CO Erin

Saturday, March 22nd In Naha, Okinawa today, so our first visit to Japan ever. Naha is the capital city of Okinawa Prefecture. The city was founded in May 1921. It is on the southern part of the Okinawa Island, the largest of the Ryukyu Islands. The city is developed around Shuri Castle, the palace of the Ryukyu kingdom. During the battle of Okinawa in WWII, Naha suffered extensive damage from attacks by US forces. The city center was rebuilt following the war. We started our day at 6:30am so we could be ready for when they called our deck number. It never came. The started with deck 4 and then about an hour to an hour and a half later they called deck 10. We were neither of those decks and then they called for all ... read more

Thursday, March 20th Today we awoke to be able to see land, not that impressive unless you have previously sailed for three days and not seen any land. And this was not just any land but Iwo Jima! Yes we got to see this small, but incredible island, only 5 miles long and 2 and one half miles wide. Statistics from that battle show there were: 800 ships, 74 days of bombing, 36 days of hand-to-hand combat, 11 miles of fortified tunnels, 10,000 soldiers per square mile, 12,600 pints of plasma, 27 Medals of Honor, over 25,000 Americans wounded, over 20,000 Japanese died,and over 6,000 Americans died. The ship was able to get fairly close, about where the ships putting shells on it were positioned during then invasion 63 years ago. We could still see the ... read more

Sunday, March 16, 2008 Today is another sea day so it is filled with activities like eating, going to the fitness center, eating again, playing BINGO, and then eating again. You might have to roll everyone off the ship in Japan - although many are staying on until Hong Kong, and came on 14 days before us by touring Australia and the south island of New Zealand. I can handle 3 weeks on board by not sure right now I want to do a 53 day voyage. Maybe someday, but not now. The show tonight was a Statendam Cast show, On Track - again one we had seen before, but they still do a pretty good show. Well tomorrow we are on land - and the ship will be restocking with vegetables and fruit - ... read more

Friday, March 14, 2008 Today was another sea day so the activities calendar was filled to the brim. It is always a matter of pick and choose since there is really too much to choose, let alone try to do everything. The day began like most by going to Mass, exercise class and finally breakfast. I ate with some folks I met on Cruise Critic - that has been really great meeting, or getting to know people on cruise critic and then travelling with them so you get to know them even more. I have had a good time getting to know them. This morning’s lecture was, “The Marianas Bitter Fighting, and the “Turkey Shoot” which occurred closer to Guam than to where we are currently. The awesome American naval air forces were fighting a major ... read more

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 Today was our day to tour Rabaul, Papua New Guinea on the island of New Britain. We had to wait to get into the port to dock because a cargo ship was late leaving so we were all out on the decks and noticed one of the volcanoes starting to put out a lot of steam. It was very interesting, but also a little unnerving. Again we had been told to expect rough roads, tour guides that were students and vans/buses without air conditioning. All of that was true. We were in Toyota Hiace (spelling?), which is a 15-passenger bus, and material to cover the worn seats and dust/volcanic ash all over. Our guide spoke English but very little and she spoke so softly we could not understand her most of the ... read more