All at sea

Another day in another place.

 Konichawa

Yesterday we were all at sea - not once did we see land anywhere after we left Yokohama.

All I saw was sea and sky when I looked out my window yesterday and Mme spent most of her day looking about Our Ship with Miss Pam and Miss Julie.  Then she unpacked some of her shopping and discovered the socks she bought in Yokohama had sparkly bits on the feet.  This made her laugh a lot but I could not see why.  The sparkly bits were stuck on and when she put her shoes on they vanished.

I was very puzzled, I don't understand socks at all.

Mme laughed loudest when she took the socks out of the package.  I think the sparkly bits were a surprise to her.

Then she put the socks on and laughed even more.  She said they were for girls, not old ladies.

Last night Mme left me to keep guard over the room while she was away and when she came back I had a new friend to keep me company. It is a peacock. In Japan, peacocks are a symbol of compassionate watchfulness and kind-heartedness.

Peacocks are usually very colorful.  This one lost all its colour. I searched everywhere in the room for the peacock colour but it had vanished.

Today Our Ship is sailing between the very big island of Honshu and the not so big island of Hokkaido and it is possible to see land on both sides of the ship. It is dark blue and very far away on the Honshu side and on the Hokkaido side it is much closer. We could see the city of Hakodate, shining in the sun. The sun did not shine very often today.  There was more rain and more dark sky than sunshine.

Sometimes the sea was very, very dark.  

 Sometimes I saw a small ship .  This ship is going the opposite way.  This ship had many coloured boxes on its deck.

In the afternoon Mme took me up to the Exploration Lounge.  This is a very big room where people can sit and read their books in very comfortable chairs in front of big windows which look out over the sea.  Not everyone was reading, some people were sleeping.  Miss Pam is not happy about people sitting in these chairs and sleeping. She is most unhappy when she finds there is not a very comfortable chair where she can sit and read, because people are sleeping.  She says these people should sleep somewhere else.

Miss Pam is showing me the very beautiful, pale blue tanzanite ring she bought today from one of the shops in the jewellry arcade.

Later we went up to the Crow's Nest  which is the second highest deck on the ship. It is at the very front of the ship and when you look out the windows you can see ahead of Our Ship and out to the sides.

Mme went up there to read her Book Club Book.  The book is a story about a Japanese girl who married an American soldier and went to live in America at the end of the Second World War.  The War that ended very badly for the people living in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. It was quiet up in the Crow's Nest and we did not have to share a chair.  We had a chair each. They are lovely chairs but not as big or as comfortable as the Reading Room chairs.

If you look over the top of my chair to the right you can see the sea. I sat very quietly while Mme read her book, though I wanted to ask lots of questions.  I wanted to know where the crows built their nest because I couldn't see nests anywhere.

I am very excited about tomorrow!  Tomorrow is our first port day when Our Ship visits the port of Otaru. Mme and I are going on the train to Sapporo.  Mme says tomorrow will be a trip down Memory Lane for her.  This is not a lane you can walk along.  It's another one of those things like a miracle.  You can't see it but it happens.

Miss Julie and Miss Pam will stay in Otaru. Mme and I will be having a special lunch in a very high building, a hotel, in Sapporo.

Another high building!  I am very, very excited.

Settling in

Another day in another place

Konichawa

I like my new home on the ship.  I feel safe and the men who look after the room laugh and talk with me while they are cleaning and making the bed.

I have my very own window where I can sit and watch everyone who walks by on the deck outside. The really good thing is no-one knows I am sitting there.  I can watch all the  people and they will never know I am sitting on the inside window ledge watching them with my sharp, little black eyes.When you go outside you cannot see through the window.  It is something called one way vision glass.  I've been outside and  the window is painted white and you cannot see into our room. This is a very good thing, Mme is very untidy and throws her clothes and everything else all over the room.

I have a wonderful view from my window ledge

Nothing is allowed on my window ledge but me - it is my special place and I want my special place to be clean and neat and tidy.

I see everything that happens when I am sitting on the window ledge. I cannot hear what people are saying as they march around the deck; their faces are very serious, no-one is laughing. Promenade is the ship name for the deck outside our window. Walking around the promenade is a very important exercise; if people walk three and a half times around the promenade then they have walked a whole mile. Some people walk faster than others, some people use walking sticks and one man walks in the opposite direction  to everybody else.  Is he walking the right way and everyone else is wrong?

We should be half way to another place today but The Harbour Master kept the ship in last night and wouldn't let us leave. I thought the Captain must have been very naughty and behaved badly and the Harbour Master was cross and decided to punish him.

I was wrong.  The Captain made an announcement this morning and we have been kept in the harbour because it  was too dangerous for us to leave last night. I am pleased the Captain did not behave badly, we have 19 days on the ship and although I am very excited about this adventure I was nervous about having a Captain in charge of the ship who behaved badly.  Horrid things might happen to the ship if the Captain behaves badly!

We left at nine o'clock this morning and went under a very, very long, high bridge and out into the real Tokyo Bay, out into the very big, grey sea.

The very, very long, high bridge.  Will Our Ship fit under that bridge?

Now we are going under the bridge.  The top of Our Ship is very, very close to the bridge.

Now we are on the other side of the bridge.  And we did not hit it.  The Harbour Master will be very pleased.

Oh, what a great adventure this will be.  I am very, very excited.

Until next time.

Sayonara

Bu

Tall, tall buildings

Another day in another place

Konichawa

What excitement today.

Before we went up to the sky in the tall, tall building The Ladies had curry udon. Ms Julie is writing to a friend in Australia.  On her phone.  Phones are very clever.

I did not know a building could be so high, so high it is right up in the clouds.

Our room in the hotel in Kyoto was on the fourth floor and I thought it was very high and I was very, very nervous about falling off the balcony ledge and down into the narrow space between the buildings.  Of course Mme, who does her best not to let anything really bad happen to me, held me firmly so I wouldn't fall.

Today was different.  We were on the  69th floor of the Landmark Plaza Building and up there you can see a long, long way, all across the city of Yokohama. And most exciting of all I was allowed to sit on the inside of the window ledge and look at the view.  I couldn't fall anywhere because there was a thick glass window but when I first sat on the ledge I gasped and closed my eyes tight because it was such a long way down to the ground.  I was not so scared when I looked straight out to sea and after a few minutes I bravely looked down to the ground and my fear vanished and I was very, very excited.

See how high up we are.  Can you see Our Ship?  It is near the top of the photo.

What an adventure!  There was so much to see. When you have lived in the toy store you cannot even imagine The World is so big. All those tall buildings and we were in one of the tallest.

I could see Our Ship.  Can you see Our Ship?  It is in the very far distance behind the big pier which is made of wooden planks.  If you look carefully you can see the red brick warehouses, a place many tourists go to when they visit Yokohama.

Down below is a very big, very high wheel.  It is the Cosmo Clock 21.  At night it is dressed in bright, beautiful colours.  The colours change while you watch.

We didn't go to the red brick warehouses because the wind was blowing so hard and Mme and Miss Julie were nervous about being blown out into the sea.  Many, many other people were walking along the streets.  I had to really screw up my eyes and concentrate to see them. Tiny, tiny people. They were not afraid of being blown into the sea.

Mme tells me it is not the sea.  The right name is Tokyo Bay, it is a very small sea.  I want to know why it is not Yokohama Bay.  Tokyo is far away and Yokohama is very close. Mme tells me to stop asking questions and not to be a pest and pushes me back inside the CBB.

How will I find out about this big, wonderful world if I don't ask questions?

Until next time.

Sayonara

Bu