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PNG TO JAPAN

March/April 2004

March 19. Cairns.

It’s raining like crazy! There have been 5" ofrain this day alone, with a total of 21" for theweek so far. We scraped our plans to strollabout the business section and stayed withinthe hotel shopping complex. Since last wewere here a large indoor shopping center hasbeen inserted under the hotel. The AustralianGeographic store which was accessible via anoutside walkway is now embedded in thecomplex.

We’re off on two back-to-back Zegrahm tripson the Clipper Odyssey. We boarded the shipin Port Morsby, Papua-New Guinea andtoured Melanesia and Micronesia, ending aPalau. After a four-day crossing to Okinawawe visited several locations in Japan, flyinghome from Narita.

Check in at LAX had some interestingaspects. We had a very slight wait before weapproached the counter. We were processedrather quickly but then after the clerk hadtagged our bags she told us to take themacross the lobby so that they could be X-rayed.The X-ray complex blocked the whole lobbyso that after the bags were cleared anddisappeared we had to go back outside andwalk to another terminal entrance to access thestairs to the security check point.

There was absolutely no line at security! Wepassed through quickly without even having toremove our shoes. We were in the large andvery nice Air New Zealand lounge by 7:30pm. The flight boarded and departed on timeand was uneventful.

When we reached Auckland we found anotherANZ lounge in which to spend our timewaiting for the flight to Cairns. This was ahuge lounge as you would expect to find at theairline’s home base. Both lounges had freeInternet access on provided laptop computers.

The flight to Cairns was uneventful until theend. We descended through turbulent stormclouds. The pilot warned us that they mighthave to reject the landing however we made itok. After a welcome dinner and night in thehotel we flew on to Port Morsby on a regionaljet, an Air Nugini Folker F28. Most of ourluggage went on an earlier flight so there wereno weight problems. The overhead bins aresomewhat shallow so I had to off-load thepatch pockets on my pack to get it in.

We had a very brief tour of Port Morsbybefore boarding the ship. It looks like atypical port town. Several of the crew said itwasn’t very safe. We did stop at the PNG ArtCenter which featured native crafts from theislands. These included very large carvedstory boards, shields, tapa cloth art work, shelldecorated items, wood carvings, baskets, anda very few T-shirts. We purchased a large,round basket tray for about $17. Theexchange rate was about 3 kina to the dollar.

3/21. Watts Island

We had a leisurely morning befitting oursleep-deprived state when arriving at the ship.There was nothing planned for early morningexcept breakfast. Later in the morning we hada worthless but mandatary briefing on Zodiacusage then two very good lectures, one about

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Melanesia and one about coral.

When we boarded the ship we encounteredsome of the new security procedures that arebeing implemented world wide in the wake oftoday’s rampant terrorism. There wererandom searches of passengers every time weboarded, including the use of metal detectorwands. Each initially boarding passenger wasphotographed digitally and issued a bar-codedname tag. This tag was scanned each time weembarked or debarked. The computer wouldbring up the photo that matches the bar code.Since this replaces the traditional tag-board itrequired that you take your ID tag everywhere,even when leaving the ship to snorkel.

A strong following sea brought us to WattsIsland quite a bit earlier than expected so wewent ashore ahead of schedule. This was avery rudimentary village, as were all the islandvillages we visited. The palm-thatched hutswere built on pilings above the ground. Wewere met by the population which seemed tobe half delightful, beautiful little kids. It wasSunday and our arrival was a week ahead ofwhat they expected so there was no formalwelcoming, a delight in itself. Initially we alljust sort of stood around looking at each other,the photographers snapping away. Eventuallywe wandered off to the church which was acorrugated metal building with a corrugatedsteeple at one end. The interior was quiteplain, woven palm mats on the floor in placeof seats; glass louvered windows; three prints,one of the Last Supper and one of a prayerfulJesus. We were then treated to some beautifulsinging in the appealing south sea harmonies.There were many women and childrenhowever very few men apparent.

Afterward we wandered outside andeventually slowly strolled along the beach

with Dick Dewey as he picked up variousmollusks from the beach and revealed theirsecrets. This delightful little hike wasinterrupted by increasing wind and the arrivalof rain. Then the ship sounded several blastsfrom its horn directing that we return to theship immediately.

A drenching return to the ship resulted fromthe rain and the heavy seas. At times the ridewas like a roller coaster.

Tonight was the Captain’s welcome cocktailand dinner. In the interests of economy, thecocktails are limited to champagne.

There are four lecturer/naturalists on this trip.Dick Dewey, the “fish man” is a professorfrom Oregon. Dick Schodde is the “bird man”from Canberra. Bob Tonkinson is ananthropologists from Crawley, WesternAustralia. The World Wildlife Fund escort onthe trip, Taylor Ricketts, had worked withZegrahm before going to WWF.

3-22 Kitava Island

We started the day with a poor snorkel atUratu Island. Because of tides we snorkeledfirst before visiting the adjacent island. Thearea was between two islands and had a verystrong current, perhaps because of draining orfilling a not apparent lagoon. The water wasshallow over a lot of coral which made itdifficult to enter. After struggling over thehigh coral we finally reached water deepenough to swim only to encounter the current.It was too strong to swim against so we werequickly swept to the point where we needed toget out. Then it was a struggle to reach thebeach. While sitting trying to remove ourflippers the surf would tumble you and filleverything with sand. While we were

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snorkeling three war canoes came ashore withmuch whooping and hollering.

