Day 8 (September 21) was mostly a transit day through the Seto Inland Sea. This is a shallow sea between Shikoku and Honshu Islands. During the last glaciation, it was dry land. They have dredged fossils of an extinct elephant from the bottom!
Since this the Miraie is a training vessel, we also have to participate in classical schooner activities, like swabbing the decks! With our large crew, this task did not take so long, though getting up at 6:30 AM was a bit tough! The deck was nice and clean after. 😉
With most of my duties on the cruise already complete, I could relax in the Miraie “onsen” (hot tub). The water in the onsen is heated using the engines of the ship, though on this hot September day, that was probably not even necessary.
The coasts of Shikoku and southern Honshu are lined with mountains, towns and beaches. The amount of beaches I saw were astounding! Nothing too exciting outside of the ship happened along our transit of the inland sea.
Much of the day, including the evening, was spent on presentations for the participants on the cruise to introduce themselves. This was excellent, because there was such a wide variety of interests and activities that everyone was doing! It was especially great to see what the artists on board were doing to connect the environment and climate to art. I hope we can all collaborate on this in the future. Since I had done my presentation earlier in the cruise, I could relax and watch! On Day 9, it was the day for the artists!
Raised Beaches 
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