Day 63 At Sea toward Shanghi, China

First I want to explain that we have had a terrible time trying to get online and once online often the emails would fail to send. Loading the previous days pictures took four failed attempts until they were finally loaded this evening. It is very frustrating to lose contact and not be able to post on our blog. This has become a nightly ritual that causes us to reflect on our day and the experiences we have had. It will be interesting to reread the blog once we have completed our trip. I am sure we will come away from the trip with some strong impressions. Once we have reread the blog these impressions may change as we are reminded of the earlier parts of the experience.
Today we are in the South China Sea looking forward to our visit to Shanghai where we will meet my sister and brother in law. The sea today was rough but not nearly what we experienced earlier in our travels. We have been seeing a great deal of nautical traffic as we approach one of the busiest ports in the world.
Tomorrow Shanghai, China.

Chris - Japan Lite - I was curious after we were in Okinawa why it wasn't like the Japan I had always envisioned. So I did some research today and found out that Okinawa in location to most of Japan is like Key West to the United States. Japan is made up of 4 main islands and then a series of little islands that trail off to the south, the Ryukyu Islands. Okinawa is located on the most southern of the Ryukyu Islands. It was American until 1972 when it again became Japanese. Growing up a lot of what I heard about Japan was about Okinawa, with it's military base and significance to WWII. Okinawa's sultry climate and languid lifestyle creates the most exotic place in Japan. It is more like a South Sea Island than the rest of Japan and serves as a vacation paradise for them. That certainly explains why it was so laid back there when I had envisioned the frantic pace of a big city, much like Tokyo. Another tidbit about Japan. A lot of what we saw in the trinket stores and on advertising pieces had almost a cartoon type look to everything. There were endless little dolls and characters similar to "Hello Kitty" on everything! At least they looked cheery and fun. Almost all the souvenirs were either those doll like characters or packaged fruits or cookies, many of them looking very exotic with vivid colors.