Keelung

 Friday 3^rd October Keelung (for Taipei)

There’s quite a few things that I’ve found to do in Keelung and we won’t get to them all, so it’s time to decide on priorities. I read that there’s a Totoro mural on a wall up in Zhongzheng Park, where there is also a spectacular Zhuputan built by the 11 Zhupu clans and statue of the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, Guanyin. The Zhuputan is a significant temple in the Keelung Ghost Festival and used to be built of timber and disassembled after each festival.

All of which would have remained unaccessible due to the number of stairs required to get up there. Fortunately, Keelung have installed the Keelung Tower, a free elevator that takes you up to the level of the Zhuputan. The Zhuputan is currently under renovation and not able to be accessed, but impressive nontheless. Just as well, this removed the temptation to climb to the top. Never fear though, there’s plenty of other stairs we had to tackle to get to where we wanted to be. Took it very easy today after yesterday’s brush with heatstroke. Totoro wasn’t too difficult to find and to me it was worth the stairs.

The statue of Guanyin is difficult to miss and it’s possible to climb up inside and look out at Keelung through her eyes. Not sure if that’s a bit disrespectful, but we’d climbed enough stairs today! It was sooo hot out there again today. I just don’t seem to handle the heat as well as I used to. Definitely reconsidering tomorrow’s plans. All of a sudden, an airconditioned shopping mall sounds good!

We were going to find some street food for lunch but instead opted for a newish place right next to the terminal, mainly because it had a/c but also to use up the rest of our Taiwan currency. ‘Great Food Town Keelung’. A zip top pencil case cleans out the rest of our cash, and it’s a nice souvenir. To keep left over foreign currency in, but now I don’t have any from here. LOL.

 

 

 

Taipei

Thursday 2^nd October Keelung (for Taipei) overnight

Our passports were collected from us when we reboarded in Yokohama and we are given an official photocopy to take ashore with us in Keelung. As we will be docked here overnight, it’s a good chance to go into Taipei as that will take more time than hanging around Keelung. We’ll do stuff in Keelung tomorrow.

First stop is to get some local currency, which is supposed to be easy with the photocopied passport we have been given. No. It might work in the terminal where 20 or more people were waiting in line, but neither of the 2 banks we went to accepted it. Luckily in the 2^nd bank the staff member took us out to the ATM and helped us negotiate the process.

We are at the train station in time for a train around 10am. It’s a fairly pleasant trip and takes around 45 minutes. Things fall apart at Taipei Main Station though, it’s really big and we don’t know where the hell we’re going! Doesn’t help that signage leads you into a mammoth shopping centre, then at some point, there’s no signs! We wander for about an hour looking for the HOHO bus. Glad we didn’t pre purchase the tickets. Not happy. Bail on that idea and head back the way we came and buy a ticket, which is actually a round blue token, for the station at Taipei 101. But what we should have done was head straight for the dumpling shop that I had read makes really good food, especially the Xiao Long Bao or soup dumplings to the uninitiated. Beautifully crafted, with 18 folds in a circle and the juices form the soup, inside the dumpling. By the time we get there, after Taipei 101, they’re about 10 minutes from closing and say we can only get takeaway. Anyway, whatever, they were very good, even if we did have to sit on the edge of a garden bed around the corner to eat them.

So, how many floors does Taipei 101 have I hear you ask. Could it be 101? Well, yes, surprisingly it does! The exit from the station delivers us to the foot of the building and it’s really hard to see how tall it is, because it’s straight up and there’s no stepping back to see. The signage isn’t too bad here and we find our way fairly quickly. Speaking of quickly, the elevator to the viewing floors clocks 1010 metres per minute at it’s fastest. My ears pop twice! The building is inspired by the design of a pagoda

To counter the forces of wind and earthquakes, the building has a Tuned mass wind damper in the top of it, and normally they’re not visible to the public but this one is, and it’s huge! It hangs on thick cables and is supported from below on shock absorbing legs. During a Typhoon in 2015 it reached it’s highest recorded lateral displacement – 100cm! In level 13 winds! So it does the job!

