Japan

Konichiwa!

April 11, 2008:  The adventure begins…

Woke up around 0530 to watch the sunrise over Kobe, Japan with Kristin and Kristen.  Once again, it was not the best sunrise, but a bit better than the last few ports.  It was pretty cloudy outside, but we still had a pretty view and saw the city of Kobe bright and early.  Unfortunately it is cold here…well, cold compared to all the other countries we have gone to, except China.  Every time we get into port, our ship has to be cleared by customs and officials before we can get off.  I believe they usually come on board, check all of our passports, talk to us in a diplomatic briefing and then we are cleared.  Not the case in Japan.  We had to be cleared one by one!  We first had to have our temperatures taken.  We walked in a single file line through the faculty lounge.  As we walked through, this thing that looked like a video camera scanned our temperatures…so high tech!  Japan is very ahead of the US technology wise.  After getting our temperatures taken, we had to wait for our ID # to be called, and then we had to wait in a long line to get fingerprinted, our photograph taken, and our passport checked.  Usually they start with ID #’s 0-100, but this time they decided to change things up and start with 700+.  My ID # is 561, so I got to get off on the 3^rd group which took over an hour.  Once we were cleared, we weren’t allowed back on the ship.  Of course the girls I was traveling with had ID #’s 50 and 91…the very last group!  I sat in the terminal and waited for them for over an hour.

 

So our plan for Japan…TokyoàKyotoàHiroshimaàKobe…we have 4 nights and 3 days.  I bought a rail pass before getting to Japan, which allows me to ride the train anywhere in Japan for 1 week, unlimited.  The boat is docked in Kobe, and Tokyo is a 3-hour train ride east of Kobe.  Kyoto is only a 30-minute train ride east of Kobe, and Hiroshima is in the opposite direction…one and a half hours west of Kobe.  Not the most convenient, but I have become a world traveler…I will make it happen.

 

I am starting this trip off with Kristin, Amanda, and Katie, and we are supposed to meet up with people along the way.  We will see how that goes being that our cell phones do not work here because they are so technologically ahead of us.  Anyways, we decided to go to Tokyo first and get the long distance traveling out of the way.  So we had to wait in a long line to exchange our temporary rail pass that we all bought in advance, for the actual Rail Pass.

 

We took 1 train and 1 subway to get to the bullet train that would take us to Tokyo.  The 1^st train was very colorful and modern looking.  It was a fun, clean looking train.  As for the bullet train, it is the fastest and most efficient train in the world.  We got on the 1420 train to Tokyo.

 

The bullet train was really nice, clean, and comfortable.  One problem…we got on the train without reserving seats.  Apparently everyone reserves a seat before getting on the train, and if you don’t, you get bumped around.  I feel like I played a 3- hour-long game of musical chairs!  We all started off in 2 rows next to each other and by the end of the ride we were all sitting next to strangers.  Oh well…we are learning as we go.  We know better for our train ride to Kyoto, reserve a seat!

 

The 4 of us (as are many other SASers) are going into Tokyo with no real game plan, just our backpacks. Tokyo is made up of many districts…some better for shopping, others for nightlife, and others for museums & real culture.  Since we weren’t going to get anywhere until dinnertime, we decided to go to the big nightlife district of Roppongi.   We have no hotel, hostel, or ryokan booked, nor do we know what we are really doing.  We bought tickets to a baseball game for tomorrow night that we are meeting a bunch of kids at, so I guess we know one thing on our itinerary.  Other than that, we will see where Tokyo takes us! 

 

We got off the train and looked/wandered around aimlessly for a cheap place to stay. We ran into a white businessman on the lit-up city streets that gave us the name of a “budget” hotel where he sends his business partners, Villa Fontaine Hotel.  There is no such thing as a cheap place to stay in Japan.  Everything is extremely expensive.  My friends & I wanted to sleep in Capsules for the experience and the low price, (essentially they are cubby-holes that you rent for the night inside a building) however they only allowed men to stay there.  So…we ended up booking 2 rooms for the 4 of us at Villa Fontaine Hotel, which wound up costing us each $70.  We wanted to squeeze into one room but they had a strict policy on 2 to a room.  We dropped our stuff off in our rooms, had a quick turnaround and headed out for the night.

