Day - 1643

Thursday, June 27, 2019

I plan to read more novels and short stories this year than any previous year.  It's part of my desire to stay away from the news until that repulsive fraud in chief is gone.  I'd rather exist in a fictional bubble than listen to another minute of his ignorance and racism.  I dug out an old favorite for motivation:

I read this book in college so many years ago.  It's such a classic.  I haven't been using my thumb and fingers as an eye-guide the way I used to, and my note taking and overall reading comprehension has been too passive lately.  My reading skills could use a momentum boost.  

Day - 1644

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Not too busy at work today.  I listened to music in the morning.  I like the music we're playing in OCO next year.  Our Fall concert features Schumann Symphony No. 4 and Brahms Haydn Variations.  Our Winter concert has two pieces I'm not familiar with, Beach's Gaelic Symphony and Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending.  In March 2020 we'll play Beethoven's Symphony No. 2, Hindemith Symphonic Metamorphosis, and Strauss's Horn Concert No. 2.  Our season finale in May will be Piazolla's Tangazo and Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnole.  Great music next season!

Dinner with Howard and Dorian at Mijori.  So good!  We talked about D's unfortunate legal situation he's dealing with.  Howard's perspective was valuable. 

After dinner, the three of us came over to my place to deal a few hands of Texas holdem.  We're thinking about making a visit to the Oaks Card Club next Wednesday evening.  I've always wanted to see Howard at the 3/6 table.  I haven't played there in a few years.  Howard is intrigued with the game and has always wanted to go to the Oaks.  I'm looking forward to going back.

Day - 1645

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

What a treat this book was to read today.  I couldn't put it down.  Japanese author Haruki Murakami, whose book the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle I'm halfway through, interviews world renowned conductor Seiji Ozawa in five extensive conversations about Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concert, Glenn Gould, Brahms' 1st Piano Concerto, Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, (Ozawa studied under both Bernstein and Karajan), Mahler, Eugene Ormandy, pedagogy, and the relationship between writing and music.  It's such a fascinating book.  Murakami isn't a musician, but certainly understands music and has an extensive record collection from which he's able to speak in detail about specific recordings.  So much fun to read and a great perspective in peeking inside the mind of a musical master. 

Day - 1646

Monday, June 24, 2019

Racquetball in the a.m., just me, Steve and Kirk for the first 45 minutes until Tiger showed up, then two games of doubles.  I didn't catch my carpool for work until 8.  Work was quiet today, giving me time to read a fascinating book about music, "Absolutely on Music," a conversation with Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami and conductor extraordinaire Seiji Ozawa.  Murakami is not a musician but very knowledgeable, even passionate, about music.  Their discussions about Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto, Brahms' First Piano Concerto, Glenn Gould, Leonard Bernstein, opera, Mahler, conducting styles, other conductors, starting out, etc., are fascinating.  I read 2/3rds of the book in one sitting.  I couldn't put it down.  Murakami is very detail-oriented and meticulous with his ideas and opinions on music.  He has an extensive record collection and will listen to several different recordings of the same piece to hear the differences between performers.  Really something. 

Getting into research again for La Stravaganza and excited about the possibilities.  We all have role models and performers we look up to, but some fans take things to such an obsessive extreme.  Wow.  It's a fine line to draw where empowerment ends and all-consuming heroworship begins.  The mental balancing act appears challenging to those who aren't strong mentally.  Some fans give over all of themselves to their performer obsession, and I wonder at the end of the day how healthy that is.  Balance is everything.  Without balance, proper behavior can sometimes break down.  I'll be in search of novels that explore the superfan-heroworship phenomenon.  Did the superfans of the 19th century who obsessed over Franz Listz behave the same way Beyonce, Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift fans behave today?  I wonder.  

Day - 1647

Sunday, June 23, 2019

Up at 7 and off to Starbucks on 9th & Irving and Arizmendi for muffins and mochas until 9.  I washed our cars, then we took off to May's for lunch and a conversation about our Japan trip.  She's going with a group of friends and family in October for two weeks.

In the afternoon, I went to the library and checked out some music books.

