10/4/10 – Day 9 – Sailing toward Japan

     Today, we continued cruising southwest from the Kamchatka Peninsula on our way toward Japan.  We kept the chain of Russian islands on our Starboard side as we sailed.  Some had some quite large mountains, many which are volcanoes, that were visible from the ship.  Mid-afternoon, the weather turned quite foggy, which triggered the need for our ship’s foghorn to sound every 2 minutes.  I did, in fact, time the horn because of I wanted to figure out if it was being run manually or automatically.  Its exactness gave me the assurance that the foghorn was set on an automatic timer. 

     Anyway, after dinner, we had our first show by the ship’s cast of dancers and singers.  It was very well done.  It was an added bonus that I have gotten a few of the cast members over the last week making it more entertaining to watch those that I know personally. 

     Tomorrow, we will arrive at our first port in Japan, the town of Sendai.  We have booked an all day excursion to Mt. Zao, which is a two and a half hour drive from the port.  Once we are there, we will be taking a one-hour hike around the crater lake at the top of the mountain.  We have been assured that the scenery at the mountain and on the drive there will be beautiful and unique.  This is a short stop as we’re only in port from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm.  So, our tour to the mountain will take our entire day, which is okay with me. 

     Also, for your information, the ship will not have internet or cell service while were are in Japanese waters…it is illegal.  So, I’ll be limited to posting while we’re an hour or more out from our ports over the next four days.