The afternoon on Kitava was much better.We went ashore and were presented threedances by groups of young males. Thesedances were for those who chose not to go tothe village. We decided to hike up to thehighlands, about a half hour hike with anelevation gain of 220 feet. When we reachedthe village our first view was of the vastsoccer field in the center of the elementaryschool. There were blocks of dancersstanding in formation waiting to start theirperformances. All were brightly attired. Thesight was stirring.

We made our way down to the seating areareserved for ship passengers. This area wassurrounded by locals. At some non-apparent

signal some of the groups moved forward tous and began to sing and dance. They wereperforming in competition with each otherwith no synchronicity. It was, however, afantastic performance. There were malegroups, topless female groups of various ages,and children. It was a magnificent, colorfulspectacle. ( We later learned that Society

Expeditions had been here and complainedthat the performance was too long so thelocals compressed it. One more example ofSE’s stupidity.)

There were many wood carvings for sale afterthe performance. We now wish we hadbought at least one just to help the village.

Although the topless females were quitebeautiful, I wondered if this was simply atourist display since none of the other femalesin the village were topless and the dancerscovered up after performing. Theanthropologist on the ship assured me thattheir costumes were traditional and that theyperformed harvest dances like these eventhough no tourists were present.

As we returned to the beach we were joinedby one of the young male performers whowas trying to sell us a carved woodentrinket. Although we refused he continuedto walk with us. Eventually a group of fourgiggling teen-aged girls caught up with us.In one slippery area of the trail Jodie wasproceeding very cautiously and two of thegirls took her arms and assisted her. Wemet many people coming back fromworking in their gardens. They all greetedus. Most of the path was lined withindividuals’ gardens, growing papaya,yams, taro. Yams are nothing like what webuy in the supermarket. The plantsresemble beans in that they grow up poles

at least 12' high. The yams, which are the rootof the plant, may be as much as 8' long andresemble logs.

Jodie took several pictures with our Polaroidcamera and gave the prints to the subject ofthe photo. Since these were mostly kids, theywere delighted, and so was Jodie.

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3/23 Iwa Island

Actually, we never made it to Iwa. The tidewas too low to allow access across the reef.We snorkeled in the morning so that we couldhave time to allow the tide to rise. It insteadgot lower. So, after floating our usualpackage of school supplies ashore, along withthe landing fee which was paid in spite of notbeing able to land, we motored off to GawaIsland.

We landed where there were several canoehouses and quite a number of people. (Canoehouses also seem to be men’s houses. Nativewomen are not allowed inside howevertourists are.) Part of the group hiked up asteep muddy hill for 45 minutes to the village.We opted for a leisurely hike along the beachwith Dick. Two locals went along with us, Iguess hoping to sell their handicrafts. Onespoke fair English and the other a little. Themost interesting thing they showed us was afresh water well right on the shore line. Thereis a fresh water lense that floats on top of thesalt water underlaying these islands. Bydigging down just a few feet at the shore thefresh water becomes available. The watercomes from the rain water that percolatesdown trough the limestone. Actually the freshwater is available anywhere under the islandhowever to reach it you would have to digthrough the hard, uplifted coral to just abovesea level to reach it. These islands are upliftedatolls. This whole area is at the collision ofthe Pacific and Australasian tectonic plateswhich uplifted the atolls and also caused theactive volcanos we will see tomorrow.

We didn’t purchase anything from our guidesbut did give them some money. We didpurchase a oblong carved wooden bowl later.

3/24 Rabal

Two meters of volcanic ash certainly changesa place! In 1994 two vents opened on thesides of the Rabal harbor, a volcano caldera,

and spewed forth ash that buried the town.Buildings collapsed from the weight of theash. Those that didn’t collapse burned fromthe heat of the hot ash. The airport, whichwas close to one vent was, of course,completely obliterated along with the townelectrical power plant. Seismographicwarnings caused the government to evacuateso that only 5 people died, however the townand surrounding area were lost. Eventuallythe capital was moved to a town further awayfrom the volcano and people rebuilt the town,although the old center was under too muchash to recover so rebuilding occurred wherethere was less ash.

Our tour started with a visit to the volcanoobservatory. Although other groups went intothe observatory, for some reason we stayedoutside and just looked at the spectacular viewof the harbor. The harbor is a blown-outcaldera of a very large volcano. It makes anideal protected harbor with the slight

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exception that the volcano is still active. TheJapanese made it a major center before thestart of WWII and heavily fortified it.Although it was heavily bombed by the USduring the war after it became in range, it wasnever invaded. General MacArthur’s schemewhen retaking the Pacific was simply tobypass strong points like Rabal and cut theirsupply lines. This approach worked quitewell.

After viewing the sights we next drove to theJapanese War Peace Memorial which wasbuilt by Japanese Army veterans tocommemorate their honorable activites inWWII. This was located on a ridge thatoverlooked the devastated former town center.

