Japan was amazing!!!! It literally blew me away! Out of all the places we were going, it wasn’t really one of the top places I was interested in going so besides for seeing the Great Buddha I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do there and I think it was for that reason, that I had no expectations, that I loved it so much! The people there were so incredibly nice and so helpful to us all the time. People time and time again went out of their way to help us find places we were looking for without us even having to ask! The cities were so safe too! We were out really late one night and not once did we feel like we were in any danger at all which was very refreshing.
In our first port, Yokohama, the first day we headed out to Tokyo, which was only a half hour train ride away. We spent the day just exploring the city in different areas and eventually began looking for a kaiten sushi restaurant for dinner. Kaiten sushi is the kind that spins around on a conveyor belt around a table that everyone sits at. You get to pick whichever plates you want and at the end you pay based on the design of the plates you took! We had heard from the interport students that Kaiten sushi restaurants were very easy to find and there were many but for some reason we searched for a long, long time and were not able to find one. Finally in Ginza, Tokyo we spotted an apple store and decided to google where we could find one. That turned out to be not helpful at all so we asked one of the store employees but he couldn’t understand us. Just before we got discouraged, another customer in the store overheard our conversation and gave us directions to one nearby. We thanked him and headed in what we thought was the right direction, only to be told by him it was not. He offered to walk us all the way there, which was very nice! As we walked we found out more about him and his friend! They were college students as well who had just studied in America in Missouri. The boy, Moto, was so excited to meet us because he said he wanted to continue practicing his English but it was hard to find an English speaking buddy in Japan. We ended up having dinner with them at the sushi restaurant – which was SO much better than American Sushi!! Afterwards they took us to a dessert place and then we went our separate ways.
After heading back to the ship we dropped off some stuff and headed back out to explore Yokohama. First a bunch of us went to check out a Karaoke bar, which are extremely popular in Japan because they invented it!! Karaoke there is very differently than in the US because you rent your own private room to do it instead of singing to an entire room of strangers. I personally find it equally as embarrassing but apparently they love it and even take people on dates to there!! After that we decided to just wander the city and explore and we ended up staying out there until about 2 AM. It was completely different from New York City at night!! There was so much open and the people were all so nice and not a threat to us at all. Not only were bars open, but restaurants and even shopping boutiques! They didn’t start closing down until 2 AM, which we couldn’t believe!!
The next day we went on a trip through the ship to see the Great Buddha, a Shinto shrine and Mt. Fuji. The trip was incredible!! The Great Buddha was even more amazing than I thought it would be!! I videotaped walking around it at a pretty decent pace and it took an entire minute! After seeing the Great Buddha we went to the Tsurogacka Shinto shrine. It was absolutely gorgeous and so interesting to see how people worship there! After that we got to shop a bit in town which was really neat because they had a lot of free samples of food which allowed us to try there snacks which were very different from ours but very tasty! I bought a soft serve ice cream that was half green tea half sweet potato! It tasted just like eating a sweet potato and was delicious!! Next we traveled to Mt. Fiji and took a cable car up to see it. However, it was so cloudy that you could barely see out of the cable car at all so it just looked like you were in a cloud or a blizzard. It reminded me of skiing when it’s snowing! After that we headed back to the ship and the ship took off to head to our next port Kobe.
Most students did not ride the boat in transit between the two ports which made it extra enjoyable for us because we got special treats! We got to sleep in as late as we wanted which was so refreshing and definitely well needed!! During the day they called it “movie day” and they had movies playing on our TV all day (they usually only play after 6 PM) and after each time the movie ended they put a new one in (usually they play the same movies on repeat all night!)!! That night we had a fancy sit-down dinner where everyone on the ship came to the fifth floor dining area at 6 PM and sat down at tables. The tables were set like five-star restaurants complete with all the silverware possible, fancy glasses, cloth napkins, and a bread basket already on the table! They had a set menu to choose from where you were allowed to choose an appetizer, soup and salad, an entre and dessert! It was so delicious!!
The next day we arrived in Kobe where we just explored the city for the day! By recommendation of our global studies teacher we first walked along the railway tracks in one direction and got to see what the people who lived there live like which was interesting. We also so a local market and had traditional Chinese food (dumplings) for lunch! Then we headed in the other direction to check out the touristy spots of shopping which was a world of difference.
The next day I headed with a few friends to see the Himeji Samurai castle. It was so cool!!!! We got so lucky and by chance arrived there at 10:55 am only to find that the ONLY English tour is once a week on Saturdays at 11 AM. It was incredible!! Our tour guide spoke great English and the other two people on our tour also spoke English so we were able to communicate with everyone and find out really interesting facts about the castle!! Turns out the Japanese were extremely clever and had built in all these tricks to fool the enemy if they tried to attack the castle. It was so interesting to see!! Overall my trip to Japan was amazing and we were so sad to leave, there’s so much more to explore there that it would be a great place to go back to later on :)
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Konichiwa - Hello from Japan :)
My Extended Family!!
Yesterday was such an exciting day!! On the ship, they have created something called an Extended Family. Basically some of the faculty and most of the Lifelong Learners take a group of students under their wing and mentor them and meet with them over dinners or have game nights every so often on the ship! Since we're all so detached from the real world, it is a nice idea to feel a little bit more connected :)
Last night was the first night most people met their "families" for dinner. My "grandparents" are named Barb and Phil. They are life long learners of the ship and were some of the nicest people I've ever met!! They've already done this voyage before so they are a great reference if we have any questions. My family has seven girls (including me) and two boys. Everyone was really nice, but the boys were pretty hysterical. It was a nice way to meet new people and see what other people are planning in the different countries, etc. We decided to meet again after Japan to catch up and see how everyone's trip was... I can't wait!!
This morning I met Deirdre's "grandparents", Doreen and Bob, over breakfast. They are lifelong learners as well and are one their third voyage!! They were the cutest couple and such world travelers!! They are cutting out of this trip early and ending in Viet Nam where they are going to Cambodia to help out with their daughter's orphanage she created over there and then heading out to Bangkok where Doreen's brother has a condo and staying there until they fly home to Canada! We ended up staying and talking with Bob for a half an hour after breakfast and listening to some of his stories. They were all so entertaining and informational. He told us a lot about Beijing and Hong Kong, Viet Nam and India and got us really excited, even more so than we were, for all those places!! He gave us a lot of great information particularly about Beijing because we are going there to see the great wall independently!!
It's really refreshing to have the lifelong learners and the kids of faculty on the ship because it makes the boat seem a little bit more like the real world!!
International Dateline
I definitely should have written about this when it was happening but I got caught up with shiplife!! Since we are sailing in the direction we around the world we will gain 22 hours over the course of our voyage! Basically, every few nights we have been changing the clocks back (including last night)! In the past two weeks we've already changed it back 5 times, which is nuts! We are so fortunate to be going this way because we get to add so many extra zzzzs which is nice because I swear the rocking of the ship makes everyone sleepy! I think most people get way more sleep here than on their normal college campus yet we're all so exhausted and to think we have only been to Hawaii!! Since we will be adding so many hours, when we crossed the international dateline, to make up for it by losing a whole day! We crossed it on February 1st but for some reason decided to keep February 2nd and throw out the third! So for us the days went Tuesday February 2nd to Thursday February 3rd! Neat right?! So today for me is Friday February 5th at 12 pm which makes me 16 hours AHEAD of east coast time!!! Just thought I'd share that because I think it is so interesting that we just got to pick the day that wouldn't exist!!
On a side note - there were FOUR people who didn't have a birthday because it fell on our "lost" day!! What a cool story to say one of your birthdays didn't exist!
