Pacific Fog: Vancouver to Tokyo

"Now, mentally rehearse your process and imagine striking the ball.  Visualize the flight all the way to the pin.  See the shot.  Then, take your stance and your body will make it happen."

Those words of encouragement, expressed by the most patient of coaches and mentors, still echo from an adolescence held captive by self inflicted inhibitions.  All might have been lost if that same youth had not been liberated by a passion for chasing after balls whether it be on the diamond, court, field, or course.  Unfortunately, no amount of "picturing" and zeal could compensate for the want of 4 inches in height, 50 pounds of muscle, and a competitive spirit that refused to cry uncle.

And so it came to be.... 

Whack down the fairway

It went smack down the fairway

Then it started to slice just a smidge off line

It headed for two then it bounced off nine

                                                      Straight Down the Middle, Bing Crosby

                                                                       Songwriters:  Sammy Cahn / Jimmy Van Heusen   

Well, old habits are hard to break.  Come September, in nine days time, Jamie and I will be embarking on a cruise from Vancouver, Canada to Tokyo, Japan via a route along the Southern Alaskan coast.  With itinerary in hand, a goodly portion of the last few days has been spent anticipating specific days of the upcoming voyage.  Visualizing if you will. 

"Hey, Jamie Lynne, in two weeks we'll be in Ketchikan.  It'll be fun to see...".

Of course, I really have no idea of what will actually transpire on any given day anymore than I know where that golf ball ended up.  You might say that the future as well as the past are often veiled in the haze.  Nonetheless, there will be a number of "sea days" while onboard and as is my habit, I aspire to write some blog entries based upon what was experienced on the previous day's ports of call.  

Further, the initial conception of this writing suggests that a theme be employed.  Our home on the Salish Sea is not far distant from Vancouver, BC.  Just across the border and approximately 58 miles as the crow flies.  One August morning last week our community was enveloped by a thick, drifting fog.  It left somewhat of a mystical impression and brought home the fact that we're likely to see fog throughout our route.  

Hmmm.....a journey shrouded in ashen gray would be the ultimate bummer.  Nonetheless, travel is so much more than simple visual gratification.  For instance, lessons have already been taught regarding Sumi-e - Japanese ink painting.  In this art form, mist is not an empty void but something called Ma - the intentional negative space that gives shape and meaning to the mountains emerging from it.  Indeed, fog does not erase the world; it provokes us to look deeper at what lies just beneath the surface.      

Yes, fog will be central to the subject matter that follows.  

Here we go!          

Now, the joy to tarry at the starboard watch with damp air clinging to the wooden rails.  A gull's laugh pierces the opaque and a horn sounds distant.  Then, to peer further into the Pacific fog.

Links:

Fog and Light (Psalms and Prayers)

The Battle of Kiska (1943)

Lighthouses - Imprisoned Guardians

Out of the Mist (Sights Along the Way)

Out of the Mist (Sights along the Way)

Port of Vancouver.
World trade, free and otherwise, continues on a scale
that boggles the mind despite government polices to the contrary.

"Oh my gosh!"

My sentiments exactly while riding shotgun.

4x4 "survival" course somewhere above Ketchikan, Alaska.

John Hopkins Glacier,
Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska

Hubbard Glacier as seen from Disenchantment Bay.
This picture was taken from about 6 miles out.
The glacier face rises 300 to 400 feet above the waterline
and stretches about 6 to 7 miles across the bay.
It is one of a few glaciers throughout the world that is advancing.

Lunch with a view.

Leaving Valdez, Alaska

Hike to Exit Glacier, Kenai Fjords National Park near Seward, Alaska.
Left:  Two hams vying for the spotlight.
Top right:  This glacier is receding.  The glacier reached far down this valley not long ago.
Bottom right:  Exit Glacier as seen retreating to its source, the Harding Icefield. 

Sea lions hanging out near the seafood processing plants, Kodiak, Alaska.
If only the camera could capture the smells.

When not taking selfies, we're taking pictures of each other.
This is the moment we crossed the International Date Line,
each in our favorite reading chair at the starboard watch.
Time:  6:10 P.M., September 17, 2026.
Place:  Latitude 54° 28.420' N   Longitude 180° 00.000' E
   

Two days later we became aware of Typhoon Dujuan 2026 - the purple swirl
on the map downloaded from Windy.com.
With the storm tracking from Tokyo to the Gulf of Alaska, a game of chicken ensued.
Thankfully, our captain flinched.

Entrance to the Imperial Palace, Tokyo.
Outer moat and Seimon Ishibashi (Main Gate Stone Bridge).
No.  We weren't invited in.