We next went to a hot springs that flowed outof the ash at the shore line. To reach it wedrove over or through the former down townand across the airport. Very hot water flowsfrom the ground into the harbor. Tiny littlefumaroles and mud pots dot the shore line.Overlooking all this is one of the two ventsthat belched ash in 1994. It still steams andoccasionally produces black smoke and night-time sparks.

The next highlight was a visit to the exteriorof Admiral Yamamoto’s bunker. This is amassive concrete underground structure thatprotected the Japanese high command fromAmerican bombs. There is also an adjacenthouse that they used. We couldn’t enter thebunker since it was flooded. Perhaps there isno desire to make it something to visit.

At a brief, unplanned visit to a local farmers’market we learned how to use the omnipresentbeetle nut. One vendor of the nutsdemonstrated. It is chewed along with lime

and a green vegetable that looks like a greenbean. Lime is made by heating coral and thencrushing it into a power. Chewing the nutstains the mouth red and results in a mildeuphoria.

We next visited a Japanese barge tunnel. Thiswas dug into a limestone hill by the forcedlabor of natives prior to WWII. It protectedfreight barges from bombardment. There arestill some rusting hulks of the barges inside.It is very difficult to see anything since it isn’tilluminated and the only light was provided byflashlights that needed new batteries. TheJapanese concealed the entrance with massivebamboo plantings and the tracks leading to thesea with bamboo mats.

As we were leaving the harbor area on thebus, Jodie spotted a beaded collar necklace

that one of the vendorsat the entrance wasselling. She told methat if it was still therewhen we came backshe was going to haveit. It was still thereand now she has it.

All of the ash fieldscovering the old townare being planted with“trees with leaves”, asour guide told us.

These are shrubs that will control erosion.The plantings seem to be nothing more thanapparent sticks poked into the ground. Giventhe amount of rain and fertile ash, they quicklysprout leaves and begin to grow.

Our final event in Rabal was the Baining FireDancers. It is performed at night illuminatedonly by a large bonfire. Its purpose is to honor

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the spirits. The dancers are naked except foran elaborate mask which they makethemselves, and penis covering consisting ofa tube and a disk. This covering is attachedwith a bamboo splinter. They wear a grassthatch which covers the calves which is usefulsince as a part of the dance they regularly leapthrough the fire. These dances traditionalcontinue all night with the dancers fightingfatigue with the juice from a vine that hasmysterious powers. We didn’t stay all night.The dancers throw their masks into the fire atthe end of the ceremony.

One of the interesting things we have learnedin PNG is that education is not free, not evenelementary education. It costs 100 kina tosend a child to school for a year. That’s about30 US dollars. That may not seem like muchhowever they have almost no source of hardmoney. After learning this we decided to buywithout too much bargaining.

3-25. Tingwon Island

At last the clouds and rain seem to have leftus. We were to go ashore for a welcomingdance and village visit when we arrived afternoon however the dancers weren’t ready. Sowe snorkeled, and a fine snorkel it was too.Although there weren’t massive amounts offish, there were quite a number of brightlycolored fish frequenting the reef and the dropoff.

After snorkeling for an hour we returned tothe ship, rinsed off the salt water, and thenwent back to the village for the welcome. Itwas quite nice. After the dancing we toured abit. The villagers had set up severaldemonstrations, one of mat weaving, copraproduction, sego palm flour extraction.

Sego palm flour is a diet staple. The palm iscut down and the entire trunk shredded intotiny chips. These chips are repeatedly flushedwith fresh water with the water being trappedto allow the sediment to settle out. Whendried, this sediment becomes the desired flour.

It was dusk when we left and the mosquitoesdrove us back to the ship.

3/26 Tsoi Island

We went ashore early (7 am) with the birdwatchers to view the mega pod flock. Thereare at least 50 of these birds living right nextto the village on one of the two islands. Theirunique feature is that they do not directly

incubate their eggs but rather bury them indecomposing litter and regulate thetemperature by removing or adding litter. Theparticular ones we saw seemed to beburrowing in the earth. They are a mostlyblack bird similar in size to a chicken.

After our stirring visit to the birds we crossedover to the other island where we were greetedby a group of traditional singers and dancers;

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traditional except they had an electric pianoand two electric guitars. None the less, theirperformance was quite entertaining. Theybecame much more energetic after a break forbeetle nuts. It turned out that there were twosimilar bands. We wandered over to wherethe “official” welcome was to be held andfound the second band.

This was one of the best organized villages wehave visited It was the only place I sawglasses being worn.

The only items for sale were woven strawpurses or pouches. Jodie purchased some forthe female members of the family. Althoughlocal males also carry these in which theykeep their beetle nut supplies.

We were back on the ship by 11. This wasour last stop in Melanesia. We gave our left-over kina, about $50, to the Zehnders to giveto the school.

3/28. Satawal Island, Yap state

Once the ship was cleared into the FederatedStates of Micronesia we went ashore andwandered about the village. It was Sunday

and mass was still being celebrated so thereweren’t a lot of people about. Since thechurch has only screen windows it was easy tohear the beautiful singing. One negativeaspect of the village was the pervasive litter,mostly used plastic water bottles, layingeverywhere.

