April 28 - Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

I’m old enough to remember that song by the band Chicago.  Here on the Odyssey that question is very real and the next line is getting to be appropriate too – Does anybody really care?  We’ve had one hour forward time changes for 5 days in a row and a date flip too with another change coming tonight.  For us passengers it’s not so bad, but it must be awful for the crew.  We can sleep late in the morning but they have to be up and cheerful regardless of whether their internal clocks say it’s still the middle of the night.

We’re still chugging along on our way to Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians.  This morning I made it to breakfast for the first time in a few days.  As I ate I watched us pass through a snow shower and then five minutes later into sunshine.  I went out on my veranda for two minutes and then had to come back in and warm up.  It’s just a couple of degrees above freezing and with the wind it feels much lower.  Well, it is the north Pacific so I expected it.

Last night we had a wonderful variety show before dinner.  All of the guest entertainers that I wrote about yesterday except for the pianist performed along with Melody, the same young woman who almost missed the ship.   Yesterday I would have nicknamed her “Madcap Melody” but today I think I’ll change it to “Marvelous Melody.” She sang a duet with the Australian who sounds like Johnny Cash and they did a great job on the song “Jackson” (“we got married in a fever…”).  Then she sang a duet with the R & B singer which was fantastic. The last number in the show was especially good.  All the entertainers including the cellists and our cruise director John sang and played “Amazing Grace.”  (That’s one song that always makes me teary-eyed.  Someone very near and dear to me sang it on two significant occasions.) But back to the show, it was such a good idea to combine all the talent on the ship.  I hope it’s done more often in the future.  

"Johnny Cash" and Melody

I haven’t written much about trivia lately, but we still play every day at noon.  It’s a cumulative game and we were way ahead until yesterday when we had an awful day.  Today we made up a little ground but we’re still 20 points off the lead. I’ve posted a photo of our good luck mascot “Miss Kitty”  a couple of months ago.  Her waving arm no longer flaps back and forth. (Maybe she’s having trouble adjusting to the time changes too. We put a new battery in and that didn’t help.) We think our miserable performance yesterday is Miss Kitty’s fault because of course it can’t be that we don’t know the answers. 

April 27 - Somewhere off the Aleutians

We’re on Day Five of six sea days as we cross the north Pacific and make our way from the eastern to the western hemisphere.  This part of the ocean can be very rough, but King Neptune has smiled on us in that regard because the seas have been calm.  The temperature is a different story.  Today it’s about 38° F and that’s actually a little warmer than it was yesterday.  For the first time in several days the sun has come out this afternoon.

These sea days would be delightful except for one thing.  We’ve been setting the clocks forward one hour every night and tonight we’re doing it again.  Additionally yesterday we crossed the International Date Line.  Two nights ago that meant that we turned watches, iPads, and other electronic devices back a full day and then forward one hour; in other words, we did a 23 hour jump.  The upshot is that most of us aren’t sure what day and what time it is.  All I know is that I don’t like 23 hour days and I’d much rather be traveling from east to west and gaining an extra hour every day.

As usual there are lectures, games and classes, but honestly I think many of us, myself included, are feeling more than a little lethargic.  Yesterday I did something I almost never do – I took a nap.  I just spoke with the captain and we have two more days to change clocks before we get to Alaska time.  I commented that we were fortunate to have such calm seas and he said we were just behind a low-pressure system and just ahead of another forming behind us.  They are expected to merge but hopefully we’ll stay away from them.

If it seems like I’m blathering on, I am because there’s not a great deal to write about. One thing I can mention is the entertainment we’ve had on the ship for the last several days.  As we’ve sailed along at various ports we’ve picked up guest entertainers who do a couple of shows in the next several days and then get off at another port.  The vast majority have been very good with only a few being so-so.  In Kobe we picked up a wonderful group.  We’ve had a fantastic R&B and soul singer.  Two talented cellists from Poland whom I’ve seen perform on another cruise did a couple of shows and an Australian who sings Johnny Cash did another.  We also have an extraordinary Japanese pianist who performed twice for us.  This evening all of them and our very talented cruise director John and Melody who I wrote about yesterday are doing a variety show which I’m looking forward to.  I think all the guests are leaving us in Kodiak, Alaska in a few days and we’ll be getting some new ones. Whoever comes will have big shoes to fill.