It's time to get going on a new draft of La Stravaganza and Orianna Oh!'s character development.  I see her as a world-renowned musical phenomenon who came from the classical music world as a Yehudi Menuhin-type prodigy, but also developed into a pop music icon with a golden voice reminiscent of Karen Carpenter.  She'll be the Taylor Swift queen who fuels the high-octane obsessions for her fan (OriOh!s, aka Oreos, aka Oh!Oh!s).  Finally, we'll have a novel that gives proper credit to music's original teen heartthrob and undisputed kick-ass rocker of his day...Antonio Vivaldi.  I like that I have not one but two sociopaths in this book.  The thing about sociopaths is they always keep things interesting, unpredictable, and thoroughly American.  America is an easy playground for sociopaths to thrive.

Started the Life of Beethoven and Absolutely on Music, the conversation between Haruki Marakami (whose novel The Wind-up Bird Chronicles I'm halfway through) and Seiji Ozawa discussing various recordings of Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto (my favorite), Bernstein, Karajan, Glenn Gould, etc.  So interesting!

Gone is a non-fiction book about a virtuoso violinist who loses her priceless violin.  Kim Gordon is from Sonic Youth.  I'm sure there will be a few nuggets I can use in this read.  Joe Strummer's bio...I can't wait to read this.  As time passes, The Clash become more and more timeless.  Pirate at the Party is about another violinist, who's also a performance artist.  Half a Million Strong is a Gina Around book about crowd and fans.  The Artists Who Will Change the World is an art book about up-and-coming visual artists.  I didn't recognize any names here.

I checked out the Schumann biography that I was about 70 pages into several months ago.  I need to finish this because I can see Ori Oh! being a 21st Century Clara Schumann.  Listen Up! is a book by sound engineer Mark Howard.  Ed Sheeran is a picture book about Ed and his rise to world-wide fame.  I don't know much of his music beyond what he did with Taylor Swift.  Bowie is a picture book of photo shoots from the 70s.  I should have picked up the Neil Young bio, but must have left it on the shelf.  That's the bio I really want to read.

I spend all day reading after we came back from May's.  Austin is in New York this week, so Alice and I had a late dinner, then to bed by 10.

Day - 1648

Saturday, June 22, 2019

Up at 6 and off to Costco for gas.  In SF by 8:30.  We went to Diamond Heights to soak, then later in the afternoon we went to Patrick and Amy's for the twins's birthday.  They're 19.  It was a full house with many of Patrick's relatives.  There was plenty of food.  We met Lance, Peaches and Patrick's cousin, who works at Google and is a genius, according to everyone.  He's a nice kid.  After dinner and cake, I played a board game with Lance, Peaches and Patrick, How to Rob a Bank

Lots of fun.  We left around 10 p.m. then went to bed around 10:30.

Day - 1649

Friday, June 21, 2019

Quiet at work, which gave me some time to clean things up a bit at my desk.  The office is a ghost town on Fridays.  Actually, all of SF's financial district seemed to be empty.

Home and then poker at Mark's from 8-1.  My cards were all over the place, hot, cold, and crazy.  I was up, then down, then really down, then finally just down, losing $50 for the night.  I was up $90 at one point and down $100 at my lowest point.  Dorian came with me and it was D, Mark, Todd, Steward and four Mikes. 

I went to bed at 1:30...late!

Day - 1650

Thursday, June 20, 2019

Today is my third anniversary with Hanson Bridgett.  It's hard to believe it's been three years.  It's the ideal company to work for and everything is now set up for me to work and create new material, sustain a writing life without having to worry about monthly finances, etc.  It took a while to set things up properly, but the playing field's now as it needs to be and all I need to do re-establish my writing routine.  That should come quickly I think.

Today I gave a presentation to a few coworkers on a software program called Best Authority.  It's used to generate Tables of Authorities in legal briefs.  No one likes using it because some of the bells and whistles are so daunting, and yet it's a great program that saves all kinds of time.  Hopefully, folks will feel more comfortable with it after my demo.  I walked through the procedure I use whenever I need the program.  After the presentation, the rest of my day was quiet.  Nice!

Met with Howard V. at Star Pizza for dinner.  We caught up and taked politics, even though I've been intentionally avoiding the news right now.  Too depressing and ridiculous.  Spending time with Howard is always a treat.

Day - 1651

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

No racquetball today, but slowly getting better.  Still sluggish.  I spent much of my work day preparing for a presentation I have to give tomorrow morning.

