Japan, Kairei cruise: Dec. 16-26, 2007
December 16
7:00 AM. I checked out of the Prince and hopped on the Yokosuka line to Yokohama, where I was supposed to meet up with 2 of our Canadian collaborators to head down to meet the ship in Yokosuka. When I got to their hotel, however, the only thing waiting for me was a note saying that they had left at 6:15 AM and that the time to be at the ship was 8:00 AM!! Since it was already just about 7:45 I freaked out and ran back to the station, rolling duffel in tow. Hopped the next Keisei line train south, learned that it was the tokkyu (limited express) and would not stop at the station I needed to go to. Switched to the futsuu (local) train at Kanazawa-Hakkei station still freaking out and double-checking with people standing on the platform that the next train went to Oppama...by this time it's 8:45 or so. Reached Oppama station and ran down to the taxi stand...fortunately by then I was feeling pretty confident about my Japanese and had no problem telling the taxi driver where I needed to go. I'm freaking...wondering what I'm going to do if the ship has left already...and also planning how to apologize for being late if it's still there. The taxi brought me to JAMSTEC's outer gate, where the chief scientist's grad student was waiting...telling the driver to take me right up to the ship. By now it's 9:15.
M/V Kairei
Me arriving...late
Bob and Earl, the Canadians, came out to help me get my bag on board the ship. I was feeling HORRIBLE...wondering if the captain was going to be really pissed because I was so late. I introduced myself formally to Masa-san, our chief scientist, then went up to the bridge to apologize to the captain. In my best teinei (polite Japanese) I bowed very low and said "Mou shiawake arimasen!" (I'm REALLY sorry). Fortunately the captain was so shocked that I spoke Japanese that he just laughed and replied (in English) that it was okay, and that he wasn't angry. Turns out our sailing time was 9:00 AM...so I wasn't THAT late...but according to Bob and Earl the captain was willing to wait 'a while'...I'm glad I didn't need to find out how long 'a while' was!
We put to sea and later that day had a ceremony on the bridge to pray to Kompira-san for good weather and a successful cruise. Sake was passed around and we all got to relax for a moment before science work began. It took about a day to sail out to our study area in the Nankai Trough...the subduction zone off the coast of Japan. Since our days at sea tended to be very similar, I'll give an example of a typical day at sea on the M/V Kairei.
0730: Little bells ring on the PA and someone announces that breakfast is ready. We have to get there promptly or the galley staff get mad.
0830-0900: The Remotely Operated Vehicle KAIKO 7000II is rolled out to the stern of the ship and launched
~1100: KAIKO arrives on the seafloor (~4600 meters below the surface) and science operations commence
1200: Bells over the PA announce lunchtime...we take shifts eating so that a scientist is always in the control room
~1400: Science work is completed for the day and KAIKO is pulled back to the surface
~1600: KAIKO is recovered and rolled back into its hanger
1730: Bells announce dinnertime
~1830: Science party gets together to discuss the next day's dive and prepare anything that's going in KAIKO's basket
~2200: Oyasumi! (Good night)
We were able to accomplish all of our major science goals during the cruise...including installing a plug that they've been trying to get installed for 5 years! The KAIKO pilots really know their stuff and did a great job. We did hit some rough weather towards the end of the cruise and lost the last dive, but we still got a lot done. It was really fun teaching the Canadians little phrases in Japanese, and I had a lot of interactions with the KAIKO team and the crew, most of whom were EXTREMELY shocked that I knew the language and that I knew so much about popular culture! I found out that the captain of the ship had seen "Nobuta wo Produce" and loved the theme song "Seishun Amigo"....although I think I surprised him more when I started singing it! I got teased a bit for being such a JE fangirl...and was even prodded into bringing out my YamaPi uchiwa that I had just bought, much to my embarrassment! The ship also had satellite TV, so I was able to watch a few episodes of Shounen Club, including the Christmas episode! Yuka, my roomate, came back to the room a few times to find me singing along with the TV....and Masa-san, on hearing that I like to sing, insisted that we go to karaoke next time I am in Japan.
