This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 It’s been seven days since we left Japan, traveling across the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, and today we arrived in Dutch Harbor. No, that’s not the name of the town that you may have learned watching “Deadliest Catch” — it’s actually Unalaska…
View More
This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 Today, we are in our final Japanese (and Asian) port — Kushiro which is a port city in eastern Hokkaido. This city has been an international trading port since early in the 20th century, as well as a reliable fishing port. Both of these…
View More
This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 Up to this point, our tour in Japan has taken place on the two largest islands that make up the country — Honshu and Kyushu. Today, we made the first of two port visits in Hokkaido, the northernmost island. And, as you might expect,…
View More
This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 After a rolly polly last 24 hours at sea, we pulled into Sendai, Japan, the capital of Miyagi Prefecture in Northern Honshu. We’re only here for a short time, so rather than spend time in what is more or less an industrial city, we…
View More
This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 After a sobering trip to Hiroshima, we were off to go to Kobe, Japan (yes, the Kobe with the wagyu beef). It’s actually quite a large city, but there was nothing in particular that we wanted to see there. So off we went to…
View More
This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 We spent the day today in Hiroshima. While the obvious destination here is the Peace Memorial, there is actually much more to see here. We started the day visiting the island of Miyajima (Shrine Island), reportedly the home of the gods. Miyajima is a…
View More
This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 After arriving in the port city of Fukuoka, we went up into the mountains to the birthplace of Japanese porcelain — Arita. I wanted to come here for two reasons: (1) I’m a clay kinda guy and seeing how others perform their art and…
View More
This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 After visiting Busan, South Korea, the remaining Asian parts of our cruise will all be in three of the four islands of Japan. Today, we started by visiting Nagasaki, Japan on the island of Kyushu. Nagasaki is both the capital and largest city of…
View More
This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 Today we stopped in Busan for the day. It’s been nearly 50 years since I’ve been here and I have to say, I could barely recognize the place. Like so many other Asian cities, there has been a massive growth spurt over the past…
View More
This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 Today we stopped in Jeju Island, Korea which is located a little over 50 miles off the Korean Peninsula. It is very mountainous given its volcanic origins and, in fact, there are 360 volcanic domes over its 45 mile length (and 25 mile width)….
View More