In the morning we went to breakfast and hoped to find the mask situation improved. One change we made was to go slightly off schedule so that we might be between dining waves. That helped somewhat purely by dint of fewer diners. Unfortunately otherwise it was not much better. After the meal we complained about the situation which went against the virus mask regulations. The management promptly agreed with our point and indeed when we went back to dinner in the evening more staff were supervising. They politely admonished people to keep their masks on when not sitting and eating at their own tables. We felt much happier from then on. Before leaving breakfast we made sandwiches for our lunch; frankly this was not encouraged but we were subtle and only took a minimum of food ... read more

For breakfast at the Wadi Rum lodge I raced to be first at the egg station. Since nobody else had yet put odd ingredients into the pan, I got some freshly cooked eggs for a change. One of the chefs was baking flat bread at the next station. I watched him roll out the dough and spread it on a convex oven top where it baked almost immediately. Then he peeled it off the oven and placed it into a basket. Nice warm pita bread and eggs. Plus juice and fruit and cereal. Today I determined to start with a good breakfast and it proved to be a good decision. After breakfast we boarded a fleet of pickup trucks for what they called a jeep safari led by Bedouin guides. Although they were not genuine Jeep ... read more

We had booked to participate in a 3-day tour through Jordan with Petra being the highlight. Unfortunately shortly before the trip, Lesley encountered some difficultly with her leg and it quickly became clear that she could not tolerate sitting in a coach for long journeys nor traipsing the uneven paths we would reach. Don decided to still take the trip with the group. Fortunately the operator Tourist Israel Tours was able to change our double booking into a single. Thus the blog post text and pictures for this trip will be provided entirely by Don, and Lesley should not be blamed for errors in it. The day started with an early taxi ride from home to Netanya where most of the group boarded the coach at 6am. It stopped briefly in Zichron Yakov to collect a ... read more

Well up at 6.30 am in our Nikko Kansai Airport room to quickly dress and walk back across to the airport. We checked in to Cathay Pacific to fly to Hong Kong. They were able to check our bags through to Tel Aviv! There was nothing in the lounge we could eat so we found a bakery with croissants and coffee. Then back to the lounge waiting and waiting for the plane to be called for boarding. Eventually we were called. The staff were very upset that we couldn’t eat any of the delicious food on offer in business class because it was all meat and shellfish. (Of course we had not been able to request kosher meals because this flight was suddenly booked less than 24 hours earlier.) However, they did find us some salad ... read more

Kobe was a safe haven for Jews fleeing Europe in 1940 and 1941. Jews started coming to Japan in the 1860s, when Japan was opened to trade. There quickly became a small population of Jewish businessmen in Kobe, along with the other port cities of Yokohama and Nagasaki. By the early 1900s there existed a Zionist organization and well established Jewish community in Kobe, and its first synagogue, Ohel Shelemo, was constructed in 1912. When trade with Russia declined in Nagasaki prior to the Russo-Japanese War and the great Kanto earthquake struck Yokohama in 1923, the majority of the Jewish population in Japan ended up in Kobe. As the Jews fled Europe and settled in Kobe, there was a well-off Jewish community of about 1000 people and 50 families. The community was composed primarily of Sephardim ... read more