Thursday, 10/3 – Our first in a long stretch of sea days is actually pretty eventful. There are lectures every hour that keep us busy up through 3pm. First there is Coffee with Gage, our cruise director, who basically interviews himself. He is a delight, as most of the CDs tend to be – and tells us all about his background as well as how the Noordam is piloting a new format with the CD now doing the entertainment with a dedicated travel guide on board. They are also introducing a bunch of different activities and programs. We shall see how that goes, since we are definitely the guinea pigs and definitely have enough sea days to figure everything out.
Next we are off to Ian’s talk on the Iditarod, which is really interesting, then Dr. Sutherland’s talk on Drifting Continents (think Pangea and how all the land masses were together before splitting apart and then floating off together). A quick lunch, then back to the World Stage for Dr. Kam’s 2nd presentation on Japanese history which is excellent. Now that we’ve explored Japan last year, visiting so many museums along with reading a bunch of books, Dr. Kam’s talks are great refreshers. Staying in our good seats (strategy is everything!) next up we have Breaking the Ice Ceiling with Ian, all about women in Alaska – from a Coast Guard captain to a pilot to a fisherman (even though she’s a woman, she wants to be called a fisherman). Great way to spend the day.
Dinner is the special Morimoto pop-up and it definitely does not disappoint! It is so good, we will probably do it again on the next leg. We started off with a Tuna pizza for me – basically raw tuna on top of an excellent crisp cracker shaped like a round pizza, topped with onions (way too many, actually) and an excellent sauce. Ed had the ramen which was excellent, and our sweet waiter brought us a dish of Pork Gyoza to share. For the mains, I had the Bim Bop Tuna – which was cooked table side. Raw yellowfin tuna with rice and a raw egg in the middle. The server came over and mixed up the egg and the rice, essentially searing it all inside the red hot lava stone bowl. It was perfect! Ed had the whole fish – which he said was excellent as well. We had sides of steamed veggies and bok choy and managed to not completely waddle out of there!
Dinner took so long that we couldn’t make the show, but it was just the dancers, which will repeat next leg, so we didn’t feel we missed anything. We just hit the Ocean’s bar for a bit, chatted with our cute bartenders and got beer and wine for the cabin, where we retired to watch the Descendants and fall asleep to the pitch and the roll of the ship.
Friday, 10/4 – Today, not such a busy day, only Ian with Alaska up close, the giant whales; followed immediately by Japanese Etiquette, custom and culture with Dr. Kam. Then it is up to lunch and well, the whole afternoon to ourselves which found us in the cabin watching a really cute movie New Zealand movie called Pork Pie. It was adorable and a great way to spend the afternoon. Then it was pill time, as the waters are getting rougher (as Ed was told would happen by a couple of officers up in the Crow’s Nest and was confirmed by the Captain in his noon address), you can sort of see it here in the cavitation of the azipods and wake. Ah well, that’s what pills are for – and with that, we are off to dinner in the Pinnacle grill, where the sweet hostess apparently likes us and keeps putting us at this awesome table with Acho, the great waiter from the night before.
Pinnacle is as great as always – crab cakes app for me, cream of mushroom soup and salad for Ed; then the lamb chops (always superb) for me and Halibut for Ed. Again, a lovely evening which we finish off in the Rolling Stone listening to the band.
Saturday, 10/5 – Cooking demo today! Crumbed Miso Sesame Lamb Chops – which look amazing (and we can have it in the dining room tonight – spoiler alert: I do order it, and it tastes as amazing as it looks). Then more lectures, Ice Ages with Dr. Sutherland, lunch (fish and chips – yum) then we decide to get a seat for the 2pm Japanese Etiquette lecture and sat through the Tech for Travelers dealing with Apps for Asia. Um. Waste. All focused on iPhone apps – and Ian, the travel guide doing the lecture – wasn’t even conversant with anything Android related – nor with the actual Suica card or Welcome Suica…..even though he had just been in Japan in the spring. Sigh. I actually had to stand up and answer a question about Android and Suica that he couldn’t. That’s a first!
