Sea Day number one dawns cold and rainy.  Fingers crossed tomorrow clears up – but for now, we are safe and dry

We sit through the Shore Excursions presentation at 10 just to get a seat for Ian’s presentation at 11 (we have our tours booked already – of course – and feel bad for the poor ShoreX Manager who has to tell everyone that almost all the tours are already booked up but they are trying to get more space.  Don’t start us on people who don’t pre-plan – we are just dumbfounded daily with the category of passengers on this (and every) ship lately!).  At 11 we finally get to see Made in Japan, the talk we missed last voyage.  It is an interesting presentation, with little tidbits of fun info like Hello Kitty isn’t a cat!  The character is based on a little girl.  And the vending machines that are ubiquitous in Japan have a version called “Disaster-Response” machines that automatically unlock during a disaster (i.e., earthquake, tsunami, etc.) providing free drinks, food and water as well as power for your devices (they have places to plug in your devices).   And how toys became a huge part of Japanese life after the war when a local man started making little replicas of the US Military Jeeps out of scrap tin cans. Little kids love the GIs (who treated the kids well and gave them candy and other treats) and their Jeeps became a symbol of their fascination/idolization (the adults were torn over the whole thing for obvious reasons).  When the first little toys were produced they sold out in an hour.  This started a huge industry of toy making that continues on today (you can see it with those UFO Catchers and all the little keychain toys that everyone has on their backpacks).  It also, at least in my mind, explains how anime became so big here – it is just a huge toy/animation culture. 

After lunch, we return to the World Stage for the port talk on Kushiro with Ian, entertainment in and of itself with the dumb questions people ask!  Here again, no one has done any planning….we have everything planned, but it is always good to go to these talks, because here we learn there will be a shuttle into town.  Huh?  We thought we were docking at the in-town “Earthquake-resistant Cruise Terminal” right next to the Art Museum.  Hmmmm…nope, seems there is a change of plans and we will be shuttling to that location.  Oh well, at least it’s complimentary this time. 

Back in the cabin, we blog, snack on some great Japanese mixed treats (the candy here is amazing!) and watch Togo, the movie about the 1925 Nome Serum run, the race against time to get medicine to Nome to quell a diphtheria outbreak.  This dog sled relay (the lead dog of the explorer who led the race was named Togo) was the event that the Iditarod is based upon.  Who knew?

Then back to our normal nighttime routine – only tonight we have dinner in Pinnacle – always excellent – as we skip the Captain’s welcome aboard drink and the Welcome Aboard show (seen it, don’t necessarily need to repeat it). The rest of the evening is spent happily in the cabin, watching an amazing sunset and Netflix.