Japan

The land of gracious, polite and helpful people. There was a lot of bowing going on, as you enter, as you leave, after you request something, after someone helps you and a lot of help was needed! Japan was one of the most delightful countries I have visited but also the most difficult to navigate and communicate. They are still a pretty homogeneous community where everyone knows the rules and protocol. All writing is in Japanese characters so you can't figure out where you are going unless you know Japanese. Its like a puzzle trying to match the same characters on the map to the writing in a brochure. Not many people spoke any other languages but providing help they did- graciously and often. Not only would they try to show you the direction you needed to go but they would stop whatever they were doing and take you there, smiling and bowing the whole time.

Traveling outside of the big cities was my main goal so I tagged along with 3 ladies from the ship and ended up at a hotel in the hills above Hakone where we indulged in gender separated hot spring baths outside. The only problem was the signs were in Japanese and we had no idea which bath was for men and which for women. We took our chances and entered the red one but found no men or women, so we were still confused if we were in the right place but stripped naked anyways and jumped in- thank goodness a few minutes later a naked Japanese lady entered too!

It was lovely to be in cool crisp weather again with the changing colors of fall all around us. I enjoyed several short hikes in the hills in my new ninja shoes before heading back to the ship for Hawaii.