Ahoy 5170 Century Builders,
Sometime yesterday the second engineering officer got hurt rather badly
by falling down a ladder. We first found out about it when we went to
dinner and saw his head bandaged and his elbow wrapped up in bandages.
It reminded us that these ships do not have a Doctor on board. In fact
that is why they are not allowed to have more than a certain number
of passengers since if they had more they would be required to have
Doctors.
Usually one of the Officers is given some first aid training and then
one hopes that one can get to port with most of the emergencies. That
is one of the reason that if you travel on a freighter you need a health
certificate if you are over 62 and if you are over 79 you are not allowed
to travel this way at all. When I saw the officer who was injured I
asked him if it hurt and he said it did but that by the next day at
9AM he would be seeing a Doctor in Tokyo and then they would give him
some pain killers. This really makes you think about how careful one
needs to be on a freighter. Not that a Doctors Presence means you should
be careless.
This morning we got up a little early and watched as we picked up the
pilot at our rendezvous point
at 5AM and then we proceeded into Tokyo Bay until we were tied up by
8AM. The company’s Agent was to pick up Cindy and I up at 9AM
and then he would take us on several necessary errands on our way to
the “Shinkansen” or the Bullet Train.
As we were waiting for the agent in the Ship’s office and we
were squaring up the bill. Can you believe it we were only charged around
$10 for all of the emails which we sent to Tom. We were thankful that
the Captain allowed us to send the emails and then to find out that
it was so inexpensive that was really a bonus.
The Captain then gave Cindy and me a gift which we were not allowed
to open until we got to Osaka. He said he was giving it to us sine they
were not able to spend more time with us during the trip. Cindy and
I were very aware that the Officers and crew do not have any time for
passengers except for a little time at mealtime. A container ship is
a working ship and is not there for the passengers like a cruise ship.
In spite of that a real bonding happens and it feels like one is saying
goodbye to family when one leaves the ship.
The agent arrived and the Captain and the Chief Officer escorted us
down to the car and it was almost a tearful goodbye, like saying goodbye
to good friends. We and they waved as the agent drove us to our first
stop, the customs inspector. He drove us to a big warehouse where I
don’t think they ever inspected something as little as our luggage.
Three people came over from the other part of a dock where they were
inspecting a truck and they all looked through a piece of our luggage.
We had four pieces and since they each looked at 1 and found the nothing
they decided not to look at our 4th piece. They had Cindy explain why
someone would bring so many Harry Potter Tapes to Japan. Cindy did a
great job of telling them with the use of “Charades language”
since none of them spoke English. After a few laughs we were done and
the agent then drove us for nearly 30 minutes until we got to the immigration
office. There we had to fill out some forms and we were approved to
stay in the country for 90 days.
Then it was off to the bank to exchange Travelers Checks for Yen. We
noticed that the employees seemed so polite and there was a receptionist
type person who was very helpful as one walked in and she kept saying
this one word. “Irra shy ma say”, we wondered what that
was and our agent said that she is telling everyone who walks in “welcome”.
So Cindy and I practiced saying that all the way while the poor agent
was driving us to the train station. Then he helped us to buy the bullet
train ticket to Osaka. We made arrangements to call him a few days before
we are to board the next ship to return and we said goodbye to him as
we entered the area to get on the train.
Before we boarded we saw a familiar sign which Cindy could not pass.
We got a Starbucks coffee and relaxed for a few minutes before we got
on the train. We got on the train and realized we made a terrible mistake.
We got on the smoking car and realized we had to get on a non-smoking
car so off we went dragging our luggage forward 2 cars while bumping
people along the way until we got to the right car.
We saw a little of the countryside but it went by so fast and there
were so many tunnels that one did not get a good feel of the Japanese
countryside as we had hoped for. We started to get hungry and a lady
walked by with all kinds of goodies so we go some sandwiches and a green
tea. The sandwiches were like finger tea sandwiches and were extremely
good and hit the spot.
We got off the train in Osaka and we wondered whether the Hotel was
close or far, we even entertained the idea of walking to the hotel.
Nothing was in English and so I remembered how 34 years ago when I visited
Japan they said if you ever have a problem find a Japanese student they
all are learning English. There was a class of student so I barged in
and asked what looked like a teacher. Someone else saw him struggling
and came over to his rescue and was able to talk to us and go to the
candy counter at the station and found out that the hotel was about
a 30 minute drive and so a Taxi would be required. We thanked him “domo
arigato” and walked over to the Taxi stand.
We had a lot of fun with the Taxi driver. He quickly told us that he
could not speak English. I told him that there was a time when I could
not either. Then we asked him about a word which we thought stood for
English and he told us that what we were saying sounded like Korean
for crying (he showed us crying by using Charades type language). He
was very nice and it only cost us around $20 to get from the train station
to the hotel.
In the lobby we ran into
old friends like Past District Governor Dan Tynon who was one of our
instructors at GNATS and District Governor Elect Steve Snider, who is
one of the 9 Far West District Governors (PETS) and his wife Sharon.
We felt like we joined the world of the familiar again.
Cindy would say a few words about now but she has been asleep for about
an hour because she wants to get up early before the Institute and do
her Exercises.
By the way before Cindy went to bed we opened the package from the
captain and it contained a scarf and a tie with the Shipping's
company Logo. Very nice.
Saying goodbye from our first night in a room that does not move, strange!!!
Until we see you on the Website tomorrow.
Ron and Cindy