We headed back to the train via the dumpling shop and the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. One of Taipei’s cultural landmarks. A huge white building with a blue glazed tile roof housed in large traditional gardens, it houses 2 artistic venues, a large statue of CKS, a former leader of China and then Taiwan. There was an exhibition of Turner’s artworks that would have been great to see but unfortunately, we didn’t spend much time looking around and appreciating it all because the heat had gotten to me, so we had to leave. I’d really like to come back here, but it would need to be in a cooler season, if such a thing exists.

Back to the ship and take some time to cool down and regroup before heading out to the reknowned night markets, always a good place to get some street food and local interaction. I didn’t really expect to find the ‘one bite sausage stall’ but we did and they were good! Missed the fried chicken that had been the other recommendation, but Trevor had a skewer of chicken tails (???) and we shared some octopus balls. Also bumped into Matt, an enrichment speaker on this cruise, and his Dad who is tagging along on the cruise. Matt’s subject is astronomy and space and his next talk is how space and the movies met.

The cruise halfway point.

 

Monday 29^th September. Yokohama turn around day.

As we are considered ‘in transit’ passengers, there is no obligation to go ashore. Guests wishing to remain on board are to meet at 9.30am at an appointed place to be taken ashore into the terminal building to complete immigration formalities. Not us! We’re making the most of every opportunity to see more of Japan. And when we return, our ‘Transit’ pass should get us priority boarding.

Biggest problem is, not much opens before 10.30 or 11am.  The plan is to walk around the waterfront of Yokohama, go to the Red Brick warehouse; Yokohama World Porters, a shopping centre with a viewing platform that overlooks Yokohama (bonus no stairs); and the Landmark Tower for it’s viewing area on the 69th floor.

So, the Red Brick warehouse wasn’t open, neither was the bonus Oktoberfest area next door. World Porters was due to open at 10.30am, only another 5 minutes to wait. You can access the building where there is a sitting area to wait in until the huge roller doors go up. As the doors go up, there is a security guard inside with his arms spread wide……. No-one shall pass until the rollers are all the way up! Funny thing is, that wouldn’t work in Australia! Seeing as we’ve waited, we go in to look at the Hawaii shop/s. They seem to be mad for it here. There’s quite a lot to look at but we’re not that interested in shops, so we leave to walk to the Landmark Tower. It’s another hot day but there’s a breeze, too much to use my UV umbrella though.

The Landmark Tower and much of the surrounding area is built on reclaimed land, made by using the rubble of a Yokohama destroyed in the bombings of WW11. And what original land there is was formerly industrial and shipyards. It has one of the fastest elevators in Japan. One of the big drawcards is that, on a clear day, it’s possible to see Mt Fuji. I make a beeline for the window facing Fuji and there is just the smallest bit of the top visible, with cloud covering the rest. The clouds ebb and flow but only another small part becomes visible. The funniest thing is when a man realises that he’s looking at Mt Fuji. He’s so excited he claps his hands and points out the mountain to others in his group in a very animated way. I get talking to him and it turns out he’s been on the same cruise as us and is also going on the next cruise. I wonder if we’ll bump into him again??

We’re a little bit familiar with the downstairs area of this building, having come to the shop that sells the studio Ghibli merch. So we know there’s food downstairs. We really feel like dumplings but we can’t find any. We wander for a bit, then horror of horrors, we decide to go back to the ship to eat!! We also know that it’s only 2 stops on the metro to get to the station nearest to where the ship is docked. At Nihon-Odori station, we see a man and woman with suitcases looking around, not sure where to go. They’re so close to their end destination!! We ask them if they’re going to Diamond Princess and they reply yes. Follow us! They’re very grateful. I don’t envy them the walk hauling baggage. Been there, done that!

