20240928 Saturday, September 28, 2024 Approaching Japan

As we made our way to the buffet for breakfast, it was apparent the ship had big plans for lunch around the pool and Wintergarden areas.  They had opened the wall between the two areas, creating one large glass covered space, and were setting up all manner of tables and equipment for an elaborate lunch banquet.

As we are now heading south, the temperatures have been warming into the 60’s.  Ben went for a walk around the promenade deck after breakfast and it was quite pleasant.  We have been followed by a number of different sea birds now that we are closer to land.  Our track is taking us down the east coast of Hokkaido Island.  We are supposed to arrive in Sapporo on September 30, so our long stretch of sea days is coming to an end.  

Today was Progressive Trivia Quiz number 6.  There were a couple of questions that we had to scratch our heads over a bit, but ultimately, we ended up deciding on the correct choices.  When the scoring was announced, there was a 3 way tie for 3rd place with 9 points, and a 6 way tie for 2nd place with 10 points.  But when Arianna announced first place with a perfect score of 15 was Team Whateva, there was an audible groan and round of boos from the crowd.  We are definitely suffering the wrath of tall poppy syndrome.  

But tomorrow’s will be the last of the progressive trivia quizzes.  We figure, if the second place team gets a perfect score tomorrow, we will only need 2 points to win the progressive score, or as Chris, our math teacher says, the final is optional.  But now we really have a reputation to live up to.  

The lunch event on the pool deck was really quite fancy.  They had fruit and veggie carvings, a huge array of sandwiches, pasta, omelette, and ramen stations, sushi and seafood, including tanner crabs, which are a bit smaller than king crabs but have sweeter meat.  They were almost as good as Dungeness, but were still from frozen.  They would probably be as good fresh if that were an option.  During lunch, Janet was seated at a poolside window with a view straight out onto the water when a humpback whale decided to surface and then dive right in front of her not more than 50’ from the ship.  Ben had just left to find a napkin and missed the whole show.  

The afternoon was naps, pre-recorded lectures and thermal spa time.  We snuck in early to the Chef’s Table for an Indonesian nouveau cuisine experience.  This started with a chicken rice noodle soup where they brought out the chicken and noodles in a dry bowl, and then poured in the broth at the table.  The granite was watermelon and ginger, which was refreshing, and very asian.  And the main was an Indonesian braised beef where the beef had been braised in coconut milk and spices.  It was fork tender and subtly flavored.  The dessert was mango gelato floating on a black rice pudding.

Rujak salad from Java

Chicken Noodle Soup Indonesian Style

Watermelon and Ginger granite

Beef Rending- coconut braised beef

Burbur Injin- coconut, jackfruit and rice porridge

We managed to sprint through the Chef’s Table courses, swigging each courses’ wine pairing, and made our way to the theater where we snagged some front row seats for the second production show of the cruise.  This one included our Trivia host and assistant cruise director Arianna and featured music from the movies.  They put on a great show with several solos showcasing the great vocal talent of this cast’s singers.  While Viking Ocean still doesn’t have any dedicated dancers on board, they have certainly stepped up their vocal talent to top rung talent.

Tomorrow our last consecutive sea day in this Bering Sea to Sea of Japan crossing, and surprisingly, we have yet another hour to fall back on the clock.