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🇯🇵 Understanding Shochu: Japan’s Best-Selling Spirit You’ve Never Heard Of
The Japanese have been making shochu for about five hundred years. That sounds ancient, until you remember that sake has been around for at least 2,000 years. By Japanese drinking standards, shochu is practically a startup. Shochu’s origin story is different, too. While sake grew up around gods, emperors and temples, shochu grew up in…
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🇯🇵 Yokohama Frühlingsfest: A German Walks into a Biergarten in Japan
Lots of folks are disembarking the ship in a hurry and heading straight to the airport for flights home. I don’t need that kind of stress in my life, so we have an extra day in Yokohama. The taxi situation at the cruise port in Tokyo was so efficient. Truly impressive. And then our taxi…
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🌋 Mt. Sakurajima: Between Eruptions
We are docked in Kagoshima today – the southernmost tip of the Japanese archipelago. Extremely windy today, but the sun is out – a good laundry hanging forecast. Kagoshima is home to Japan’s most active volcano, Mt. Sakurajima. Her last major eruption was only about three weeks ago. Dammit. I would have loved to photograph…
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🌊 The Ocean: I Am the Captain Now
We’re crossing the East China Sea today on our way back to Japan. Mother Nature apparently decided we’d had enough pleasant cruising and cranked the ocean up to: washing machine. Gale-force winds, steadily building seas, and absolutely zero chance anyone was reading by the pool under a cozy blanket today. The ship’s library, on the…
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🇨🇳 A Food Tour of Shanghai: A Whole Universe of Bao and Some Chicken Feet
It’s pouring rain in Shanghai today, so the city is a sea of wet umbrellas. ☔️ This morning’s agenda: a walking food tour of Shanghai. Ken was worried we were going to be eating chicken feet. He wasn’t completely wrong. I believe you can learn almost everything about a place by looking at what people…
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🇨🇳 Shanghai: Jade, Tea, and a Whole Lot of Capitalism
As an American, I almost didn’t want to be impressed with Shanghai, but dammit, this is an impressive place. I booked a guide for us so we could maximize our time here. Because I don’t want to spend time figuring stuff out. I want to get straight to the stuff. Our guide, Sunny, took us…
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🛳️ At Sea: En Route to Shanghai, China
At sea days on board the ship are quickly becoming days I look forward to. It’s a nice change of pace – a chance to sleep in, read a book, and just take the day as it comes. I’ve discovered one of the restaurants on board has Swedish pancakes and lingonberries for breakfast. This is…
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🇰🇷 Incheon: Throwing Elbows for Korean Skincare
Beautiful sunset last night. And then the Incheon Bridge (the longest in Korea) put on a light show. Incheon observation: I have never seen as many densely clustered high-rise apartment buildings as there are here in Incheon/Seoul. The population density is unreal. South Korea is about the same size as Indiana, yet it has more…
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🇰🇷 Seoul, South Korea: Shopping and a Protest
We are in South Korea today. Well technically, we are docked in Incheon, which is about an hour and a half west of Seoul. So, we’re taking the herd bus to Seoul this am. It’s a drop and do your own thing bus, though. No tour. Huzzah. Because my main focus for today is shopping. …
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🛳️ A Day at Sea: Sportsing on the Lido Deck
Sometime around 2am, our ship went through the Strait of Kanmon, a narrow waterway separating Japan’s Honshu and Kyushu islands. And, courtesy of some lingering jet lag, I was awake for it. So, I got up and snapped a photo as we passed under the bridge. The iPhone 17 Pro Max handles low light remarkably…
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🇯🇵 The Beppu Hot Springs: Welcome to Hell
Steady rain today. ☔️ We’re with the herd this morning. The ship did a great job making sure everyone had an umbrella. A golf umbrella. So, the whole herd is armed with umbrellas, and no one has peripheral vision. It’s umbrella bumper cars. So far, I have been poked in the face, the ear, and my…
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🇯🇵 Kochi Castle: What Goes Up Must Come Down
Ken and I were exhausted last night. Can’t decide if it was jet lag or a Kobe beef coma. Probably some of both. We’re in Kochi, Japan today. Arrived into port this morning to a very colorful, musical flag-waving welcome. Ken: This song slaps! 🎶 Me: I can’t believe you just said slaps. Kochi Castle We…