Otaru, Japan: Day 20





The sea days have abruptly come to an end and now come many days in a row in ports in Japan.
Yesterday noon was a special luncheon for people on the full 77-day voyage. Free wine with the meal
and a special menu. The head engineer was the host at our table and was very informative. One piece
was that almost nobody is allowed down with the engines because of security concerns since 9/11. This
is the reason tours are no longer offered to that area of the ship.


The evening started with a huge party for Oceania Club members (their loyalty club). This means almost everyone on the ship is invited. We have built up to their Platinum level with our two extended trips. We get some nice perks, most notably a complimentary cruise of up to 14 days. They stress the word complimentary as opposed to free as there are a number of costs associated with the “free” cruise but it is still a very nice perk. The party honored people receiving their pins for the Platinum level which included us. Free drinks on the Captain for the whole lot of us. We have learned to pick up a glass of wine when leaving parties like this and taking it to dinner with us. We like to have wine with dinner and it is expensive on the ship. They used to have a deal made for people like us who just like a little wine with dinner but no more. Oh well.

Ship’s time went back two more hours last night and we are now 14 hours ahead of you Central
Timezonians. You are still on Monday the 23 rd while I start this entry on Tuesday the 24 th . We have
landed in Otaru, close to Sapporo on the island of Hokkaido in Japan. We have a face-to-face with Japan Immigration Control before going ashore. Jen and I don’t have a tour scheduled so we will walk around town, get to a bank to get some Japanese currency (the ship doesn’t do Japanese Yen) and see what we can see.

Our walk around town was nice. Lots of hand-blown glass shops and many music boxes. There is a
museum which we chose not to visit but many of the stores had music boxes of various sizes. Quite a
few had the large horn like the old Victrolas to amplify the sweet sounds in a very gentle way. There is
not much English available so touring on your own is a bit difficult. Japan drives on the left side of the
road so you have to look the opposite way when crossing the road. Otaru has kept quite a few historical
buildings from the mid to late 1800’s and an old canal in the middle of town. Most of the tours went to
Sapporo, sight of the 1972 Winter Olympics. Having just visited Lake Placid in New York we decided not to go see another ski jump.






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