Finally, we reached our last Japanese port on this cruise at Kushiro on Hokkaido. We arrived at 8am and were quickly off the ship and found our guide for the day. We quickly headed out of the port area for an observatory which turned out to be locked as we were too early. So we reboarded the bus and drove a short distance up the road to a observation point for a brief stop. It was a bit overcast so there wasn't much to see. We reboarded the bus and drove back to the observatory and found it to be open. The guide seemed insistent that we needed a lavatory and this was the place. What she didn't realize was that there was really good WIFI there and that for me was more important as I couldn't get my portable WIFI device to connect.
One surprising thing about Kushiro was how cold it was. It's located at 43º north latitude which is 4º south of Seattle's latitude. But it's so much colder here and very few spring plants have started to turn green for the the year and there was still snow banks in many places.
It was a short drive up to the AKAN International Crane Center Tancho Observation Center where there was a little crane museum and I paid the 340¥ to be able to see 3 cranes which are in the rehabilitation pens. One even had an egg that it was caring for. It was a very large egg. They are beautiful large white cranes. After leaving the Crane Center, we headed for AKAN village and spotted a crane in a field. At the Akan village we watched a cultural show and had a chance to walk around the village. What was surprising was the number of Alaskan like totems and wood carvings. We also visited a museum to see the green algae balls and had an opportunity to get some snacks for lunch. My choice was dried squid, and I found it delectable! As we were leaving the museum, a fox made its way along the embankment next to the bus. Later on on the drive back to the ship, we spotted another fox in a field as well as a pair of cranes. The male crane was doing what our guide said was his 'happy dance.'
We arrived back at the ship 15 minutes before the posted deadline and there were a few local merchants selling their wares plus some students lingering around. We reboarded and went through the very fast exit of Japan immigration process on the ship in the Franz Hals lounge.
There was a 1/2 hour delay in the departure due to 3 buses of HAL shore excursions which came back late. Later we met a couple who were on one of the excursions and the guide, upon hearing of the 3pm on board time, simply shrugged their shoulders and said the tour would occur as scheduled.
We watched the sail away from the Crow's Nest as the ship backed away from the dock, backed into the turning basin and rotated clockwise 180º, sailed out of the harbor and headed for Alaska with a projected 6 days at sea.
The captain announced that we would be losing an hour tonight and then an hour every day at noon. The entertainment was the Cast show of 'Variations' which we watched twice and I worked on my sermon presentation and the order of service for the Interdenominational service for tomorrow morning that I'm leading.
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