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A Visit to Hawaii, North Pacific Japan and China, September/October 2013
Ed Orsborn and Robin Randles

Slide Show of Photos with captions at end of trip information 

Ed Orsborn and Robin Randles cruised for 32 days in September and October to the North Pacific, Japan and China ending with a four-day stay in Hong Kong. The cruise left from Vancouver, B.C., visiting Los Angeles, Hilo and Honolulu, Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands; Guam – a US Territory; Saipan in the Marianas Islands; Kobe, Kyoto and Nagasaki, Japan; Shanghai, China; and ending in Hong Kong. We sailed on a Holland America ship, the ms Amsterdam.

It was half of a 72-day cruise and when we left most of the passengers were yet to complete their remaining 40 days. Our fellow passengers were mostly elderly and very pleasant people. The food, accommodations and ship personnel were great. The excursions, however, were expensive and cost nearly as much as the basic cruise cost.

The highlights were visiting WWII sites in the Pacific such as Guam, Saipan and Chuuk (or Truk). We saw invasion beaches and American tanks still sitting in the surf.

Other highlights were rides on a bullet train in Kyoto (120 MPH) and the Maglev train in Shanghai, which had no wheels and levitated above a concrete “track” and was propelled by magnets to a speed of 260 MPH!

A visit to Nagasaki, Japan was necessitated when a typhoon Wipha caused our ship to skip Okinawa and sail the Inland Sea of Japan to Nagasaki. It was very interesting to visit Ground Zero and stand 1200 feet beneath where the Atom Bomb detonated over that city on August 9, 1945.

Upon return home we discovered a $1300 phone bill because I had not turned data roaming off on my iPad by mistake. AT&T forgave me and credited us for the bill. Whew!


It wasn’t until our return that we learned of the passing of our dear friend, Jack Rogers. This loss diminished the world for all of us.