Israel is escalating its incursion into the Gaza Strip.  The latest count shows 8500 Palestinian deaths and 1400 Israelis.  Read this to better understand the  difference between the Hamas and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS ).  For one, the former is 36 years old, while the latter developed more recently. 24 years ago.  Here is what  Russia hopes to gain  from the Hamas-Israel conflict. Jacob Lew was finally confirmed as the U.S. ambassador to Israel .  He was Treasury Secretary for President Barack Obama. This position has been vacant since July, so one wonders if partisan politics stood in the way of confirmation.  Supposedly, it was for Lew's dealings during the Iran Nuclear Deal. Had another excellent breakfast at the Sheraton Yokohama Bay. Then a short taxi ride to  the Diamond Princess.  Took a long time to check-in and finally boarded around 1 PM and had lunch. Noticed someone walk by who looked very similar to Steve of 15 Craigside.  So went up for closer look. N

Best as I can tell, nothing much has changed about the world at large.  Also, no newsworthy items from Japan.  No threatening typhoons. This is important because we board the Diamond Princess as soon as I complete this blog today. I wrote about our day in Yokohama yesterday.  Last night, just another enjoyable visit to the Sheraton Club Lounge. Sunset. Sunrise this morning. We were warned that the Diamond Princess, when it returns to Yokohama this morning at 6:30AM, would dock at a different pier.  So I searched. The Diamond Princess must be the one to the left.  Yokohama Port is not as complicated as Sydney Harbor, where we had a difficult time getting to the Seabourn Odyssey earlier this year. The  Port of Yokohama  opened to foreign trade in 1859.   Osansbashi Pier has ten piers with 24 berths and opened to international passengers in 2002. The MS Asuka II is home ported here.  I remember enjoying three cruises when it was called the Crystal Harmony.  The conversion occurred in 2006

We spent some time in the Hawaian Airlines Plumeria Lounge, boarded the plane, and waited an hour for no expressed reason.  This was a concern because we wanted to end the day in the Sheraton Yokahama Bay executive lounge, which I thought closed around 8PM.  This delay meant we would arrive at the hotel about 8:30PM. But otherwise, all went well.   Started with ramen, white wine and assorted snacks. Our plane. Formerly, only purple vanda orchids were used.  Now green ones. Away we go. First had macadamia nuts with Johnny Black Label Scotch on rocks.  Ordered a Japanese meal of broiled eggplant with miso, marinated tuna, spinach with sesame sauce, broiled miso chicken, assorted pickles, miso soup and rice.  For dessert, Taro cheesecake with Haupia Poi Sauce.  Kirin Beer and Kasumi Tsuru Kimoto sake. The meal was orchestrated by chefs Wade Ueoka and Michelle Karr-Ueoka, with wines by Chuck Furuya. The flight was 8.5 hours long, almost all at around 39,000 feet elevation, speed of 460 MPH