also have been cars.
Japanese regulations prevent us from having internet while in port, or within 5 nautical miles of Japanese waters, so communication with the outside world is at a premium right now. It feels strange, being forceably ‘unplugged’ in a foreign country, but I think in the end it’s good for us. If nothing else, maybe it will be force people to read more, so that I won’t be stuck here staring at an empty library all day….