Day - 1652

Tuesday, June 19, 2019

Still not feeling well.  I thought I was on the rebound, but I'm still lacking in energy and not moving around too well.  Really slow.  I would have stayed home today had I not been needed for a large IPD document assembly at work.  I was able to finish by 1 p.m. 

I went home after work, had dinner, and went to sleep.

Day - 1653

Monday, June 18, 2019

Still sluggish and not feeling great, though getting better.  No racquetball today.  Work was very busy, plus I have a training session to conduct on Best Authority on Thursday.  Ugh.  Came home and spent nearly two hours putting together just one day of our Japan trip online.  Yikes.  To be by 10.  

Day - 1654

Sunday, June 16, 2019

Sick all day, but getting better.  So I watched a couple of documentaries on HBO.  The first was the Game of Thrones doc, which was very good.  The second was Leaving Neverland, the expose of two young boys whose families became enmeshed in the world of Michael Jackson, only as a means for Jackson to molest these boys while they were 7-14.  None of this was a surprise.  None of it.  He advertised to the world how unhinged he was and always the showed tendencies of being a classic grade A pedophile.  What I find interesting is the refusal of die hard fans to acknowledge this truth about him.  Very creepy, surreal stuff. 

I came home early in the evening and went to bed around 9.  Hopefully, I'll feel better tomorrow.

Day - 1655

Saturday, June 15, 2019

My sore throat has developed into a small fever.  Damn, I hate getting sick.  It's such a waste of time.  Alice and I had plans to spend the day with Elaine and Wayman.  I took all kinds of nasty Chinese herbs and teas, and went to Los Altos with Alice for the day.  We had a delicious lunch ...

...and spent the afternoon talking and walking.  It felt so good to be home later in the evening.  I went right to bed.  I hope this nasty cold is short-lived.

Day - 1656

Friday, June 14, 2019

Oh no, Klay Thompson has a torn ACL, so he's out next season.  That is so heartbreaking.  Now both Klay and KD are gone for the year.  It's gonna be one long ugly season for the Warriors, but if the team can keep both stars, they should be great again two years from now.  Hmmm.  How quickly things change. 

Feeling sluggish this afternoon, as if I'm catching something.  I came home and made a big pot of chicken stew, then went to bed early.

Day - 1657

Thursday, June 13, 2019

The big finals game six (the last Warrior game at Oracle Arena) began at 6:15 p.m.  I watched it by myself in Oakland.  The first three quarters were really exciting.  Both teams played and shot well, though the Warriors were still turning over the ball with careless passes and momentary lapses.  Kyle Lowry went on a tear in the first quarter and the Raptors were up by nine at one point, but the Warriors fought back, coming within one by the second quarter and taking the lead in the third.  Klay Thompson was the main reason the Warriors were keeping pace.  He may be the most impressive WSU alum on the planet right now.  He's so tough and so good, a future Hall-of-Famer for sure.  In twelve shots he'd scored 30 points and it appeared as though he was just getting started until that fateful breakaway layup and crash on the floor after he was fouled by Danny Green.  He fell wrong on his legs and grabbed his knee in real pain.  He left the game momentarily, but returned to shoot his two free throws, which he made.  He then went back into the locker room, never to return again, and with his departure went any hope in hell that the Warriors could ultimately defeat a very strong, very impressive Raptors team.  It's so sad because prior to Klay's injury, I liked what I was seeing from the Warriors on the court and liked our chances in games six and game seven.  The momentum was turning in our favor, but it all vanished once Klay was injured.  Watching the rest of the game was painful and intense.  The Warriors kept it close, but it wasn't the same and didn't really matter anyway who would win game six, because in game seven in Toronto, without Klay, the Raptors would have destroyed the two-time defending champs.  The Warriors had a chance to win game six, but Steph Curry, who was off tonight, missed the final shot and it was game over, series to Toronto and the potential three-peat a broken dream.  I'll feel better about Canada's great win a week or two down the road, but for now, it's nothing but pure fan pain.  Losing sucks so damn much.  I do love my Warriors and all the thrilling games I've had the pleasure to watch these five years.  I would have loved seeing them win this one, but the Raptors beat them three times in their own arena.  That hasn't happened in recent memory.  That says something about the strength and awesomeness of the Raptors.  But as Steph said after the game, the story ain't over yet.

