"Crossing The Pacfic."
MONDAY October 8 Day 74 Fine, Mild, Warm Later.
Monday 8 October. Day 74 Continued. Cool.
You can see the story up to this point by using this link, To_The_Mysterious_East.
And please remember that Barbara is the first person in this narrative, also remember the disclaimer that what you read here, or there, is only Colin's version of Barbara's travel diary.
And if you want to read these pages in Japanese, go to the "Altavista" home page and look for the "translate" button. Sometimes the results are quite surprising.
It was night-time, and I was on the upper deck of the inter-island ferry, "Sun Flower Satsuma", enjoying the cool breeze and the coastal lights passing, as we steamed south across Osaka Bay. It was my first ocean voyage.
After we had boarded, we had wandered aimlessly, unable to make sense of anything; so we went back to the reception desk. Happily our enquiry, "Eigo ga dekimasu ka." (Can you speak English?) to the young woman at the reception desk received a positive reply.
She told us that the numbers on our tickets corresponded to numbers on sleeping spaces in the dormitory. Her directions led us down a broad circular staircase and along a corridor to a dormitory in the centre of the ship. On the other sides of the corridors that ran along both sides of the dormitory, there were cabins with bunks.
The dormitory was six tatami mats wide and eight tatami mats long with a passage along one wall where lots of passengers left their luggage, and their shoes (because shoes must not be worn on tatami matting). There was another narrow space along the opposite wall where people could place their bags, too. There was a TV and some shelves at either end of the room.
Our numbered tickets entitled us to sleeping spaces on the tatami matting in the dormitory. There were thirty sleeping spaces, each marked by a futon and a neat pile of sheets, blanket, and pillow (filled with rice).
We found our sleeping spaces.
Immediately two girls asked if we would swap our spaces with them so they could be near their friends.
This swap gave us a space beside the wall and the next space. There had been a holiday weekend throughout Japan, and all the spaces in the dormitory were taken, mostly by family groups including young children.
We went for an explore and found toilets (western style) and showers adjoining the dormitory. Further up the circular staircase (on two different levels) there were smoking rooms, a dining room, a shop with souvenirs, and food and drink vending machines. We could have bought a large Asahi beer for 450 yen, or a small Asahi for 350 yen; or we could have had gin and tonic or whisky and soda for the same price as the small Asahi. But the exchange rate (AU$1-00 was then buying a meagre 65 yen) made these drinks so expensive we became teetotal for the voyage.
We went outside for a walk on deck. Over the stern we could see a panorama of the lights of the extensive urban area at the head of Osaka Bay, beginning in the east with Kobe, then Nishinomiya, then Osaka, then Sakai. Possibly we could see the man-made Port Island off Kobe where friends, Kinji and Masa Nimmi, had taken us for drinks in 1999.
For dinner we had curry and rice (a dish of foreign origin but a Japanese favourite; very nice, though not like curry and rice we have experienced elsewhere; there is a special Japanese curry powder) in the dining room which was cafetaria style. 680 yen each.
Thinking to telephone to Lynne and Kath back in Oz, we bought a phone-card, but found that we couldn't make international phone calls from the ferry.
So it was back to the deck, and for a while we watched planes taking off and landing at Kansai Airport.
In the dormitory everyone was preparing their beds, so we made ours, too. The man in the space next to Colin showed by signs how to arrange the bedding.
It was quite warm so the T shirts and shorts we changed into in the toilets (we didn't know there were dressing rooms) allowed us to lie at a comfortable temperature under just a sheet.
The ferry had begun to roll, just a little. According to the weather forecast which we had heard at Akihiro's and Masako's, a typhoon was on its way towards southern Kyushu. And that was where we were going.
Anyway, though, my stomach was still happy, because I remembered that breakfast was served from 7-00 a.m. next morning, and thinking of food didn't cause me to feel butterflies.
I was next to the wall, and Colin lay between me and the next passenger: it was rather squeezy, but not uncomfortable. The dormitory lights went off at 10-00p.m. All the passengers including the young children were very well behaved. No crying, no smacking, no quarrelling; the only human noise was some coughing and an occasional light snore. The ship began plunging and rising as well as rolling.
To my surprise, I slept.