At Sea on Our Way to Hokkaido


Sea conditions are close to perfect as we cruise up the Eastern Coast of Honshu towards Hokkaido. We are doing around 18 knots in flat seas with only a few knots of breeze.



The sun is shining and the roof of the pool deck is open. Despite it starting to get a bit cool outside, there a some dedicated swimmers and sunbathers.



We are in for a pretty relaxing day with plenty of options available to keep us busy if needed. There was a presentation from the resident historian at 9.30am on the history of Japan, which was quite interesting. 

Afterwards we decided to get some exercise, so did 15 laps of the promenade deck, 6km, before heading off to the Atrium Lounge for a cup of coffee. There is a huge screen at the top of the access stairs to the atrium which has even changing slide shows covering a wide range of material. The image quality is incredible. 


It is approaching lunch time and we have decided to have a light Scandinavian lunch today, so head up to the 7th floor to the Explorers Lounge where there is a small food outlet called Mamsems, which serves open sandwiches and lots of dessert temptations which certainly appear to have a lot of strong demand. 

The prawn and smoked salmon open sandwiches, washed down with a glass of wine, were very nice.


After such an exhausting morning, we found a nice spot in one of the many lounges to sit down, have a read and watch the sea go by. We saw lots of pods of dolphins that all appeared to be feeding frantically, so there must be some rich sea life along this coast. We passed the  Fukushima nuclear power site along the way and saw dolphins all through this area as well.

At 4.30pm there is a presentation about the port of Otaru, where we will be berthing tomorrow afternoon. Otaru is the port for Sapporo. There was a lot of information about the establishment of Sapporo, a very modern city by Japanese standards, strongly based on Western design principles. We are looking forward to having a look around.

No special dinner bookings tonight, we ate at the main restaurant and enjoyed a good menu with plenty of choice.

The Captain held a function at 9.00pm to welcome passengers and introduce the key members of the crew. An added bonus was the introduction of many of the entertainers who mostly provided a brief performance as well. It was well attended and drinks were flowing.


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