 

It was dinnertime by the time we left the hotel, so we set out to try and find a place to eat at.  Katie and I didn’t want sushi and a lot of the restaurants were too smoky to stay in.  Finally a man pointed us in the right direction. We walked into this hole-in-the-wall restaurant. We were the only Americans.  The restaurant was the real, AUTHENTIC, hibachi-style experience.  Tons of Japanese businessmen & young people sat around the border of big tables with huge fresh seafood & vegetables in front of them.  The chefs cooked in front of us, yelled back & forth, and used long wooden paddles to place our food in front of us on the table.  The odd thing about this restaurant was that they didn’t show their prices on the menu…but we figured it was crowded and there were plenty of young people so it wouldn’t be too bad. The sake here was an experience, just by the way it was served.  The food was really good, but ended up being $40/person & we didn’t even eat that much. On the bright side, I convinced the manager of the restaurant to let us all take our wooden sake shot glasses home as a souvenir (not what you would picture as a shot glass)!

 

After dinner, we walked down the streets of Roppongi in the search of a good bar.  We wound up running into some older Navy guys, (as did many other SASers), who convinced us to go to a karaoke bar with them.  Karaoke = the big thing to do in Japan.  First, we went to a bar called Wall Street so that we wouldn’t have to sing completely sober.  The drinks were really expensive and really strong, so we all got one Long Island Iced Tea and made our way to the Karaoke bar.  The karaoke bar was a lot of fun. We all have such wonderful voices!  Anyways, we had a good night & eventually headed back to the hotel around 0300 because we were waking up at 0430 to go to the fish market! 

Who needs sleep? You can sleep when you die.

 

 

April 12, 2008: Day 2…Roppongi àShinjuku

An hour and a half later…0430 and I am up, getting ready to go to the fish market at 0500.  Not an easy thing to do after a night out of singing and drinking. The market was SO cool.  All the local fishermen bring their catch here each morning for auctions & for sale.  There was so much fish; teeny little fishàbig sharks/whales or something like that. The live auction was really cool to watch.  After a few hours at the fish market, we headed back to the hotel for some breakfast and some sleep…we had until 1100 before we had to check out.  We checked out of our hotel and stopped by a nearby Starbucks to make our plans for the day.  We decided that we would go to another district, to see another part of Tokyo.  We went to Shinjuku...it only took us about a half hour to get there by train.  We walked around FOREVER trying to find a reasonably priced hotel.  A lot of hotels/hostels had strange policies, such as curfew, and we didn’t want to deal with any of that.  We didn’t really want to spend another $70 each, so we decided to be sneaky this time and have only 2 of us check into a hotel, but have 3 of us stay there.  Kristin waited outside while Amanda and I checked into Hotel Kent.  All of Japan is really strict with people limits in a room, but we were willing to risk it.  Our hotel was located in the middle of everything…bars, restaurants, karaoke, pachinko.

 

We walked around the district looking for a reasonable place to eat lunch….what’s better than an Italian restaurant in Japan. Haha. As we walked around the district we were cautious of male hookers as we were warned about them in advance.  After lunch, we headed to a third district of Tokyo, because we had tickets to the Giants Baseball game with a bunch of other SAS kids.  The Giants vs. The Swallows!!!  Tokyo Dome was kind of the meeting point for many of the kids traveling around Tokyo…we knew we would eventually run into everyone at the game.  Baseball is huge in Japan, but the games are nowhere near as exciting as they are in the US.  In fact, there is no crazy cheering.  Instead, there are only organized cheers, which were kind of funny.  Everything in Japan has lots of order.  Even at the train stations, people wait in lines to board the subways/trains…not like in NYC where people push and shove their way on.

 

The game was very entertaining…the Swallows won!  A bunch of us pre-gamed before going into the baseball game.  I hate to admit it, but I didn’t see any Japanese pre-gaming going on.  But hey, we Americans know how to have a good time!  Maybe we will start a new trend!  We got to our seats just in time for the game, and Kristin, Amanda and I sat with a group of seven guys we booked our seats with. Another one of my really close friends, Kristen, and two other guys, Chris and Max, sat with us.  It was a fun group!  I would say about 80 SAS kids were in our section since we all booked tickets around the same time on the ship. 

 

After the game, a bunch of us headed to the district where Kristin, Amanda and I had a hotel.  The three of us took turns sneaking into the hotel to change to go out for the night…we were all nervous about getting caught, but so far so good.  We went out to a karaoke place tonight as well.  This time it was different because we all knew each other and we were all really good friends (Kristin, Kristen, Amanda, Tucker, Dante, Max, Chris, and me).  I would say that we didn’t have the best voices, but after a few gin and tonics, a few shots of gin and vodka, and a few beers, we all sounded pretty darn good!  We sang along to Billy Joel and a bunch of other classics.  Some of us were better singers than others…especially Kristin!  After an intense karaoke session, we stopped at a McDonald’s on the way back to the hotel.  Our room had one full bed for the three of us!  It ended up not mattering though because we only slept for about 3 hours and had a bit of a buzz in our bellies.  I am glad we all got into our hotel without any problems…we were nervous all day and night!

