RANSVESTIA

we were all cleared and boarded the ship. We sailed out of the beautiful harbor about the size of San Francisco bay, and into the open sea. Then suddenly about 3 p.m. we began a wide complete 180-degree turn and sailed back to the harbor. It was announced over the PA system that a typhoon was working its way up the Japan- ese islands and was due to be centered on the straits between Hokkaido and Honshu just at the time we were due to pass through them. The captain didn't think that was too smart so we laid over all night in harbor. One of the men on our tour who was a retired elec- tronic engineer and myself went adventuring up by the radio room, got to talking about the storm when the captain came in and he in- vited us onto the bridge, showed us the weather maps and the course maps and explained everything to us and gave us the VIP treatment. So, once again, I became an "odd" woman to have curiosity about meterology, navigation, radar, and all those technical things. But the hell with it, I was having a great time.

We spent the next three days aboard the SS Felix Dzerjinsky pas- sing through the straits, down the length of Honshu and finally into Yokohama harbor. That must be the biggest harbor in the world and it certainly had more shipping in it than I'd ever seen in one place before. Ships of all kinds and sizes going in, coming out and at an- chor. It was a fascinating sight to be on the top deck above the bridge with a pair of binoculars. We finally docked, got through Japanese customs, met our bus, and drove up to the Tokyo Hilton. The food on the ship had been a big improvement over the hotel fare we'd had for so many days what with fresh fruits and other good- ies, but that first meal at the Hilton was a memorable one. I remem- ber I had clam chowder, lamb chops, fruit salad, corn, fresh milk and pie a la mode for desert. It was really great to get back to western variety, cooking and dishes. Tokyo is not western to be sure, but the Hilton coffee shop is.

Next morning it was back to the airport to fly to Saporro on the northern island of Hokkaido. We saw that city and drove quite a bit through the countryside, took boat trips on lakes, etc. We visited a volcano that had arisen out of the middle of a farmer's field about 35 years ago and since it is still on his land it is referred to as the only privately owned volcano in the world. You can walk part way up the side of it and as I am interested in geology I had to climb quite a way further up beyond the end of the walk way and thereby polished off my reputation among the other tour members as being very adventur- ous and unpredictable. But then I could never settle down to being a

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