9 March, Friday—en route to Okinawa, Japan.

Our last installment ended as we left Brisbane, our final stop in Australia. We had three days until Rabaul, Papua New Guinea.

Amazingly, the sea days go so quickly! If you read the earlier posts on this blog, you can see how many activities there are. We have definitely fallen into a routine. Mornings are breakfast, either in the dining room or the lido, a walk on the deck and lectures beginning at 10 am or a visit to the World Cruise Lounge and chats with friends. The afternoon begins with the Captain's announcements and the blowing of the whistle and ringing the bells. After the Captain's announcement in English, until we reached Sydney, the announcement was translated only into German. Now the announcement is now translated into Japanese. We currently have approximately 500 guests from Japan on board. I love formal night, because so many of the women are dressed in beautiful kimono and look so lovely. We have also seen men in more somber kimono (if that is the correct term for it when worn by a man.) There has been a change in the offering in the Lido also. Breakfast has a large station of miso soup and rice, and lunch has more sushi and Japanese pickled vegetables. We don't eat dinner in the Lido, so I'm not certain about the offerings. Today in the laundry room, I had to help a man who spoke only Japanese use the washer. Through gesture and mime, we got it sorted. He was wearing a beaded pouch for his cruise card around his neck, and it said Crystal Cruises and had the twin seahorse emblem. I said “Crystal Cruises? Number 1!” He broke out in a big grin and said “Number 1! Number 1!”

Our lecturers over the sea days until Rabaul have varied. We have the man, John Hocknull, who served in Papua New Guinea as a District Manager for over 20 years. He was responsible for supervision of villages in the lowlands and deep in the jungle, as well as high in the mountains. His lectures have been interesting, as his duties included policeman, magistrate, jailor and council advisor.

Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock, MBE was interviewed by the Entertainment Director, Jo Haley, about space exploration. Richard Atkins spoke again, this time about auto racing and those who he has met. Dr Helen Doe spoke about I K Brunei and his ships. High-Profile Speaker Stephen Cole lectured on “The Tragedy of the Arabs,” A modern look at the history and problems of the Arab World: wars, corruption, terrorism and falling oil prices. A very grim scenario. John Chapman spoke on The Bletchley Park Story—an interesting part of WWII history, but not a great speaker.

We have been treated to current films every afternoon. We've seen “Churchill,” “Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri,” “The Weight of Water,” “The Lion,” etc.

The Port Presenter has given excellent lectures on upcoming ports, with much less emphasis on Cunard tours, and more about what we may find independently. A nice touch!

Entertainment still remains weak. We've had Acrobatic Team of Gilles and Laure (since this is the second time they've performed, I wonder if they do odd jobs around the ship like painting the flagpole, etc. Another comedian/singer by the name of Berni Flint performed—pretty old jokes!

We have had guests to the cabin for drinks, and been invited to others. Tomorrow, we will have lunch in The Veranda with three of our friends.

The highlight of this segment was Rabual, Papua New Guinea. This island of 5.9 million inhabitants has had multiple tragedies. It has a long history of occupation and colonization, repeated destructive volcanic eruptions destroying villages and killing and injuring residents. When Japan entered the WWII in December 1941, the Japanese invaded. They turned Rabaul into a fortress and a major supply base for their Pacific fleet. Slave labour was used to dig thousands of miles of tunnels and build airstrips. At its peak, almost 100,000 troops were stationed there and there were five airstrips, submarine and seaplane bases a huge number of naval vessels in Simpson Bay. Rabaul was subject to repeated airstrikes by US warplanes. The town remained in Japanese hands until the end of the war in 1945, but the harbour was littered with over 50 wrecks of ships.

Rabaul was rebuilt, but in 1994, Mt Tavurvur erupted violently, followed closely by Mt Vulcan on the other side of Simpson Harbour. The town was evacuated, but eastern Rabaul was buried under several feet of volcanic ash. All the buildings but one were crushed, because it soon rained and the ash became like concrete, squashing every roof. The only building that remained was the Hotel Rabaul, because the owners and workers continued to shovel off the piling ash. The area around the hotel looks like a wasteland. Rabaul was rebuilt on the other west side, and has developed some industry and increased tourism. Cannibalism was practiced until only about 30 years ago. I was afraid that locals might picture me plump and juicy with an apple in my mouth!

We found the people friendly and gracious. Although English is the official language, there many other languages, because there are 700 different cultural groups. Only 2 per cent are fluent in English. Of note in the photos is the red coloring of the residents teeth and mouths from chewing betel nuts as a mild stimulant.

Housing ranged from very primitive huts to well kept modest homes and larger, more modern home in Kokopo, where the airport is located. There is frequent evidence of war reminders, both in simple museums and as markers in the village: airplane skeletons, etc. Many amazing dive sites are easily accessed throughout the island.

The children are beautiful, many with fair hair, and the mothers are quite deservedly proud of them. We bought a carved hunting mask for our grandsons, made by the man selling them. He was working on one as we watched.

The heat and humidity was perishing, though, and I had turned into a puddle of ghee by the time we returned to the ship.

It was possible to see a glow and smoke from one of the volcanoes as we left the harbour.

We have have three more sea days before arriving in our first port of call in Japan, Okinawa. In addition to Okinawa, we will visit Osaka (overnight and a second one day visit), Kochi, Hiroshima, Kagoshima and Nagasaki. We chose this itinerary primarily because of the return to Japan, and fortunately, all of these ports are new to us. Tucked into this Japanese itinerary is a visit to Busan, South Korea.

Tonight is Neptune's Ball, and only a few of the guests get into the theme evenings, but may attend the balls after dinner. We had a second Crossing of the Equator Ceremony, and this time, our friend Paul was one one of the polliwogs who became a shell back! He was made to kiss a rather large fish, liberally doused in fish parts, spaghetti and colored gook before jumping in the pool! We cross the Equator 4 times in this journey, so we can look forward to more fun!