 

 

April 13, 2008- On the Road Again…Shinjuku à Kyoto

0530…Rise and Shine.  We got up at 0530 to catch the first train to Kyoto, Japan at 0600.  This was a 3 hour and 30 minute train ride…I slept the whole way, surprise surprise!  At about 0930 we arrived in Kyoto without any plans.  We found a Ryokan nearby the train station to stay at.  A ryokan is a cheap type of accommodation in Japan.  Basically you pay $40 for an empty room with nothing on the walls and no furniture except for the fold out futons you use to sleep on the floor.  It was interesting, but we didn’t need much else.  They also provided us each with a robe!  The owners were very friendly and we had free internet.  We got a day bus pass for Kyoto and decided to do some traveling.  Kyoto is more of a traditional Japanese city.  Our first stop was Yasaka Pagoda, which is said to be symbol of Kyoto.  Yasaka Pagoda, also known as Hokanji Temple is where Buddha’s spiritual ashes are buried.  After Hokanji Temple, we made our way to Kiyomizu Temple.  The street leading up to the temple was closed to cars and was lined with shops, restaurants and CHERRY BLOSSOM trees.  We made it to Japan just in time for the end of their Cherry Blossom season.  Beautiful Cherry Blossoms filled the area of the Kiyomizu Temple.  We also got to see women dressed up as Geisha here!  Back on the bus for the Golden Pavilion…Every time we took the local bus to another temple, we all fell asleep like rocks.  In fact, when I woke up, one of the women sitting next to me asked me if I was on Semester at Sea…I guess we SASers are known around Japan as sleepy college kids by day and karaoke singers by night!  Eventually, we made it to the Golden Pavillion on Mirror Lake.  Just like in many of the other countries, it wasn’t rare that we would turn our heads and catch a Japanese man or woman snapping photos of us…since we look so foreign with our blonde hair!  It is pretty funny because they try and act like they are taking a picture of something else when you catch them.  I guess I am just as creepy though because I constantly take pictures of all the chubby Asian babies I see because they are all so cute and I want to take them home with me!

 

After visiting the Golden Pavilion, we decided we were going to be brave and go to a Japanese bathhouse!  We drove in circles in a cab with a man that didn’t speak any English and that apparently couldn’t read a map…we finally found one.  The bathhouse was INSANE.  We paid for our tickets and headed upstairs to a big locker room with tons of naked Asian women and little girls.  The bathhouses are basically a spa experience for the Japanese women.  They go there to bathe (obviously), but the large baths are located in what is essentially a large sauna/steam room.  Apparently, according to bathhouse etiquette, it is rude to walk around with your towel wrapped around you.  Minus the older, “un-groomed” (if you know what I mean) Japanese women, they all had such lean bodies!  I was quite nervous to drop my towel, especially since the three of us were the only blonde American girls in the facility.  We already get stared at enough with our clothes on!!!  I felt like they were all waiting for us to hop on in.  On the count of three, we all dropped our towels and jumped into the water.  It is sad, but American culture makes girls so self-conscious.  All in all, it was a very liberating experience and we all laughed about it for the rest of our time in Japan.  After the baths, we got out and sat nakedly at mirrors on the side and shampooed ourselves!  It was fun haha.  What a way to experience some real Japanese culture!

 

After experiencing the bathhouse, Amanda and I went out to dinner while Kristin had a phone interview.  We tried to eat at a local restaurant but we had no money on us, and they didn’t accept credit cards.  We walked around forever looking for an ATM, but they were nowhere to be found; and if they were, they only accepted Japanese issued visas.  We gave up after about 30 minutes of searching for an ATM and walked to the train station for dinner.  The train station is not a run down, smelly, hot train station like they are in NY; in fact, they are very nice and clean and are filled with numerous nice restaurants.  We wound up eating at a Japanese restaurant in the train station that took credit cards.  There was no English menu, but our waiter spoke broken English.  We ordered what we could recognize by picture on the menu…pizza, French fries, white rice, edamame, and sake!  What a combination!  As strange as the combination sounds, it was delicious!  We wanted to stop off at a Pachinko on the way back to our Royikan, but since we had no way of getting cash we couldn’t.  Maybe that is for the best as Pachinko’s are Japanese casinos.

