Tuesday Oct 20, 2026
Hi Folks! Well, the weather gods weren’t nice to us today (did I not rub that lucky ox hard enough??). It pretty much rained all day! And we had to walk up and down 600 steps with wet fallen leaves on them so I guess we did get protected by the safety gods since we did not slip and fall. Whew!
We were docked in Sakata, Japan today and did a 6.5 hour excursion that went to Mount Haguro, one of the three sacred mountains in this region. We saw the five story Go-Jyu-No-Toh pagoda built in 931. Right next to it was what they called “The Grandpa Cedar” tree since it was over 1,000 years old.
We had a vegetarian Japanese lunch that the local monks eat for health and longevity. It was actually really tasty! We visited the Chido Museum dedicated to the great samurai warriors. We also saw the Zenpoji Temple area, dedicated to fish and fishermen, with its own 5 story pagoda.
One of the cool things today was a group of high school students met us at Mount Haguro and walked around with us. They just wanted to meet people from other countries and interact. We talked with four boys who were all extremely tall (for the Japanese) and found out they are all on the basketball team and want to go on to university. They were all really nice.
We got back to the ship and had to hurry up and get ready for dinner. Tonight was “Orange night”. Given Holland America’s strong ties to the Netherlands, each voyage they have an Orange party to celebrate the Dutch Royal House of Orange. So of course we put our Orange duds on and strutted our stuff!
Dinner sort of had a Dutch theme so I got the Green Pea Soup (that’s Dutch) for my appetizer, the Dover Sole (is that Dutch?) for my main and the Creme Brûlée (definitely not Dutch!) for my dessert. All tasty again tonight.
After dinner we went to the Orange Party in the theater where the HAL singers and dancers performed, the Rolling Stones Lounge Band played and the cruise director hosted a music trivia game between the Officers and the passengers. The passengers won! It was a lot of fun and they had the place rockin’!
Tomorrow we are in Hakodate, Japan. Onward to explore new places! Hope everyone had a good day!