We encountered a man in one of the canoehouses having his breakfast of rice and boiledfish. He was working on a new trading canoe.These ships are made from slabs of woodrather than being hollowed out of a singletrunk. The slabs are approximately 4 or 5inches thick and are shaped with either an axeor an adze. They are fitted and lashed togetherwith either coconut fibre or plastic line.Viscous sap from the breadfruit tree pluscoconut fibre seals the seams.

Somewhat later in the morning the welcomingdances started. They started with a group oftopless women who set their dancing to amilitaristic marching - “left-right-left-right”tempo. At one point we were startled to hearQueen’s “We will, we will rock you.”

When the first group finished a second groupfrom a different part of the island performedin much the same manner. Then the local menperformed a seated stick dance.

In the afternoon we snorkeled a coral maze atWest Fayu Island, requiring us to really suckup our bellies as we crossed over someshallow coral. As we approached we sawseveral ships that foundered on the reef. Theisland is the typical white-sand postage stampcovered on top with vegetation. It is the homeof thousands of black noddies.

The snorkeling was good however thereweren’t masses of fish. I also discovered that

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the persistent leak I have been experiencingwith my mask was caused by the failure ofone of the lense mountings. The first officer,Martin, tried to seal it with some RTV.

March 29, Ifalik Island

Another landing, another welcoming dance.The dancing seemed a bit better thanyesterday. The women started, arrayed in a

single line with the youngest at either end.Their movements were vigorous and theiraccompanying chanting was traditional. Theywere followed by a very vigorous, stompingdance by older men and then a very war-likestick dance by younger men. Also, this villagewas much cleaner than Satawal.

We bought one of our more interestingsouvenirs here, their version of brassknuckles. Small but very sharp sharks teethare woven with coconut fibre into an oval thatjust fits over the users knuckles.

3/30 Sorol

The day dawned poorly. We were in and outof squalls all morning with the ship heeling

from the force of the wind. However by thetime we reached Sorol most of the badweather had moved on. We went ashore tothis tiny island and walked with Birder Dick.Although drops of rain pelted us, driven by thestill present wind it was a very enjoyable visit.

The island is covered with birds. Before theship’s last visit it had been swept by a typhoonand there were no birds. We saw frigate birds,fairy terns (now called fairy noddies), brownand red-footed boobies, black and brownnoddies. On one tree we saw a fairy noddiesitting on an egg, a almost fully developedfairy noddie, and a chick. We also saw anesting brown-phase red-footed bobbie asindicated by its white tail! We alsoencountered a hermit crab that had selected aused film container as its current home.

3/31 Ngulu Atoll

This was probably the prettiest village wehave visited. The paths are lined with rockand flowering plants. Of the 25 residents, 15are away at school. Our visit was rather short;we were driven back to the ship by bitingflies. One interesting aspect of the village, thehouses were built on platforms that wereraised by stone foundations filled with earth.The ends of the houses were pointed towardsin the direction that typhoon surges wouldcome from. These pointed ends were filledwith stone to resist the surge.

Jodie then went snorkeling. Since my maskwas unusable I’ll let her tell about thesnorkeling.

Today was a double header. Ifelt like I was changingclothes constantly. Themorning site was on a coralreef with a very deep drop off.

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You could stay in the four toten foot water over the reefand see the typical fish wehave been seeing. The waterwas very clear and it wasmostly sunny. Over the dropoff you could see schools oflarger fish as well as singlefish. There was a pair of verylarge butterfly fish. If youswam out from the reef thebottom quickly disappeared. Itwas a very eerie feelingfloating along and having afish or school of fishmaterialize out of the blue.There was some current and alot of swell, but a worthwhileexperience.

During lunch the ship moved to another pointwhere we snorkeled. My dip in the water wasquite short; my mask still leaks quite badly inspite of the efforts of the first officer to seal it.

Jodie again. The afternoonsnorkel was at the shore edgeof a reef. There were about adozen large Coronet fish thereto greet us as we jumped in.Some of the largest and mostcolorful clown fish I have everseen put on a nice display. Alot of large parrot fish weremunching on the coral andchasing each other. The waterwas not as clear as thismorning, most likely due to thewave action from the beach andthe sun was in and out of theclouds.

April Fools Day - Palau

This was the last day for all but 6 of ourfellow passengers. The morning started witha ride on local dive boats to the 300 islands.This is an array of raised coral islets whosebases have been eroded by the sea so that the

islands resemble mushrooms. We firststopped at a coral arch where we snorkeledunder the arch accompanied by schools offish. The corals were beautiful. The fish wereattracted since they are usually fed by theboats. We saw sergeant majors, needle fish,and yellow tailed jacks.

Our next stop was Jelly Fish Lake. This lakeis inhabited by a group of stingless jelly fishthat drift across the brackish lake in responseto the Sun. They require Sun light, not forthemselves but for the zooxanthallae, anutrient producing algae that inhabits theirtissue. In the morning they are in one end: asthe day progresses they migrate to the otherend; after the Sun sets then drop to a lowerlevel of the lake and move back to the otherend. Access to the lake was by a very steepcoral rock path. Assistance was provided bya rope strung from poles along the steeperparts.

