On March 18th we boarded our ship and got settled in our suites. We did have dinner reservations at Pacific Rim, their Asian Fusion restaurant. It was very good.
On the next morning we arrived in Nagoya. We chose to go to the headquarters of Toyota. At first, Toyoda manufactured looms for spinning fabric.
The company passed to the inventor’s son.
Below are pictures of early trucks and cars.
Followed by a display of various robots and Toyota’s. automated assembly line. A number of interesting and ingenuous inventions.
John found an interesting little girl visiting the exhibit with her mother.
Afterwards, Kathryn introduced John to vending machines found everywhere throughout the country with both hot and cold drinks of every variety imaginable. John opted for a can of hot dark coffee.
Above is a pick up your pet’s poop sign that amused us.
And then that evening the weather got bad; it was VERY windy and the waves were over 9 feet. The captain announced that it was too rough to dock in Osaka so we stayed at sea the whole next day — all excursions to Osaka were canceled. We had been to Osaka on a cruise some huge number of years ago, but we didn’t see it then, opting to take a bullet train to Kyoto instead 🙂
I know, the waves don’t look too bad in this picture, but the waves did hit the windows when we were having breakfast the next day. We attended a lecture that morning about Japan. The lecturer was a former US diplomat stationed throughout Asia and was very interesting and informative.
The lecture was followed by a nice dinner at the French specialty restaurant, Chartreuse. We were not underfed.
We did dock the following morning on the coast 2 hours away from Kyoto. It was truly bitter cold and very windy! But we were off to the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto. It is spectacularly beautiful. The gold areas have been redone with 24 karat gold — they are so shiny now.
When we got back in the bus it began snowing — amazing after all this sunshine. It didn’t stick — too warm — lower 40’s.
By now I had developed an infection in my foot -very red and puffy around the stitches- oh, yippee! No pictures this time. The ship’s doctor didn’t want me to go to Kyoto at all, but I was determined to see the Golden Pavilion. However, I stayed in the bus after that with foot up on the seat-except for a traditional Japanese Bento box lunch. John had mainly rice and soy sauce. Kathryn and I had little more.
John and Kathryn then explored the Nijo castle.
First cherry blossoms of the trip. The season is 10-14 days and varies slightly based on the temperature. It is far and away the busiest and pretty time of the year.
Between no internet while at sea and limited internet and free time while docked, blogging has been as very slow process! So I will pick this back up after Kyoto.
Beth
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