Today is our second day in Kyoto. The weather here seems to be very unpredictable. The weatherman never gets it right. Today is a beautiful day chilly in the morning but warm and sunny in the afternoon. Our guide, Macoon met us in the lobby at 8 am and we went over our days itinerary. We went first to Arashiyama which was a beautiful zen area built by a shogun who was the best friend of the emperor who had been sent to and isolated isle. There is a beautiful lake at first that is very still and has large koi. Then the path leads through beautiful azalea and rhododendron plants. The colors were fantastic. We finally made our way to the path leading through the bamboo forest. That was really surreal. The bamboo are about ... read more

Today Michael decided he wanted to go to Kamakura. This is a beautiful little town outside of Tokyo with many Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. Most of these were built centuries ago when Minamoto Yoritomo seized political power and established a shogunate government in Kamakura in 1192. He wanted his base to be as far from Kyoto which he felt was corrupt. He selected this spot because it was easy to defend. This shogunate was powerful only until1333 when the emperor in Kyoto sent troops to crush the shogunate government. Unable to stop the troops, 800 shogunate soldiers retired to the Toshoji temple where they disemboweled themselves in a ritualistic suicide known as seppuku. We left the hotel at 8:30 and caught a taxi to the Shimbashi train station. After a few missteps, with Dennis and ... read more

Traveling from Phoenix to Tokyo is a long trip. About 20 hours to be exact. First fly to Seattle, change planes and then fly directly to Tokyo. It is a daylight trip so you get up at 4 in the morning in Phoenix, fly for 20 hours and voila! you are in Tokyo a day later at 2 in the afternoon. We left on a Tuesday and got to Tokyo on Wednesday afternoon. You really feel as though a truck ran over you when you get here. So nothing that 12 hours in bed won't cure. We met our guide Dai, in the lobby at 8:30. Very pleasant young man whose English was very good. He went over our itinerary for the day with us and showed us on the map where we were going to ... read more

Today we are still sailing the Atlantic. It is thanksgiving. Wishing all of you still on land a Happy Thanksgiving. all of the ships restaurants, regardless of ethnicity will offer turkey and stuffing tonight. We are going to Red Ginger, the wonderful Oriental restaurant. I will not be having turkey. I will be having sea bass in Miso, their signature dish. It will be yummy. If I knew how to make it, I would have it every year for Thanksgiving. The sun is shining right now and the temperature is very pleasant. We have had three rain showers, two during the night and one around 10 am. This morning when I went for my walk around the deck they had 7 men there mopping and squeeging (if there is such a word) the deck. Everyone of ... read more

TENERIFE CANARY ISLANDS Today we are in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands of Spain. The weather is gorgeous in the 70’s sunny and with low humidity. It is the largest of the islands with a population of 700,000 and after Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea has the 3rd largest volcano in the world from sea floor to peak'Mt.Teide. We passed Calatrava’s opera house which we remembered from a previous visit and left Santa Cruz for our first stop, the market in San Cristobal de Laguna at an elevation of 2000 feet. We bought cookies with molten chocolate filling. Yum.Then we headed for the Anaga mountain range and forest with beautiful overlooks of craggy mountains and the volcanoes in the distance and climbed to 3000 feet. Our destination was the tiny village of Taganana ... read more