The point of this hike was to swim with thejelly fish. We were prohibited from usingflippers since they might harm the fish and bythis time of day they had moved quite adistance away from the landing. They seemedto be attracted to swimmers which made itdifficult to photograph them. They wouldmove too close to be in focus.

After the lake we went to the giant clam city.Someone has transplanted a large group ofgiant clams to this area where they arethriving.

After lunch we rode the shuttle bus into town.Our first stop was at the Palau Aquarium.When we approached I thought this wouldn’tbe a worthwhile stop. The building was small.It tuns out that most of the display is outsideand replicates much of the natural

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environment. It was quite worthwhile andwould have warranted much more than the ½hour allotted.

Our next stop was the post office. AlthoughPalau is part of an independent nation there isa special relationship with the US. Part of thisrelationship is that postage rates are the sameas the US and Palau has a US zip code. Webought 37¢ stamps for our post cards. Theywere Palau stamps, not US. After somesouvenir shopping, including at the local jail,where we didn’t buy any of the inmates hand-carved items. They were of poor quality. Wereturned to the ship to bid goodby to ourfriends of 14 days.

This was the night of the captain’s farewellcocktail and dinner. We dined with Wernerand Susan Zehnder this evening.

Now we embark on a 4 day crossing toOkinawa. We six passengers had the entireship, staff, and crew to ourselves.

4/3 At sea

It has now been almost two days of having theship to ourselves. Breakfast is served in theday lounge on deck 5 and consists of mostlythe same stuff that is served there regularly,i.e., fresh rolls, fruit, cold cereal. For this 4-day segment, however, we are able to orderhot cooked items from the galley. We hadoatmeal this morning. The officers and staffare eating with us rather than in the officers’mess.

Lunch is available in the same room and againis similar to what is available on a regularsegment with the addition of a hot item.Yesterday, for example, fish and chips wereavailable. Since the dining room is not in use,

we ate all meals on this deck.

Dinner last night was a bit special. We had agrilled dinner on the pool deck. We joined theship staff around the pool bar for drinks andhors d’ oeurves. Grilled strip steaks andscallops were available along with salad,baked potatoes, corn on the cob, and freshrolls.

We 6 sat at one table. The executive chefjoined us after he completed cooking andserving the grilled items. He has had quite avaried experience. Perhaps the mostinteresting was as personal chef for EthylKennedy for 6 months.

After dinner we watched a movie, “WakingNed Devine”, in the lounge.

4/5 At Sea

Today is our last day of our 4-day idyl. It hasbeen quite pleasant and relaxing. We were sofar ahead of schedule that we could havearrived in Okinawa this evening. We are nowrunning on one engine at about 9 knots.

Last night was the crew bar-b-que. It wasinteresting to see all of the crew. We neversee any of the people who work in the engineroom or laundry, for example. Their specialtreat was two roast suckling pigs. (The earsare the most desired parts. The free beer wasalso popular.)

We usually watch one of the staff’s DVDsafter dinner. Some of these have been bootlegcopies of current movies they bought for $1 inThailand, some with the Academy Award idon them. One movie was quite bad, “1900,"however last night we saw “The Italian Job”which was a lot of fun. As you could expect

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from bootleg copies, one movie wouldn’t run.

4/7 Amani Islands

We arrived in Naha, Okinawa yesterdaymorning. Susan Zehnder met us around 8 amto take the six of us off on our all day tour.After a false start, we had to come back to theship so the customs inspectors could inspectwhat we had already taken off of the ship anddriven away with, we went to the tunnelcomplex that the Japanese Navy used duringworld war II. It was quite extensive and hasbeen restored by Japanese veterans. Most ofthe inhabitants committed suicide at the end ofthe battle. The officers using swords, thelesser men by setting off hand grenades.There is still an area with walls chipped fromthe grenades. A total of 2,400 human remainswere removed from the tunnels.

At the request of one of our companions wevisited a place that made and sold bingatafabrics. These beautiful fabrics are made byapplying stencils to silk fabric and thenlaboriously hand coloring it.

We next visited Shuri Castle. Since duringWWII the Japanese had turned this into astronghold with tunnels underneath it was

almost totally destroyed during the USinvasion of the island. It has been completelyrebuilt.

After an unproductive interval walking downthe pottery street and a visit to the potterymuseum we went to a humongous indoormarket. By this time we were rushed so wecouldn’t really shop very much. Our shoppingwas also hampered by a lack of yen.Eventually we reached the fish sales area.Susan picked out some very large prawns,some kind of silver fish, and some tuna forsashimi. A waitress came down from the

second floor and took the sashimi up alongwith the uncooked shrimp and fish.

There are kitchens and tables on the secondfloor. The fish was cooked while we enjoyedthe sashimi. Susan also ordered two plates ofa bitter melon cooked with eggs and pork andbowls of steamed rice. The fish were servedwhole and had been grilled with onion andgreen pepper in the body cavity. All of theseitems were quite good.

We couldn’t spend any more time in themarket since we needed to get to the north endof the island. Jodie had a yen to shop however

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she had no yen with which to shop. On theway to the minibus Jodie tried to get some yenfrom a bank. They wouldn’t do anything,even change US currency, without herpassport. As the final impediment, the ATMmachines would accept only Japanese cards.