Tokyo Skytree, 2,080 feet tall, making it the worlds tallest freestanding broadcasting tower.
Confession:  This photo was heavily edited with AI.  The original was shot out of a moving bus.
  I debated myself about including it as I doubt it wins any photo awards.
But the structure as well as the AI process were interesting to me so here it is.

Left:  Monkey guardian, Hie Shrine.  
Right top:  Descending through 90 torii gates from Sanno Inari Shrine.
Right bottom:  Shinto shrine, Sanno Inari Shrine. 

Three sample works of art stumbled upon.
Artists, era, significance, medium, etc. all unknown.
But these and many more moved me to raise my phone camera.

Just like home....only cleaner.

Hinokicho Park.
Perfect tranquility in Tokyo Midtown.

Akasaka Hikawa Shrine.

Lunch break at Gonpachi Nishi-Azabu.
As the hostess led us to our table, she shouted "Irasshaimase!"
And I do mean full-throat loud!!!  
Then, the rest of the staff echoed back "HAI!  Irasshaimase!"
(Welcome! or Please come in!)

A very small slice of the Tokyo skyline
as seen from the 52nd floor of the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower.
At the far left horizon at distance, the Tokyo Skytree rises into the clouds.
Our last sightseeing stop and appropriately, in a misty rain.

Lighthouses - Imprisoned Guardians

The fog didn't disappoint.  Each morning dawned with a new shade of gray.  Occasionally, light with a slight blueish hue.  Other times, heavy and dense, confining and oppressive - holding captive the sense of sight as well as the images that the eye sees.  Still, even as one sense is restricted, another is set free....and the soul is comforted.

Please unmute the following 20 second video.

It makes me laugh - every time.

Given all that, there had been an assumption that lighthouses would reveal themselves commonly along our journey - if not by sight, then at least by sound.  Turns out, "common" would be a definite exaggeration.  Few and far between would be a more accurate description of lighthouse sightings.  Nonetheless, "few" seldom equates to none and each observance became valued all the more.  

Brockton Point Lighthouse
sitting atop Stanley Park Seawall
with Vancouver skyline beyond.

Guard Island Light
near the entrance to the Tongass Narrows,
just north of Ketchikan, Alaska

 

On left, Hiyoriyama (Weather Mountain) Lighthouse near Otaru, Japan
with the morning sun lighting Sea Lion Rock on right,
and the west coast of Hokkaido in background.

Sea Fort Lighthouse on Fort No. 2
near the chokepoint of Uraga Channel into Tokyo Bay.
Fort No. 2 (1889) was a man-made fortress island, now demilitarized.
The lighthouse remains a navigational marker to hundreds of vessels daily. 

Turns out, the days of the traditional lighthouses with their iconic masonry, massive glass optics, and human keepers are slowly slipping into seafaring lore past.  The two tone "beeeeee-woo" pitch drop of yesterday's diaphone fog horns echo distant although it's resounding clearly even now from somewhere in my brain and remains something more than a fond reminiscence.  I digress.  Today, modern ships rely on GPS, electronic navigational charts, and automated radio transponders to traverse the hazards inherent the high seas. When visual markers are required, simple steel poles and offshore buoys topped with solar powered LED's provide warning at a fraction of the construction and maintenance cost of their imprisoned guardian predecessors.

Original 3rd-Order Fresnel Lens from the Cape Hinchinbrook Light Station
on display at the Valdez Museum.  The lens focused 80% of the light emitted by an
incandescent oil vapor lamp producing roughly 234,000 candlepower to pierce the dense.
For my money, Jamie is the more radiant. 

Middle Rock Light 13
at Valdez Narrows, Valdez, Alaska.

Woody Island Channel Buoy 6
near Kodiak, Alaska.
It felt like a tight squeeze between the rocky shoals.

United State Coast Guard Cutter Aspen at berth in Homer, Alaska
with payload dockside.
Launched in 2001, the ship is operated as a seagoing buoy tender.
Her eponym was a steam-powered lighthouse tender commissioned in 1906
and assigned to the Great Lakes.

The lighthouse - a contrivance that humanity got right.  For how many beams have split the dark?  Never knowing if any would reach the eye of a human soul, yet always believing that the soul in harms way was worth saving. 

The Battle of Kiska (1943)

 "The horse is prepared for the day of battle,

But deliverance is of God."

Proverbs 21:31                                                         

The fog of war.  It's a real thing.  Not only in real time but also in regards to history bygone as well as prosperity future.  After all, "winners" will chronicle one version of events past, "losers" another.  Chalk that up to human nature.  As for destiny?  Indeed, the future is tied to the past.  While wars to end all wars have been waged, conflicts continue raging in this very hour, and greater battles are coming which foretell the Revelation.  Yet, in greater measure, these words of Christ our Lord spoken two thousand years ago apply today:

"But of that day and hour no one knows,

not even the angels of heaven,

but My Father only." 

