As the title of this post says, the itinerary has today as “Sapporo” because, technically, we are docking there today … but not until 6pm. So, by most measures, today is another day at sea.

Which meant ordering coffee for the stateroom after yesterday’s successful experience. I marked the card for a later delivery - 7:45am instead of 7:30am - but it was still delivered early - 7:20am. Just as well I had kept my alarm set for 7:15am!

After a reasonably light breakfast, we went to a talk given in the Star Theatre. Laura Macfarlane talking about “Ten Things That Only Exist in Japan”. There were some interesting points covered, like vending machines that sell items like knickers that we’d never see in Western culture! Or the now infamous Japanese toilets that have all sorts of buttons to press for music or cleaning yourself. Or plastic renditions of food sold in a restaurant so that you know what the dish you are ordering will look like.

My wife has been using the gym on sea days and she likes the fact that the machines all face outwards, allowing her to see the scenery as the ship progresses. Today, she was able to see the snow-capped mountains!

In addition to the machines in the gym, there are also exercise mats and good supplies of towels & water but there are no staff on-hand if you need help.

At trivia today, we scored the same as yesterday - 10 out of 15. The team felt that the questions were harder but, then, the questions are only easy if you know the answers!

In the afternoon, we went to another “enrichment” talk, this time about how to take better photographs with your smartphone. Modern phones have a lot of technology built into them to help you take good photos … but they don’t really come with a manual any longer, so this talk was sharing tips on how to get the most out of your phone as well as some composition techniques. It was a great talk given by Richard Lovelock who is on-board to also talk about watching the wildlife.

The talk finished just as we were docking at Otaru, so we went out on deck and watched a lovely welcome from the locals, although their choice of “Hey, Jude” by the Beatles was a bit … curious?!

For dinner, we decided to eat at the World Cafe where we had New York steak - beautifully cooked but, alas, no photo!