We are now into our third day of the cruise. Needless to say ‘relaxation mode’ has well and truly set in (as has the loosening of the belt). Full relaxation would be achieved if only the rattle in the ceiling of our cabin miraculously ceased. For a minute I thought I was going crazy as Simon said he couldn’t hear anything. Funnily (probably the incorrect adjective to use) enough, last night Simon’s old age hearing was suddenly cured and he was now able to hear that elusive vibrating rattle. Having touched, pushed and banged every surface of the cabin in the hope that I mastered rattle whispering, I have decided to give in to the ship’s rattle and claim defeat. Thank goodness for ear plugs. Let’s just hope that the seven blasts of the horn (as advised by the captain in the safety drill) doesn’t occur when my ears are securely plugged!
Yesterday was a visit to my home away from home ‘Osaka’. Being around the 15th trip to the city, there wasn’t much we had planned on the itinerary other than shopping and eating in our favourite area, Namba. How can life get any better?……Other than winning lotto (a tall feat when one doesn’t buy tickets) or marrying George Clooney (who just happens to already be taken). Luckily we are blessed with very patient travel buddies, as they had the joy (their faces may have told a different story) of standing around waiting after Simon and I went into luxury shop after luxury shop in search of the LV second hand bargains.
A visit to our favourite Shabu Shabu restaurant was always a given. We took our friends there on our last visit together and they enjoyed the experience. Having stumbled across this place a few years back, it is always the go to place for a $10 feed of amazing (and somewhat healthy) Japanese food. One might turn their nose up to boiling their own slices of meat in water but not the Suttons. We were quickly reminded of how much Jon had enjoyed the complimentary sesame tea last time we visited as he took a sip and promptly abandoned quenching his thirst. How can someone not love something that is free? The restaurant had had an update from our previous visit and had new boiling pots as well as an English menu! I think I preferred the non English menu as Horse Sashimi wasn’t something I was going to brave. Don’t panic, we did our normal pork and beef and left poor Mr Ed to the Japanese.
Who would think anything mildly entertaining or humourous could possibly occur on a day of shopping? A quick toilet stop promptly added humour to the day, when somehow the automatic flush went off whilst I was still seated and mid pee! My first thought was that my thighs had grown considerably in the last week and had somehow overhung to the toilet’s multitude of buttons on the side. Seeing that the automatic flush sensor was actually on the wall, I was relieved to realise that my thigh was just fat and not considerably fat as would be needed to hit the sensors. In fact I now believe that I am SO light that the toilet thought I had actually stood up and exited, hence deciding to flush. Well that is what I am telling myself although the mirror tells another story.
A full day of shopping proved a bit too much for poor old man Jon as his back began to ache and we decided an earlier return to the ship was called for. Mind you, the back pain just might have been the kilograms of photography gear he was lugging in his backpack rather than the act of shopping. Getting back to the ship when we did probably ended up being a good thing as there was a spiraling line to board. Now you might think I am exaggerating by using the word ‘spiraling’ but low and behold it traipsed out of the building, in the building, up stairs, zigzagged through multiple rooms (only in Japan can a line be civilized without the use of roping) and then across gangways. As we were exiting Japan after boarding (enroute to South Korea), all passengers had to pass through immigration. No big surprise and funnily enough it had been communicated in a letter, the nightly newsletter and by announcement that morning. In a country so organised and orderly one was left wondering what on earth was going on. As it turns out, four idiots (yes I am being extremely kind there) decided not to follow the written and verbal instructions that every passenger had to exit the ship prior to immigration being able to process passengers back onto the ship. Apparently repeated ship announcements for the four passengers to exit the ship resulted in it taking an hour and a half for the process to actually start. I guess it was like a supersized game of hide and seek on the ship as the crew attempted to locate four passengers in a ship that holds thousands. Either the four passengers all had faulty hearing aides or thought better of doing what was required. The most entertaining part of the hour and a half lining up was listening to the multitude of complaints from other passengers. It definitely added entertainment to the situation as they moaned and groaned about not being allowed onto the ship and that the crew needed to do something about it. Let’s just say that I wouldn’t want to be one of the four expert hide and seek passengers in the event some of these complainers actually find out who they were!
This morning I decided that a little exercise was called for (remember I have already adjusted that belt buckle a notch). Being a sea day, I anticipated that the day would involve very little movement other than raising a fork to my mouth (proving 100% accurate so far). Now I could have joined in on granny Zumba but I anticipated that the wrinklies would actually put me to shame. Gearing up in my active wear (got to look the part) I headed in the direction of the promenade deck to do a few laps. Unlike yesterday, I set my watch to clock my walking by steps rather than gps. Yesterday I was overjoyed (and somewhat confused) to have my watch beeping that I had completed a kilometre four minutes into my walk. Knowing that I hadn’t miraculously grown super long legs (guess there’s no late blooming supermodel experiences for me), my watch had used the gps to clock my own footsteps along with the movement of the ship. Who would have thought ships move so fast!
As one would anticipate on a sea day, a relaxing lunch was on the cards for filling in the day. Sharing our table was a lovely couple from Melbourne also doing the cruise through to Vancouver. Chatting away and sharing stories, I mention that I will be spending my afternoon writing my blog. You wouldn’t believe it but this one passenger out of 2800 passengers had actually read my blog. Bloody amazing! So there you go, at least one person reads what I am writing.
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