Kobe & Osaka (Beef & Sake)

And, we're off.  Time to say goodbye to China for a while and head on over to Japan.  Here's a lovely sunset on our crossing.  Speaking of crossing - this was two "at sea" days and the sunset here does not really represent our time on the crossing.  For the most part it was gray, rainy and pretty big seas, leading to less than perfect sleeping weather and some rather drunken looking walking around the boat.  But it sure was fun watching the water in the pool sloshing all over the deck.  It has been emptied in the meantime...

Arrival in Kobe port was quite pleasant!  We tied up to the dock around 8am and were greeted by locals waving flags.  Soon to be joined by what appeared to be a high school band playing for our enjoyment.  Here's a little video clip to share that experience!

 Off we went to see some sights in Osaka - where dogs on leashes must sit down to pee.

Our first stop - Shittennoji Temple.  Like most religious institutions, there's a wonderful water purification ritual.

Linda has been properly purified and can now go and pray.

There's a lot of steps in this temple!

The turtle on the bottom right is ready for that next step - and continued to be so for the whole time we hung around watching him.

 Next stop was Osaka Castle - built by Hideyoshi Toyotomi in the late 1500's and destroyed and rebuilt several times between wars and natural disasters.

According to our guide, the face masks are worn by people who are sensitive to the tree pollen.

A nice panorama of Osaka from the top of the Castle

Evening market in Kobe

When in Kobe...

Our dinner being artfully prepared.  It was really delicious!

Until next time!
Ruth & Greg

Shanghai!

Next up was a quick stop in Shanghai.  WOW! This is one of the largest cities on the planet and it shows.  On the way there, we traveled up the Yangtze River passing through a mammoth shipping port (we lost track counting the cranes), a huge oil processing facility, high rise housing as far as the eye can see,  etc. etc. The theme is bigger, bigger bigger.  The tallest towers, the most ostentatious wealth.  NOT what we expected to see at all in a (officially any way...) communist country.

We docked right in the middle of the city on a Saturday.  People really do Tai Chi in the parks

We then had a tour where we went up a skyscraper to see the view.  It was a bit hazy (more fog than smog I think) and  what a view it was.  We have visited a lot of big cities, but the scope of this place is mind boggling.

Here are some shots of the iconic Shanghai TV tower.  Once the tallest building in Asia, now not even considered tall for Shanghai.

Did you ever think you would see this New York girl looking at skyscrapers in awe?

We then had a fascinating history lesson regarding the Jewish history of Shanghai.  Amazing impact during WWII.  

Not sure if Julius Berkmann is a relative, but many Jews escaped Nazi Germany through Shanghai

We wrapped up the day with a nice lunch in a local restaurant and a stroll through a supermarket (always fun to see what is on the shelf!)

Next up is a few days at sea while we cross to Japan. 

Until then!

Greg & Ruth

Quanzhou visit & the Kaiyuan monastery complex

We are on the move again, so we have some time to post up some pictures from our visit to the Kaiyuan monastery in Quanzhou. As we delve a bit deeper into China, we are starting to see a bit more of what the "real China" looks like.  There is a definite "stark" aspect to some of the architecture and public art.

The officials are officious (and a bit scary). And of course, there are lots and lots of people.  This tiny city (by chinese standards) has somewhere around 6-8 million people.  Traffic jams rivaling Seattle, lots of scooters and highrise after highrise.

Having said that, the places we visited seemed relatively clean and organized.  I think they are trying to keep up with this "convention.

Bike share is everywhere.   Many of the ubiquitous scooters are electric which surely helps with the pollution, but creates a special type of stealth traffic hazard.

Not too much more to add, other than some pictures on the grounds of a spectacularly beautiful monastery that was the primary reason for our visit.

We are all feeling good and having fun.  The weather has been a bit dreary, and we continue to "rock and roll" as we dash farther north in the Taiwan strait, but so far we have not been slowed down by mother nature.

Until next time!

Greg & Ruth

Goofy Day at the Beach in Xiamen

We got into Xiamen mid-day today and headed off to the beach.  The weather was gray and misty but we did it anyway! It looks like a beautiful (and much needed) open space in this huge city.

We rented little kids bikes... Not kidding.  Sorry this one of Ruth is blurry, Greg was laughing too hard to keep the camera still.  Goofy biking!  At least she is representing Seattle by wearing her Obliteride jacket!

This was Greg's favorite bike.  The pedals are petals.  We rode these ironic bikes up and down the shore for a bit.  

And then we had a Tai Chi class on the beach.  Here is Ruth, hanging with the locals!

And then it was dark... we wandered around this cool shopping area for a bit before calling it a night.

We will get some better pictures as time goes on.  It was grey and misty, so not too photo-worthy, but still a fun day off the ship.

Xiamen is in a special "economic opportunity" zone, so it feels pretty western for the most part.  (eg: western made cars and some western businesses.)  Lots of bikes and scooters.

The big takeaway: There are A LOT of people living in China.  This is a smallish city, and the density is crazy!

We are in Xiamen again tomorrow, so we will share more thoughts as they get "thunk".

Until then!

Greg & Ruth

And they are off! Seattle to Hong Kong to Xiamen

Well here we go...

First, the sailor must report in: It is Wednesday the 8th at about 5:30 in the morning.  Where are we? Somewhere in the China Sea: 23.13.49 by 117.29.73 for those of you who want to know exactly.  We have winds of about 20-30 miles per hour with gusts into the 40s and a pretty good swell.  If we were on our little boat we probably would have called the coast guard by now.

Even onboard this big ship, we are rocking around a bit (musn't dribble my espresso...) but as near as I can tell (still dark) we are screaming along up the Taiwan strait.

Not too much to tell yet: We had a pretty uneventful journey from Seattle to Hong Kong.  Made our way to a beautiful hotel and collapsed for the night.

Never underestimate the healing powers of a long hot shower, coffee, and a spectacular breakfast! Lox, bacon and dim sum!!! This is what Greg imagined when we went to Nussbaum and Woo on the upper west side in NYC.  (OK, maybe not the bacon.)  He pretty much died and went to salty breakfast heaven.







Feeling momentarily refreshed, and since we didn't board the ship until early afternoon, we force-marched Linda onto the Star ferry and across the bay to visit the Man Mo Temple.  At least we think that is what we saw...  Turns out we are still blithering idiots from the jet lag.  (We only took two really weird non-blogworthy pictures?!) At any rate, it was a cool old temple contrasting the slick towers of this bustling financial hub.

On the way back we stumbled across a food market with all kinds of live fish, frogs and other interesting stuff.  Still jetlagged = more bad pictures.

We then did the obligatory mall march through the very chic shopping center and boarded our home for the next couple of weeks.  (The ship is actually docked at said high end shopping center, or is the high end shopping center attached to the dock? Hard to tell.)





And then we were swept into the luxurious arms of our cruise.  

Ruth and Linda are already tired of getting their pictures taken... too bad!

 We will dock at Xiamen this afternoon. Should be an interesting port!

Until next time...

Greg & Ruth