Nipponmaru Cruise Ship

　　My office is located in the small fishing-and-farming village of Nagahama, which is serene and safe from crime. In this town a sensational topic has been in the air these days. That is, Japan's cruise ship, Nipponmaru, is to call at Nagahama port on Mar. 5th., carrying 400 passengers. I've not seen the ship, and I came to the office rather earlier than usual and went to the port.
　　When I arrived at the port, passengers were moving into buses to go sightseeing around here. I tried to shoot the whole of the ship, but I was too close to the ship. One of my colleagues climbed up the hill and took nice pictures. I got some pictures from him and I'll post them.
　　Getting back to my office, I promptly did a search about the Nipponmaru cruise ship on the net. I've not experienced any cruise ship tour. Consequently, in the next moment, I found myself to have applied for a four-day tour to Sakhalin in autumn.
　　My booked room is the lowest-priced one and I was put on a waiting list at the third place for cancellation. If I could get the room, I'll put up pictures of Japan's northern island of Rishiri and Rebun, and the autumnal scenery of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
　　By the way, the upper-classes weren't fully booked, but they were too expensive for me, and I decided to wait for cancellation of the lowest class.

(Vocabulary)
in the air　（話・うわさなどが）話題になって
call at　（船が）～に寄港する
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk ユジノサハリンスク