                           Matthew 24:36

What follows is an attempt to neither glorify nor condemn, idealize nor denounce, canonize nor vilify.

Nor should we minimize one mother's tears as we elevate the sacrifices of millions more.  No.  What follows is to simply say that God is Great and His ways are mysterious.  I give you the Battle of Kiska (1943).  Codename: Operation Cottage.

7:55 on the morning of December 7, 1941 saw clear skies over a peaceful, nearly idyllic Honolulu, Hawaii.  Seventy-five minutes later, the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor lay battered, sinking and in flames.  In just over an hour, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service had delivered a decidedly one-sided military strike.  By all accounts, the attack was a tactical success although U.S. Navy aircraft carriers had been intended targets and none were present, much less damaged.  The outcome may well have been more devastating for American forces had the carrier USS Enterprise been moored in the safety of the harbor.  Her arrival had been scheduled for December 6 but high winds and rough seas had delayed her return to port, thus ensuring her survival.

On December 8, 1941 the United States declared war on Japan and entered World War II, the official response to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Emboldened by their early successes in the war, Japanese forces landed on the remote Aleutian islands of Kiska and Attu in early June 1942 to little or no resistance with the timing concurrent to their Midway campaign.  The Japanese strategy was threefold:  1) Draw elements of the U.S. Pacific fleet north and away from the real prize, the Midway Atoll.  2) Provide a northern flank defense for the Japanese homeland.  3) Bolster domestic morale by seizing physical American soil.   

The Battle of Midway is where the trajectory of the Pacific Theater changed direction.  Midway proved to be a disaster for the Japanese war machine - four aircraft carriers sunk, hundreds of highly trained pilots and skilled mechanics killed.  Japan would never recover from those losses and the Imperial High Command was forced to shift strategy from offense to defense.  It should be noted that aircraft flying off the deck of the USS Enterprise accounted for destroying three of the four sunken Japanese carriers.

Nonetheless, three more years of bloody battles lay ahead.

In May of 1943, American and Canadian forces undertook Operation Landcrab - an amphibious assault on Attu.  Three weeks of bloody hand-to-hand combat ensued.  Ultimately, the Allies prevailed and Attu was recaptured.  But the cost was great.  Virtually the whole Japanese garrison of 2,600 men fought to the death and some 549 U.S. troops were killed in action, 1,148 wounded.  

On to Operation Cottage.  Allied Intelligence expected a tougher fight on Kiska than Attu as it was believed the Japanese garrison on Kiska to be between 5,000 and 8,000 men.  To overcome fire with fire, 34,000 U.S. and Canadian troops were assembled.  On August 15, 1943, they stormed the island.  For eight days, the Allies slogged forward mostly by foot through sharp gullies and waterlogged bogs while the most severe of weather conditions prevailed.  Thick, persistent fog, and zero visibility resulted in pitch-black firefights.

Finally, the whole of the island had been combed and the realization set in that not a single Japanese soldier had been encountered.  Three weeks earlier, on July 28, 1943, a fleet of Japanese ships had slipped past the American naval blockades under cover of a dense Aleutian fog.  In less than an hour, some 5,183 soldiers were evacuated leaving Kiska completely deserted prior to the Allied invasion. 

Still, the firefights were all too real as 32 dead attest.  Friendly fire.  Phantom armies.  The fog of war.  

Fog and Light (Psalms and Prayers)

Who am I?

The frail amongst the sturdy 

The slight beneath the towering

The weakened amidst the powerful

The finite against the vast

Blackness settles over the land

A mist rises up from the earth 1

Resolute.....they fence all creatures

Stars in the heavens fade from sight

Now the hour of trial arrives

Illness, infirmity, and loss befall

Shadows of death 2 linger near

Temptation subtle lies in wait

The flames scorch, cheered by the gale

Still, He remains steadfast through all

By grace, hope beyond self glimmers 

Yet.....O my Father, may this cup pass 3

Day breaks forth with the first beam

The second foretells the rush

Each radiance a gift to nourish

In time, the darkness is overcome

As the ray, so the "Light of the World" 4

Streaming forth with blessings unending

Faith, hope, love.....aspects now evident

When fog illuminates the Light

How great art Thou?

1  Genesis 2:6 (NKJV)                 
2  Psalm 23:4 (NKJV)                  
3  Matthew 26:39 (NKJV)          
4  John 8:12 (NKJV)