Mostly Live. Explorer-Tokyo to Vancouver

[mj_holiday]

The cherry blossoms are really in bloom, and looks so pretty among the hills and valleys, and along the roads.

[mj_holiday]

When we got to the craft village, we were all ushered inside and stood around a wooden vat of water and some kind of wood pulp. The pulp is from a special tree, but I forgot the name. They demonstrated making the paper and with instructions in Japanese and pointing, and a few English words, we got the idea. 
One by one, we got to make our own paper in a mold that they had for us to use. With great coaching from the attendants there we each got our own paper made and stacked up to dry.

[mj_holiday]

 

The paper is set to dry. 
We then move on to a bridge to look at while our paper dries. We will come back to the craft village after it has dried to pick up our paper

[mj_holiday]

Our next stop is a submersible bridge. I’m not sure how it’s submerges in the water, but there are several of these types of bridges in Japan. 
Several people walked across the bridge. I decided I just stand and watch since it’s a one lane bridge and traffic is still going across it.  

[mj_holiday]

After our time at the bridge, we headed back to the craft village to pick up our paper and then back to the ship. 
At the port, several small shops were set up, so we went shopping and then back on board for trivia. We had a complete team this time and we were able to finish in first place.

[mj_holiday]

As the ship pulled away from Port that evening, again, we had people from the village on the dock, waving goodbye to us and wishing us bon voyage.

[mj_holiday]

April 6
today we were stopping in Hiroshima. Our tour was a panoramic tour of Hiroshima, which included the atomic bomb dome. The city itself is very large, very clean,  has six rivers like 200 bridges. 
our guy told us that the cherry blossoms were at the peak of their blooming. It’s just beautiful cherry blossom trees all over the place.

As we approached the garden and the atomic bomb dome, our guide gave us a brief history of that day in 1945 when an atomic bomb exploded above the dome.  The dome was the only structure in the area that was still standing. They have since created a memorial garden to remind people, the importance of peace.

There is also a mound,  with the door, being from Oklahoma I thought tornado shelter, but no, this is the place where they put the ashes of over 70,000 people who were not identified who died because of the bomb. 
The entire part is very beautiful and lots of people were enjoying the beautiful weather and we’re out in the park.

   

[mj_holiday]

We also went by the area that had been Hiroshima Castle and was destroyed in 1945, the moat still exists.  Recently, they had rebuilt part of the castle.

 

Artur ended after trivia had started so we just came up to our room and relax with a drink and got ready for dinner. Dinner again was excellent, we both had the destination dinner, which was Mizo glazed monkfish, wonderful. 

[mrlevin]

We are continuing to have a fantastic cruise.  Excellent service in every restaurant and every bar.  We have taken just one excursion, Miyajima, it was fantastic; peak of cherry blossoms on the island.  

 

Explorer definitely has its quirks but it has been great to be back on board after seven years.  One thing we noticed immediately is that the "golf balls" are gone; don't know if I like the replacement; maybe someone knows the history on when and why they were removed.

 

Three wins and a second at trivia; I am waiting for the cumulative trivia on the crossing; our team is on until Vancouver.  I am amazed how many are onboard for just the twelve day segment.

 

If anyone has any specific questions I can try to answer.

 

Marc

[forgap]

50 minutes ago, mrlevin said:

We are continuing to have a fantastic cruise.  Excellent service in every restaurant and every bar.  We have taken just one excursion, Miyajima, it was fantastic; peak of cherry blossoms on the island.  

 

Explorer definitely has its quirks but it has been great to be back on board after seven years.  One thing we noticed immediately is that the "golf balls" are gone; don't know if I like the replacement; maybe someone knows the history on when and why they were removed.

 

Three wins and a second at trivia; I am waiting for the cumulative trivia on the crossing; our team is on until Vancouver.  I am amazed how many are onboard for just the twelve day segment.

 

If anyone has any specific questions I can try to answer.

 

Marc

We join you on the 13th after being in Japan since 3/29.   Looking forward to a rest as we have been on the go logging 10 hour days and about 12,000 steps a day!  
 

Any intel on the CD and GM - not that it matters much to us as we are not labor intensive!  

[Dwtlion]

1 hour ago, mrlevin said:

 

 

If anyone has any specific questions I can try to answer.

 

Marc

While not important to most, those of us who will be traveling solo would like to know who the Social Hostess and Ass't cruise Director are on board.

[mrlevin]

Andreas will be replacing Alessandro as GM.  Paul is CD, Zhivoli [sp] is ACD, and Christina is Social Hostess.   I only see Christina at Mensa but she seems very nice and personable.  I have favorite waiters but I am not going to share that info as I don't want to have to fight for a table.  😁

[mj_holiday]

April 7 Sun

I finally got down to the Coffee Connection this morning and got a Cronut, delicious, I am going to have to control myself with these. 
 

Our tour in Beppu was to several hot springs. As the bus was approaching the area you could see “vents” of steam rising from many places on top of the

horizon. 

 

Our first stop was to a place with several small thatched buildings. It was explained that minerals were produced by letting the steam in the huts become liquid and then condenses and crystallized into the mineral, 

There was a basin of water from the spring to dip our hands in. Different springs contain different minerals. 

[mj_holiday]

Beppu continued

We next went to another spring that has a red pond. The garden around the spring was just beautiful.

The spring is red because of the iron content. 
 

 

The last spring we visited, had a blue pond and even prettier gardens. 
 

All of the shops that we visited also had gift shops with items made from their mineral Springs snacks, and one had a sake tasting. 

