Oct. 4

The ship’s fog horn is wailing. Since leaving port 10 days ago we have seen the sun for less than 3 hours. Presently we are in the Northern Pacific sailing toward Sendai Japan in a thick and scary fog reminiscent of old black and white movies about ocean crossings. I looked up the weather for Sendai and we are predicted to have sun and 70 degrees which would be welcome after 40 degrees and lots of drizzle since Seattle.

I spent another day being sick, but had a massage to see if perhaps Jenni from South Africa could push the illness out. I’m still sick, but quite relaxed. I’m blessed to have found some caring table mates who have called to make sure I’m alive and don’t need anything. When you are travelling solo, the ship assigns you to a permanent dinner table and this is perhaps the greatest fear you face on boarding day. Who will be at my table? Nice people, insufferable people, married people, old, young, lecherous, deaf, snobby, you name it, I fear it. Well I ended up with a large, picturesque, table of 10 overlooking the ship’s wake. Surprisingly, only two of us are American. One is a German woman living in Hawaii, another is Canadian, a mother and daughter from Australia, another woman from Australia, a man form Canada and a married couple from Canada, she being originally form Scotland and he from England. And everyone is pleasant! The Englishman from Canada studied in Scotland and has more of a Scottish accent than his wife, but his wife is the perfect austere, tightfisted, no-nonsense Scot And he sits quietly and smiles just like Ollie in Laurel and Hardy and until you speak with him you wouldn’t know he is a highly intelligent agri-economist at the leading agriculture university in Canada. The mother and daughter from Australia look and sound like they came right out of a BBC comedy we get on public television. Both pleasantly overweight, dowdy, nondescript British extras with all the expressions and tonalities we see in these shows and as nice as the person next door. The other Australian lady has become my evening associate – we go to the shows, or shop, or dance. She is thin as a rail, beautifully dressed, coifed blonde hair, probably in her 70’s, very cultured accent, and another of the Extreme Travelers. The Canadian woman in her 70’s is also one of my evening associates and is a real pistol. She has wiry gray hair and a sparkle in her eye and is always ready for a good time. She is one who runs around the ship all day and hits every activity and is always found at a table full of people on the Lido Deck laughing and joking and making new friends. Both these women called me today to see how I was feeling. Our Hawaiian/ German is the exotic addition to the table with her accent and interesting past. The other American is a nice retired man from San Diego who always wears dress pants (even on the treadmill) and has planned every detail of the whole 69 day cruise down to dinners in certain cities. I can’t get a read on our other Canadian man as I haven’t sat next to him and sometimes he doesn’t come to dinner. Stay tuned. All of them seem to be Extreme Travelers with so many cruises and trips, they can name the cruise lines and ship names and years the ships went out of service or were sold and which itineraries each ship took. Amazing.

We seem to have hit an odd bit of ocean as I write this. It’s been wavy today - 10 foot waves with 35-40 mile an hour winds and foggy, but for the last 15 minutes we have been listing hard to port. Don’t know why, but it’s weird. Are we turning to avoid something?

Morning brings me to what we referred to as “the Orient” when I was growing up. It’s hard to believe I’ll be in the land of Geisha’s, lotus blossoms, Samurai, and Godzilla. Now I’ll be able to see for myself if people’s mouths here move at the same time as they speakJ . We’ll be four days in four different ports, so I will be busy and hopefully healthy. I have no idea if we will be allowed to connect to the internet or not, so this could be my last posting for a few days.

Japan Schedule: Tomorrow - Sendai; Wednesday - Tokyo; Thursday - (my birthday-and my Scottish tablemate’s also) Shimuzu; Friday - Kobe.

Pray for clear weather so somewhere along the way I get a good look at Mt Fuji. They say it’s often in the clouds, but I’ll try and get a photo.

My daughter Mary made it to Rome safe and sound, thank God.

Sayonara.