Burger and fries at Trident Grill and we see Robyn and Dolf with their new glasses. They look really good and are so light! Specs might be on the list next time we come to Japan. A few of the staff recognised us and welcomed us back warmly. The cabin steward in the next section along from us got quite a surprise to see us. That was so sweet. Our steward, Salvador, knew we were back on and I think he was a bit relieved that there was at least one of his cabins remaining the same. But he knew a few days ago.

 

A day at sea

 

Sunday 28^th September. Sea day  Did as little as possible, we’re exhausted!!

Nagasaki

 

Saturday 27^th September. Nagasaki

We wake up this morning, back in Japan. And like many passengers on board, we head for the tram that will take us to the Peace Park, dedicated to the victims of the atomic bombing of the city on August 9^th, 1945. A significant area of the city was destroyed and tens of thousands of residents were killed.

There is a 10 metre tall, blue bronze statue, his right hand points upwards, to the threat of nuclear weapons and his left hand extends horizontally to symbolise eternal peace. On either side of the statue are small shelters holding hundreds of origami cranes, another symbol of peace. We had a lesson in origami crane folding in Tsuruga.So many statues and monuments dedicated to Nagasaki from countries all around the world, it's such a shame to think that the message of peace has been forgotten.

The park covers a vast area so we didn’t get to see it all and although there were lots of people there, it didn’t feel crowded. A bright moment in the midst of all the contemplation was the blue cart selling the famous chirin chirin ice cream. The vendors are very talented and they create an ice cream that resembles a rose. Almost too pretty to eat.

The heat is still oppressive, even though today we get a light sprinkle of rain. Or is it 100% humidity?? I really enjoyed the coolness of being rained on, but in true Asian style, rain ponchos and umbrellas appeared from nowhere. Due to the heat, I think the smart thing to do is cut out a few items from the itinerary, but I really want to see the Fukusaiji Buddhist temple, where the tall and serene Cannon statue stands on the back of a turtle, overlooking Nagasaki and is regarded as a national treasure. We take the tram to Nagasaki train station and then walk. You can be sure when something is built to overlook a place, there’s going to be stairs to climb. Many of them! Taking it slowly and being put to shame by elderly residents who use these stairs every day, we climb, only to be greeted by another long run of stairs. Oh no! There’s gotta be a better way! I check the map and if we walk on a little further, there’s a road that goes all the way up, so a steepish slope but at least it’s not stairs! It was definitely worth the hike to get up there. The statue stands 34 metres high and is an impressive sight. It was so quiet up there, only us and 2 men who had driven up. I guess the hill puts many visitors off.

At Nagasaki station, I got a stamp in my book, and we saw some sort of celebration for the large shopping mall attached. One of the stalls was advertising a VR visit to Gunkanjima, an island of abandoned buildings off the coast of Nagasaki whose real name is Hashima. There used to be an undersea coal mine there but when the mine was closed everyone moved out and the island was left untouched for over 30 years. It’s now been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site and has become popular as a tourist destination. Unfortunately, the mascot we saw looked like a poo emoji with a small fort on his head. But he had a permanent smile on his face and was happy to pose for photos.

There’s a great deal of things to see and do in Nagasaki, impossible to do it all, or even more than a couple of things. One thing that we had to skip was the Suwa Shrine, where there is a spectacular pathway of red Torii gates, but again, many, many stairs. I also wanted to see the Megane Bridge, also known as the Spectacles bridge because the reflection on the river looks like a pair of spectacles. It’s a very old stone bridge, the oldest in Japan. Also a potential location for the blue ice cream cart, But I've had one now, so 'you can't do it all'.

Lunch calls, so we head over to Chinatown, one of only 3 in Japan. We visited the biggest one in Yokohama. We find a restaurant that is full of locals, they’re usually the best ones to go to. A well known dish in Nagasaki is Champon noodles, so of course, I have to try that. It was nice but doesn’t compare to the black ramen I had in Takaoka. We finally figure out the restaurant is called Syunkasyuto. The chopstick package reads ‘Chinese Saikan Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter’ and the boss lady gestures that that is the restaurant name.

Expecting another jam packed tram, we head back to the stop that will get us back to the ship.