Day 12: Vladivostok

The Thomas Flyer, the U.S. entry in the 1908 Great Race, arrived in Vladivostok on Monday, May 18, 1908 after a two day trip from Tsuruga, Japan on the steamship Mongolia. George Schuster, his team, and the Flyer departed on a Saturday afternoon just as we did, so I guess travel by ship/ferry hasn’t changed much time-wise in the past century!

The original U.S. team also went through Hachiman as we did, although the original team was nearly delayed when participants in a religious ceremony began attacking the Thomas Flyer! Fortunately, a Japanese priest intervened and the Flyer escaped. Click here to read more about this incident in the May 17, 1908 New York Times article.

Since we didn’t expect to hear from Svetlana about the progress of our cars through customs until this afternoon, we took a walking tour of Vladivostok this morning. According to the May 19, 1908 New York Times article, George Schuster and the Flyer team also had a delay at customs:

“It will scarcely be possible for the Thomas car to start on the road across Siberia before Wednesday [after arriving Monday], as there are various matters to arrange before the car can begin its trip. Customs delays will fill the better part of two days, and the autoists desire to obtain permits to carry firearms and to use the rails of the Trans-Siberian Railroad to cross bridges or when the road is impassable.”

We’re not planning to carry any firearms or use the railroad tracks, so I hope that makes things a little easier! Click here for the May 19, 1908 New York Times article.

For our walking tour, courtesy of the Lonely Planet Russia guidebook, we first made our way towards the train station, which is the terminus for the Trans-Siberian Railway. We were able to descend directly from the street to the main rail platform to view a monument and plaque that commemorate the 9,288 km railway from Moscow:

Terminus point for the Trans-Siberian Railroad in Vladivostok

Terminus point for the Trans-Siberian Railroad in Vladivostok (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

After viewing the monument, we walked along the platform to the train station. I opened the door to enter and saw that we had to pass through a security check point. I started to close the door, but a friendly security guard waved us in. We were through security in about a minute, and the guard then gave us directions to the top floor of the station and told us it was very nice. The station was spotless and had beautiful architecture and pastel colors. Here is one picture of the inside:

Inside of the Vladivostok Train Station

Inside of the Vladivostok Train Station (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

They had a very nice café that I could have stayed at all day, but we weren’t hungry and we still had lots of sights to see, so we moved on, strolling up Aleutskaya Street. I’ve been learning the Cyrillic alphabet, and once I figured out how to read the street signs, I managed to navigate to our next stop, the house where actor Yul Brenner was born. It’s now a barber shop:

 

The house where Yul Brenner was born

The house where Yul Brenner was born (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Next we crossed a main street using a tunnel; these tunnel crossings are all over the place and we love them — in addition to being safe and efficient, they house small shops, similar to the underground concourse in Crystal City, Virginia, for those of you who have been there (I used to live there).  We then entered an old department store, the GUM, that was filled with shops selling souvenirs, shoes, jewelry, telescopes, microscopes, toys, and just about anything else you can think of. I bought some refrigerator magnets and we wandered over to what we thought was the park that would take us to our next destination, an old Soviet submarine.

However, we had turned one park too soon, so after making our way down to the water past some construction, we walked directly along the waterfront until we bumped into the submarine. In addition to the submarine, there is also a wall inscribed with the names of Vladivostok residents who lost their lives in World War II; it reminded me of a smaller version of the U.S. Vietnam Memorial:

 

S-56 Submarine and Memorial Wall for Vladivostok residents lost in WWII

S-56 Submarine and Memorial Wall for Vladivostok residents lost in WWII (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

We paid 100 rubles (about $3) to tour the submarine. Of course, we were all most fascinated by the torpedo launcher:

 

Torpedo launchers on the S-56 Submarine

Torpedo launchers on the S-56 Submarine (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

After the submarine, we checked out the arch depicted below, which is a reconstruction of a monument to Tsar Nicholas II. The original monument was destroyed by the Soviets after the Russian Revolution in 1917.

 

Reconstructed Arch for Tsar Nicholas II

Reconstructed Arch for Tsar Nicholas II (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

About 3 o’clock, Svetlana called to say that she thought she would still get the paperwork for our cars today. However, the customs people are all very busy today, so we’re planning to meet Wednesday morning at 9 o’clock to start the process. If all goes well, we’ll bring the cars back to the hotel  tomorrow morning and then head to China on Thursday.

Day 8: Tsuruga to Sakaiminato

Today we had a great drive through the mountains from Tsuruga to Sakaiminato, a port city that is the gateway to Vladivostok for us.

We encountered many tunnels and construction sites on the way up. The longest tunnel was 4.1 km (about 2.5 miles)! I love the barriers at construction sites (they use cats too):

 

Elephants in a construction area

Elephants in a construction area (Eileen BJorkman photo)

First we took a back road to the town of Obama, where we sped past the Obama Rope Company:

 

Obama Rope Company in Obama, Japan

Obama Rope Company in Obama, Japan (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

We took a lunch break at the Kasai Service Area and added gas to the Roadster. The Shell station wouldn’t accept John’s Visa or my Master Card — we hope this isn’t an omen of things to come!

 

Luke adding fuel at Kasai Service Area

Luke adding fuel at Kasai Service Area (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Finally, we stopped at a rest area where we had views of Mount Daisen, which sits inside a national park and is a rival to Mount Fuji, as you can see from this photo.

Rest stop with views of Mount Daisen

Rest stop with views of Mount Daisen (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

 

Tomorrow we’ll be buying provisions for our 1.5 day ferry ride to Vladivostok. I’m not sure if we’ll have WiFi on the ferry, so I may be offline until Monday evening (late Sunday back in the US).

Day 7: A Watch in Tsuruga

Today we visited a museum in Tsuruga devoted to a part of history we hadn’t heard before.

 

Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum

Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

The man on the left in the picture above, Chiune Sugihara, was responsible for saving the lives of about 6,000 Jewish people during World War II. When Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, many Polish Jews fled to Lithuania, where they were safe until Stalin began arresting them and sending them to Siberia.

On July 18, 1940, hoping for safe passage to Japan, many Jewish people gathered at the Japanese Consulate in Lithuania; however, very few of them met the current requirements to obtain a Japanese visa. Mr. Sugihara decided to ignore the rules and began issuing as many visas as he could and he stamped 2,000 passports before the consulate closed. Because a visa allowed all family members to travel, he was able to save about 6,000 Jews altogether.

Many of the Jewish families crossed Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railroad and then took a boat from Vladivostok to Tsuruga, where Japanese families welcomed them until they could continue their journey, primarily to the United States and Australia. To raise money, most of the refugees sold their watches and jewelry to the Watanabe Watch Store in Tsuruga. The Watanabe family kept the watch below as a keepsake; the watch is now in the Port of Humanity Museum in Tsuruga.

 

The watch in the Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum

The watch in the Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

In addition to the Tsuruga Museum, there is a memorial to Chiune Sugihara in Boston, Massachusetts. He died in 1986 at the age of 86.

After lunch, John had to troubleshoot the brake lights in the 1928 Roadster — Leo and I had noticed during yesterday’s drive that they weren’t working. It turned out to be just a fuse this time — an easy fix once John located a spare. Now all we have to do is finish our laundry and we’ll be ready to tackle the ferry to Valdivostok!

Looking for a spare fuse

Looking for a spare fuse (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

 

Luke and John with the Newly Repaired Roadster at the Route Inn in Tsuruga

Luke and John with the newly repaired roadster at the Route Inn in Tsuruga (Eileen Bjorkman photo)