Day - 1658

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Racquetball in the a.m., then a full work day, followed by chores in the evening, laundry, tossing magazines, etc.

Day - 1659

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Still reflecting on the dramatic game five victory last night and KD's sacrifice.  It's all the sports world is talking about right now.  The Warriors were lucky to have won, considering how many threes they shot and made.  KD will be out for at least a year.  I wonder where he'll go.  Will he stay with the Warriors or move on?

Work was quiet, fortunately, giving me some time to catch up on all the things I wanted to finish yesterday.  I trained two new hires this afternoon on our macro programs. 

Day - 1660

Monday, June 10, 2019

Very hot today.  Racquetball was fun and full, six players in.  Work was busy, then came the Warriors game 5 in Toronto in a do-or-die game that in some ways was a face-saving situation for the three-time World Champs.  They couldn't lose a series 1-4 and feel anything less than embarrassed by that outcome, which was perhaps why KD decided to suit up and play, even though his initial injury a month or so ago looked much more serious than the strained calf we'd all been told for the past five or six weeks.  KD did suit up and did play, and when he was on the court, he looked like his old self, making threes, putting the ball in the hole, basically showing the world who he was and what his day job entailed.  But throughout I was worried, hoping he'd be okay.  Nope, he's not okay.  What transpired in the second quarter was so unfortunate, especially after coming back from a foot or leg injury, and now KD will be out at least a year if not longer, and the remainder of his career will be in jeopardy. 

I guess that's why I have such strong emotions for him and the sacrifice he made for his team.  They needed every point he made, needed his energy and chemistry and presence on the floor, and during the time he was playing the team was different, was in synch, was able to go toe-to-toe with the size and strength of a tenacious, talented opponent. It would be a different series with KD in the lineup, and for 11 minutes we all saw that.  How the Warriors were able to carry on and squeak out a victory, especially after being down six with three minutes left, is part of what makes them so magical to watch.  They find ways to win, even when they make big mistakes, which they seem to do with regularity this series.  It was an intense, frustrating, awe-inspiring game that showed the team's toughness and mental determination to push against whatever long odds lay in front of them.  The Splash brothers, both future Hall-of-Famers and perhaps the sharpest shooting tandem in NBA history, proved why they've been deemed the best of the best since way back in their careers before their first title.  I'm not sure if they have enough to beat this really impressive Raptor team two more times.  If they can, it will be as big a comeback as the Cav's victory after being down 3-1 three years ago.  It would cement their legacy as the dominant team of this three-point era.  Next game is Thursday night.  We'll see what happens at the last Warrior game ever to be played at Oracle Arena.  If ever there was a time for the team to shine and rise above the cards they've been dealt, it's now in these final two games of the NBA season.  They shot 20 threes and still only won the game by one point.  The Raptors keep up with them and keep fighting.  Their players are smart and seem to know exactly how to handle what the Warriors come up with.  The Raptors are the better team, with more depth, more weapons, more consistency in this series, and make fewer mistakes, but there's also that feeling that what they almost had in their six-point lead with three minutes left might have slipped through their fingers.  We'll see how they respond in game 6.  It's all so very nerve-wracking and exciting to watch.

Day - 1661

Sunday, June 9, 2019

Went to breakfast with Austin and his girlfriend Hannah at Beach Chalet.  They're so cute together.  Our breakfast was so good, and because Great Pacific Highway was closed for a bicycle race, we had practically the entire restaurant to ourselves. 

I ordered french toast and Alice had an egg scramble. 

Our beignets and chocolate dipping sauce were also very good. 

Really nice morning.

We cleaned up the Airbnb after breakfast, then did our thing in the afternoon.  I FaceTimed Jill, mom and Chris, and had a nice long talk with Kevin about his first year as Dean of the Honors College.  I then read and wrote a few more journal entries.  I hope to have everything caught up by Wednesday.  

Day - 1662

Saturday, June 8, 2019

I went to bed around 11 and woke up at 8, a nice long 9-hour sleep.  I was in SF by 10:30.  We went to Noe Valley to check out a shoe store Alice was curious about.

We then grabbed lunch at Whole Foods and went to Diamond Heights to hang out by the pool. 

It was wonderful up there.  We hit the jacuzzi after lunch, grabbed a latte down at the shopping center, then came home and settled in for the rest of the day. 