The reason for the rush to the other end of theisland was to visit the Churaumi Aquarium.And what a place it was. Imagine sitting on abench looking up at the water overhead asseveral full sized manta rays fly gracefully by.

Suddenly the light is eclipsed by a large, darkform. Several full sized whale sharks are inthe tank. When they swam by they blotted outthe light. These truly spectacular fishovershadow the other remarkable fish thatcomprise the collection. This makes theMonterrey Bay Aquarium look like a backyard fish pool.

Today, however, was not nearly as good. Wearrived at Naze early in the morning and wentoff on a bus tour. We visited a place thatproduces very expensive hand dyed and handwoven fabric for kimonos. Then we went toa local museum. Although it was small it hada nice collection of boats, local tools, andnatural history.

As the ship repositioned to a different part ofthe island, Koniya, some locals made a verylong winded presentation to the ship thenthere was some traditional music. Thingswent down hill after that. The afternoon wasa complete bust. We did a very long bus ridearound the island which took in the Mt.Kochiyama view point and the KuroshionoMori Mangrove Park visitor center. This wasthe first visit of an international cruise ship tothis island. The people were gracious andfriendly and made us feel quite welcome.There was, however, not much to see.

Impressions of our first visit to Japan,although so far it is only to outlying islandswhich were under the influence of China for along time in their history. The US managedthe area for a long time after WWII and thenreturned the islands to Japan. Many of theresidents wanted independence and don’tquite feel themselves a part of Japan. Thearea is clean. Everything is orderly, manyservice people are in uniform. Everyone isunfailingly polite. Whenever the bus left amuseum or commercial facility all of theemployees lined up outside and waved inunison until we were out of sight. When wewere driving through Naha I saw a gas stationattendant (attendants pump gas and wash yourwindshield!) courteously stop traffic so that acustomer could leave the station, then bowdeeply to the person who stopped.

When we left the port tonight all of the guides,drivers, local tourism people were lined up onthe dock and waved and waved and waved aswe pulled away from the dock. When a groupof us shouted “Arigato” (thank you) in unisonthey all responded with loud laughter and evenmore energetic waving. Then they responded,“Come back!” It left me with a very warmfeeling.

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Tonight was Captain Frank Allica’s welcomecocktail and dinner. The lecturers on thissegment are Mark Brazil, the “bird man,” IanCooke, the “garden man,” Mason Florence,the “local color man,” and Karel Liem. Karelis the escort for the Harvard Museum ofNatural History group and a notedichthyologist. He also presented some veryentertaining lectures. Mason has lived in theorient for many years and has written severalLonely Planet guide books on variouscountries. There were also three Japanesewomen, two of whom worked for the Japanesetour company that Zegrahm used.

4/8 Yakushima Island

We selected the full island tour. We left theship in rain and drove to Whiratani UnsuikyoRavine which we hiked up, still in the rain.With the exception of an area of rock, the trailwas paved and had stairs in the steeper areas.It followed a rushing stream which had manyviolent passages and a few falls. This areawas once populated with really big cedar trees.These were cut down in one of the eras tomake temples. There are many second growthcedar trees from the stumps. The whole areawas breath-takingly beautiful.

Next on the addenda was the Senpiro-no-takiwaterfall. When we arrived we could seenothing but thick fog. Our patient wait waseventually rewarded as the mists parted andwe had a good view of the falls.

Lunch was at the Iwasaki Hotel and consistedof a Bento box lunch. This was a deliciouslunch served in a two level box with manysmall compartments. There must have been30 different items of Japanese cuisine. Therewere also soup and tempura. It was a mostremarkable lunch.

We continued our tour of the afternoon afterlunch. The road around the island took usthrough a nature preserve which is a UNWorld Heritage sight. It is populated bymacaque monkeys and deer. As we drovealong we had occasional sightings of both.When we saw a couple of monkeys by theroad the bus stopped and let us walk alongwith the hope of spotting more. Jodie had aninteresting encounter.

After strolling along thenarrow road for 30 minuteslooking for the monkeys anddeer and seeing none wereluctantly boarded the bus andmoved on. It wasn’t too longbefore a whole troop of monkeysand a large group of deer wereseen from the bus which stoppedto let us out. I walked overto the side of the road to geta better look at the monkeys inthe tree above. As I waswatching the monkeys the herdof deer became alarmed andscurried up the hill. Thenoise of this diverted myattention from the monkeys tothe deer, but then I heard anoise which was caused by asmall rock coming toward mefrom above. It would have hitme if I had not quickly moved.The native guide informed methat these monkeys did notthrow things and what hadhappened was the deer dislodgedthe rock which rolled down thehill. I told him I was lookingat the hill and the rock didnot come from there. Therewere about four otherpassengers who were near by whoalso said the rock did not comedown the hill but came fromabove. Mason used the story that night

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at recap, saying jokingly hewould report the incident as anew behavior for this speciesand we would all be famous. Hecalled me to come forward andcorroborate the story and toverify I had witnesses. WhichI did and then closed with thestatement that I had also beenhit by a rock fish whilewatching the whale shark.