Let me also talk about some of the wonderful people who take care of me at breakfast and lunch in the Colonnade.  Ivy and Phiwa make sure I have blueberries (when there are any on the ship – we’ve run out for the moment) for my breakfast every day.  They keep a little bowl below the counter for me.  George is a Maître d’ who makes sure everything is running smoothly and rustles up a BLT sandwich and onion rings when I ask for them.  Sheena makes sure I get a cappuccino almost as soon as I sit down.  How spoiled am I?  

Well, I guess that’s all for now.  It’s a tough job sailing on the Seabourn Odyssey but I’m so glad I’m doing it.

April 26 - Groundhog Day

No, I’m not confused; today is Groundhog Day here on the Seabourn Odyssey.  Today we’re crossing the International Date Line so we will be repeating at least part of April 26.  We’ve been sailing through the north Pacific and the Bering Sea.  This afternoon we were sailing somewhere east of the Kamchatka Peninsula and west of the Aleutians. How is that for a precise location?  We have very spotty and unreliable internet connectivity.  That can be very frustrating if you’re trying to do anything online. More often than not the connection drops in the middle of doing something.

I don’t have any exciting current things to write about.  If I were Tom Clancy, I could tell a tale about a Russian sub surfacing nearby and Melville might write about a giant whale.  But I’m neither of them,  so today I’m going to tell you a story about a young woman here on the ship.

Melody is the singer with the trio that entertains us in the Club at night and, when we were in warmer waters, around the pool.  Several days ago when we stopped in Fukuoka, Melody made arrangements to meet a high school friend who lives nearby.  Her friend picked her up early in the morning after the ship was cleared for people to go ashore, and they were off for a day of fun.  Unbeknownst to Melody the time for all aboard was changed from 5:30 PM, which was listed in the Herald (the ship’s daily program), to 4:30 PM.  The announcement wasn’t made until sometime after she’d left the ship.  When 4:30 rolled around, the Entertainment manager made a frantic phone call asking where she was. Melody nonchalantly said she would be back before 5:30.  Uh-oh! The time was changed and we’d be at sea by then! 

Evidently Melody’s friend was able to break the local speed record getting back to the dock in less time than the GPS said it should take and was able to drive up pretty close, which is not always the case.  Then the fun really began.  The friend was making a video of Melody’s mad dash to get on the ship.  There was a fence along the pier and first she ran the wrong way and had to circle back to get to the opening to get up to the ship.  The gangway was in the process of being lifted to be stowed on the ship.  It was suspended by cables against the side, not touching the dock at all, and at about a 30° angle and with the railings put away.  When she got to the end of the gangway suspended near the pier, a life jacket and a hard hat  were put on her and cables were attached.  Melody, accompanied by two men on either side, walked gingerly up the steps with nothing to hold onto.  Meanwhile on balconies and ashore people were yelling “Go Melody.”  She made it!  

Melody sent me the videos and I’ll load them here.  She’s a talented young woman who I’m sure will have many good things happen in her life. But I’m pretty sure this experience will stand out as one she’ll be able to tell her grandkids was among the most harrowing.  I’d also be willing to bet that though the time mix-up was not her fault, she’ll never leave the ship again without double or even triple checking that all aboard time hasn’t changed.

That’s today’s story. When I’m able to get online, I’ll post it.  In the meantime I’m having a devil of a time adjusting to going forward one hour every night for the last five and then going back a full day.  What time and day is it anyway?

April 23 - Kushiro, Japan

Today is the last day we’ll be in an Asian country and it’s cold.   Brrrr! We’re in Kushiro, Japan, which is at the far northeastern tip of Hokkaido.  This place is known for its wildlife and fishing. Once again I didn’t book a tour because they all involved walking in wetlands.  My friend and I went ashore and walked to what appeared to be downtown.  Along the way we passed an art museum which was closed. When we arrived at a big intersection and looked around we didn’t see anything open, not even the tourist information stand inside one of the buildings.   Some crew that we passed who were returning to the ship told us they had been to a supermarket and  a convenience store.  We didn’t need anything from either of those places so we walked down to the waterfront and then along the water back to the ship.  The wind was really cold!  Perhaps I missed something marvelous, but so far I haven’t talked to anyone who saw anything that I regret missing.

