JAPAN!!!

Today- Sunday February 14th. It is Valentines Day!!!! I do not have a Valentine on the boat but my roommate was nice enough to give me a box of chocolate she had bought for her home stay family instead of giving it to them i guess? oh well! i’m not complaining! Its 3 pm and i am already done the box :)
We have class today and tomorrow and then arrive in China on Tuesday the 16th. I am going on a trip with a bunch of other semester at sea kids so it will be relaxing to not have to navigate through China independently. We will be exploring some parts of Shanghai and then flying to bejing and hiking on the great wall. Then, venturing to Hong Kong. While on the ship for the next couple days I am just going to catch up on some sleep and do some laundry in my bathroom sink since the laundry service doesn’t do my floor’s laundry until after vietnam which is gross since i only have like three pairs of pants.
After China we head to Vietnam and then India. I have no plans for either of those places so if ANYONE has any suggestions of what I should go see or anything please email me (I know to go see the Taj Mahal already).

NOTE: I love sending post cards but do not really have any addresses so please email me your address if you are interested in a post card!!

Here is a recap of everything I did in Japan. Enjoy!

Tuesday 2/9/2010:

First day in Japan was super wild. i was traveling with three of my friends: Max (south Dakota), Ryann(Cali), and Lele(Boulder). They all go to University of Colorado Boulder. We started off departing the ship in Yokahama. We had prebought ourJapan Rail Passes and needed to go pick them up so that was our first stop. Afterward, we made our way to the Ramen Noodle Museum. It was...interesting. When we walked in we were in the souvenir shop. It was full of little toys and weird foods (that seemed to be the pattern of things found in most Japanese stores from here on out). When we ventured downstairs we found ourselves in some sort of ‘town’? It was all these mini restaurants around the outside with tables and a concession stand of treats in the middle. I wasnt going to leave without eating there so i picked a mini restaurant randomly since none of the menus or signs were in english. I chose what i wanted out of a machine in front of the restaurant. Then, i handed the little sheet of paper that the machine printed to the waiter. Not realizing that you had to eat inside the restaurant you ordered from and not out in the open eating area I ended up eating separately from my group but i enjoyed my ramen based soup. After eating we decided to head out. The museum was referred to as a ‘food amusement park’ but i can’t say that was true to name. It was an interesting place but definitely not worth more than the 300 yen we paid.
Next, we made our way to Tokyo. At this point we were aware of the fact that there was barely any english on signs and not many people spoke very good english. Consequently, it was quite the adventure in every train and subway station. We eventually found the bullet train to Tokyo and got there in no time. TOKYO IS HUGE. Picture New York City with all of the signs in Japanese. It was kind of like that but even bigger.
We had our first authentic dinner in a small place that we thought looked interesting. After butchering the Japanese word for rice for about five minutes our waiting said “are you trying to order rice?” and we were like ‘wait...you speak english?” and indeed he did. Kind of embarassing, oh well. That made the ordering process a little easier. We ended up getting some meat skewers and rice. It was pretty good.
We had heard about this famous Tokyo Ice Bar. It was the only plans we had made our whole time in Japan so we were determined to get there. After a lot of confusion, some walking, and a cab ride we arrived at what we thought was our destination. Long story short the Ice Bar had moved across Tokyo but we were told that it had closed. It took us quite some time to realize this. Needless to say, once we found it (two hours later) we were super relieved. We were meeting two other groups there at 9. Around 8:50 we pulled up to the right location we got out of out cab and saw some of our friends walking from the left, some getting off a bus to the right, and some pulling up in a different taxi. It was funny because we could all tell that each group had their own story of how they’d been so lost and trying to find this bar for hours. I have never been so relieved to see some familiar faces though. In the end it was way cool. The whole bar was ice - the bar itself, the cups, the seats the walls. They gave us robes when we walked in and one drink came free with the cover change. It was pretty sick but definitely got cold quickly. Our reservation was for 45 minutes and that was more than enough time in there.
The night got a little more chaotic all this point. Our group went from 4 people to about 30. Eventually we all split and went to numerous places. Every place whether it was a bar, restaurant, or karaoke room it was super small. We stopped at a few bars but felt very uncomfortable because they all seemed like very small local places that didnt want tourists. Eventually we all met up at a Karaoke place. Kareoke in Japan is HUGE. The way it works is that you rent a room to yourselves and do karaoke that way. It got late so we didnt stay long but seeing the way it is run was interesting. the night ended by us tagging along with some other friends and staying at their hostel. The hostel was nice - just a room for us with 4 sets of bunk beds and a communal bathroom.

Wednesday 2/10/2010

Today we had an early start. We headed to the giant fish market in Tokyo around 5 a.m. It was huge. I have never felt so in the way in my life. there were tons and tons of fish of all kinds everywhere. there were butchers killing fish and gutting them. There were little carts flying around hauling boxes of fish. it was crazy there.
Afterwards we went back to the hostel and took a nap. We then got some soup for lunch and headed to the shopping districts- Shinbuya and Hirijuku. Both of them were insane. Stores and people EVERYWHERE. There were stores from high scale american stores to low scale Japanese shops. Gadgets to shoes. Nothing like I have ever seen before. We were looking for the Hirijuku girls but had no luck. There were some fashionable people but none that were like WOW. (Quin if you are reading this you would have LOVED it and probably would have spent all of your money). The forever 21 was 4 floors!
That night we headed back to the main part of Tokyo. We found some dinner at a sushi place that I think was a Japanese chain restaurant. Either way it was very good. Although I am going to have to give props to the eastern dragon at home because it was almost as good as the sushi in Japan. Anyways, we then found a capsule hotel to stay at. I dont know if you have heard of these but basically you have your own like box with one side missing. its kind of like bunk beds that are enclosed. There is one side open that just has a curtain. You have a locker to lock your valuables. I was nervous at first because anyone could just like enter my capsule. But, more SAS students stayed in the same room as us so that was reassuring. There was a public bath room that i did not use because it was coed and that’s awkward. Knowing myself I am sure I would have run into some sort of really awkward situation if i went in there. SPEAKING OF AWKWARD some of the toilets were built into the ground so you had to squat way low and know how to aim which i cant say i was very good at. (sorry that is weird to say but whatev)

