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There's No Place Like Nome!
So we wave Russia goodbye and head east across the International Date Line (and have July 7th for the second time!) heading for Nome on the west coast of Alaska. The van meeting us at Nome's harbour is driven by the town's mayor a very garrulous and enthusiastic cheerleader for the town who explains...
On A Clear Day You Can See Sarah Palin!
We've left Kamchatka behind us and we're now in Chukotka, the district of northeastern Russia that's closest to the US mainland, or at least Alaska! The bad news is that we've also left what passed for good weather behind. Our first stop was scheduled to be at the small Chukchi community of Meynypil...
Bear Behind
After leaving Bering Island in the Komondor group of the Aleutian chain we sail in a northeasterly direction back to the coast of Kamchatka and beyond to the district of Russia known as Chukotka. This is the far northeast of Russia, about as remote as it gets! Green Balls The only way of getting her...
Lost Berings....
We finally depart the Kuril Islands and head north towards the Kamchatka Peninsula. Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy to give it its full official name is the capital (and just about the only) city of Kamchatka. The city was named for the two ships, St Peter and St Paul which made up Vitus Bering's second v...
Along the edge of the abyss
Into the Kurils From Tuyleniy, we head east across the Sea of Okhotsk towards the volcanic island chain known as the Kurils. There are some 50 or so islands in the chain between the northern tip of Hokkaido and the southern tip of Kamchatka. Like Sakhalin, over the years the islands have changed han...
Sea lions the size of a Fiat....
On board the Silver Discoverer, we leave Hakodate and head northeast towards the Russian island of Sakhalin. The island has at various times been Russian or Japanese and last changed hands in 1945 at the end of WWII. It takes a good day and a half for us to reach the port of Korsakov at the southern...
(n)ONSEN(se)
Leaving Tokyo We leave Tokyo after a couple of days and zoom up to Hakodate on the island of Hokkaido. Literally zoom – in the new bullet train. The shinkansen service connecting Hokkaido with Tokyo only came into service in early 2016, cutting the journey time by almost a half compared to the regul...
A Royal Flush
It's always fascinating to return somewhere that we've travelled to several times over the years. And Tokyo fits into that category. We first came nearly 40 years ago when Japan seemed so remote (and expensive!) that few tourists ever ventured here. During the 80's and into the early 90's, Japan was...