MUFA Day#29: Today is Tuesday--Tomorrow is Tuesday

My Ultimate Fantasy Adventure, Day #29, traverses through a difficult to understand concept:  today, May 6, is Tuesday, and tomorrow, May 6, is again Tuesday on the Crystal Symphony, which will cross over the International Dateline.  What is this line and who created it?

In the mid-1800's, train schedules were screwed up because there was no standardization.  The United States, for example, had 100 different times in three time zones.  However, the Great Western Railway in the United Kingdom had by 1840 established a schedule using their Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as the beginning point of the day.  Thus, when in 1884 American President Chester Arthur convened a conference to determine how to organize global time, the Greenwich Meridian was selected as zero degrees latitude, with the circle looking down from the North Pole split into 360 degrees.  A line (with variations) from the North to South Poles at 180 degrees (on the opposite side of the GMT) was named the International Dateline, where the east side was, say, Sunday, and the west side, Monday.  Therefore, when you spend a whole  Monday cruising west to east, when you cross the dateline, you again need to spend a whole another Monday.  A reasonable example I found was by Jules Verne, from the 1956 film, Around the World in 80 Days:

In journeying eastward he [Fogg] had gone towards the sun, and the days therefore diminished for him as many times four minutes as he crossed degrees in this direction. There are three hundred and sixty degrees on the surface of the earth; and these three hundred and sixty degrees, multiplied by four minutes, gives precisely twenty-four hours - that is, the day unconsciously gained. In other words, whilst Phileas Fogg, going eastward, saw the sun pass the meridian eighty times, his friends in London only saw it pass the meridian seventy-nine times.^[20

Thus, Phileas Fogg, who thought he had returned to London one day late, actually made the 80-day limit because he forgot that he had gained a day by traveling eastwards, what the Crystal Symphony will experience today by cruising over that dateline.  Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 73% rating.  However, the 2004 re-make with Jackie Chan only scored 31%.

The International Dateline is not straight because certain countries justified adjustments to keep the same time throughout their territorial area.

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MUFA Day#28: Great Ships of the World

The daily newsletter on the Crystal Harmony, Reflections, has featured 'Great Ships of the World," the past two days, written by Karyn Planett.  References:   Part I of this series from their 13September2012 issue and Part II on 16April2013.  Read what the schedule was on those days, and nothing much has changed today. 

Steamships began with Great Britain in the early 1800s, when people followed their dreams to the New World and the various colonies.  Wooden hulls were replaced with iron, and coal was combusted to power the craft.  The first Atlantic crossing began on May 22, 1819, from Georgia to England, which is now celebrated as National Maritime Day in the U.S.  In 1831, 61 years after Captain James Cook, it took five months for the Sophia Jane (left) to travel 11,000 miles from England to Sydney, Australia.  Cooke took 19 months, but stopped at Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus, which was his main mission, then explored New Zealand for several months.

Then along came Sam Cunard, who in 1840 built the Brittania to deliver mail to America, signifying the end of isolation in the colonies.  His ships were commissioned by the British government to become mostly troop ships during wars, and twenty two Cunard liners were sunk by the enemy.  Of course, the government did provide the loans to build Cunard's Mauretania, Lusitania (whose sinking brought the USA into the First World War), Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.  Next year, Cunard Line, now owned by Carnival, will celebrate 175 years of cruising.

There was, of course, the RMS Titanic, a British passenger liner that sank on 15April1912 on a maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City.  More than 1500 died.

But you've all seen this movie.

From 1892 to 1924 12 million immigrants arrived from Europe on these ships.  Cruising with flair began to develop just before the stock market crash in 1929.  Then, before the industry could recover, World War II again monopolized use of these vessels for troops.  The Queen Mary transported 16,683 on one voyage in 1943

Anthony Cooke today lectured on "The Great Liners," which he identified as:

• SS Ile de France:  was the first ship built after World War II, and was not the fastest nor biggest, but the most-beautifully decorated:

• SS Rex was the greatest Italian ocean liner, launched in 1931, holding the Atlantic speed record from 1933-1935, with a low of 4 days and 14 hours.