For me the highlight of the day was the sailaway.  We left around 4 PM and on the dock Kushiro went all out to wish us a bon voyage.  A Taebo drum group set up and began playing. There were at least 50 citizens wearing colorful yellow and orange jackets waving farewell.  One young man ran back and forth waving an enormous flag.  They played and waved until we were well away from the dock.  I stood on my veranda taking photos and waving to them. By the time I went in my cabin my hands felt like ice cubes.  I should have put a jacket and gloves on but I was in too big a hurry to see the drummers.

So ends my visit to Japan.  The people have been warm and welcoming.  The country is spotlessly clean.  I’ve discovered that I like a lot of the food.  It’s a place that I would consider visiting for several days if I ever decided to try doing a land trip.  The biggest obstacle I can see having to overcome is the language and even the signage which is all in Japanese characters.  That probably wouldn’t hinder more adventurous travelers than I think I am at this time in my life. 

April 22 - Hakodate, Japan

It’s a beautiful, sunny day here in Hakodate, which is on the southern tip of the island of Hokkaido.  We’ve now been to three of the major islands of Japan -  Kyushu, Honshu and Hokkaido.  Once again I didn’t have a tour booked but decided to go ashore and explore on my own after talking with the Destinations person on the ship.   She told me that this place was easily done on one’s own.

That's Hakodate up there

Hakodate has a pretty interesting history.  It has for centuries been a trading port.  A merchant named Takadaya Kahei is credited with being the founder of the port and opening up trade routes to the Kuril Islands fisheries further north. The Kurils are another one of those groups of islands whose possession is in dispute, with the Japanese claiming three of them, but the Russians claiming and administering all of them.  This western Pacific area is full of disputed territories as I’ve learned as we’ve traveled along.  Anyway Takadaya helped to turn this place into a thriving city.

I’ve written a little earlier about Japan being a closed country with only one southern port open for trade, primarily with the Dutch and to some extent China.  In the mid-nineteenth century efforts of foreign countries including the United States to establish formal relations with Japan were repeatedly rebuffed.  President Millard Fillmore (that’s a president I never learned much about)  in 1852 ordered Commodore Matthew Perry to take his East India Squadron to sail to Japan and establish relations with the country. Perry delivered the initial request in 1853 to a representative of the Japanese emperor.  In 1854 Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay with a larger force and he signed the Treaty of Kanagawa  on March 31, 1854.  The treaty specified permanent friendship between the two countries and allowed for US ships to reprovision in two Japanese ports, one of them being Hakodate.  The treaty ultimately led to the opening of Japan to other western nations and to a beginning of the modernization of the country. 

Since Hakodate was one of those first two ports to be opened, a thriving foreign community arose here.  The Russians were among the countries that came and they built the first Orthodox Church here in Hakodate.  While many of the old buildings no longer exist some of the Japanese buildings still maintain a little of the western influence.  Down at the waterfront is an area called the Red Brick warehouse district which is left from that era.  The buildings have been converted into shops and restaurants.

The Orthodox Church

We are docked right in the downtown area of the city and I got off and walked a couple of blocks to the Hakodate Train Station.  Along the way I passed the street leading to the seafood market.  This place has a thriving fishing industry and is known for its seafood.   There was a chain link fence with lots of scallop shells hanging from it.  When I looked closer I saw that the shells had couples' names written on the shells - a kind of Japanese version of attaching locks to bridges like I've seen in Italy to symbolize eternal love. I had been told that at the station I could find an ATM to get some Japanese Yen.  So far I hadn’t needed any but today I did in order to ride the tram that goes around the city.  The train station was bustling; this area gets a lot of Japanese tourists, especially this time of year because it’s cherry blossom season.  (I didn’t see any.)  I asked someone in the information booth where I might find an ATM.  She pointed to one which turned out to only work with Japanese bank cards.  A clerk in the convenience store next to it spotted my dilemma and came to my rescue.  She directed me to a different one which worked with anything.  I felt a real sense of accomplishment when the machine spit out some cash and my card.  This was only the third time I’ve ever used it.