Japanese research vessels run very differently than the US ships I've been on. The crew wear uniforms and everyone (including me) had a nametag. Jury-rigging things does not happen....there is (sometimes excessive) discussion before any change from the initial plan is made. All women aboard share an ofuro (bath) and toilet....which was great since there were only 3 of us. Also, the ship was not 'dry', so we were allowed to have beer/sake/shochu either with dinner or afterwards! This was great...we had a bunch of parties throughout the cruise, including one for Masa-san's birthday, for which Yuka, Aoki-san, and I decorated cakes!
I have to stop for a moment and just talk about the food on the ship....and the sheer VOLUME of it that we were fed! I had signed up for the "western" breakfast, so I usually had some type of egg thing (with ketchup of course), some bacon or sausage, an orange wedge, and fabulously fluffy Japanese bread toasted and coated with butter and the best orange marmalade I've EVER had (or strawberry jam). Lunch and dinner were traditional Japanese fare: including curry-rice, nabemono, donburi, udon, tempura, and a host of other fabulous items that I still don't know what they were. I tried everything and LOVED it all. Since we were on board for Christmas, we also got the chance to have a big Christmas dinner, complete with Christmas cake! The table was covered with plates and everything looked so beautiful that I almost didn't want to eat it! Normally I get worried when I go on a research cruise....since all that good food is around I tend to gain some weight. But even after eating all that food I didn't get the post-cruise "OMG I need to work out" feeling that I usually get...which was nice.
We came back to shore 2 days ahead of schedule...which was great since it meant that I had 2.5 more days to explore Tokyo! KAIKO was offloaded for yearly maintenance by this ginormous crane and taken to the warehouse. I helped unload the science gear and got a little tour of JAMSTEC from Yuka. They even have a tea ceremony room! Then I took the bus back to Oppama station and began my trip back to Tokyo.
7:00 AM. I checked out of the Prince and hopped on the Yokosuka line to Yokohama, where I was supposed to meet up with 2 of our Canadian collaborators to head down to meet the ship in Yokosuka. When I got to their hotel, however, the only thing waiting for me was a note saying that they had left at 6:15 AM and that the time to be at the ship was 8:00 AM!! Since it was already just about 7:45 I freaked out and ran back to the station, rolling duffel in tow. Hopped the next Keisei line train south, learned that it was the tokkyu (limited express) and would not stop at the station I needed to go to. Switched to the futsuu (local) train at Kanazawa-Hakkei station still freaking out and double-checking with people standing on the platform that the next train went to Oppama...by this time it's 8:45 or so. Reached Oppama station and ran down to the taxi stand...fortunately by then I was feeling pretty confident about my Japanese and had no problem telling the taxi driver where I needed to go. I'm freaking...wondering what I'm going to do if the ship has left already...and also planning how to apologize for being late if it's still there. The taxi brought me to JAMSTEC's outer gate, where the chief scientist's grad student was waiting...telling the driver to take me right up to the ship. By now it's 9:15.
M/V Kairei
Me arriving...late
Bob and Earl, the Canadians, came out to help me get my bag on board the ship. I was feeling HORRIBLE...wondering if the captain was going to be really pissed because I was so late. I introduced myself formally to Masa-san, our chief scientist, then went up to the bridge to apologize to the captain. In my best teinei (polite Japanese) I bowed very low and said "Mou shiawake arimasen!" (I'm REALLY sorry). Fortunately the captain was so shocked that I spoke Japanese that he just laughed and replied (in English) that it was okay, and that he wasn't angry. Turns out our sailing time was 9:00 AM...so I wasn't THAT late...but according to Bob and Earl the captain was willing to wait 'a while'...I'm glad I didn't need to find out how long 'a while' was!
