Today we are in a new port for many of us….Naze (Amami), Japan. We woke up to find we were in a place that looked just like being in Alaska with green hillsides and a village-like town at our feet. What a different landscape compared to Naha Okinawa yesterday.
Unfortunately, we missed copying the shore excursions and by today, they were gone from the TV. We do know there was a trip to see how the silk is made here at a factory as well as a liquor called kokuto shochu unique to these Amami Islands and made from distilling sugarcane. Most all of the tours went outside of the port village of Naze. There were stops at a museum, a park, a primeval forest, a mangrove, and a waterfall. The bus rides were a minimum of 40 minutes to get to these sights. Talking with our friend Greg the following day, he said he and his group took a local bus and made almost all of the stops the tours did. Sometimes it pays to do your internet homework. One way or another, if a ship tour fits your needs, then go for it we say. We also know friends that took a taxi to the main sights as well. Then they could decide where to have lunch and not be under pressure to join a bus group.
At breakfast, we discovered the Pinnacle Grill had been transformed to an Indonesian restaurant with everything they used to decorate while in Bali. The walls were dripping with scary Indonesian masks and demons which was to be for a special dinner tonight, Rijsttafel, a pop-up $35 plus 18% meal. They had one seating time at 6pm, and from what we heard, it was fully booked. So far, we think the pop-ups have outnumbered the regular steak and seafood dinners in there, although it is just a guess on our part.
We had a really odd thing happen to our toilet seat where it simply cracked all the way through all by itself. No, we are not kidding. It was good one minute, then later we found it cracked. Reporting it to the front desk, we were told it would be fixed ASAP during the time we were off of the ship. However, when we did return, it was not fixed. We immediately told our room steward, who we should have informed first, and the seat was replaced within 15 minutes. We swear this room is jinxed. Good thing we happened to have brought a roll of duct tape with us from home. It worked until the new seat arrived. Comparing the seats, the old one was an ADA seat with raised points to make it higher. That must have been stressed and caused it to crack. Anyway, we left the ship at 10am in hopes it would be fixed shortly.
There was no cruise terminal here, but a set of tents were set up to shade some souvenir tables and later, some food trucks. They were selling a limited number of Japanese treasures of local silk and the distilled liquor. And as always, there was a collection of affordable jewelry, cards, artwork, and carvings. There were a few t-shirts, kimonos and silk ties for the fellows as well as brocade table runners.
More important, they had a display of a local city map and also a smaller map with good directions. It was strictly a map of Naze, the port city, which worked for us since we had no intentions of leaving here. The weather was beautiful with temps in the 70’s and some sun shining through the clouds. No rain, which we found out later that it had rained here for days on end with today, finally a dry one. How about that? The cute info girl pointed to the left for all of us walkers to go to downtown. Following the map, we passed by Marine Town Park, then entered into the oldest part of this city. The description on the map described downtown as having a shopping street lined with small local stores that included souvenir shops selling authentic silk fabric.
We had turned on a street that led us into the café and restaurant area, none of which were opened at 10 or 11 am. In fact, we ran into people that like to walk like us. They were sitting on a bench outside a fast-food Indian café, drinking cold beverages. They advised us not to waste our time going further up this road, since they were informed nothing opens until much later in the day. Like when it gets dark. So we wandering up another side street and ran into City Hall quite by accident.
Very close to the City Hall, we spotted a church, which turned out to be a Catholic church by the name of Sacred Heart. There was a small story written on the map saying that this church is home to an altar given by the Cathedral of St. Matthew in Washington DC, of all places. This altar was given to this cathedral, and it was tied to the Requiem Mass for President John F Kennedy back in the 1960’s. Small world and lucky we came across the church.
Very close to this church was the covered pedestrian Nazemuchi Shopping Street with 1950’s style shops and cafes. Clothing styles were very basic and not what you might find in a modern shopping mall. A few small boutiques were selling traditional kimonos and matching thong-like sandals. Silk, maybe, but the prices were right we heard later on.
From here we took parallel streets back towards the pier, seeing more shops , barber shops, eateries, a mini-market, apartment towers and hotels. We had the option of walking past the pier and onto another street with a few more cafes and a museum at the far end. Truthfully, it was getting close to lunch time and we had already walked far enough. And we still had the tables to check out at the pier, so we continued back the way we came. For a memento of this port, one of us bought a pair of Japanese-looking earrings with the painting of the local bird and some flowers for the huge price of 1500 yen or $10 USD.
It was a good time to work online and make some progress with the photos. We enjoyed a lunch of a Cobb salad, a bowl of chili, and a shared plate of mini burger sliders. There was no sail away because we were docked until 5am tomorrow morning. At least there would be no rocking and rolling all night if the conditions picked up.
Dinner found us ordering starters of a Japanese brothy soup and a chicken karaage, Japanese-style fried chicken bites. Mains were the veal sage meatballs like they serve in the Canaletto. They sat on a red sauce with a creamy polenta on the bottom. It was good and served piping hot. Desserts were one chocolate tart and some sliced watermelon.
The show featured a comedian named Martin Beaumont with a clean and clever show called Around the World in 80 Laughs. We heard he was very funny and we also think we saw him on the Zaandam last fall.
We have one sea day, then will be in Nagasaki for two days.
Bill & Mary Ann
