The Nippon Maru Visits Victoria
DISCLAIMER: This post will only make sense to past participants of the Ship For World Youth program. If you are not one of them you’re welcome to read it, but be warned that there are a lot of inside jokes.
After asking about 7 people if I could board the ship without any luck a man in a uniform looked at me and said: "You... Are... XPY!" I must have jumped 2 feet in the air - I hadn't heard those 3 letters used together for a long time. Within a few minutes he made an appointment for me to board the ship the next evening.
The next day I went for a run on Ogden point (a wall that protects ships), with the Nippon Maru in the background, thinking warm thoughts about our program and about what the Nippon Maru means to so many people. Feeling all energized and excited about entering the ship in just a few hours, I sprinted all the way home to shower and get dressed in all of my SWY gear - a SWY T-shirt, my blue MOPAS bag, and my void Nippon Maru ID card.
And so I boarded the ship. Walked up those clanky stairs (sans Ship For World Youth banner), and made sure to duck my head as I passed through the security scanner. I showed my void Nipon Maru ID card, and sat down on the blue seats of the second floor, took a deep breath, and looked around.
At first, everything seemed smaller than I remembered it being. Did we really do yoga in that tiny space? I thought about the last night of the SWY 18 program, when everyone was on the second floor, lying on each other, hoping that the sun wouldn’t come up so we wouldn’t have to leave, dancing like a maniac for one last time… Looking at those blue vinyl seats I asked myself, where are all of the Bahrainians?
And the smoking room, the elevators… a big grin stretched across my face as I remembered dancing to the sounds of Singapora, making stops at random floors and picking up new converts. Where’s Kuni when you need him?
Then a girl working the administration desk called out “You are XPY!” and so I went to talk to her, and gave her a pressed maple leaf that I picked up from Mt. Douglas the week before. In a few minutes the guy in the uniform appeared, and asked her to take me on a tour of the ship, for security purposes. I gave him a maple leaf too.
It was nice to have someone who knew about the program give me the tour, and to take photographs of me. In all I think we spent about 20 mins touring the ship.
We started on the 7th floor… as usual the pool was closed, but the interesting thing was that they had a stack of yoga mats piled up in the corner… apparently they have yoga classes every morning for the old people on the ship.
Then we went outside to the sports deck, and the first real bout of shipsickness came when I looked at the 6th floor door coming out from the piano lounge.
While I was on the ship I never really realised how many good conversations took place outside that door, drinking Asahi and smoking cigarettes (which I don’t do any more by the way) late at night. Memories of dancing in the rain, hearing Ben & Jenny dish it out over gender roles, watching Jenny try to hit on Koishi, stargazing with Maggie, drinking sake with Baru and Ken came flooding back…
Then, the piano lounge. Pretty much the same, tho the bartender Jason wasn’t there. This was actually the only time I saw a few old people while on the ship, they were getting started on what must’ve been a good night. I expected to see the Swedes somewhere, with a MOPAS bag full of beer, but alas my desires were left unfulfilled.
There were a few interesting changes in the piano lounge, new seats on the walls, and an entire new ceiling to replace Havi’s punch hole. Yep, they replaced the entire ceiling. And the mermaid lounge had been transformed into a casino.
Then floor 5. Seeing the artwork on the stairs made me grin… The Japanese room was set up for board games, we stopped by the beauty salon and continued on to the dolphin hall. The thing that really hit me about floor five was the smell of the library. Smell is hands down the best thing to bring back memories.
They had some fancy new lights for Dolphin hall which made me jealous, and a band that played every night (that’s 101 consecutive nights) for the old people to learn different kinds of social dance. No sign of morning assemblies, or exotic flags hanging from the stage back drop.
Floor 4, and I walked by my old rooms, paying respect to Daisuke, Toti, Carlo and Kuni, No message boards on the doors however, it seems this cruise wasn’t as action packed as ours. We took a quick stroll around the exterior deck, over to the smoking section where we’d gaze at the ever-present sea while relaxing after a meal…
Then the 3rd floor. I was excited to go by the grand bath again, even hoping I might be able to take a bath, but alas it wasn’t so. But the smell of them from outside was enough… I was pretty sure I could hear Hicham singing somewhere too.
And of course, our good friends, the laundry machines. Memories of trying to iron while barely maintaining my balance from the waves, with the plug for the iron literally falling out of the socket, using the stinky drying room and forgetting about my clothes for weeks on end…
The administration counter on the 3rd floor was totally different, with nice pictures and without all of our beautiful handmade posters for seminars on Japanese calligraphy, costume parties, group facilitation, leadership in the 21st century, street dance… just a bunch of pictures of old people on those walls now.
Back on the 2nd floor I took a deep breath, and decided that my short reunion must come to an end. Then the girl said, well what about floor 1? I thought for a moment… just a bunch of closed doors really, why bother? Wellll…. What the heck, might as well, if only to extend my visit that much longer.
When I came down the stairs I saw a pretty familiar place that I’d almost forgotten about – the corner of death. SWY 18 Canadians, this one is for you!
