【団役員コメント:アシュクロフト ロバート ジョン】 Today has been a special day because we have landed on Chichijima in Ogasawara, our first port of call of the trip. We started the day as usual outside on deck at the back of the ship at 6:30 for stretches and exercise. Breakfast was delicious. We had potato salad, sausage, rice, natto and miso soup. Almost all students had breakfast – it’s good to see the students (and teachers) are feeling better after one or two days of sea sickness since leaving Shimizu. After clearing up, a lot of students went back outside to look for birds. We saw four different types of birds circling the Bosei-Maru – a sea swallow, a migrating thrush, a booby, and an albatross with a wingspan of 2 meters. So exiting! From 10am until 11am, we had a big clean of the ship because we were heading into port later today. First, we had a talk from the Bosei-Maru crew on how to keep the ship clean and why it’s important, then we set to work. Once the ship was clean, we had yakisoba for lunch, and then it was time to plan for our arrival in Ogasawara. Students were asked to form groups of between three and nine people, then using the Chichijima tourist guide they had to plan their walk around town. At around 3pm, many students went out onto the port-side of the ship, where you could see Otoutojima and Anijima. Every few minutes we could spot spray being blown high into the air from a pair of whales about 200m from the ship. It was great to watch! Soon we approached Chichijima port, and the boat was greeted by a crowd of locals waving to us. The students left the ship to explore the Omura Area. They were soon back in time for a particularly tasty dinner of pork cutlet with a side dish of miso and eggplant. The students all went off again to explore the area around the ship and were back for 7pm. The students had a great time exploring the cafes and shops in the Omura area, and it was nice to be back on dry land after three days at sea. All in all, it was a great day!