This is Great, I don't understand anything, but it's great! - Katie in Naha

So we are finally rid of the passengers of the 25 day WWII cruise and we are quite grateful for that! I will admit, quite a few nice ones, but the bad ones ruined it for all of the crew. Quite a few passengers from Florida, especially south Florida. Someone asked me the other day where I was from and I said Orlando, Florida (because it's way easier than saying Longwood, Florida and then having to explain it's location!). Another gentleman in the library spoke up and asked me from where in Orlando. I told him where and he said "Oh, I live in Altamonte Springs. Turns out, he's one of our guest entertainers on board - a musician by the name of Kenny Watson. One of our cruise staff that got on board a few weeks ago graduated from FSU the same night with the same major. I told him he looked familiar and after talking we discovered all of that, we had classes together and my sorority and his fraternity hung out together a lot! It's a small world!~

Since the last time I wrote, we stopped in Guam which was neat - since it's an American port, we got to eat some American restaurants that we are familiar with and there was a grocery store where we reconigzed brand names and all of that! Didn't do much because I didn't have much time, but it seemed to be a nice vacation spot with all the resorts and the beautiful water!

Saipan was even nicer - the water was crystal clear and we went on a yellow submarine about 25 meters under the sea. The water was so blue and so clear that we saw all the fish and the white sand floors along with a very large ship wreck and a plane wreck from the WWII time. Very very cool - unfortunately the pictures don't do it justice because we were so far under and they just don't come out well. Was neat to see the way the water filters out color too - as we descended to the ocean floor, people that were wearing anything red soon turned purple...a science project of sorts :) Towards the end of the ride the submarine released fish food and attracted all the fish to the windows so it gave us a great chance to be up close and personal with the fish!

We had a crew party the other night and Katie, Edmark and I painted a huge banner with the theme Goodbye Australia, Hello Asia. Of course, I'm known for making a mess, but it came out really well. We had the crew party on the mooring deck and we had signups for DJ's and bartenders. I DJ'ed for the first 45 minutes and everyone loved it, then everyone else that came played house music, which only some of the European's like...so I got lots of compliments :)

In Naha, Japan, my friend Katie and I hopped on the monorail and took it all the way to the end of the line and visisted a castle. The monorail was an experience figuring out the Yen and how to insert them into machines since nothing is in English. The castle was not the typical castle you would expect, but it seemed to be more of a worship center. Took some pictures of that and headed to grab some lunch at Cafe Smiley. Food was great, but it is definitely a new experience being in a country that doesn't speak the language very well at all! I realized how much I've traveled, but they've always spoken english! So, we order from pictures or display windows :) That night, I went out with my usual dinner group and we found a restaurant that seemed decent. We all picked one thing (off of a very unappetizing menu, if I do say myself) and they brought it out one at a time. There were six of us so we would devour it within seconds of it coming out. The poor guy probably thought we were the biggest group of pigs ever! We devoured everything and after leaving, we decided that it was the best $120 appetizer we've ever eaten because we were all still starving after it was over with!

Nagasaki, Japan was nice - went and walked around a bit. Visited Chinatown, which is the oldest Chinatown in Japan. We walked through there looking in all the shops and found a bread that he loved- in the Philippines, they call it "hopia". It's basically a very very doughy bread stuffed with pork. ABsolutely delicious, because I love doughy! After tons of searching for a restaurant that spoke any english, we found a sushi place that was fantastic - but my nose was running for hours after it because the wasabi is in everything. It was definitely fantastic either way. We stopped and got some ice cream from Baskin Robbins of all places and headed back home.

Weather in Japan has been quite cold, but it seems all the cities are realatively similar - small but very very dense. And the cold weather is not exactly what I expected. Today I worked on the gangway and my pantyhose and skirt did not keep me warm! Today we finally start the new cruise and I have kids again (about 20 of them!) so I should be busy for a while. Makes me happy to be out of the library for a few days~! We are in Kobe, Japan and leave here tonight on a 14 day run to Hong Kong. Get to see China finally :)

Had a party last night with the casino guys and girls in the hallway where they live....always fun. Wine in dixie cups :)


I think that's it for now! Talk to you all soon!