PHOTO GALLERY - NIPPON MARU IN VICTORIA
PHOTO GALLERY - NIPPON MARU IN VICTORIA
On June 26th 2006 the legendary Nippon Maru sailed into Victoria, BC (Canada) - just blocks away from my house. As a recent participant of the Ship For World Youth 18 this was very exciting for me, to have my floating home away from home sail right to me, and so I decided to have a reunion, even if I was the only attendee.After asking about 7 people if I could board the ship without any luck a man in a uniform looked at me and said: "You... Are... XPY!" I must have jumped 2 feet in the air - I hadn't heard those 3 letters used together for a long time. Within a few minutes he made an appointment for me to board the ship the next evening.
The next day I went for a run on Ogden point (a wall that protects ships), with the Nippon Maru in the background, thinking warm thoughts about our program and about what the Nippon Maru means to so many people. Feeling all energized and excited about entering the ship in just a few hours, I sprinted all the way home to shower and get dressed in all of my SWY gear - a SWY T-shirt, my blue MOPAS bag, and my void Nippon Maru ID card.
And so I boarded the ship. Walked up those clanky stairs (sans Ship For World Youth banner), and made sure to duck my head as I passed through the security scanner. I showed my void Nipon Maru ID card, and sat down on the blue seats of the second floor, took a deep breath, and looked around.
At first, everything seemed smaller than I remembered it being. Did we really do yoga in that tiny space? I thought about the last night of the SWY 18 program, when everyone was on the second floor, lying on each other, hoping that the sun wouldn’t come up so we wouldn’t have to leave, dancing like a maniac for one last time… Looking at those blue vinyl seats I asked myself, where are all of the Bahrainians?
And the smoking room, the elevators… a big grin stretched across my face as I remembered dancing to the sounds of Singapora, making stops at random floors and picking up new converts. Where’s Kuni when you need him?
Then a girl working the administration desk called out “You are XPY!” and so I went to talk to her, and gave her a pressed maple leaf that I picked up from Mt. Douglas the week before. In a few minutes the guy in the uniform appeared, and asked her to take me on a tour of the ship, for security purposes. I gave him a maple leaf too.
It was nice to have someone who knew about the program give me the tour, and to take photographs of me. In all I think we spent about 20 mins touring the ship.
We started on the 7th floor… as usual the pool was closed, but the interesting thing was that they had a stack of yoga mats piled up in the corner… apparently they have yoga classes every morning for the old people on the ship.
Then we went outside to the sports deck, and the first real bout of shipsickness came when I looked at the 6th floor door coming out from the piano lounge.
While I was on the ship I never really realised how many good conversations took place outside that door, drinking Asahi and smoking cigarettes (which I don’t do any more by the way) late at night. Memories of dancing in the rain, hearing Ben & Jenny dish it out over gender roles, watching Jenny try to hit on Koishi, stargazing with Maggie, drinking sake with Baru and Ken came flooding back…
Then, the piano lounge. Pretty much the same, tho the bartender Jason wasn’t there. This was actually the only time I saw a few old people while on the ship, they were getting started on what must’ve been a good night. I expected to see the Swedes somewhere, with a MOPAS bag full of beer, but alas my desires were left unfulfilled.
There were a few interesting changes in the piano lounge, new seats on the walls, and an entire new ceiling to replace Havi’s punch hole. Yep, they replaced the entire ceiling. And the mermaid lounge had been transformed into a casino.
Then floor 5. Seeing the artwork on the stairs made me grin… The Japanese room was set up for board games, we stopped by the beauty salon and continued on to the dolphin hall. The thing that really hit me about floor five was the smell of the library. Smell is hands down the best thing to bring back memories.
They had some fancy new lights for Dolphin hall which made me jealous, and a band that played every night (that’s 101 consecutive nights) for the old people to learn different kinds of social dance. No sign of morning assemblies, or exotic flags hanging from the stage back drop.
Floor 4, and I walked by my old rooms, paying respect to Daisuke, Toti, Carlo and Kuni, No message boards on the doors however, it seems this cruise wasn’t as action packed as ours. We took a quick stroll around the exterior deck, over to the smoking section where we’d gaze at the ever-present sea while relaxing after a meal…
Then the 3rd floor. I was excited to go by the grand bath again, even hoping I might be able to take a bath, but alas it wasn’t so. But the smell of them from outside was enough… I was pretty sure I could hear Hicham singing somewhere too.
And of course, our good friends, the laundry machines. Memories of trying to iron while barely maintaining my balance from the waves, with the plug for the iron literally falling out of the socket, using the stinky drying room and forgetting about my clothes for weeks on end…
The administration counter on the 3rd floor was totally different, with nice pictures and without all of our beautiful handmade posters for seminars on Japanese calligraphy, costume parties, group facilitation, leadership in the 21st century, street dance… just a bunch of pictures of old people on those walls now.
Back on the 2nd floor I took a deep breath, and decided that my short reunion must come to an end. Then the girl said, well what about floor 1? I thought for a moment… just a bunch of closed doors really, why bother? Wellll…. What the heck, might as well, if only to extend my visit that much longer.
When I came down the stairs I saw a pretty familiar place that I’d almost forgotten about – the corner of death. SWY 18 Canadians, this one is for you!
PHOTO GALLERY - NIPPON MARU IN VICTORIA
posted by Adam Ungstad at 2:40 PM
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