• RMS Queen Mary sailed from 1936 to 1967, and held the Atlantic speed record from 1938 to 1952.  She was retired in 1967 and became a hotel and museum at Long Beach.  Thus she only was operational for 31 years, but has served as a docked tourist attraction for 47 years.

Not sure why Cooke left out the U.S.S. United States, for she is the largest ocean liner constructed in the U.S., and is the fastest to cross the Atlantic in either direction, still retaining the record today at 3 days 12 hours and 12 minutes, even though she was retired in 1989 only after 17 years of service.  From 1969 till today, the ship has been passed on to several owners intent on resurrecting her service, including being docked in Ukraine.  In 2003, Norwegian Cruise Lines purchased the SS U.S., with the intent to restore service in Hawaii.  Unfortunately, she today sits rusting away in South Philadelphia.

These Grand Old Ladies were relatively svelte, compared to the behemoths of today:

• Queen Mary                         81,235 gross tons     1018 feet
• United States                       53,329 GT                 990 feet
• Independence of the Sea   160,000 GT                1112 feet

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MUFA Day#27: Crystal Symphony and the Return of 3D

My Ultimate Fantasy Adventure, Day #27, was like any cruise day, so let me keep that short and add a report on the return of three dimensional television.

I should indicate that the readers of Conde Nast Traveler and Travel+Leisure have voted Crystal Cruises to be the Best Large-Ship Cruise Line for 16 years now.  Thus, while I can only crystallize the essence with my photos and reportage, I can only rave about the service, cuisine and overflowing amenities.

I had to sacrifice a meal, so I sleep in and begin eating with lunch, and today I had two soups, two salads and some mushroom concoction with  a Bloody Mary and glass of Chardonnay:

Then for dinner, Nobu's sushi bar:

You can order menu items like miso soup and Wagyu steak from Nobu's Silk Road.  You can only barely see them here, but for the first time in my life I had a cold sake, hot sake and cold beer at the same sitting to accompany my meal.  Then the evening ended at Luxe, a discotheque that played songs of the 50's and 60's, but probably because the people dancing were that old.  How's this for heaven?  I was the only male with ladies mostly from Japan and India:

Discos didn't come into existence until the 70's, and peaked in the 80's.  This was so long ago that I forgot how to spell discotheque.

Well, let me tag on this posting about the return of 3D.  We see in three dimensions, so I have eternally been pursuing the reality of 3D in photos and television.  We've long had this feature in movie theaters, although the bother of glasses and the minimalist enhancement did not make the extra expenditure worthwhile.  The concept has been around for nearly a century.  Remember Bwana Devil in 1952?

Here is the full 80 minute movie.  All you need to do is find those polaroid glasses.

Several decades ago when I was into photography, having a darkroom using Cibachrome, I invested in various gadgets that promised 3D.  The results were mediocre and not worth the effort.  There still are various techniques to produce 3D views.

Two years ago I bought two SONY large screen TV sets featuring 3D.  The early hype worked on me, for I was surprised how much more realistic football, and even golf, played on the screen.  Well, while not totally dead, 3D TV turned out to be a waste of money, as programming was abandoned and those glasses were a pain.

However, now comes Oculus Rift, the virtual reality headset that just could well provide the answer.  Here is the story:

• Two decades or so ago, John Carmack wrote a 3D video game and became a legend in his field.
• Two years ago 19-year old Palmer Luckey created what is now Oculus Rift, financially aided by Carmack.
• Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg was so inspired by the prospect of OR, let's call it Rift, that he paid $2 billion for that company.  While gaming remains as the first bridge, the implications of total virtual reality is obvious.

Mind you, Facebook purchased WhatsApp for $19 billion, just to share photos, so don't get too excited about the early commercialization of 3D for everything you see using electronics.  Certainly, there is competition, for that same SONY company recently announced Project Morpheus (below) a virtual reality (meaning 3D) headset for gaming.  Yes, 3D is on the horizon.