The Japanese version of the Lovers' Bridge in Verona

The market

A big tank full of nice looking crabs

Armed with some Yen I headed out of the station and across the street to a tram stop.  It came quickly, I boarded and got my ticket.  The tram was crowded, but thankfully someone got off at the next stop and I got a seat.  It was then that I realized I was going in the wrong direction.  Here in Japan they drive on the left (wrong) side of the road and the trams go that way too. There was a nice Japanese man sitting next to me and I asked if I was indeed headed the wrong way.  He spoke some English, but it turns out he was a tourist from Tokyo.  He had to ask someone next to him to confirm I was going someplace I didn’t want to go.  Next I had to push my way through the crowd to get to the front of the tram and be ready to get off at the next stop. When I tried to pay my fare of 210¥  I ran into my next problem.  What I got from the ATM was a 10,000¥  note, the smallest amount it would give me, or at least that I could figure out from the instructions on the machine.  The driver had to scramble around to get change.  Meanwhile I was holding up the tram and I was busy bowing and saying “so sorry” many times.  The Japanese are very nice people and no one looked at me with daggers in their eyes.  Whew!

I crossed over the tracks to get to the other side and a tram came shortly.  I boarded, sat down and across from me were three of my fellow travelers, all going to where I wanted to go.  I have no idea where they were coming from or if they, like me, went the wrong way at first.  We all made it to the correct stop for the Red Brick warehouse district and I handed over a fistful of coins.  The driver took what he needed and so ended my first tram experience.  When the four of us got off, a helpful Japanese man came over and pointed us in the right direction.  I stopped to take a photo and he came back and pointed something interesting to me.  At the intersection there was a yellow mini-tower.  He told me that it used to be a place where a traffic conductor stood to stop traffic when a tram was passing through the intersection.  Evidently there were towers at every major intersection but now of course they have been replaced by traffic lights. All of the yellow towers have been torn down except this one.  Somehow I found that fascinating that I was seeing the last of its kind.

The yellow thing is the traffic conductor's stand

We walked to the warehouses and I went through the stores inside.  They sold a variety of souvenir things, none of which attracted me.  The only thing that did catch my interest was the outlet for a famous Japanese chocolate company.  I’d heard this area was famous for its chocolate so I had to buy some.  After all, back in the US I have never seen Matcha green tea chocolate.  I don’t know how it will taste, but I had to get some.  That was the extent of my purchases.

I liked this old mailbox that has seen better days

The Red Brick Warehouses

After looking around I headed back to the right tram line and as a seasoned rider I boarded, got my ticket and got off at the right stop after paying my fare with coins left over from my first trip.  I walked back through  the market and came back to the ship.  As I walked through I passed this fast food place and looked at the menu.  I wasn't really tempted by the specials on the right side.  Maybe next time.

Jumbo or super-jumbo beef tongue skewers anyone?

Now we’ve just sailed, so bye-bye Hakodate.  It was a nice day even though I accomplished nothing of consequence.  Tomorrow we will stop at our last port in Japan and then we’ll be sailing east toward Alaska.

April 18 - Beautiful Kyoto

After we sailed from Fukuoka we spent the next day in the port for Hiroshima.  Once again I didn’t book a tour there.  All of them involved going to the museum and the blast site and I had heard it would be extremely crowded because this is the end of a holiday time here in Japan.  In fact later in the day some of my friends came back and said it was packed and it was difficult to move around.  As with Nagasaki I have read accounts and seen photos of the aftermath and so I didn’t want to go.  Instead I took the shuttle bus to the central city and walked around for a couple of hours through a shopping district.  I didn’t buy anything which is good because I don’t need anything.

On Thursday the 18th we docked in Kobe and from there I took an all-day tour to Kyoto, which in my opinion is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve visited.  I went there a couple of times back when I lived in Newport News and was involved in the Sister Cities program.  We had a sister city which is close to Osaka and Kyoto and my hosts had taken me there.  

