Having left Portsmouth on the 27th January 1970.After a lot of work and play we arrived in Kobe on the 23rd April 1970

One or two visitors arrived to tour the ship as can be seen in the photo, and listen to the Royal Marines Band of The Commander Far East Fleet

Expo 70

Whilst visiting Kobe the EXPO 70 was taking place in Osaka, a sight not to be missed, and many of us took the opportunity to visit it,

The British Pavilion. was a magnet for most of us as on the Sunday, they were offering free bottles of Newcastle Brown Ale, for the Japanese to enjoy, I am afraid there was not much left for the locals after we had paid a visit. The Irish Republic Pavilion, proved to be popular also due to the excellence of their Irish coffee.

One rating who will remain nameless, enjoyed so many Broon Ale's that he decided to have a swim in the Pool of Peace, but soon got out as it was almost frozen. The good thing about it was he told everyone else how cold it was, so there were no more embarrasing incidents

A funny incident that happened was traveling to the exhibition. We made our own way there No Problem.We just handed our Yen over the counter and were given a return ticket, no english spoken or writen, and the train went direct to Osaka which was the terminal station, Having consumed a bottle of the famous Broon or three,we now had to get back.We were put on the correct train, only the station we were returning to (Kobe) was not the terminus, it was just another station, and all the sign's were in Japanese. Well six of us were desperatley trying to match the characters on the ticket to the sign before the train set off again, It all turned out well though as when we did reach or destination, Ten Naval MP's were there to drag us off the train

The local civil and maritime authorities were very good to us, and arranged many bus tours to nearby places of historic interest like Nara and Kyoto, and we had visits to shipbuilding, steelworks,a pearl factory!. and off course a sake distillery

They also gave us full sporting fixtures.

We returned the hospitality officially with a reception on board for over 350 guests, ending with a full beat the retreat by the Royal Marines in floodlight on the flightdeck

On the Sunday 26th we opened the ship to visitors, and some seventhousand visitors turned up,some queing over sixhours to get aboard us. We also gave a childrens party and private tour to parties of school children, and some local readers of an english language Japanese newspaper.

I found Japan beautiful (26 April.There was an abundance of May blossom about) and clean but unimaginably busy.