14 April 1984 - Setting off for Siberia

Saturday 14^th April 1984.  We had to get up early – cases for porters at 7.00. Down to the lobby where everybody was a-gatherin’. I gave out luggage labels and bits of numbered papers to put in passports, thereby making sure that everybody had arrived from their various accommodations.

 We piled on to the bus and left at 7.50. It only took forty minutes to drive to Yokohama Port – the traffic was good. We passed a lot of condominia and factories, and the Yokohama baseball stadium – baseball, needless to say, is very

Not many park areas – almost all built up the whole way from here to there.

  We waited for a while in front of the immigration place and had our passports stamped to say we weren’t in Japan anymore. A group from Palaga Tours was also there. Then through customs, which involved a check of passports; up the escalators (“punishment for people who give away or sell cigarettes”, read a sign), and wait a while at the entrance of the gangway. Another check of passports: i) by a Japanese immigration official; ii) by a Russian sitting next to him.

  On board ship, in the Music Salon, I had to collect everybody’s passports and give them to the bursar, along with the passage ticket. [There were fifty people in the Sundowners group.]

  We undocked just after 11.00 and took, I don’t know, maybe half an hour to get out to sea. There’s not much room to move about in these cabins, but it’s adequate. Four berths, sharing with Wayne Smith, Robert Buchanan and Gregory Maroney.

  Ah, life on the ocean wave! (I’ve taken precautions). [Against mal de mer] While I was running around looking for the Mullins (a lovely old couple) for their passports, others had gathered astern and were sitting in deckchairs or lying on the hatch cover like seals on a rock. In the sun.

 We had lunch at 12.30; raw fish, mushroom and noodle soup, fried rice and rissole, washed down with juice de cherrie. Lunch over, there’s nothing much to do but sit around and talk, or write, buy three postcards for ¥630 or watch the east coast of Japan pass by.

  Afternoon tea at 4.30 – Nigel Hancock, Paul & Heather Walsh and I took eleven cream cakes between us. Well, a lot of people didn’t show up.

   Then there was a film on Russia at 5.30. “A good way to learn about Russia is through her literature and art. Before we start, let’s look at Pushkin.” I fell asleep because it was very hot in the Music Salon, and anyway I was tired.

  Then we had dinner at 7.00 – gluggy spaghetti and mince. It’s easier to just eat bread. Quite a few people didn’t surface. Sat around in the Music Salon for a short while, then to berth before/around nineish. Slept for half an hour, woke up, slept, woke up, slept, woke up. At half past three, I found a curious little note from my neighbours in the next cabin – Elly and Jane.