Dr. Kam and the etiquette lecture was fun as always – focused on Geishas in Kyoto which the vast majority of these people will never see, but still. He’s a good lecturer.
We while away the afternoon in the cabin, hitting the gym early to avoid the rush, then going to dinner early for the same reason. But the seas are really angry today and we think that has affected a bunch of people because the dining room is deserted. As I mentioned previously, I had the miso lamb chops and loved them, Ed had the fish and we were happily on our way to the World Stage with tons of time to spare. Entertainment was the vocalist – who sang show tunes – Ed enjoyed, I read. What can I say?
Then it was back to the rocking and rolling cabin, watching The Outfit, which was a great movie about Chicago gangs in the 50’s; and finishing off the night with the Grizzly bear wildlife movie. Those bears are wild – and so different from our sweet (well you know) Black bears. Time for lights out – although we didn’t exactly get a relaxing sleep. As with the night before, we were moving up and down and side to side and amazed that the only thing that went flying was the aluminum water bottle that will no longer be placed on the desk/vanity table during the night. Thank God it didn’t break anything on its journey across the room!
Monday, 10/7 – Yep, we crossed the dateline. No matter how many times we do this, it is always so bizarre to just skip a whole day. Especially in the morning when we take our pills and we’ve skipped Sunday! The seas are still angry and we are still moving around, so much so that we don’t even dare go to the gym. Yeah, better safe than sorry. So a relaxing, but calf and thigh building morning (you really need to flex your muscles to stay upright!) and then onto our daily program: Coffee with Gage and the navigational crew – will the seas calm? The Windy app says no! But the navigational officers say yes, after a few hours it will be calmer. Then to the Kushiro port talk which gave us more insight into the town – for us after the tour we will be taking. And bonus! There is a complimentary shuttle. Very nice. Stayed there for Dr. Kam’s Corporate Warrior culture in Japan – which was sort of sad in that there are so many younger generation workers who can’t find steady work or afford to rent apartments. A very different view of the corporate culture in Japan.
Lunch, same, same, but different! Then Bringing monsters back from the dead, the really interesting Dr. Sutherland who talked all about bringing back mastodons or woolly mammoths, can it be done, should it be done. Good way to spend 45 minutes in the middle of the day. Then off to have our passports copied for Korea – yeah – that’s a ways a way, but get it done now while we are all captive!
Next up the gym, a before dinner drink and, well, tonight is “dressy” night, so yeah we feel out of place. NOT! We are fine in our “better” evening clothes (Ed’s cool Batik shirt and my little weird dress). Then Rolling Stone for a bit and the cabin for movies and killing time because we have yet another 1 hour back tonight. While we know the crew loves it – we struggle to fill the time so we aren’t up at 5am every morning. Ah well, what can you do? And that is the end to another lovely full day at sea.
Tuesday, 10/8 – Phew! We’ve settled down quite a bit from our rocking and rolling last few days – a blessed relief! It is still cloudy, cold and a little rainy, but we’ll take that as long as the seas are smoother. Today is just like any other sea day….Gym, Coffee with Gage and Dr. Kam, the guest lecturer who is quite funny and does have a great back story and a very forgiving wife (who he makes fun of at every lecture – in the most loving way of course!). Next up it is the Port Talk for Yokohama with Ian. Not much of interest for us as we’ve been there and know exactly what we are going to do; but we do get our good seats in the showroom, and hang on to them for the Gold lecture with Dr. Sutherland. Then lunch where they have a special Katsu and Curry section – katsu excellent, passed on the curry! Then Dr. Kam with Japanese culture lecture on Self Sacrifice, which we both thought would be about the Japanese way of being so polite and focusing on others, but no! It is all about the Japanese suicide culture and the Suicide forest on the other side of Mt. Fuji! (Last year, when we went to Mt. Fuji, our guide also told us about this forest – see the post from 4/9/2023 for more info.) He talks all about seppuku, the ritual suicide by disembowelment used by the samurais and how modern day suicide rates in Japan are far higher than any other country due to the stress, strain and expectations of modern day life. Sad.