We put to sea and later that day had a ceremony on the bridge to pray to Kompira-san for good weather and a successful cruise. Sake was passed around and we all got to relax for a moment before science work began. It took about a day to sail out to our study area in the Nankai Trough...the subduction zone off the coast of Japan. Since our days at sea tended to be very similar, I'll give an example of a typical day at sea on the M/V Kairei.
0730: Little bells ring on the PA and someone announces that breakfast is ready. We have to get there promptly or the galley staff get mad.
0830-0900: The Remotely Operated Vehicle KAIKO 7000II is rolled out to the stern of the ship and launched
~1100: KAIKO arrives on the seafloor (~4600 meters below the surface) and science operations commence
1200: Bells over the PA announce lunchtime...we take shifts eating so that a scientist is always in the control room
~1400: Science work is completed for the day and KAIKO is pulled back to the surface
~1600: KAIKO is recovered and rolled back into its hanger
1730: Bells announce dinnertime
~1830: Science party gets together to discuss the next day's dive and prepare anything that's going in KAIKO's basket
~2200: Oyasumi! (Good night)
We were able to accomplish all of our major science goals during the cruise...including installing a plug that they've been trying to get installed for 5 years! The KAIKO pilots really know their stuff and did a great job. We did hit some rough weather towards the end of the cruise and lost the last dive, but we still got a lot done. It was really fun teaching the Canadians little phrases in Japanese, and I had a lot of interactions with the KAIKO team and the crew, most of whom were EXTREMELY shocked that I knew the language and that I knew so much about popular culture! I found out that the captain of the ship had seen "Nobuta wo Produce" and loved the theme song "Seishun Amigo"....although I think I surprised him more when I started singing it! I got teased a bit for being such a JE fangirl...and was even prodded into bringing out my YamaPi uchiwa that I had just bought, much to my embarrassment! The ship also had satellite TV, so I was able to watch a few episodes of Shounen Club, including the Christmas episode! Yuka, my roomate, came back to the room a few times to find me singing along with the TV....and Masa-san, on hearing that I like to sing, insisted that we go to karaoke next time I am in Japan.
Japanese research vessels run very differently than the US ships I've been on. The crew wear uniforms and everyone (including me) had a nametag. Jury-rigging things does not happen....there is (sometimes excessive) discussion before any change from the initial plan is made. All women aboard share an ofuro (bath) and toilet....which was great since there were only 3 of us. Also, the ship was not 'dry', so we were allowed to have beer/sake/shochu either with dinner or afterwards! This was great...we had a bunch of parties throughout the cruise, including one for Masa-san's birthday, for which Yuka, Aoki-san, and I decorated cakes!
I have to stop for a moment and just talk about the food on the ship....and the sheer VOLUME of it that we were fed! I had signed up for the "western" breakfast, so I usually had some type of egg thing (with ketchup of course), some bacon or sausage, an orange wedge, and fabulously fluffy Japanese bread toasted and coated with butter and the best orange marmalade I've EVER had (or strawberry jam). Lunch and dinner were traditional Japanese fare: including curry-rice, nabemono, donburi, udon, tempura, and a host of other fabulous items that I still don't know what they were. I tried everything and LOVED it all. Since we were on board for Christmas, we also got the chance to have a big Christmas dinner, complete with Christmas cake! The table was covered with plates and everything looked so beautiful that I almost didn't want to eat it! Normally I get worried when I go on a research cruise....since all that good food is around I tend to gain some weight. But even after eating all that food I didn't get the post-cruise "OMG I need to work out" feeling that I usually get...which was nice.
We came back to shore 2 days ahead of schedule...which was great since it meant that I had 2.5 more days to explore Tokyo! KAIKO was offloaded for yearly maintenance by this ginormous crane and taken to the warehouse. I helped unload the science gear and got a little tour of JAMSTEC from Yuka. They even have a tea ceremony room! Then I took the bus back to Oppama station and began my trip back to Tokyo.