We boarded our bus for the 90-minute ride to Kyoto.  Our guide Eiko spoke much better English than our last guide in Fukuoka and I learned much more than I did the other day.  Just an aside about English in Japan.  Many people here begin learning English as soon as they begin school so by the time they are out of school they are proficient at grammar and spelling, maybe better than some of our own students.  Unfortunately they learn the language from other non-native speakers and they often have terrible pronunciation.  I know of a number of people who have relatives who easily got jobs teaching English here in Japan because there is such a big demand for native speakers.  But back to Kyoto.

Kyoto is one of the oldest cities in Japan.  It was chosen to be the seat of the imperial court in 794 and for nearly eleven centuries the emperors ruled from the city.  Japan has a very complicated history which I learned little about in the past and only have a small understanding of now.  Briefly, and I hope accurately, before 1603 Japan went through civil wars among various shoguns, who were military leaders who supposedly answered to the emperor.  In 1603 Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu won a battle which ended the wars and he became the uncontested military leader of the country which throughout it all and still today has an emperor.  Tokugawa organized the country and society in a strict feudal and class system.  The emperor was still the titular head of state but the Shogun was the de facto ruler of the country.  Tokugawa established his seat of power in Edo, which is modern day Tokyo.  The emperor continued to reside in Kyoto and the Shogun built a castle nearby.  That castle was one of the places on our itinerary.  Just to bring my limited knowledge of history to the present, in 1868 the Shogunate was overthrown because of a lot of things going on in the country including the opening up of Japan to foreign trade.  The event is called the Meiji Restoration and the emperor once again became the ruler of the country.  The court was moved to Edo (Tokyo). Following WWII the emperor became the symbolic head of state and the head of the Shinto religion, but actual executive authority lies with the Prime Minister and cabinet.  That’s a very brief and hopefully accurate description of Japanese history and government.  I hope I’m remembering it right and I think I’m going to have to read more about this because from what Eiko told us, all of this history has played a huge role in the country’s conduct in WWII.

Our first stop when we arrived in Kyoto was the Kinkaku-ji Temple, AKA the Golden Pavilion because of the gold leaf covered upper stories.   The Golden Pavilion is a Zen Buddhist temple and is designated as a National Special Historic Site.  The original building was a villa built in the 14th century by a powerful nobleman and was part of a complex of buildings.  In 1397 it was bought by a shogun upon whose death his family converted the villa into a Zen temple.  In the latter half of the 15th century during one of the many wars all the buildings except the Kinkaku-ji burned down. That building survived until 1950 when a novice monk burned it down and then tried to commit suicide nearby.  He survived but was arrested and convicted of arson. The monk was sentenced to seven years in prison but was released early because of mental illness and he died only a few months later of TB. 

One of the other buildings in the complex

These wooden buckets were there to put out fires.  Clearly they needed something else.

The Temple was rebuilt in 1955 and is supposed to be an exact replica of the original.  The pavilion is three stories, about 40 feet high, and the top two stories are covered in pure gold leaf. The building is topped with a golden phoenix, the bird that arose from the ashes.  Kinkaku-ji sits next to a small lake in which we could see a beautiful reflection of the building.  The surrounding area is a park with several other temple buildings and lots of pine and cherry trees.  We were a little too late to see the cherry blossoms but it must have been a magnificent sight when they were in full bloom.  The place is just serene and beautiful; I’d been here before in the autumn and it was equally lovely.

This is the star of the place

The tree and the ski slope green thing next to it are all one tree.

Our next stop was lunch – yes, food is always on the list of things to do.  We went to a beautiful hotel and had a lunch of recognizable food and I even had a small bottle of cold sake.  The only sake I’d ever tried before was warm and this was surprisingly good.

The little garden inside the hotel where we had lunch.  No food photos today.