On that note, we have the rest of the day free. Ed watches a movie, I blog. Then on to our evening routine: Gym, drink, dinner – It’s Indonesian night and I get all apps – everything I love all rolled into one menu! – then the show, which is the dance company and Musicology – always excellent. A final nightcap at the oddly deserted Ocean’s Bar and back to the room for a couple of cute nature movies and bed time in the blissfully smooth cabin. Day 5 complete.
Wednesday, 10/9 – Day 6 – same, same but different lectures! LOL. Seriously – great night sleep on the smooth seas, although the cabin did start to do it’s little groaning thing in the middle of the night. Something to do with the azipods and cavitation and some rattle or what have you in the superstructure, at least that’s what we think. Nothing we can do about that. Up and in the gym fairly early, hacking up a lung lady was fortunately on a treadmill far from us today, so we were only so worried about infectious contagion. Then our normal coffee, breakfast (yeah, those raisin rolls!) and a start to our day. Coffee with Gage and the Staff Captain, then the cooking demonstration for the Honey Siracha Salmon bowl -a definite main selection for me tonight! Quick like bunnies we run from the cooking demo to the showroom for Dr. Kam’s lecture on the dwindling population of Japan, only to find that Ian is still on stage talking about culture and customs. Meaning the place is packed and there isn’t a place to sit. Finally Ian is done and some folks leave, so we scooch over to a decent place in the upper balcony and listen to Dr. Kam’s fascinating lecture – which we’ve heard already on last year’s Japan cruise. But we love this one for the Doll Village that he starts off with – it is so interesting and we’d love to go there but it is really impossible on any of these itineraries. While the village is about 2 hours outside of Kochi, we don’t want to give up Kochi and our Katsuo no Tataki lunch we have been planning since we booked this cruise! Plus, we’d have to hire a taxi for the day, and well, nah, we’ll look at the pictures online of the little doll village, thank you!
Lunch in the Buffet as we eschew the Mariners loyalty lunch in the dining room. Yeah. You know us, we don’t relish the idea of sitting at a big table with a bunch of people for a meal. We’ve already had one experience of sitting too close to another 2-top at dinner, and while the people were actually quite lovely, we’d just prefer not to repeat that. AAC – or in this case HAC – 4Ever.
After lunch it is Dr. Sutherland and the Origin of the Whales, then blog and cabin time as we spend a few hours catching up before heading out to our normal evening activities. Salmon bowl for dinner was just as good tasting as it was looking during the cooking show. Then onto the show – Annie Frances with her 70’s show – which is quite good. On the way out, we decide to see what’s up at the Billboard Onboard, but we ended up on deck 3, so once again, we hit the stairs near the oddly empty Ocean’s Bar with the entire bar staff yelling “hello Cathy & Ed” and waving from across the atrium. Um….ok…what can we say.
Downstairs, we are flowing against the stream and I get tangled up against the calf-high wall by the windows, trip and fall on my butt to the shock of about 40 Asians who are coming in the opposite direction and staring horrified at me. I tell them I’m ok, dusting myself off and heading on in the direction of Billboard. Where, darn it, we find the piano guys who are REALLY good!!! Poop. We could have been down here virtually every night. Oh well – we’ve still got almost 3 weeks more where we can enjoy them. (Sidenote: We avoided Billboard because the last dueling piano pair onboard were really bad, sad to say. Goes to show, don’t judge a show by its predecessors!).
After their request set, we head back to the cabin for a movie and sleep on the blissfully smooth seas!!!
Thursday, 10/10 – Uh oh, we’ve sped up. To avoid the Typhoon? Or for Medical? We’ll never know, but we’ve been at top speed all through the night, hmmmm….. It is still pretty smooth and flat, so I’m a happy girl, just interesting we’ve increased our speed. We’re up early for some reason, and head up to the Lido for coffee, OMG! It is crazy town up there at 6:15am! These people either can’t remember to turn their clocks back, or they can’t sleep or something. The poor Lido guys are trying to set up the buffets, which are obviously still closed and people are literally lifting up the shades and covers to grab things off a not yet ready buffet! Honestly! You should have seen the line for the coffee! Crrrrraaaaazzzzzy. Needless to say we snag our coffee and our table, catch up on the world and then head to the equally crazy gym.
