Boog's Blog

A day of wandering the hood followed by dinner at John’s- a tradition.

Wednesday

Chores for leaving done and trip to Trinity church to hear their restored organ. A concert.

We came to hear this renovation of the organ. Details, more than one is likely to need, follow.

First 10 of 15 seconds mostly organ than the choir jumps in 

The village Halloween parade is tonight. We will be seeing it from sixth Avenue not far away.

Found a new place we like: a tavala calda.

Note the little pumpkin pastry above: almond mousse base (“dirt”), almond cake, chocolate mousse and pumpkin cream. We didn’t have the nerve to try it.

Big presence in case there is crime

Anish Kapor exhibit at the Jewish museum. Went especially to see the VANTABLACK, known as the blackest black there is and owned by him; explained in the wording below

So black that there is no shadow and you can’t see the depth

Then we went up to the museum of the city of New York. Same exhibits as we saw in our previous visit.

Select pics from village walk.

35,238 steps today. Legs tired but rejuvenated by dinner at Eataly.

Sunday:

When we got to Newark airport, the line to get in through immigration was probably an hour and a half long due to they’re being only one or two immigration desks open. Fortunately, we had global entry.

Global entry now is face only no form not a single piece of paper not even a way to declare how much we brought back walked right through

We got a nice collection of russet and a few others

Try to get into a Vietnamese restaurant that I had read about many months ago. The line looked like it was about two hours so we left and went to the Ramen place above.

At the Morgan Library

Fabulous collection of rarely seen drafting

Rain, heavy today.  Very heavy at times.

Early morning departure from the ship for late departure from the airport; there’s lots of time look around HND

Modern airport with many shops nicely arranged on the second and third floor.

 The airport even has two onsens. 

Sampled cheese, flavored macadamia nuts with sugar and cheese filled cookies and brie I think at one of the shops.

Nice lounge with acceptable food, but certainly not as good as the ANA lounge in Chicago even less so the Polaris lounge San Francisco

We were able to check in especially early. Flight departed on time.

Final port of tour. Castle tour, shrines, beach

Considered one of the most beautiful ports by the cruise company. Been here on previous cruise but did fish market etc but not the castle.

Long process to clear customs then for a walk in the dock area. QB will not go on the tour today. Still recovering

Found these in a sporting good store. They had to turn the display around, undo a combination lock and then reach in through a small hole to get to them. I tested a few of them, but the mechanism was so tight. I could barely open it. They agreed it was too tight, but did not offer to open another box of them, there were several so I left.

Premium stuff and there was a surcharge for the pear. Other is green tea they were out of Matcha.

This being a Monday the garden, which is a major part of the castle is closed, but they made an exception for us to open this magnificent garden, which was built just for one person the shogun. They also gave us a special pass to go in the garden, which, according to the guide she has never gotten before and she has been here many times.

The layout which is not obvious from the pictures mirrors, the bay and Mount Fuji area, where the boat is docked, and the mound is a representation of Fuji

Lots of extra pictures, including the entrance gate, etc., especially as QB has missed this tour 

Castle was destroyed an earthquake, and has not been rebuilt as they are still looking for the plans to rebuild it in the original design, so they have left it until they find the design.

Apparently lucky to have seen.

Several of the guests got lost on the way back to the bus and delayed the return. Guide explained she can leave them after 10 minutes, but she chose not to. She went to look for them.

Shizuoka Sengen Shrine

There was no time to Climb as we were rushed for time

Naturally photographs were not permitted

Fuji

Fuji is about 3750 m high

Walking towards the beach

Cruising the Kanmon Strait. 

A very quiet day of relaxation. Group dinner at Pacific Rim restaurant.

Lots of food to keep one busy and occupied. There seems to always be some place open. No all day buffet on this line.

Red Lightening

Not here. Just a pleasant diversion.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/25/science/red-lightning-new-zealand.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Added a couple of pictures for those who don’t have subscriptions or access to The New York Times. There is a fabulous time lapse in the article.

Dinner

Same group. Boat significantly rocking more. Big noisy wind. Will we have flying fish? Stay tuned.

Nothing slid off the plate 

No tours for us today. Based on a recommendation from Heelan: visit Centrum City and the worlds largest department store. In fact, seven hundred stores there.

QB very much under the weather today had a bad night stomach. Will not join.

Just a bunch of shots from the ship balcony

Taxi conversation. had a very good conversation using Google Translate he also was using Google translate so we each spoke into our phone and could hear the other speaking- phone worked perfectly.

it was especially easy as each phone could hear the other phone.

City has a feel a little like Singapore modern and everything seems to work.

like Singapore, no jaywalking

Centrum City

I got to the area a few minutes early, so I took a walk and why would I run into?grrrr

Think of 10 brands all 10 will be here 

supermarket with lovely marketing, different rooms for each specialty all of it laid out quite nicely and very well labeled

ice-skating rink

Almost 1501 to the dollar

Spa

Very much like the Japanese ones. No photos allowed, of course.

Gallery Tour: compliments of our travel agent through virtuoso organization

QB still horizontal and will miss this. I think she’s getting better.

Room remarkably cool due to filtration system did not get hot in there. Executive chef said it does not get hot.

Dinner

QB went back to sleep after a cuppa.

Caymus wine marketing lunch at a price. QB massage. Lots of free time for reading.

QB went to a line dancing class.

NB: have video saved

A short day with the rice crackers and rice storage visit. This is major rice area. An early ship departure for a day at sea tomorrow

Rice factory tour

This has to be one of the oddest tours I’ve ever been on. All you can see is occasional picture of obsolete machinery and rice crackers moving along a conveyor. Narrow hallway echoes a lot so it was hard to hear the guide.

Good story about Tootsie rolls: a woman we met on the tour told us she used to work at the Tootsie Roll factory in Hoboken. Her job was to write letters in answer to complaints about pieces foreign objects found in the rolls. She would send the apology note along with a complimentary box of tootsie rolls.

Then to old rice warehouse

Early am virtuoso tour. Later virtuoso gathering. All courtesy of our fine and soon to be retired guide.

UNESCO world heritage site, art museum, fine lunch, lantern museum.

Looks like a real city especially compared to the rural area we just came from which was apparently full of bears. According to Tom (see his comment of yesterday).

World heritage open air site and archaeological site of Jamon people from about 3000 BCE. Excavations, buildings wonderful visit. Would’ve been good to have more time to look at the museum.

https://kitano-jomon.jp/en/about_jomon_en/

Next stop the Aomori Museum of Art. Modern art big Chagall pieces for Ballet Theatre staging of Areko

Architecture and space of the museum very strange. Two large exhibition halls.

Next: lunch.

Lunch was at a wedding chapel or hall.

All of the tables had an odd number of chairs. Some had five chairs some seven etc.. No idea what to do when the party is six or eight. I assume that for a party of six they would sit you at the table with seven chairs??

Lantern Museum contains floats from the Aomori Lantern Festival which occurs in August. Floats are constructed of Japanese paper squares, wood supports and are painted and lit.

Aomori is well known for its apples. This is the Apple factory selling everything Apple. The edible type this time