Thursday 2/11/2010

Our plans for Japan were to wing it completely and those plans are going great. We woke up around 6 this morning and got on the Bullet train to Kyoto. Kyoto is a smaller city than Tokyo with some more traditional parts such as temples and shrines. Unfortunately it was cold and raining today. We decided to find a place to sleep first so that we didn’t have to carry our bags around all day like we had been doing for the past couple days. Our shoulders were getting pretty sore. Max had his blackberry with internet so that helped us search for places to sleep and google maps helped us get everywhere. We ended up at a traditional styled Japanese place. The room we slept in was two small rooms divided by a sliding door. The ceiling was slanted and the whole place was made of wood. There were mats built into the floors and pads to roll out when it came time to sleep. It was really cool looking. We had our own bathroom which was nice. The crazy thing was that it was not in the middle of the city so we figured we would be the only SAS people staying there. But, that night when we got back i saw my friends Sarah and Tolan (the ones i traveled around Hawaii with) there. So not only did some other SAS people find it but they were my good friends. Pretty ironic.
Anyways that day we walked around this indoor market/mall and got a sense of Japanese shopping and such. It was a very chill day which was nice. We did not do as much walking as some of the other days so that was a nice break. We did see two huge Temples. They were like nothing I had ever seen before. The one was the biggest wood building made or something crazy like that. We headed back to our place and got dried off and relaxed for a few hours just talking. It was nice to hear eachother’s stories from home about family and school and everything. We had an okay dinner afterwards. I got some sort of Hotpot with chicken meatballs. Let me just say that none of the people i traveled with were familiar with the last name ‘Patel’. I thought that was strange since in Hatfield we are very familiar with that name.

Friday 2/12/2010

Today was my favorite day in Japan. We stayed in Kyoto and decided to explore since yesterday’s weather had held us back. We rented bikes for only 500 yen a day (5 U.S. dollars. We rode all over - To little towns, more awesome temples, and a few other random areas. It was great to see so much in so little time. It was also great to be riding rather than walking. The city was pretty bike-friendly. The side walks were not clearly marked but for the majority of our riding time we were on a bike path. We hit some hills which were pretty tough on an old single speed cruiser but we made it. Our first stop on the bikes was breakfast. We went into this Japanese cafe not knowing what to expect. We somehow pointed to a random thing on the menu and ended up with a pretty western meal - bacon, eggs, toast, ketchup, and...salad? It was a nice change from fish and noodles for sure.
After our day of exploring we decided to move on. We got on the train with the intentions to head to Hiroshima but it was getting dark so we stopped half way in Kobe and ended up sleeping on the ship. it was a nice change to be back in our own beds for some time. We met up with some friends and got dinner together. We called it an early night because we were exhausted and decided to get up real early to head to Hiroshima.

Saturday 2/13/2010

Our last day in Japan: We got up early so that we had as much time to travel around as possible. Because we had bought the rail pass ahead of time we wanted to get as much use out of it as we could. We departed at 5:15 am to make our way to Hiroshima. After a subway ride and then a bullet train ride we arrived. We got some breakfast as soon as we got there. There were these pastry places all over Japan. They were similar to panera only some wayy different options. The options ranged from a plain donut or muffin to a sweet potato pie with fish and bacon inside. It was petty weird but definitely had some good choices. We ate at these type places numerous times since they were cheap and quick. After breakfast we headed to the Atomic Bomb Sight of Hiroshima, took some pictures, and got back on the bus to continue our travels. The sight was one dome building that had survived the bombing. There was a museum we did not have to go to. Our plan was to go to the oldest hot springs in Japan. We took the Bullet train back to Kobe then a bus, a subway, a tram car type thing, another bus, and then we got to a cable car. The cable car was suppose to take us to the Gondola which was suppose to take us to the hot springs. After deciphering a badly translated sign we realized that the Gondola was shut down for service. Therefore, we had traveled for about 5 hours to take an uneventful cable car ride up to the top of a mountain to see a sweet view of the city of Kobe. It was kind of a bummer that we did not get to the hot springs but the adventure was fun and we still saw a lot.


Overall: Japan was unreal. There were some things that I noticed everywhere I went:

First, was that there was anime pictures everywhere - In trains, billboards, small advertisements, etc. No advertisement looked serious because it had some kid of weird character on it.
Second, there were no napkins and minimal trashcans in the roads. Every restaurant would give you a hot towel to start and then no napkin after that. For all the slurping the Japanese do (since it is acceptable) I would think they would need napkins. As for trashcans they believe that you should throw away your trash in your own house. Plus, no one eats or drinks in public on the go.
Third, it was quiet everywhere. The trains, buses, and streets were also silent. I felt like a stupid loud american just from holding a conversation with a friend.
Fourth, crosswalk signs were a man with a hat on. i have a picture to explain but rather than it being a neutral person shown walking on signs or on the blinking green electronic sign in intersections it was a neutral person with a top hat on. Weird.
Lastly, there were strange sounds in public. For instance, when the subway came a strange carnival sound would play on the loud speakers. On some buses there would be jingles playing. On the toilets you could press a button for a fake flush sound.

That’s all for now!