A walk around Kushiro

Today is Sunday where we are (we’re still 14 hours ahead of home) but with an early arrival in Kushiro, we didn’t have “church” on the ship until 6 pm this evening. We seem to always wake early now because it gets daylight long before time to get up – this morning it was light by 3:30 am! We are now going to start changing our clocks forward until we reach the International Date Line. In all honesty, it’s hard to keep up with the correct time as our watches, computers, phones and room clock often say something different! Our room stewards leave notes on our bed each evening when there is a time change and do their best to keep our room clocks set to the current time, depending on where we are.

“Where we are” is Kushiro (Hokkaido), Japan, our last stop before heading back out into the Pacific and sailing toward the Aleutian Islands. We’ve enjoyed beautiful Japan, as well as the rest of our travels, but it will feel good to be back in the good ole USA! So for the next 4 days, we will be cruising the Pacific Ocean into the Bering Sea before reaching the Aleutian Islands and Dutch Harbor, Alaska on June 30.

This afternoon we set sail from Kushiro. We had sailed for several hours when it became necessary to turn the ship around and go back to Kushiro due to a medical emergency with one of the passengers. The onboard clinic can handle routine illnesses, but when it’s something really serious, they must figure out a way to evacuate a passenger to the closest medical facility. Since we will be at sea for several days, the best solution was to turn around, which is what we did. So just minutes ago we watched as a fellow Texan was evacuated into a helicopter hovering above the ship. There is no landing pad on the top of this ship, so the helicopter had to hover close enough for the medical team to somehow load him into the side. Once in, he was whisked away to the nearest hospital. Perhaps 15-20 minutes later the helicopter returned, this time to get his wife who they chair lifted up into the hovering helicopter. What a scary thing to have to do! We are saying prayers that he will be o.k.

I can't remember if I’ve mentioned in my blog, but there have been several deaths on the ship since we set sail last January 15. I guess that’s to be expected with so many older folks on board. There have been a few accidents over these past few months as well, including broken bones and lacerations. Some have been hospitalized for a few days, then returned to the ship. People have accidents, get sick and die on ships, just as they do on land. As the saying goes, life happens.

I’m posting some photos I snapped as we walked around in the port area today. The weather was absolutely gorgeous - a nice change from the heat we’ve been experiencing until very recently! We wandered through the fish market, the train station and Fisherman’s Wharf near where our ship was docked. There was an event of some type going on next to the port and couples were bringing their children over to see the ship. The Insignia is small by cruise ship standards, but still somewhat of a behemoth! 

We have really enjoyed Japan. The Japanese cities are clean and orderly and the Japanese people are welcoming and friendly. We can definitely recommend Japan as a nice country to visit.

 

outside a business

hollyhock (?) among some weeds

checking map for our location

nice to see a church instead of another temple!

Ronnie & Godzilla

pink columbine

random poppy growing from sidewalk crack up through bench

a perfect poppy - flower of remembrance

tables for eating in

salmon roe, whale, fin of flatfish

hanging up the dried stuff

all in a row

 

Sorry for all the fish pictures, but this is what you get at a fish market!

 

business says "Welcome to Kushiro"

Kushiro Art Museum (Hokkaido)

various booths set up

cute little unicycle performers

UPDATE to this post: The fellow Texan who was air lifted off the ship last night remains hospitalized in Kushiro, Japan. It was not a heart event, rather doctors found that he mysteriously developed a hole in one of his lungs. They are saying that it will be 26 days before he can fly. Contrary to what we surmised, his wife was not air lifted (we've no idea why the helicopter returned) but will get off the ship at our next port in 3 more days and fly back to be with him. I'm sure the logistics of luggage, etc will be complicated (180 day passengers do not travel "light") but hopefully he will have a much better outcome than what was previously feared! Everyone is saying prayers for Rich and Sharon.