In the evening, we watched a documentary on NetFlix that really touched me.  I never would have thought I'd enjoy a show so much, but perhaps the historic significance of the program was so clear that I naturally savored every moment. 

Elizabeth at 90: a Family Tribute is absolutely wonderful.  I'm not a big Royal person, but this show really humanized the Royal Family in a way that made me appreciate all of them, especially the Queen and all she represents about service.

Day - 1663

Friday, June 7, 2019

Racquetball from 5-6:15 with Ari, Tyrone, and Tiger.  I slept very little last night, up again at 1:30 a.m. I had a mocha at work around 11 and that got me through the afternoon.  I had a few jobs to tackle to keep me awake and an IPD project that took two hours to finish.  After work, I scrambled to order Yang Chow and clean up the place a bit for Richard and Margaret, who joined me in watching the Warriors/Raptors game.  This was a must win game for Golden State, but they did not capitalize on a slow and misguided Raptors start.  They were ahead by as many as 12 points in the second quarter and 7 points by the half, but they played so-so in the third quarter and horribly in the fourth, while the Raptors stayed composed and made their shots.  The Warriors were simply outplayed in the second half and lost their second home game in-a-row, scoring only 93 points.  Down 3-1 and not looking like the sharp-shooting Harlemglobetrotting team they're supposed to be, I don't see them taking this series, not when Toronto's playing so well.  And KD's not coming back anytime soon.  His injury is perhaps more serious than we've been led to believe. 

At any rate, Yang Chow was delicious and it was fun watching the game with Richard and Margaret, painful as it was.  We went out for consolation Colonial Donuts and milk after the game.  A glazed old-fashioned soothed the pain somewhat.  By 10 I was dead tired, and by 11 I was sound asleep.

Day - 1664

Thursday, June 6, 2019

Finally slept a full six hours last night.  Crawled out of bed at 6:45 a.m. and went to work by 7:40.  Got my portable laptop today, which was great!  Now all I need is some training and equipment and I'll be able to work from home.  Love it!

Caught up some on the journal tonight and tidied the place up for my Warriors watch party tomorrow night with Richard, Lisa and Margaret.  Alice refuses to go because watching the Warriors is too stressful for her.  Maybe I can talk her into it tomorrow, but I doubt it.  

Day - 1665

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

I woke up at 1:30 and finished a Tokyo journal entry, then went to the gym at 5 for racquetball.  It was great seeing the guys!  I was rusty as hell and missed a lot of shots, but it sure felt good to be back on the court.  Lisa and I commuted into the city at 7:20 and we chatted all the way to work.  Work was very busy and I worked up until 4:50 p.m.  The Warriors Raptors Game 3 was on tonight at 6 and I watched what I could of the game before DVRing it and continuing with journal updates.  The Raptors were making shots and playing well against Steph and the B squad.  Klay didn't play tonight.  It was a must win for the Raptors.  I loved the fight and hustle the Warriors showed and waited for them to break out in a run, but the Raptors had an answer for every momentum swing.  The tough loss really illustrated the importance of Klay on both sides of the court.  Now the Warriors are in must win territory and with Klay and maybe even KD back, we should take care of business Friday night.  

Day - 1666

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

I went to the gym at 5 a.m., rode a bicycle machine for five minutes, then practiced racquetball shots for 15 minutes, ran for 20 minutes, then hit the weight room, working on my legs for 15 minutes.  Work was slow today, surprisingly.  I'll get my portable laptop this week.  I came home ,made a pot of chicken stew, then went to sleep early again, waking up at 1:30.  Ugh!

Day - 1667

Monday, June 3, 2019

Up at 1:30 a.m., then 4 a.m.  it's hard for me to sleep more than a few hours each night.  Went to work from SF at 7:30, in at 8:30.  It was nice seeing everyone and talking about the trip.  I had two weeks of emails to read and delete.  That took most of the day.  I really hit that jet lag feeling around 2:30.  I went home to Oakland in the evening and immediately crashed for two hours.  Then had dinner, then crashed again, then slept another two hours, waking up at 2 a.m.  I still can't sleep more than two hours.  What a drag.