4/9. Omishima

There were three lectures this morning. In theafternoon we walked to the OyamatzumijinjaShrine. The grounds and temple of this Shintoshrine are quite nice. There are a couple ofcamphor trees there that are national treasures;one is 3,000 years old and is almost dead. Theother is only 2,500.

We also visited the treasure house whichcontains many old samurai weapons andarmor. It wasn’t very interesting. In additionwe had to take off our shoes to visit thisnewish building with industrial carpet on thefloor.

The most interesting part of our visit wasstrolling through a grocery store on our own.

4/10. Uno-Ko

In the morning we bused off to Kurashikiwhere we left the bus and walked along acanal, lined with jewelry vendors, to the FolkArt Museum. This is another place where wehad to take off our shoes to walk on woodenfloors. The building is an old granary thatcontains pots and furniture from variousplaces in the world. Not very interesting.

Our next stop was the Ohara Museum of Art.Mr. Ohara collected many pieces of art over

the years, some by old masters and some bynewer artists. Part of the collection, strangelyenough, includes Japanese art. The floor insome of the rooms was made of loose woodenblocks.

Lunch at the Nikko Kurashiki Hotel was aBento box lunch but not nearly as good as ourfirst one.

After lunch we visited the first of the fabledJapanese gardens, Koraku-en Garden. It wasquite a disappointment, caused perhapsbecause it was very crowded by the Saturdaycrowds come to see the cherry blossoms.Many parts were quite attractive however ithad none of the classic beauty associated withJapanese gardens.

Later that evening we cruised thru theKurishima Kaikyo Pass which separatesHonshu and Shikoku and is spanned by theSeto-Ohashi Bridge. It was a spectacularengineering achievement with two differentkinds of suspension bridge plus severaltraditional spans.

4/11. Hiroshima & Miyajima

We celebrated Easter by visiting theInternational Peace Park which is locatedunder where the bomb was detonated. Thestill-standing ruins of a municipal building arevery close to the aiming point, a T-shapedbridge. Besides the museum, there are variousmonuments scattered about the park-likegrounds. The museum contains someexplanatory material plus some artifacts fromthe destruction. There is an explanation as towhy the US dropped the bomb but didn’treally go into the Japanese behavior prior tothat point in the war.

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The ship moved to Miyajima during lunch.We went ashore by zodiac and walked to theItukushima Shrine and Daisen-in Temple. Weviewed an interesting dance at the temple. Itis based on the legend of Qi who led his armyinto battle wearing a fierce mask. He hidbehind his mask since his face was “to

excellent” to threaten the enemy. Perhapsbecause of his mask his army was victorious.The dancer was resplendent in a gold maskand wearing beautifully embroidered robes.Music was provided by six musicians playingtraditional instruments.

Jodie stayed up past midnight to watch ourpassage through the narrow strait betweenKyãshã and Honshu and under the Kanmonbridge. She reports that she is glad she didn’thave to navigate.

4/12. Tsu-shima Island

This island was once one but became twowhen the Japanese Navy blasted a channelthrough to allow passage of their ships duringthe Russian-Japanese war. We took zodiacsashore and boarded a bus which took us to aview point. We climbed 180 steps includingthose to the top of a cell phone tower, andtook in the view. Then we drove back.

In the afternoon we watched Kazumi Masuda“write” our names in Japanese Calligraphy.The characters for Jo Anna mean poetic,resourceful, flower in field; for Wendel theymean house, appealing, coming out in theworld, beautiful gem; for Dale they mean mudslide.

Then we did a high-speed one hour zodiactour of the gap between the islands that wasn’tvery worthwhile.

4/14. Pusan or Busan

The name of the city seems to be changing.The only reason for visiting Korea is thatforeign ships are not allowed to board anddebark passengers in Japan without visitinganother country in between. In spite of that itwas an interesting visit. The port is one of themost active I have ever seen. There arecontainer ships everywhere loading andunloading, entering and leaving continuously.I’ve never seen such a large assemblage ofcontainers stacked about.

Our brief, one-day, visit was quite enjoyable.Zegrahm initially offered only a full day tourwhich involved several hours on a bus. Somany passengers objected that they added ahalf day tour in addition. That is the one wetook. Our first stop was at a Buddhist temple

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set high in the hills outside of Pusan. Wepassed through a succession of gates andascended many long stairs. All along the waythere were worshipers bowing and praying.When we finally reached the temple proper wefound three separate buildings in active use.There were many more than three buildingshowever there were worshipers primarily atthree. The worshipers were mostly womenand almost all were wearing grey flowingpants with tight cuffs at the ankles and amatching grey vest. The whole scene wasbeautiful and peaceful. One interesting note,all three altars had common wind-up alarmclocks on them.

After the temple we visited the UN cemetery.This was created by the city and contained theremains of people killed in the Korean War.Most of the bodies have been repatriated.

The final stop of the morning was at the fishmarket. What an incredible place! Thenarrow passage ways were lined on either sidewith women selling all kinds of sea creatures.Most of the fish were dead however therewere some live octopus, squid, eels, and littleslimy things. There were restaurants with livetanks out in front. You could select what youwanted from the tank and it would be preparedfor you , however it would be raw.

