Su Zhou Hao, Seasickness, Sushi and Singing

We made the 46 hour journey across the Sea of Japan to Osaka on-board the Su Zhou Hao ferry, which was pretty good as ferries go! It had capacity for 270 people, but there only about 40 making the trip so it was nice and quiet. We booked to share in a 4 bed cabin, but because it was so empty we had the cabin to ourselves which was a bonus.  The ferry had a restaurant, a bar and we seemed well set… until we got out to open sea. Then the sea slowly started to get rougher, the waves gradually got bigger and the boat started to sway more and more. We were fine for an hour or so of this but eventually we gave in to the sea sickness and ended up in our bunks at about 6pm, where we stayed, barring a few brief trips to the outside deck, for the next 24 hours!  Luckily we didn’t actually succumb to throwing up but it was a close call on several occasions!  Frustratingly, on the last day on the boat, we spotted anti-seasickness tablets at the reception desk.  Not much use to us by that point!

Early on the second evening we moved into inshore waters between the southern islands of Japan and suddenly everything was fine again, and we managed to finally haul ourselves out of bed. We both sampled the Japanese baths (separate rooms for males and females with jacuzzi-like baths in them) and wolfed down some dinner – both pretty hungry by then! Click here to read more…