Day - 1668

Sunday, June 2, 2019

Up at 3 a.m.  I read for an hour, then watched the final episode of Game of Thrones.  I was hoping to get a few days of journal entries in, but I didn't have the energy.  Instead, I talked to mom and Chris, helped Alice prepare her Airbnb for tonight's guests, slept in the early afternoon, then watched the Warriors Raptors Game 2 downstairs.  The Warriors were down big in the second half, but came on strong in the 3rd quarter, managing a 20-0 run and holding the Raptors off in the final minute to tie the series at 1-1.  Klay Thompson injured his hamstring and Kevon Looney was out in the 1st quarter.  The team is beat up but resilient.  Boogie Cousins had a monster game tonight and played 20+ minutes.  That was so nice to see.  Went to bed around 10 p.m.  Tomorrow the working grind begins again.

Day - 1669 - Kobe - Tokyo, Japan - Fly Home

Saturday, June 1, 2019

Up at 5 for breakfast, coffee, final details of packing, then off the ship at 7:35. From the Kobe Terminal, we had six transfers to make to before arriving home, seven including our Uber from SFO.

Transfer 1 - Kobe Terminal to Sannomiya Station. We took the Portliner line to Sannomiya Station, which was right next to our docked Diamond Princess. Our train took six minute, giving us an hour to relax inside a coffee shop.

Transfer 2 - We ate breakfast -- morning buns and breaded pork, all very good. At 9 a.m. our train arrived and we took it to Shin-Osaka. We had reserved seats with comfortable padding.  It was one of the nicer trains we'd been on.

Transfer 3 - Shin-Osaka and a large, busy station.  We had 12 minutes to make our connection and needed every minute to make our bullet train.  No bathroom breaks here.  We asked a ticket agent for help and she guided us to the proper platform on the other side of the station.  We made it with barely a minute to spare.

Our bullet train took us to Shinagawa Station, a 2.5 hour ride. It was packed. Every seat was taken. We only had three stops and reached Shinagawa at noon.

Transfer 4 - Shinagawa Station to Narita Airport.  Our Express train to Narita Terminal 1 arrived at 12:16. It was comfortable and fast. We reached Narita at 1:29.

Mailing our Pocket WiFi back

Transfer 5 - We had ramen at Ipuudo...

...then boarded our plane to LAX at 3:45.  Alice was able to sleep a few hours, but I just couldn't do it.  Maybe I slept for 30 minutes if that.  I mostly read and watched a movie or two.  We touched down at 10 am Saturday. We had 90  minutes to make our Southwest flight to SFO.

Transfer 6 - LAX to SFO

90 minutes was not enough time for us.  We needed more like 2.5 hours.  The International terminal was insanely busy, plus our plane seemed to be parked a mile or so away from immigration.  Once we passed through immigation and border inspection, we found ourselves in a line one hour or so long!  Luckily, we had Global Entry and could bypass this insane line that wrapped around the hallway.

Our flight to SFO was in Terminal 1. We were in Terminal 3.  We had 10 minutes to get there, so we ran.  These terminals are long, so it took us about 12 minutes to arrive at Terminal 1.  I printed out our boarding passes and rushed to security with Alice just as our names were being called in the terminal.  After security, I had Alice run to our gate while I collected everything.  We made it, barely, and had to sit in middle seats.  It was awful, but probably worse for the passengers who had to sit next to me.  I was all sweaty and hot and hadn't had a shower in nearly 24 hours.  Pure misery.  Luckily, we took off and touched down within an hour or so.

Transfer 7 - SFO to Home

We took Uber and made it home by 1 p.m. Saturday.  The first thing I did was take a shower.  The second thing I did was fall asleep for seven hours.  Wow, what a long, painful day of travel.  Brutal.

Day - 1670 - Day 7 Cruise - Sea Day

Friday, May 31, 2019

Sea days are all about routines for me.  Up at 5 for cereal and fruit at Horizon Court, followed by a latte in the Piazza.  The the Fitness Center from 7-8:30, the Izumi from 9-10:30.  By 11, it's time for lunch.

Game 1 of the Warriors/Raptors NBA Championship began at 10 a.m.  Alice went out during the game while I ordered a hamburger and fries.  The Warriors seemed sluggish and not too sharp, but the Raptors played well, making shots when they needed to and maintaining a comfortable double-digit lead throughout the second half.  They ended up winning, putting pressure on Golden State to take the next game Sunday night.

