Three Months Sailing Japan
Japan, Unusual and Wonderful Cruising In our last post, Irene had arrived in Okinawa, and after serving a two week quarantine our weary crew of two was free to explore, armed with visas and documentation allowing us to cruise smaller “closed” ports. This classification of ports dates from the 17 th century when Japan entered an isolationist period of history (as a reaction to problems encountered with unregulated trade and interaction with Western nations.) Western ships were only allowed to arrive in certain “open” ports. The distinction remains to this day – a visiting foreign yacht is normally only allowed to enter an “open” port, and these ports tend to be larger and industrial ports – fine perhaps as a base for inland travel, but not as scenic or enjoyable or representative of the diversity of coastal Japan as the little “closed” ports. Luckily if a visiting yacht obtains a certain document on entry, permission is given to visit closed ports. Japan seems to have hundreds