 

We met Kristin back at the Royikan.  Unfortunately she didn’t have much luck with her interview.  She couldn’t find an internet café, nor could she find a cab driver that spoke English or understood a map.  She too ran out of money and couldn’t find an ATM!  We were all exhausted, and out of cash…so we decided to stay in for the night.  I taught Amanda and Kristin the card game Casino (thanks pop!) and we entertained ourselves with that for a while before we went to bed.  We all got to sleep in our robes…on the floor/futon of our Royikan.

 

 

April 14, 2008:  KyotoàHiroshimaàKobe…Happy Birthday Grandma

We got up at 0530 to catch the earliest Bullet train to Hiroshima to visit the Peace Memorial Museum and the A-Bomb Dome.  It was about a 2-hour train ride from Kyoto to Hiroshima…we slept!  However, I actually had a good comfy sleep on my futon at the Royikan.  Today was a beautiful sunny day.  Once we arrived in Hiroshima, we dropped our bags off in a locker in the train station, and made our way to the Peace Memorial Park using the local bus system.  We walked around for a few hours and took pictures.  I couldn’t believe the pictures and videos I saw inside the museum of what the ground looked like in 1945…the bomb absolutely destroyed the entire city and its people.  Today, the city of Hiroshima stands for world peace.  This visit was pretty depressing, especially after seeing the artifacts of children that had been gathered up after the explosion.  So many innocent people were killed, and even today people suffer from the long-term effects.  One of the thing I thought about when I looked at the A-Bomb Dome was how did that not get destroyed while everything else did?  It made me think back to 9-11…I don’t understand how an Atomic Bomb hits the dome and parts of it are still standing, yet the twin towers collapsed from 2 planes crashing into it…  We stayed at Hiroshima for only 3 hours because we wanted to get back to Kobe to explore the city before having to board the ship at night. 

 

We slept on the bullet train, as usual, and eventually got back to the MV Explorer.  We put our bags back on the ship and had a quick turnaround to go out and explore Kobe.  I didn’t sit in my bed when we went back on the ship because I knew if I did, I would never get back up!  We spent most of the day in this big mall area.  I needed to get a case for all the DVD’s I bought in the Asian countries, so that I can get them through customs when I come home.  We looked around for souvenirs, but they had none.  It was mostly clothing stores and electronic stores.  Plus, everything is sooo expensive in Japan…everything!  We were about to go back to the ship when Amanda and I decided we couldn’t leave Kobe without having Kobe beef.  The beef was sooo good and sooo much $$$!  I am glad we made that decision.  The cooking of Kobe beef was essentially an art.  It was done on the table in front of me like they do at Shiro and Beni Hana, but it is a very quiet process.  There is none of the loud banging on the table and everything is done orderly and neat.  In fact it took our chef about 10-15 minutes to cook our onions alone!  When it came time for him to cook the beef, I got a strange look when I said “well please,” in response to “how would you like your steak cooked.”  I got an even stranger look when he went to give me the beef and I asked him to keep it on the grill for a little longer!  I am my daddy’s little girl all right!

 

One thing that is for sure, the majority of Japanese people are incredibly nice!  They go out of their way to help you out, whether you are lost, looking for a particular restaurant, or just want to chat.  So many times (in China too, but even more in Japan) people left work to walk my friends and I to wherever we were trying to go.  The reason that the people of Japan are so nice and willing to help you has to do with the idea of Confucianism.  Although Confucianism is at the heart of China, it is more visually observed in Japan.  Confucianism emphasizes filial piety (social responsibility) and Jen (recognizing the importance & value of others).  The people in Japan were so helpful! When we were looking for a steakhouse, a businessman who was running on a tight time schedule walked us a few blocks to a place nearby.  If this happened in NYC, you’d probably be a little skeptical as to why a man was so willing to help you out.  In fact, if I were to ask someone back in the states where something was, they would probably point me in a direction, not caring if it was right or wrong…they just want to get you off their back!

 

It is a bittersweet feeling leaving Japan.  I am truly run down at this point and am looking forward to catching up on sleep while at sea.  The strip of Asian countries was a little much, considering we all go all-out in port like there is no tomorrow.  With only two days or so between each of the countries, there was really no time to recover.  I guess that is what these next 18 days at sea is for.  Right now, I really can’t fathom being on land for only 10 hours in a 19-day span.  We are only in Hawaii for one day, and 10 hours is all we get! 

I am excited for it to get hot out again.  I need to get back into my A-day, B-day routine.  Japan is pretty far north, but as we make our way to Hawaii it will slowly get warmer.

I can’t believe how much is behind me at this point of the trip.  I don’t want it to come to an end.  I am having the most amazing time!

 

9 days until Hawaii, which means 9 days until I JUMP OUT OF A PLANE!!!  I can’t wait!