My only glimpse of the imperial palace complex taken from the bus

Our afternoon stop was at Nijō Castle.  In the early 17th century the aforementioned Tokugawa ordered all the feudal lords of this part of Japan to contribute to the construction of this flatland fortress. The castle is one of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto and covers about 68 acres of land.  There are several buildings which are support ones in addition to the main palace structure.  There are two moats, an outer shallow one which is more for show and an inner deeper one to actually deter people.

The main gate to Nijō Castle

Look at the gold leaf on the door columns

An inner gate

Look at the detail and the opulence

Entrance to Ninomaru Palace

The main building was the Shogun’s actual home and it consists of five connected buildings which together make up the Ninomaru Palace.  The building is constructed mainly of cypress wood which makes it somewhat rot, water and insect resistant.  The sliding doors and walls are decorated with wall paintings which include lots of gold leaf and carvings designed to impress visitors to the Shogun.  One of the really remarkable features of the palace are the “nightingale floors.”  The floors were  built with mechanisms beneath them so that when someone walks the floors chirp.  It’s an early warning system so that no intruders could creep in undetected.  The buildings and their various rooms aren’t arranged in a straight line either so that visitors couldn’t walk directly to the inner sanctum of the Shogun.  The lower ranking visitor only made it to the outermost rooms.  In the rooms where the Shogun would provide audiences to people, the floor on which he sat was raised an additional foot or so and the extra height was solid wood so that no one could crawl under and thrust a sword up to kill the man.  In each of the rooms in which he sat there are also four unconcealed doors behind which bodyguards sat ready to thwart any potential threat to the Shogun.  We weren’t allowed to take photos but I’ll put a couple of ones I’ve taken from the net to remember how beautiful these rooms were.

One of the audience rooms

This was the main audience rooms and these lifesize figures are there.  In the far distance is the Shogun

One of the corridors around the various rooms

The gates leading to different parts of the compound are also magnificent and very imposing.  They too feature lots of gold leaf and carving, all designed to make certain that any visitors knew that the Shogun was the big guy in the country.  The grounds themselves are nice but not nearly as serene and beautiful as at the Kinkaku-ji Pavilion.

The inner, serious moat

One of the defensive towers at the four corners of the Castle

When we left Nijō Castle we had time for a little drive through Kyoto.  This city was not bombed during WWII which was evidently a conscious decision on the part of the Allies because it was understood that the place had such historical significance to Japanese culture.  As a result there are quite a few old buildings.  We passed through Kyoto University which along with Tokyo University are considered the top schools in the country.  Near the university we passed the entrance to Chionji Temple whose long staircase was featured in the movie "The Last Samurai" with Tom Cruise.  In something that reminded me of the palace in Seoul, the area around the temple has lots of kimono rental shops where people can rent and dress up to take pictures in the temple and its environs.  We saw lots of beautifully gowned women walking along delicately in their kimonos and zori, the little flip-flop like shoes.

An Amazon dropbox I saw as we drove along

One of the many impressive gates near Kyoto University. It was the best I could do from the bus.

Entrance steps to Chionji Temple

Some young women in their rented kimonos

Then it was time to get back to Kobe and the ship.  During the drive Eiko sang some traditional Japanese songs and told us some historic and folklore stories about Japan.  It was a thoroughly wonderful day.  Kyoto is another one of those places where I think I could come back many times and still enjoy it.  I might even consider staying there for a few days.  If I were many (lots and lots) years younger and unattached, I think I would even consider trying to get a job as an English teacher there for a year.  The biggest drawback I can see is that I know maybe ten Japanese words and a couple of phrases and for a while I’d be hopelessly unable to communicate without a lot of pantomiming.  I’m not much younger so I don’t have to worry about it.  But one can dream.

April 15 and 16 - Nagasaki and Fukuoka (Arita), Japan

It has been a while since I’ve written because we’ve had eight port days in a row and there has been no time.  Now I’ll try to catch up.

On April 15 we docked in Nagasaki on the island of Kyushu, Japan.  Most of us know the name because on August 9, 1945 it was the second city on which an A-bomb was dropped.  There weren’t many tours offered and all of them were listed as “strenuous,” which I don’t do, and all but one involved going to various sites involved with the bomb.  As it turns out, it was a wise decision because it was a rainy day and everyone I knew who went on a tour came back totally drenched and told me that the tours they went on required walking up and down lots of steps in the rain.  I would have probably wound up sitting on the bus.  Instead I shopped at the little pop-up shop in the terminal and nursed by sore muscle (which by the way is much better).