We came back into the city in the afternoonand strolled the streets without buying much.Although most of the starets are pedestrianonly there were motorcycles andmoterscooters speeding up and down, almostrunning us over. There were also many freshstrawberry vendors using various vehicles tosell their wares. All of them had recordedmessages blaring.

The whole area was incredibly busy. There

were many food vendors, usually temporarilyset up in the center of the narrow walk ways,some with child-sized tables and chairs.

4/14. Sakai Ko and Matuse

We returned to Japan. There were severalactivities planned in the morning to allow timefor the laborious clearance process. After alight continental breakfast, Chicko San andRanko San briefly sketched the Shinto andBuddhist religions. After that we had awelcoming ceremony which included anamusing magician. The guests also broughtalong some local crafts which were on sale inthe day lounge. In the brief shopping frenzythat followed, Jodie succeeded in getting adoll for Natalie’s collection.

The rest of the morning was filled withchampagne mimosas and a large brunch in thedining room.

At noon it was finally time to leave the shipand board busses to visit the Matsue Castleand samurai house in Furusatokan. The five-story castle was built as a defensive structurebuilt on the top of a hill. Massive stone workssupported the whole thing. One of thedefensive features is that the occupants couldpull up the stairs after themselves. In thatway, if an enemy gained control of the firstfloor they couldn’t go higher. The could,however, easily set fire to the internal woodenstructure. There was a nice view from thetop.

The samurai house was authentic, actuallyhaving been occupied by a high rankingsamurai and has been well preserved.Although fairly large, the few furnishing werevery simple. Although it is cold enough tosnow here in winter the only heat was

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provided by charcoal hibachis. Since thewalls are quite thin it must have been quitecold.

4/15. Kanazawa

Finally we visited one of the Japanese gardensthat appear so much in travel magazines. Wewent to Kenrokuen Gardens and found themto be beautiful. All we needed was a littlemist however it was fairly sunny. There wereflowering cherry trees, carefully shapedevergreens, burbling streams, green mossclinging to rocks.

As a part of our garden experience we weretreated to a formal Japanese tea ceremony.

In the afternoon we visited the Iki Iki FishMarket. (Iki Iki supposedly means veryclean.) It was indoors and much betterorganized than the outdoor market in Pusan,and it was clean. As a result, not nearly asinteresting.

After that we visited a restored geisha house

and the Gold Leaf Centre. The geisha houseis in an old entertainment district with narrowstreets. Most of the surrounding houses havebeen converted into shops or restaurantshowever the owner has preserved this one inits original condition.

The Gold Leaf Centre was just a store thatsold a lot of stuff decorated with gold leaf.The only interesting part was a demonstrationof how gold leaf is produced from a hunk ofgold. After that, Jodie shopped at a usedkimono shop but could find nothing that cameclose to fitting.

For our next to last night on the ship we dinedwith Nadia Eckart, the expedition leader.

4/16. Sato Island

For our last day on the ship we made sobanoodles, visited a saki factory, anotherBuddhist temple, tourist attraction gold minea la Disneyland.

Soba noodles are a staple in the Japanese diet.The prime constituent is buck wheat flourwith a lesser amount of wheat flour. To thisis added enough water to make a very stiffdough. It becomes more pliable aftersufficient kneading. It is then rolled out intoa very thin sheet with a 4' rolling pin. (Therolling process is quite involved but I’m notgoing to try to describe it.) After rolling it intoabout a 2½” square (if you do it right) half thesquare is dusted with flour, then folded over.This process is continued until there is apacket that is 8 layers thick. Then it is slicedinto very thin strips. The noodles are boiled ina broth and served in the broth. We got to eatthe noodles the group made. They were quitegood.

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The saki factory seemed to be genuinehowever the saki fermentation season is overso about all there was to do was sample andbuy saki. Saki is made by allowing polished,malted rice to ferment and then filter theliquid from the solid material.

The gold mine was a actual mine that wasworked in olden times. Now the tunnels havebeen covered with concrete and the floorspaved. There are several working areas whereanimated figures enact what was done in themine. You could treat yourself to gold flakedcoffee or ice cream.

4/17. Niigata

Our first activity of the day was to leave theship at 7:30 am and identify our luggage in thecustoms shed. It was then placed on a truckand driven off to the airport at Narita. We leftthe ship and boarded our bus at 8:30. A visitto a visitors’ center/shopping center filled thetime until we boarded the Shinkansen (bullettrain) for Tokyo. They are fast! At the Tokyotrain station we boarded the express train forthe airport. Our luggage was waiting for us atthe Japan Air Lines ticketing area. Wequickly checked in, found our way throughImmigration and security and finally into theJAL business lounge. The trip home was longbut uneventful. JAL service is notnoteworthy.

The two trips were quite different. The firstwas mostly nature-oriented. The second washeavily into museums and temples.

After making fun of Japanese tour groups itseemed ironic for a group of Americans to befollowing a Japanese guide with a little pinkpom-pom held over her head on a stick. Ourgroup also mimicked the Japanese tourists

snapping photos of all they saw. I do marvelthat the guides were able to get this group ontwo trains in very crowded stations withoutlosing anyone.