Ferry from Shanghai to Osaka

Several passenger boats operate between Japan and the Asian mainland. Two weeks ago, my traveling partner and I took a ferry from Shanghai to Osaka. The trip takes two days and a roundtrip ticket is about $300.

We were the only Americans on board, and most of the passengers were Japanese. Some were tourists, but many had a familial or business connection to the continent. Over the two days on the boat I talked with a Japanese-Tibetan couple, an Osaka woman preparing to start a business importing Chinese medicine, a group of Shanghai teenagers off to study in Japan, and many Chinese-Japanese couples and their young children. With little to do for entertainment, it’s a great way to meet people and make new friends. I just recieved a letter from one of those new friends, an 80-year old man from Hokkaido who grew up in Manchuria and who spent December visiting the town he lived during the 1930s. He wrote a Japanese Buddhist idiom in the letter: “With the brush of sleeves come the meetings of former lives.”

Seven photos follow.

The Shanghai Pearl Tower.

Ships and industry north of Shanghai.

More ships.

Cargo, most likely destined for international consumer markets.

Japanese and Chinese passengers socialize on-board.

A computer monitor shows our progress; in this picture, we’ve just passed through Japan’s Inland Sea and are about to arrive at Osaka.

Unloading the cargo upon arrival in Japan.