Finally back for breakfast – which was not as crazy as earlier – then on to our day: Coffee with Gage and the ever fun loving Chef Willem; then Ask the Captain with Gage as moderator, and surprisingly not a lot of stupid questions. Next it is Japan and the day the Earth Nearly Died with our fav Dr. Sutherland; an interesting discussion around massive extinction periods and whether we are entering into one today (we aren’t – but we need to correct the damage we are doing to the planet as humans in order to protect the planet and species – yes, indeed).
Now we get a break for lunch, where Ed finally salves his Burger Jones with a seriously good hamburger from the Dive In grill. I use the taco bar as a salad bar and make a great taco salad. Trying vainly to save room for Tamarind tonight. Then we are back to the showroom for Ian and The World Up Close: (On) Board Games which is an interesting look at games that have been introduced around the world – and how they change with cultures and societies (i.e., did you know that Mahjong is a huge thing with the Jewish community?). Our last lecture is Dr. Kam and the Religions of Japan, which is a great refresher for us on Shintoism and Buddhism (easy primer: Shintoism deals with spirituality of this lifetime, praying and making offerings to sacred spirits known as Kamis, who will protect them vs. Buddhism which focuses on the path of spiritualism through reincarnation. An excellent point is that there are very few Shinto cemeteries, most all cemeteries and death ceremonies are Buddhist.) Dr. Kam also goes through the etiquette at Shinto shrines; again a good refresher.
And then, Sumo Wrestling! Did you know that Sumo Wrestling came from the Shinto religion? It started as a religious ritual in the 3rd Century and became it’s present form during the Edo period, 1600-1800. The ring is set up under what looks like the roof of a Shinto temple, making the ring under it sacred area. The word Sumo literally means “charging one another.” Matches only last a few seconds! Oh, and Sumo Wrestlers weren’t always fat. Initially they were very fit and muscle bound wrestlers, but because there are no weight restrictions and no weight classes in Sumo, today’s wrestlers get as big as humanly possible so their opponents can’t pick them up or wrap their arms around them to push them out of the ring. So interesting!
Busy day! Back to the cabin, we watch the news for Hurricane Milton news. We have friends who did not evacuate from Sarasota, and we are sending them our good wishes and thoughts, as well as a few of our neighbors who evacuated out of Asheville and are in Florida. Terrible!
After our cabin break, we hit the gym, and while on the treadmill….bing bong. Uh oh! But, just as we expected, yes, Virginia, there is a Typhoon! Just as we’ve been watching for the last 3 or 4 days. Sigh. Captain tells us that the port of Kushiro is closed due to high swells and we will be proceeding straight to Yokohama, arriving on Saturday at 2pm for an overnight! The dance crew is up in the gym with us and they are seriously stoked! One of the dancers screamed “Overnight!” and jumped off the treadmill to go high five with the other dancers. Cute! And except for the really rough seas we will get tonight and tomorrow, we’re ok with an overnight in Yokohama. We’d have loved to see Kushiro – but hey – safety first. And well, even though certain factions of our crazy nation think we can control the weather – we really can’t. Really!
So, our sea life continues…..off the treadmill and onto the Lido bar for a drink, where we have to explain to 2 different sets of people that they will not be forced to disembark on Saturday night, but can stay on the ship overnight then disembark as planned on Sunday. Both sets of people were trying to figure out a way to get an extra night at their hotel for Saturday. Yeah, there are a lot of first time and very inexperienced cruisers on this ship. Confusion (at least with those 2) handled, we head off to our cabin to get ready for the Tamarind pop-up; the Asian themed dinner in the Pinnacle Grill. It is all appetizers again tonight! Tons of great things. But honestly? Underwhelming. We had thought about booking Tamarind again for the next leg, but both Ed and I agreed we’d rather just stick with Morimoto – much better. Especially as we will be in Japan for a month eating real authentic Asian – we’d rather do that!
Then, because we have late dining reservations, it is the late show for the great Comedian Chris. She is just as funny as the first time, and a great way to end our evening. Now it is rocking and rolling cabin time. One last day at sea coming our way….
Andiamo 