Tuesday, April 16 we docked in Fukouka, also on the island of Kyushu and the sixth largest city in Japan.  I did have a tour that day to the town of Arita.  Most of us have never heard of Arita but we may have heard the name Imari in connection with Japanese porcelain.  Imari is actually the place from which the porcelain is shipped; Arita is where these beautiful things are created. I have always had a thing about ceramics, pottery and porcelain so it was a no-brainer that I had to go to Arita.

The little town is an hour drive from Fukuoka in the nearby mountains.  Along the way we passed rice fields and farms. What makes this area so special is that  the mountains around here have a lot of stone with kaolin, a white clay stone that is used to make fine translucent porcelain.  We stopped first at a porcelain factory that has been in business for several hundred years.  The owner of the family greeted us.  He is 86 years old (the same age as the creator of the Spirited Garden the other day in Jeju) and he showed us around his little factory.  He spoke little English but he had a woman named Meari who told us about the place.  We went through the workshop where craftsmen were painting little plates which would then be fired in the kilns.  Another craftsman was taking soft clay and putting it into molds to make the plates. The kilns themselves were underground on a steep hill.

I must have had brain freeze because I didn't get the 86 year old man's name

.

Maeri

A very stern looking craftsman

Plates soon to be sent to the kiln

Two platters in different stages of production

The things made in this factory were not as fine as some of the porcelain we saw later in the day but there was something I thought quite noteworthy and which ties into a historical thing about Kyushu Island and more specifically Nagasaki that I forgot to mention earlier.  In the 17th century Nagasaki was the only port from which Japan allowed foreign trade and somehow through the Dutch East Indies Company the Netherlands was the principal trading partner.  When I saw the porcelain made in this place the first thing I thought of was Delftware.  Many of the pieces had designs in the same kind of blue and white that I’ve seen often in Delft pieces.

We left the first factory and went for lunch in a local restaurant where we were served an exquisite meal of a variety of vegetables, fruits and seafood on the most beautiful dinnerware.  Each of our places was beautifully set and was really a work of art. I took a few photos to remember the lovely presentation.

After lunch we drove to what I thought was the absolute highlight of the day.  We went to the Fukagawa Porcelain factory.  This family has been involved in making porcelain for nearly 400 years and the present company was founded by the great-grandfather of the man who explained the work to us.  This company makes the dinnerware for the Japanese imperial family and has made pieces that have been presented to foreign heads of state, most recently to King Charles.  Mr. Fukagawa  had three vases  in various stages of production and explained the process to us.  I have to tell about one of my fellow travelers. After the explanation this man went up to Mr. Fukagawa and asked if the flowers and leaves on the vase were spray painted on.  We all stood there dumbfounded at the question but the Japanese man politely explained that each piece is hand painted in several different coats and after several firings in kilns.  I fell in love with some of the things there but I’m no longer in the market for fine china.  I guess that was a good thing.  After our tour and a chance to look through the museum and showroom, we drove back to Fukuoka through the lush countryside.  I ought to mention that everything is blooming here and my eyes, nose and throat have been watering and tickling.  Hello hay fever!   I realized when looking through my pictures that somehow I didn't take photos of any of the beautiful pieces.  I'm really mad at myself for that because I wanted to remember them.  Maybe I'll have to go back sometime.

Mr. Fukagawa with three vases

I forgot to mention that the night we were in Nagasaki we had local entertainers come on for a pre-dinner show.  It was a Taebo Drum band.  There were drummers as young as 8 years old and they were absolutely fantastic!  Additionally when we left from Nagasaki we had this delegation who came to bid us farewell.  Upon leaving Fukuoka we had the Fukuoka Fire Department band and baton twirlers playing for us as we sailed away.  How wonderful these people were!

The Nagasaki delegation

This and the next are the Taebo drummers

The Fukuoka Fire Department Band and twirlers