The expedition 333 has finished. The science party including myself got off Chikyu on the 11th of January at Shingu port. Chikyu approached the port slowly as the land began to appear clearer and clearer.

A couple of people who came out to the helicopter deck in early morning to see Shingu port, unable to wait to see the land after a long cruise. Cold but happy.

Chikyu got closer and closer to the port, but because she is a big ship, it had to be done slowly and carefully. The sunrise was beautiful on that day. Even the sun was celebrating our day of ‘going back to the land’.

A few days have passed after the day I got off the ship. Everyone should have got home safely and been back to their usual work. Well, I am back in my office and some extra work that has built up during my cruise has been making me wonder if my cruise was a dream. I guess everyone who was on Chikyu is now feeling the similar way.

The expedition 333 was rather a short cruise compared to the other expeditions, so maybe that is why I feel the cruise began and just finished in a blink. However, I do have the actual, numerous samples in front of me now. Yes, I was unmistakably on a ship. And from now on, I have to do all the analytical work of these samples. It will take a while to finish them all, but I also want to see the research data as soon as possible.

The samples I had been requesting. A box of samples sent from Chikyu to me… It wasn’t a dream that I was onboard! From now is the ‘analysis time’.

The other scientists who received their requested samples also should be feeling what I am feeling now. “Was it a dream? Oh, no! I’ve got the samples to analyse here!!” Or something like that. Yes, it is a new beginning; time to work on land.

「I'll come back Chikyu again!」

This expedition report is the final one for expedition 333. I wonder if my reports could help the readers get acquainted to the excitement and importance of the cruise, but I would be very happy if it was helpful for you even a little. If you got interested in research cruises, especially those young scientists and who want to become scientists in the future, I would very much encourage you to try and go for your dreams.

Finally, I am finishing this report with this photo of us taken on Chikyu.

We had a problem in taking a good photo for the weather was not always great. It was a cold but sunny day when we took this one. Everyone was smiling!

Thank you very much for reading.

Yasufumi Satoguchi