Around the world in 102 days

Now it’s official: From December 2012 until March 2013 I will join the Japanese NGO “Peace Boat” on its 78th voyage around the world, from Yokohama to Yokohama, passing for places whose names alone evoke all kinds of fantasies: Rapa Nui. Punta Arenas. Kota Kinabalu. Papeete. Port Louis.


Peace Boat auf einer größeren Karte anzeigen

It all began in a chilly night in the Kazakh capital Astana, where I had stayed a few days longer after observing the parliamentary elections. It was below -40 degrees outside, an unreal temperature I had never felt before. It turns your limbs stiff within minutes, even when walking around wrapped up like an Inuit. But after several days of exposure to the cold, building whole conversations on few words of Russian in nearly empty streets, I was lucky enough to see this winter-wonderland from above – from the 21st floor of a curved skyscraper which shed its greenish light into this Dubai of the steppe. It was a most unreal atmosphere, the setting for utopian ideas…

My lovely coachsurfing host Eleanor had cooked Japanese food and we were talking along, about her years in Japan, Orwell’s 1984 (Astana inevitably makes you think of that), expat life in Kazakhstan… and she finally told me about her voyage as a teacher with Peace Boat. There it went, the bee was in the bonnet and didn’t leave it ever since. I don’t know what happened then, in the months to come. I hardly ever took part in such a long and demanding application process. And still I was crazy and stubborn enough to ignore all the obstacles: that I was competing with native English speakers, that unlike most of them I have never been to Japan before, that there will be only one English web reporter on board etc. However the unlikely happened: I was asked to join.

From December 2012 until March 2013 I will join the Japanese NGO “Peace Boat” on its 78th voyage around the world, from Yokohama to Yokohama, passing for places whose names alone evoke all kinds of fantasies: Rapa Nui. Punta Arenas. Kota Kinabalu. Papeete. Port Louis.

But we will not be “the Innocents Abroad” – at least I hope we will not entirely behave like Mark Twain’s US-American travel companions on their way through the Mediterranean who became the object of his satirical novel. Peace Boat is not about touring the world alone. Founded in the 70ies by some student activists, its idea is to promote peace and reconciliation between (former) enemies, for example by taking Palestinian and Israeli youths on board who can for the first time meet people from “the other side” in a neutral space.

Furthermore Peace Boat is at the roots of the Japanese anti-nuclear movement which has recently reached a huge success when Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda declared the plan to phase-out nuclear power until 2040 – a huge step in a country where few days after the Fukushima catastrophe a video of a “cute” character called Nuclear Boy (in the shape of the leaking reactor) was released to make kids and their parents believe that the situation was under control and the status quo secured. On many voyages Peace Boat takes a group of Hibakusha on board, survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to give their testimony. Together with its partner NGOs in the different ports the organization advocates for these topics as well as for human rights and sustainability – my main points of interest. Due to this commitment Peace Boat was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 and has a Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations.

I am looking forward to new encounters with people of different backgrounds and am curious to see whether I will manage to learn some Japanese – with 95% Japanese passengers on board. This voyage will be a challenge in many senses: Although I am a little afraid of deep water, the sea has always attracted me for its vastness, wildness and mysteriousity. After crossing the Baltic in a kayak last year, this is just the next step 🙂

P.S.: I won’t be able to write a lot of postcards in the harbors, but I will drop my travelogues into a virtual letterbox (www.peaceboat.org >>)