Day 9 -- At Sea

Not much to do. Al played ping pong (even though the humidity is 90%). Bo decided to go to the Japanese traditional bath that is set up on the 15th floor of the ship. It consists of several hot pools – some are 42C and some 35C, some with jets and some without. There is also a dry and mist sauna and a few different kinds of showers, including a waterfall shower. First you have to take off all your clothes and put them in a locker, then you take a shower in a small shower stall with a wooden stool, After you’ve cleaned yourself, you can proceed to the communal tub/pool. When I (Bo) got to the changing room I was surprised to see so many women there, but then they disappeared into various area and there were only two of us in the pool, then we were joined by our table mate Kathy from Glasgow. Then Kathy and I moved to another pool with open roof so we could get cool ocean breeze. We stayed there and chatted for about 30 minutes, and then took a cool waterfall shower, put on our swim suits and went to the outdoor pool, which is for both men and women. This is a wave pool, but the sea was so rough today that we didn’t need artificial waves. After Kathy left (you are only allowed 90 minutes in the bath), I was there alone for a few minutes, and then a group of Japanese arrived 3 men and 5 women. Japanese female swim suits are quite different from ours – to begin with they have short-like bottom and the top does not expose any cleavage. Very modest, but nice. In the afternoon we watched a movie (Dallas Buyers Club) and had wine at cocktail hour. It was a cloudy, rainy and very windy day. It was our last dinner with our current table mates because most of them (except for 3) are disembarking tomorrow. Our table started as a pretty boring table of 5 (including us) on the first day and grew to a very lively and fun table of 11. We are sorry to see them leave.