Kochi, Japan – And a Birthday Well Celebrated

Sunday, April 22nd, 2018

Barbara reached another milestone today ….

As stated before, we have the best ‘friends/family’ onboard and “Pita” is at the top of our list! Her gift to Barbara is a miniature musical instrument from her home town – so very special.

Some images here;

Our arrival was met with a very enthusiastic city, from their fantastic drum corps to the clean modern transportation into the heart of town.

After a lengthy wait to board the shuttle bus and a special video documentary onboard we ‘de-bussed’, had the visitor info folks hail us a taxi for the short ride to ‘The castle’. This had been one of Barbara’s wishes, that she could visit a Castle; how appropriate to make that wish come true on her birthday.

At the beginning of our climb we noticed a nice touch, as a gesture of friendship, these walking sticks were offered, free of charge.

Though it was quite a climb, the gentle slopes and the ‘pauses for beauty’ made it easy.

Can you see the ‘greeting face’ in this image?

At the ‘summit’ grounds, there was this ‘date post’ that everyone seemed to use for group picture taking, two of the numbers represent Barbara’s birthdate, not sure what the “30” means – oh well …..

A perfect day came to an end too soon with a birthday celebration in the MDR with a requested Carrot cake, and the usual Indonesian Celebration song, cheer-led by a very enthusiastic Japanese gentleman we have dubbed “The Last Samurai”. Diane and Barrie, two of our very special table mates, presented Barbara with a special birthday gift from Kochi.

Our evening was closed by a “70’s” concert by a fantastic vocalist from Australia; Annie Francis. WOW!

Tomorrow we will revisit Osaka and possibly view Mount Fuji again + we have been invited to participate in a test kitchen workshop by none other than “Eva the Diva”. Should be another banner day.

Jack W Cummings – Far East Adventures 2018