August 22, 2025

Tokyo at Night!

Tokyo reminds me a lot of New York City minus the grit, graffiti, trash, homeless, honking horns, sirens and crime.  It is amazing how clean the streets are everywhere!  Our hotel is in a lively Times Square kinda neighborhood. There are huge billboards everywhere you look. We went to a Samari dinner show and on the walk there we caught our first sightings of Godzilla !

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The Samurai Theater itself  was a calidescope of all things sparkly and glitter! WOW! The show was lively, loud music, strobe lights and neon and tons of moving parts. The dancers and musicians portray a ton of classic Japanese images, samurai warriors, geshi, dragons and lots of colorful images. We had seats right along the stage and ate a dinner of sushi and udon, while we watched the performance. Afterwards we strolled more of the neighborhood  and got to see the Cat in a Box billboard.

We squeezed in one more FUN excursion, in this long first day in Tokyo. We met up with ship friends (L to R )Theresa, her son Riley, his visiting friend Gavin, Me & Bosco and Alan to drive STREET KARTS around the City. This was a BLAST and a great way to see the city and sights all lite up at night! Plus we got to get in costumes! They supplied a variety of onesie outfits!

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A GREAT FIRST DAY IN A FUN TOWN!!! Really LOVING Japan !!!

SHIP SHENANIGANS - CLUE PARTY

By Pat Patrick • September 16, 2026
It's never a dull Sea Day on the Odyssey! We have such creative residents, that are always coming up with new ideas to entertain ourselves and have a good time. This plot was the calculating of Eddie and Michelle - a Game of Clue! The rules were simple - find the party venue at 8:30 pm, come dressed as a character, weapon or room from the game and solve the mystery of who stole the Ship's bell.

TERRACOTTA ARMY - XI'AN, CHINA

By Pat Patrick • September 16, 2026
In March of 1974, some local farmers outside Xi'An, China are digging a well and accidentally hit one of the great archaeological sites in the World! They were paid one day's wages for the find, roughly 4 USD! The Terracotta Army was dubbed the 8th Wonder of the World by France's President in 1980 when he came to visit and wanted to meet the farmers, the oldest was then, 89 years old.

XI'AN, CHINA - WALLED CITY

By Pat Patrick • September 15, 2026
Xi'An, China has been on my must do list , for awhile. The story of the Terracotta Army has fascinated me, since I first heard it. What I didn't know too much about, was the actual City of Xi'An and the walled inner City that remains today. It was built from 1370 to 1378 during the Ming dynasty on top of the older Tang dynasty foundations. There are 9 miles of City walls, they are 39' high, 45' to 50' wide at the top and 55' to 60' at the base. There are four main gate towers and the only draw bridge restored is at the South Gate. There are 98 ramparts, watchtowers, battlements and a wide surrounding moat. It one of the oldest and best preserved fortifications in China .