Oh, the tiny people

Ah, Japan. Land of cleanliness and very odd cartoon characters. Even Japanese pornography (as we learned at a gas station corner store) is in cartoons. However, enough about that. In Aomori, Japan – our first stop in the country – Lucy, Rosanna (Administrative Assistant), and Rodin (Internet Manager) took a taxi to the big Buddha and saw many a beautiful pagoda along the way. It was much warmer than I had expected Japan to be. When my mum took us to Tokyo and Kyoto 15 years ago, we arrived in March and were met with chilly spring weather and even snow. This led me to believe it would be the same climate as Vancouver. Cool and perhaps rainy, just like Vancouver! Instead I was met with uncomfortable humidity and warm, summer weather. After visiting with my old friend, Budda, (apparently the largest outdoor Buddha in Japan) we took a taxi to a weird triangular building near our ship. It turned out to be part office building, restaurant and shopping mall. There is some strange architecture going on in Asia so far. There are bridges which seem to serve no function whatsoever, except maybe to be aesthetically pleasing. The do not go over water and they do not pass over highways or busy intersections. They are just there.

Clearly, the Japanese are overachievers and the bridges prove it. If you really have nothing better to do than build a bridge that doesn’t do anything, then you should really consider baking me a chocolate cake. I don’t know why a cake, but it certainly sounds good.

Back to Japan….we found out they have apple everything and also that anything IN THE WORLD can and will be bought via a vending machine: Apple crackers, apple candy, apple vinegar (which, we thought was a bottle of juice because it looked like apple juice and had a picture of an apple on it, PLUS it was from what looked like a beverage vending machine). Who sells vinegar out of a vending machine and why??
Confusing as it was, utterly immaculate and beautiful is Japan, also I found the people incredibly hospitable and friendly. Expensive, but was nice to see again after 15 years.

All in a days' work

I wake up around 7:30-8:00am…not too early, not too late. I get ready to face the public, walk the 3 minute commute from my A-Deck crew area room (below Deck 1, passenger area) to the Explorers’ Lounge. I then pour myself a cup of tea, have a freshly-baked-that-morning Chocolate chip cookie (my favorite, so how can I resist!) and chat with guests for a few minutes. I pick up the microphone to start the day and have a chat with about 100 of my closest friends. I’m my own floating talk show. I’ve interviewed Pianists, Russian opera stars, Oldtime Vegas show people, Broadway stars and various people working onboard that have behind-the-scenes stories that might be of interest. We have a good laugh for about 40 minutes and then I finish with my final question and pack it up. Onto the demos! At 11:15am, I’m either hosting a cooking show with the chef, teaching people to fold Origami cranes with the Bar Staff (and my friend Kat), or how to arrange Flowers with the florist. We might have wine and cheese for the suites at noon, greeting and socializing. Perhaps Sake tasting at 1:00pm, I’m to introduce our Sake Expert, drink Sake and eat shrimp chips. Funny, I’ve found I actually LIKE Sake. Apparently the stuff we have in Canada is made in the States and it’s no good! Lunch at 2:00 in the Lido, 3:30pm Tea socializing. 5:00pm Travel Group cocktail party mingling. (P.S. I haven’t had a chance, but usually 1200 others are keeping track of the cruise via cruisecritic.com) 7:15pm meet guests in the Atrium for cocktails before the Captains’ Pinnacle Grill dinner. Dinner is 7 courses and 2 ¾ hours long. Dance the first dance with the Captain to open the Black & White ball, forced to enjoy the open bar for officers! (I’m of officer status). Dance the night away, pull down the decorations at midnight and finally get some sleep. Yes, it’s a ridiculously amazing “job”. Above all, I get PAID to do it ;)

Russia, Shmussia

Who needs Russia anyhow? It’s cold and wet and unfriendly and I didn’t want to drink vodka or wear a furry hat anyway. I didn’t want to see people swearing Russian swears at each other or the Russian mafia shooting each other (Lucy tells me it’s the thing to see in Russia), and Russian women wearing stiletto’s at -10 degrees celcius. Thank goodness the Russian Immigration officials stepped in and didn’t allow any crew to get off the ship in Petropavlosk. I’m so glad we didn’t get to go to Siberia, it certainly wouldn’t have been cool to say I’d been there. Good thing they made Steve (SACD) and I freeze for 7 hours on the gangway trying to organize and keep people from flying off the handle while they checked every single person’s passports and documents getting on and off the ship. I didn’t want to go anyway.

The day I lost it. Or rather, the day I lost.

I went to bed on Tuesday, Sept 25th 2007 and woke up on Thursday, Sept 27th. I know, you’re all pretty impressed. It’s not because I can sleep for longer than most humans (though, I most certainly can…). We instead, crossed the International Date Line and just lost an entire day. Later, I will be lucky enough to re-live the same day twice. I sure hope it’s an excellent day to re-live. We had terrible storms and rough days at sea for 6 days, and then, since we couldn’t get off in Russia, another 2.

Too many days at sea for me

I am 5 days out to sea from Seattle, WA; somewhere in the Bering Sea, just along the coasts of a few of the Aleutian Islands. I left Vancouver on Friday, Sept. 21st with excitement and a nervous stomach. Oh, and far too much luggage. I have traveled around Europe and Brazil & Argentina with just a backpack and now I venture forth for 2 months and I must bring 17 formal-wear dresses, business attire galore and casual clothes suited for various climes and temps. The Air Canada Check-In Employee was very kind. He saved me 50 dollars (as both my bags were overweight) and then gave me a free Starbucks coffee (take that, airports around the world – perhaps they could learn a few things from Vancouver).

Enough about the little things. Actually, no – if you were expecting an exciting entry about fame, adventure and exotic ports, you’ve come to the wrong place today my friends. Alas I have literally spent the last 6 and a half days sailing into the great blue. We have sailed from Seattle, past Vancouver Island, the Queen Charlotte Islands and North to follow the Aleutian Islands and in one more day, we will finally drop anchor just outside of Petropavlovsk, Russia. I really have done nothing exciting. The events of the last few days have included doing more paperwork than I ever care to see again, setting up Culinary Schedules, hosting coffee chats (though, I do like that new addition to my job), socializing at cocktail parties. Many of the guests and also staff from the Prinsendam voyages are here as well, which makes it feel like I’ve already been here for months! It seems I’ve worked with a LOT of the crew on the Statendam and the Ryndam too. It was great to see Lucy, Kat and Adam again. A tonne of other people I’ve worked with before were added to the cruise at the last minute and was a great bonus. Also, lucky me – the hotel manager is wonderful! Starting out the voyage in a fabulous way ;)