[mj_holiday]

The trip to the excursions was very interesting. The last spring we went to had a place that people could soak their feet in. 
 

Back in port we had to go through Japanese immigration and customs since we were leaving Japan and heading to South Korea. 
 

We made it to Trivia, we had a complete team. We managed to place third place. 
 

Dinner in Compass Rose was again very good. I had Mizo Glazed Sea Bass and really enjoyed it. 

[PhD-iva]

1 hour ago, mrlevin said:

Andreas will be replacing Alessandro as GM.  Paul is CD, Zhivoli [sp] is ACD, and Christina is Social Hostess.   I only see Christina at Mensa but she seems very nice and personable.  I have favorite waiters but I am not going to share that info as I don't want to have to fight for a table.  😁

Christina Hill? If so, she’s great! 
PS, I’m sure all Christinas on R are great!😁 

Edited April 8 by PhD-iva
Add PS

[Dwtlion]

9 minutes ago, PhD-iva said:

Christina Hill? If so, she’s great! 

I agree. 

[mj_holiday]

Monday April 8, Busan South Korea

 

Today we decided just to ride the shuttle bus to town and do some shopping. Well, we headed out, went immigration and found the shuttle bus was on lunch break. So we got a cab. The driver took us on a small tour of the city. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom the previous day, so they were still beautiful. 

 

We also saw a UN monument and a beautiful beach in the center of the city. 
We got to the shopping area, looked around and decided we were thirsty. 
We found a little sushi restaurant and had a nice break. Not finding any thing we wanted to buy we headed back to the ship. 
Busan is a very large and modern city. Driving back to the ship I saw one of their artificial “police”. It was a blowup image waving an orange traffic flashlight warning traffic of road work. (I wasn’t fast enough to get a pic). 

We made it back for Trivia, short one team player, but still placed third. 
Had a lovely dinner with new server, many came on board this morning. 

Edited April 8 by mj_holiday
Add picture

[mrlevin]

Brandon replaced Vlado as F&B. New Head Housekeeper, too. 42 crew left yesterday. 

[GOARMY]

mrlevin:  

 

A favor, please, referencing your last--  

 

Food & Beverage Director Brandon would be, I presume, Brandon Haylock, from South Africa.  

 

Please extend our best greetings.  Sue and I joined him, at his invitation, at two very-special Compass Rose dinners.  Just the three of us.  These were during our May-June, 2023 B/t/Bs aboard Navigator. The last dinner was one he personally supervised.  It featured all South African dishes, with pared wines.

 

A real gentleman.    

 

Sue could converse with Brandon as to preparation of French sauces.  Easy for her, as a gourmet cook.

 

I was content to sit and observe the ambience. Also, as Brandon might-recall, a rather-intense storm with waves pounding against the ship's exterior during that second dinner sort-of redirected my attention in that direction. 

 

We hope to sail with Brandon again during upcoming 2024-2025 segments on Splendor, Grandeur, and Explorer.    

 

Best, 

 

Jim and Sue

Redmond, WA

 

 

GOARMY!

 

[mrlevin]

Jim, done; and he returns the well wishes. 
 

Marc

[mj_holiday]

Tuesday, April 9, Nagasaki
 

We thought it was going to be a lazy morning since our tour didn’t leave until after lunch. But we then learned since we were re-entering Japan we had to go through Japanese customs and immigration. And then we saw some areas we could go shopping in the terminal.

we got on our tour bus around one in the afternoon and we had four or five places to see. The first place we went was the museum of the atomic bomb and we walked through the museum. It was very interesting.

 

we then went to Ground Zero, there is a monument there of a piece of metal that survived the blast.

 

[mj_holiday]

We then went to peace Park, which was a large grassy area with many monuments donated by many countries in the world. This all centered around a blue man statue, which I’m sure has a very unique story, but I couldn’t hear the tour guide, so I’ll have to look it up later. 

 

We then went to a reproduction of a village known as Dejima. There was a small scale, reproduction of the Portuguese village, and then many reproduction of various shops and homes. This village reflects the first main trading that Japan did with other countries.

 

And then back to the ship. We missed Trivia, and had a nice dinner and called it a night. 

 

[mj_holiday]

April 10 Kagoshima 

This morning as we sailed into the harbor, we were met by many individual people waving flags, all types of flags. They didn’t miss a country I bet.  
The buses looked very close to the ship, but looks can be deceiving. To get to the bus we had to walk a mouse maze to the port building on shore, show passport, and another short maze to the bus our tour was going to Chiron to the homes of former samurai, they are former because of feudal system that supported them no longer existed 

 

The neighborhood we walk through now resides many descendants of samurai. All of the homes are separated by beautiful hedges. There was a wide walkway and openings to the houses through the hedges. The homes that I saw were all the same floor plan with the visitors room looking out to the garden. The gardens were very nice, but nothing was in bloom, the guide pointed to one location in a garden that you could sit and see the mountain which was part of the design. After looking at four homes while very interesting I headed back to the bus. 

 

Our next stop was to the Chiran  peace museum. This museum is dedicated to the kamikaze flyers of World War II. It was very interesting museum with a plane that had been recovered. A picture of every pilot that was killed in action was displayed.

 

 

There was an example of a triangular house, which was a place a pilot stayed before going on a mission. It was called triangular, because most of it was underground, and all you saw was a triangle of the roof.

This was a very interesting museum and we could’ve spent six or seven hours there 

 

We made it to trivia and our team came in first place. 

[RachelG]

Mj-holiday,  noted you said you are from Oklahoma,  where??  We are Oklahoma people, Tulsa.