Hello! This is Akira Azuma from the 2nd year student. It’s been quite a while since this happened so it may feel a bit off-season, but I would like to talk about my activities over spring vacation. I may only hope you give this article a read and find yourself enjoying it.
This spring break, I was allowed the chance to go see Antarctica by my fearless mother. What comes to mind when you hear “Antarctica”? An unexplored land? The southernmost edge of the world where extreme cold has swallowed countless adventurers and expeditions? At the very least, it’s not somewhere you’d casually decide to visit during spring break. In fact, many people might think it’s too dangerous for anyone except professional explorers. I used to think that too. But surprisingly, traveling to Antarctica is much easier than you may expect. Of course, it’s still more difficult when compared with visiting other places, but Antarctic and Arctic tourism actually exists as a proper industry, which was quite surprising. You don’t have to belong to a university research team or anything like that. I remember being unable to keep myself from questioning my mother’s sanity for a while. 

Given the nature of the Antarctic land, you can’t explore the deep interior like the researchers stationed there, but even so, there’s a wide range of things you can do—visiting islands around the Antarctic coast or even briefly landing on the continent itself. Some companies offer rather dull plans where you just stay on a cruise ship and look at Antarctica from nearby waters, but the company we used—QUARK expeditions—provided us with many extraordinary experiences. We jumped into the freezing Antarctic sea, saw whales and penguins up close, went canoeing, and did many other activities. In this piece, I’d like to introduce some of those experiences. 

The most memorable part of my trip was definitely seeing whales. When people say they’ve seen whales at sea, you usually imagine spotting them blowing water from a sightseeing boat. But whales are actually very curious creatures, and they often came toward us instead. We rode small inflatable boats to observe them, which may have contributed to their curiosity—but even so, they approached us and encircled us the entire time we were out there. I just realized, but that kind of sounds like they were trying to intimidate us, but they never contacted the boat, so I think I’ll believe that they were simply curious about our unusual presence.

We had several opportunities to observe these adorable whales. There were various kinds. One particularly memorable whale was a baby whale, playing around its sleeping mother. It was very curious, swimming up to us and playfully slapping its tail on the surface to splash water. It was so amusing and adorable. The funny thing was that our guide lamented the most when it was time for us to return to the ship. I guess the experience stays the same no matter how many times you see whales up close.

In another encounter, we had two whales approach us so close that I felt I could touch them if I reached out. I probably could have. It was one of the most mystical experiences I’ve had in my life. Being surrounded by icebergs while whales spouted water so close by was an entirely different kind of awe-inspiring experience compared to seeing whales in an aquarium.

For my in-ship experiences, when we weren’t out exploring, we were given lectures aboard the ship about the Antarctic explorers, glacier movement, and various other topics. We also learned about the wildlife we encountered that day, —the species and their characteristics—covering a wide range of subjects related to Antarctica.

So far, I’ve mainly talked about whales, but of course, they weren’t the only animals we saw. We also encountered many penguins and seals. I mean, this is Antarctica, going on a trip here and not seeing any penguins is like sandwiches without bread. Unlike in aquariums, the seals gave off a much more predatory and ferocious impression, probably because we saw them hunting penguins. When they catch one, they started to toss it into the air and play with it. To call this experience unsettling would be an understatement, those adorable bounce bags were absolutely owning the penguins.

The penguins, on the other hand, were absolutely adorable—no complaints there. Especially the younger ones, around a year old, those guys are very curious. Some of them were fascinated by the stakes placed to mark the point where we shouldn’t tread past, and started pecking at them eagerly—it was incredibly cute.

This is the little one, by the way. Yes—absolutely adorable.

There were also penguins that were blankly staring at each other’s face. Watching them just staring blankly was oddly therapeutic to see.

In addition to wildlife, Antarctica also offered us breathtaking scenery. My personal favorite was Deception Island, which is a volcanic island. What made the island so special is that about 10,000 years ago, a volcanic eruption formed a caldera, giving it a horseshoe shape. The volcano is still very active, and the geothermal heat creates hot springs. In other words, it’s like Sakurajima in Antarctica. There were also ruins of an old whaling station which was later converted into a British research base. Depending on the time of day, geothermal steam rises in large amounts, creating an incredibly surreal, almost otherworldly landscape. 

It felt like something straight out of Silent Hill. Penguins and seals were active even in this eerie environment. In the distance, there was what looked like a storage facility for whale oil, and even further back on the left—though hard to see—there is an aircraft hangar that waIt felt like something straight out of Silent Hill. Penguins and seals were active even in this eerie enviros used for weather observation. Along the coast, various objects were scattered around, including a partially buried vehicle with only the hood, handles, and part of the front seat sticking out. Freaky. It truly felt like stepping into another world. 

There were even remnants of penguins that had been eaten—honestly, a bit gruesome. And if that wasn’t odd enough, there was also an airplane wreck. It looked like it was straight out from a movie.

It reminded me just how incredibly difficult it must have been to explore Antarctica. Meanwhile, the seals in this picture were just fighting each other next to these wrecks, completely ignoring them, was quite the spectacle to see.

On the way back, we crossed the Drake Passage, known as one of the roughest seas in the world. I had braced myself for the worst, but surprisingly, it was quite calm—or at least calmer than expected. That said, the ship still rocked like a mild roller coaster, and I felt a little seasick despite normally never getting motion sickness. The crew were surprised; relieved would be the word most fitting. So, I asked them if it was usually that bad. They showed me a video from last year’s voyage. Yes, it was THAT bad. Compared to the video from last year— where no one was even able stand or move at all, and objects flying everywhere—it was relatively tame, you could move around as you wished, but it still was not exactly calm. Seeing videos from that voyage was honestly terrifying. Especially if you count the fact that it took us around 2 days to cross the passage. We were just happy that our kitchen was even able to function during the duration after seeing the video.

This return journey made me deeply appreciate the explorers of the 1800s, who crossed the Drake Passage in far worse conditions aboard wooden ships, with little hope of assistance, and still managed to reach the South Pole. I can only feel immense respect for their courage.

I guess that sums up my Antarctic spring break. There were many other experiences too—canoeing, spotting wild orcas, diving into icy waters—but I’ll stop here before this gets too long. It was truly an invaluable experience. I don’t think I want to cross the Drake passage again though.

Akira Azuma