Ahhhhh . . .  another luscious sleep in!  My ideal cruise would be a day in port followed by a day at sea.  After lunch in the Lido, the afforded time to hear another great lecture by Joseph Kess.  

“Emeritus Chair in Japan and Asia-Pacific Relations and Professor Emeritus (linguistics) Dr. Joseph Kess has been chosen as one of four Canadians to receive Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun—the highest honour bestowed by Japan on foreign nationals.  Kess is widely recognized as a leading scholar of psycholinguistics, the study of the native and learned mechanisms that enable humans to acquire, use and understand language. His primary theoretical interests have focused on psycholinguistic aspects of language processing and language performance. His research interests also encompass sociolinguistics and the relationships among language, ethnicity and the discourse of identity. He has worked on a variety of languages including Tagalog and other Philippine languages; Japanese in Japan and Hawaii; Motu and Kuanuan from Papua New Guinea; Slovene in the former Yugoslavia; and Ahousaht and Haida in BC.”

He’s an excellent speaker and shares a tremendous amount of information at each presentation.  It’s like a mini-college course in Pacific History.  
Did you know that “kamikaze” means “divine wind?”  I didn’t either until today.  It was a “kamikaze” that saved Japan from Kublai Khan’s  invasion in 1274 and 1281. It is believed that it was the weather and/or a flaw in the design of his nine-hundred ships (that were based on river boats without keels), and his fleets were destroyed.   The Mongol Kublai had succeeded in building a powerful empire, created an academy, offices, trade ports and canals and sponsored science and the arts. More than 20,166 public schools were created during his reign. He successfully conquered China and had dominion over a large portion of Eurasia.  But failed to conquer Japan.

Did you know that the Treaty of Portsmouth ended the Russo-Japan war?  Or, that Teddy Roosevelt was instrumental in the negotiations and was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.  You never know when it could be a Jeopardy question!

I enjoyed a little writing and reading time followed by happy hour with Tim and Lynn.  I’m so glad we finished dinner in time to make it to the show! David Meyer played everything from “Pacabel’s Canon” to “Flight of the Bumblee” on a xylosynth.  (Click on the link to see a performance.)  It was definitely one of the more unusual shows we’ve seen.