There are  differences  worthy of mention between Japan and Singapore:  1.39 S$ to the U.S. $1. Virtually everyone in Singapore speaks English.  Not so in Japan. The shock of cold in Singapore reminds you that you are not using a warm Japanese washlet toilet.   Most of the 50 or so TV channels in Singapore are in English.  In Japan, perhaps half dozen. The one huge negative factor is World War II.  Travel throughout the Pacific Islands, Oceania, China and Southeast Asia, and you get the same understated, but emotionally wrought response about  Japanese occupation of their territory .  It has been more than 80 years, but feelings remain.  One reason: The   Kempeitai   (the Japanese   military police ), which was the dominant occupation unit in Singapore, committed numerous atrocities towards the common people. They introduced the system of " Sook Ching ", meaning "purging through purification" in   Chinese , to get rid of those, especially   ethnic Chinese , deemed

  The Seabourn Odyssey left Cairns and is headed for New Caledonia. The Battle of the Coral Sea  occurred between 4 and 8 of May 1942, five months after Pearl Harbor.   Japan vs the USA and Australia.   First aircraft carrier battle ever fought. All the fighting, however, were carried out by airplanes from those ships. This was the first time in WWII that Japan experienced failure in a major battle. This was the victory that saved Australia, for Japan was advancing towards Australia. The U.S. knew more than the Japanese suspected, for America had broken the Japanese secret naval codes.  The strategy was to sink carriers, for that would destroy the plane runway.  The problem was that each was protected by a screen of cruisers and destroyers. The Japanese were led by Admiral Shigeyoshi Inoue, with Admiral Frank Fletcher in American command. The final truth is that this was actually a tactical victory for Japan, as the American USS Lexington carrier was scuttled and USS Yorktown damaged.

We are in the Sydney Harbour Marriott Hotel at Circular Quay.  Very convenient walking distance to all the activities at the port, Opera House and Royal Botanic Garden. Sydney is on the other side of the International Dateline, so I lost a day.  This is now Wednesday, March 8.  Here are  22 things we can do in this city today . Sydney is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and is the most populous city in all of Oceania, with 5.4 million.  Melbourne has 5.1 million people. Some history: Aboriginal Australians have lived in this region for at least 30,000 years, and maybe 50,000. Captain James Cook, on his first Pacific voyage, came to Botany Bay in 1770. In 1788 the first fleet of convicts came to Sydney Cove as a British penal colony.  Thus the name Sydney.  This partly because, they had been sending them to America, but then the U.S. became independent in 1776. Japan was just getting ready to invade Australia when the U.S. naval victory at the battle of Midway in early