Our last dinner of the cruise meant ordering whatever looked good.  We ordered the lobster and another entree, plus, of course, lots of desserts!

Our dining neighbors also treated us to after-dinner lattes because they had so many extra latte credits that they wouldn't be able to use.

We said our goodbyes after dinner and took pictures with our waiter Arnel, assistant waiter Mihson...

... and our dining neighbors who we sat next to and became friends with, James and Michele from Calgary. 

They were lots of fun to sit next to.  They once took their family (two or maybe three kids) on a 30-day cruise across the Atlantic. 

I wore my favorite ugly Hawaiian shirt that I bought at The Gap last September for $4.99.  I'm not lost in the crowd with this thing on!

We return to Kobe tomorrow morning at 6 a.m., then it's off the ship and back to Tokyo by train before we fly home.  

Day - 1671 - Day 6 Cruise - Sea Day

Thursday, May 30, 2019

I love sea days!  We had an early breakfast, then it was off to Izumi at 9 a.m., followed by a late breakfast, then lunch, then a nap.

After our nap, I read for a few hours, then had dinner.  Then a little TV.  I watched Passengers.

The visuals were amazing!  The first half was very good, but the ending was a bit corny.  I enjoyed it, but was really impressed with the look of this film.  Well done set designers. 

Off to sleep in preparation for another sea day tomorrow.  Yes!

Day - 1672 - Day 5 Cruise - Taipei, Taiwan

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

We were so excited to spend a day in Taipei, Taiwan.  It was one of the reasons why we chose this cruise.  We began our morning early, leaving the ship around 8:45 a.m and taking a taxi to the National Palace Museum.

Our driver was Mr. Wu.  He and Alice spoke Chinese like two old friends who hadn't seen each other in decades.  Before long, it was clear Mr. Wu would be our driver for the rest of the day (for a reasonable fee).  He was great!

It took about an hour or so to arrive at the museum.

I figured we had maybe an hour or 90 minutes at most to explore the vast collection before the hard floor would do in Alice's hips and back.  So we picked up a couple of audio guides and went through the galleries of the second floor at a quick clip, passing by tour groups to sneak a peak at all the great Chinese treasures.

This jadeite cabbage piece is the most famous artifact in the collection.  Dozens of people surrounded this small, beautiful piece of sculpture.

We saw this pork belly piece when it toured San Francisco last year at the Asian Art Museum.  It may be the second most popular piece in the museum.

After an hour, we took a break at the museum cafe, ordering lattes and a Monte Cristo sandwich, which was pretty good.  We walked through another series of galleries for 20 minutes or so, then hit the gift shop.  Alice bought a wonderful souvenir of four small plastic replicas of the cabbage, pork belly, pottery vase, and iron chair, while I bought some wonderful cloth bookmarks.

We turned in our audio guides and met Mr. Wu outside and the museum parking lot.  Our next stop was Taipei 101 for lunch.

This building is absolutely enormous.  It looks like take out cartons stacked together.  It's about 100 stories tall and very modern looking up close.  We had lunch inside at one of the lower levels in a restaurant that served suckling pork and duck. It was so good!  We also had green vegetable, but the rice cooker was broken so no rice for Alice Wu.

We had a latte at Starbuck's Reserve...

...then went to the Sun Kei Shek Memorial and took some photographs.

From there, we took a short road trip to Shifen and the lanterns.

The deal behind this place is you write some wish or message on a paper lantern, then send it into the air via a hot air gizmo that's ignited.  This lantern Alice is standing next to says, "We wish ourselves much wealth and fortune!"

We walked up and down the tiny village town, drinking a mango bubble drink as we crossed a fun little rope bridge.  We bought cute little lantern souvenirs before heading back to Mr. Wu's taxi.  It was almost 4 p.m., so time to head back to the ship.

Ah, back aboard the Diamond Princess just in time for dinner.  Alice and I ordered wine.  Such a nice meal after a wonderful day in Taipei.  We hope to be back again soon!

Afterward, we drove to Shrling for the eternal lanterns that are hoisted to the sky. We had a mango drink and bought a lantern souvenir. We took many pictures. Tawain is a lush country with thick jungle forest. The building are stained tile from all the rain. It’s hilly, even mountainous. Our driver Mr Wu was pleasant and dependable. We arrived back at our ship at 4.