Golden Week at Sea

Friday, May 3, 2024

Constitution Day

Constitution Day, or Constitution Memorial Day, is one of the Golden Week holidays. It celebrates the adoption of Japan's Constitution in 1947, and it is a time to reminisce about the events of Japan's history. We were originally scheduled to be in Kushiro on this day.

Saturday, May 4, 2024 

Greenery Day

Greenery Day is celebrated by taking nature walks. Hard to do on a cold, windy ship. Greenery Day was established in 1989 to celebrate the April 29 birthday of Emperor Shōwa. In 2007, the date was changed to May 4 and April 29 became Shōwa Day.

Sunday, May 5, 2024

Children's Day

Children's Day has been set aside as a day to respect children's personalities and celebrate their happiness. Children's Day is an ancient holiday. It started out as a day of rest for women, but sometime between 1185 and 1333 it was changed to Boys' Day, as the Samurai class rose to power. In 1948, the day became Children's Day. It is marked by displaying carp streamers.

Woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige, 1797-1858

The Crossing

May 3 was the first of NINE consecutive days at sea. We LOVE days at sea. They are so relaxing and fun.

We usually go to the cafe for breakfast and sit and drink cappuccinos. We sit and watch our shipmates go by, and sometimes we see interesting outfits or interesting behaviors. I do not mean interesting in a good sense. 

We made up a code phrase when we need to draw the other's attention to something interesting. It is "Where's my book?" This phrase really means "OMG, you need to look at that!"

On this cruise we enjoyed our breakfasts at Sabbatini's, where we were absolutely pampered and cappuccinoed by the staff. 

On sea days I go to Knitters and Natters after breakfast and hang out for an hour or two, schmoozing with the other ladies who enjoy knitting, crocheting, embroidery, and other crafts. (Sometimes there will be a man knitting or whatever, but it is usually all women.) I have been working on sashiko, which is a Japanese style of embroidery that is very easy and very portable.

Photo by Cindy Quon

Since we had such a nice stateroom this time, we spent a lot of time in our room. It has been quiet and the sea has been fairly calm.

However, it has been COLD. It's been in the 30's in the mornings, and 40's during the day. Too cold to go outside.  And it has been grey and rainy a fair bit. Really unpleasant weather for the whole crossing. Our room was not very warm at night. The ship was really not built for cold weather like this. We have two big sliding glass doors that are just a wee bit drafty.

The visibility was poor, but at least the water was not rough! (There really wasn't anything to see but water, anyway.)

Votes on a Boat 

We were able to vote by email in the mayoral runoff. It was very easy. We applied for email ballots before we left home. When the runoff ballots were ready, we received emails from the municipal clerk's office. We printed out the ballots, the instructions, and our Voter Declarations at the ship's computer center. We filled out our ballots and declarations, photographed them, and emailed the photographs back to the clerk's office. Easy peasy.

Super Tuscan Dinner 

Sabbatini's held a special dinner one night. It was called "Super Tuscan" and it consisted of "Super Tuscan" wines paired with specially selected menu items. A Super Tuscan is generally a red wine from Tuscany that is not limited to indigenous Italian varieties, but may be blended with international grape varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot to create complex premium wines. 

The executive chef, Roberto, and maitre d', Silvio

Prosciutto and Parmigiano Reggiano

Traditional Apulia Seafood Salad

I don't drink wine very often, so all of this is gibberish to me. I had never heard of "Super Tuscan" before, even after spending three weeks in Tuscany in 2022. I was interested in learning more about the wines, and I was very interested in the idea of pairing the wines with specific foods and why the wines can make the foods taste different. (Or is it that the foods make the wines taste different? I am really not much of a connoisseur.)

Tuscan Bean Soup

Penne alla Puttanesca

Slow-roasted Beeff Striploin with Arugula and aged Parmigiano Reggiano

The maître d', the chef, and several sommeliers collaborated to create the dinner and introduce the wines to the diners before each course. It was a super fun evening and the meal was delicious. Parts of famous Italian operas were played between the commentary provided by the staff. This special experience was only offered once during the crossing, and it sold out quickly. It will not be offered during the shorter segments of the ship's Alaska season.

Diplomatica di Milano

Restart

One day there was a ship-wide announcement that blasted into the staterooms and all of the public rooms. Captain Spinardi has a very thick Italian accent, so I'm not sure I understood everything he said, but I think the gist of it was that one of the engines had stopped, and to get it started again, they would need to shut down the other engine for a couple of minutes -- so we would effectively be dead in the water. Fortunately, the restart worked, and we did not hear anything further about this issue.

Midnight Fire!

One night, a loud announcement was broadcast into all of the cabins, and woke us up - as it was intended to do. There was a fire in one of the galleys. A short while later, a "stand down" announcement was made. 

I was later told that the protocol was to wake everyone with an announcement at the beginning of a potential emergency so that we would be awake and somewhat alert if any further action was called for, such as going to our muster stations. I also learned from one of the ship's engineers that it had been a small electrical fire in one of the ranges that had triggered a smoke detector.

I'm glad to know that things worked as they were designed to and the fire was detected and extinguished immediately. I would not have wanted to have to go to the muster station in my pajamas. Nor would I have wanted to have to see other passengers in their pajamas. ;-)

The MTP Luncheon

We posed for a photo with the Staff Captain. I did not get the memo about crossing my hands in front of my body.

It is always exciting and fun to make the cut for an invite to the MTP Luncheon. You get to eat an exceptional meal with several of the officers and the top 40 "most-traveled" passengers. In this case, "most-traveled" means the the greatest number of days traveling with Princess. Princess keeps a running total of all the times you have sailed with them and uses that number to determine which passengers to invite to the lunch. In this case, a majority of the passengers joined the ship in Sydney and were still on board. They tend to people who love long ocean voyages and have a lot of cruises under their belts. We didn't know if we would make the top 40 -- but, of course we did.
Chef's Antipasto: Premium Beef Tartare - Bloody Mary Crudité - Lobster, Avocado & Mango Napoleon (It was hard to figure out how to eat these)

Grilled Aussie Barramundi, with Roasted Potato, Pumpkin, Beetroot, Spiced Peas Purée, Beurre Blanc

Japanese Symbiosis: Matcha Mousse with white Chocolate, Sake Jelly, Wasabi Sauce

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Who ever thought sea days were boring? And, there were so many other activities that I haven't even mentioned.

 

Visible Mending

Today's fabric is mended denim. The pair of old jeans in the photo was mended using sashiko. Starting in 17th-century Japan, sashiko was used to mend garments. Only the samurai class was permitted to wear good quality fabric. The working class had to make do with mending whenever possible. Small stitches were used to reinforce points of wear and to patch torn or worn areas. The word sashiko means "little stabs."

Sashiko evolved into decorative stitches and eventually achieved the status of an art form.

Photo from Waste Free Planet blog