cherry blossom time!

When we got back to the ship after our Beijing trip we had one day in Shanghai (location Longitude: 31 degrees 14.85' N, Longitude: 121 degrees 29.55' E) before we left for Kobe, Japan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe. John had a field trip for his classes that last day (Friday, April 3), and I took a long walk downtown from the port. I was tired from Beijing and didn't feel any great need or desire to do more than that. The port area in Shanghai is nicer than most, so walking was perfect. We left for Kobe that evening and took two days to get here, so arrived yesterday (Monday, April 6, although it was still Sunday for most of you). So our current Kobe location is Latitude: 34 degrees 40.81' N, Longitude: 135 degrees 12.21'E, although we are sailing in about half an hour.


Our shipboard daughter Monica's birthday is today so we celebrated on the way to Kobe since everyone had plans in port. It was a fun celebration with our shipboard family. Our next get together will be a "special occasion dinner" on April 14 when we can go to a room attached to the cafeteria and be dressed up and waited on and have champagne. I think we are all looking forward to that for a change to the routine!

When we got to Kobe yesterday, after the usual diplomatic briefing (where we learned to our shock that 7 Eleven in Japan is actually a bank as well as a convenience store), we had the most elaborate immigration and customs procedure yet -- it required that all 1000 people on the ship collect passports and forms from the purser and have a face to face meeting with immigration people who took photos and fingerprints and who used dogs to check backpacks, etc. Needless to say it took a fair bit of time. People who had SAS port trips planned went first and then the rest of us, faculty and staff before students. John and I went through then came back on the ship for lunch before heading out for the nearby light rail train into Kobe. We walked around the city a bit then returned to the ship. It's hard to believe this city was nearly destroyed by an earthquake in 1995 that killed over 4000 people and left more than 200,000 homeless. (It is now 2300 ship time and engines have just started up and we are starting to move.)

Today we had a trip to Kyoto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto with a group from the ship and enjoyed peak cherry blossom time. The trees are very beautiful right now and the weather was perfect with very blue skies and moderate temperatures. The day was packed with visits to structures and gardens. It took about an hour and a half on a bus to get to Kyoto from Kobe, and we went first with our guide Rumi to Nijo Castle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nijo_Castle where we toured the palaces and observed the art in the rooms. We then walked through the garden and enjoyed the cherry trees in bloom.

Our second stop in Kyoto was the Kinkaku-ji Temple or Rokuan-ji Temple http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinkaku-ji, also known as the Golden Pavilion Temple because of the fact that the top two levels of the building are covered in gold leaf. We did not go into the temple, but did enjoy the beautiful pond, garden and cherry trees. There was a gray heron in the pond, and a good sized turtle sunning himself on a rock. We had box lunches from the ship which we stopped to eat in Muruayama park http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruyama_Park (be sure to see the "Information about Muruayama park" link on this site for some nice photos). The views were very nice and we enjoyed our lunch and the birds in the area.


After lunch we went to a Shinto shrine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinto_shrine known as Heian Jingu Shrine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heian_Jing%C5%AB. The garden there is also beautiful with cherry blossoms. Our final stop was at the Buddhist Kiyomizu-dera Temple http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiyomizu-dera. John and I were both feeling "templed-out" by that time and did not make the climb to the top of the hill to visit this one, although people reported that it was beautiful. We headed back to the ship and Rumi taught us a Japanese folk song "Sakura, Sakura" about the cherry blossoms which we sang on the way back. Check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakura_(folk_song) and note the link to the melody on that page.

As mentioned above, we are now on our way to Yokohama and should be there the morning of April 9. As most of you reading this know, I was born in Japan. John and I are going to try to find the former Air Force Base where I was born after we reach Yokohama. From what I have found out this may not be that easy to do, but some of the travel people who are working with SAS will do what they can to help.