I Am A Celebrity!: Cruising in Japan; Omaezaki

OUR CRUISE was a circumnavigation of Honshu, the main island of Japan (with just one stop in South Korea). Our first stop: Omaezaki. Being on a cruise ship, our stops would obviously all be port cities. Some of them were relatively large cities. Others quite small. One thing that was almost universal was the "welcome" by local groups at each port. There was often also a sendoff. I think we had this at all but our final port. Usually it was local citizens, who appeared to be school-aged folk, or people who had hobby groups. Drummers always played a part.

I CONSIDER Omaezaki in the "small" category. It lies at the base of a relatively large peninsula jutting southeast into the Pacific. Like many coastal cities or towns around the world, there are some notable marine features. Omaezaki has a pretty famous (in Japan, anyway) lighthouse, as well as some nice beaches. One of their most important economic components today is tourism, particularly from visitors coming for the beaches and cooler climate during the warm summer months. In fact, Omaezaki is known for its wind and waves, and is considered Japan's premier windsurfing, and surfing destination. We didn't see any surfing activity, but it was early spring. Immediately adjacent to the port is a large, sandy beach area known as Omaezaki Marine Park.

AS WE cruised into the port in the early morning, I did my usual walk around the ship deck, looking for photographic opportunities of the port and city, from the high vantage point of the ship's upper deck. Omaezaki is clearly a commercial-industrial port (as were the majority of places we put in). I have always like viewing and photographing the cranes and containers, and other cargo in these ports. In the past I may just not have been very observant, but on this cruise, I noted (for the first time) pink containers. In Omaezaki, though, I also noticed hundreds (maybe thousands) of cars, waiting to be loaded on a ship for destinations unknown. If you look closely, the cars are all Suzukis. A little checking revealed that there are two Suzuki manufacturing facilities to the northeast and northwest of, and not far from Oemazaki. It was a vast number of cars. There is also a large Chevron facility (presumably tank storage) in the port.

NOT BEING a large city, we didn't find a lot to do at this stop. The cruise line offered an excursion (of sorts - I have given my opinion of cruise-line based tours here before). We are not big followers of ship-based excursions, generally feeling that they are overpriced and that they underperform. In this instance, the "package" we got through our travel agent included several cruise-based excursions, as well as a drink package and a couple of "comped" specialty restaurant nights, so we took advantage of them. As expected, this one was one of many busses contracted by the cruise line. There was no guide and no commentary. They just dropped us off at the locations and let us know how long we had. We made two stops off the ship. The first was a local "fish market." The second was the previously noted "Omaezaki Lighthouse."

THE LIGHT is up on a bluff (Cape Omaezaki) overlooking the ocean on the far southern tip of the peninsula. We rode on past the Marine Park, and after our stop at the fish market, to a small parking lot near the lighthouse. Interestingly, the light and its setting is right on the edge of a mixed residential and retail (restaurants) area.

FAR BELOW the light you can see powerful Pacific waves crashing against the shore of the mixed sand and rocky beach. It is easy to see why this windy promontory produces great surfing waves. After our short excursion, we returned to the ship. I wouldn't say "nothing to see here," but I do think "not much to see here" is probably accurate. It is though, a new part of the world and a different culture and it is interesting to see how some things are similar, and some are very different.

I Am A Celebrity!

Sunday, May 19, 2024

Cruising in Japan; Omaezaki

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