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MUFA Day#26: On the Crystal Symphony for Honolulu

The Crystal Symphony is the sitter ship of the Crystal Serenity, both built in Finland and approximately 20 years old.  Everything significant for me on this trip has been like a 20th reunion, like the New York Grill, Tokyo Westin, and, now, this ship.  The maximum customer capacity is 922, although some say there are only a little more 600 currently sailing on this leg.   Others indicated less than 500.  Here, the sun setting next to Tokyo Tower in the background.  Then we departed.

The Symphony was refitted in 2006 in Norfolk, Virginia, went through a third refitting in 2009 in Boston, and completed a two-week extreme makeover in Germany in 2012.

Well, this Crystal cruise is fabulous, for the food is exceptional and all the drinks are free.  Some typical shots of meals, teas, shows, and so on:

Sometimes you dress up:

And sometimes not, here with a Glenfiddich on rocks:

There are, of course dance classes (I've now learned swing and fox trot, with cha-cha tomorrow), movies, golf lessons, computer classes (I'm actually paying $300 just to continue my blog and read my e-mails for a week) and stage shows:

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MUFA Day#25: Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology...plus

President Tadashi Matsunaga provided a personal tour of his campus, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Nokodai, yesterday.  His presidential office on the Fuchu Campus is huge.  This is a rich national university because they have so much land to leverage, including selling pieces off to accomplish monumental goals.

The first stop was at their research facility where their professors have doubled the production of blueberries and other farm commodities by "fooling" the plant into quicker seasons.  Some of this work is already being commercialized, and the potential is to triple the crop harvest.  The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority experienced similar results by having two crops of Chardonnay grapes as soon as at the age of three by varying the flow rate of cold deep ocean water (through thin tubes, where water from the atmosphere condenses, thus also providing irrigation) placed next to the root system of the vine, where the plant is deluded into accelerating their growth.  Apparently, the sensors being deceived are in the roots, not above ground.  This is the agricultural Fuchu Campus:

We then visited the engineering Koganei Campus, where we stopped through their newly upgraded Nature and Science Museum and learned two monumental accomplishments:

• Much is exhibited about the history of the silk industry in Japan, which kick-started their modern industry.  For example, here is some of the automation built by Nissan almost a century ago to manufacture silk.  Nissan (and Toyota) began their operations not with cars but silk machines:

Note the Nissan logo.  Here I am with President Matsunaga and Museum Director Norihiro Umeda.

• We saw an exhibit featuring Professor Akira Endo of Nokodai, who "invented" statins to treat high cholesterol.  He is soon slated to win a Nobel Prize.

Interesting that Japanese universities are permitted to sell products developed on their campus, here using Nokodai as the selling brand, as, for example, sochu.

Nokodai is 140 years old.  There are 4,000 undergraduates and 2,000 postgraduates, including 400 international students.  Matsunaga himself has mentored more than 50 PhD students, who have formed a Matsunaga mafia throughout the country.  The Matsunaga biotechnology laboratory currently has around 50 students doing research.

The next stop was Black Cat, a Japanese restaurant featuring the best sushi and wild boar sukiyaki:

We started with beer, then went on to sake and two kinds of sochu, one, of course being from Nokodai.  The larger bottle is a Nakamura sochu, and, frankly tasted very mellow and mild.  Almost un-sochu-tasting.  We discussed how the Nokodai sochu needs to be improved to the Nakamura quality.  But that was not the end of the evening, for the next stop was Azumi, an interesting concept.  Almost like a traditional Ginza type karaoke bar, but featuring staffers who are accomplished musical artists.  Here we are in the middle of a Mozart concert:

Another later sang opera.  Here we had a bottle of bordeaux and some Chivas Regal.

Finally back at Compass Rose with my Nikka Yoichi 20-Year Old Whiskey with a Cuban:

Sitting close to me was a newlywed (tonight--and they will move to Kazakstan this Fall) couple, so I invited them to join me for some Yoichi.  We talked for a long time and I learned so much about the current young generation:

Sato and Lisa invited me to join them today for a soba lunch:

What a fine way to end my Japan visit, for I next taxi to the Crystal Symphony, departing tonight for Honolulu.

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