Its been great being home. I've been home for 2 weeks now. I haven't missed LA too much, because I've really been enjoying myself here. I've been able to see my close friends from home and family multiple times! More than I was expecting, and its just been so great to see my loved ones, it really really has! I've appreciated how green and beautiful delaware county is. I appreciate everything more, being away from the people and things I loved for so long. Many people of course have asked how my "trip" was. Oh what a hard question that is to answer. Amazing, incredible, unreal don't even seem to suffice, but that's what I end up with. My favorite kinds of questions to answer are specific quesitons-questions about shiplife, people there, adjusting to being off the ship. It means a lot when people actually want to hear about more than how the "trip" was. Boy do I miss it. I heard alumni say before, "I think of Semester at Sea every single day." I figured they were probably exaggerating. I was wrong. I'm pretty sure I think about it every single day. If not, then 99% of the days since I disembarked. Just last night a song called Danza Kuduro came on twice at the Sip when I was with my friends, and we danced to that song every day in zumba on the ship. We had such joy everytime we danced to it..we had so much energy and enthusiasm. I still have the whole thing memorized..ahh it seems like everything reminds me of it.
Anyways, all this thinking of Semester at Sea probably has partly to do with the fact that I've just been at my house for the past two days. The least busy I've been since I've been home, which causes my mind to wander and think back to all the incredible memories of this Spring. So, with all this SAS thought, I decided it was time for me to write about Japan.
Japan:
We arrived in Japan in mid-April. At this point we were baffled at the fact that we were approaching our final country! Traveling through Asia happened so fast. Up until Asia there was quite a lot of transit time on ship between ports. It was nice that way-We were able to process and reflect our time in each country, talk about it with others, catch up with friends who didn't travel with us, REST, sleep, sleep, sleep, get into a little bit of a routine and get ourselves geared up for the next country. We usually were antsy to get off the ship after a week or so of seeing nothing but ocean, and that made it even more exciting to start our adventures in the new country. But once we got to Singapore, it all changed. The ports were much closer together, so that meant only 1, 2 or 3 days on the ship between each port. So for about a month (a week in Vietnam, a week in China and a week in Japan with a couple days of travel in between) we were go-go-going, with basically no school :) and all travel! So then we get to Japan and we were like, HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!
So it just so happened to be the peak of cherry blossom season in Japan the week that we were there. The cherry blossoms only peak for a week once a year, and we were docking an hour train ride from Kyoto-the cherry blossom viewing location, where many people in Japan wait a lifetime to visit. We were blessed! My first day there I had an FDP (field trip) for Anthropology of Food at a Tea Ceremony in Kyoto. We walked through beautiful gardens and Japanese style buildings to get to the location of the tea ceremony. At the ceremony we all knelt on the ground and were each given cracker like food to cleanse our palettes and then were given a cup of tea that looked like moss soup I used to make in the woods as a little girl. It kind of tasted like that too-ha! The lady who conducted the tea ceremony was trained for years and years. She did a ritual before serving the tea. She wore a kimono. The ritual was very particular and was pretty fascinating to watch. Tea ceremonies have always been a big part of the Japanese culture. Serving tea to guests showed respect, kindness and love. It was cool to get such an upclose and personal experience of an important part of Japanese culture-and I got class credit for going!
After an hour bus ride back to Kobe, where the ship was docked (and yes where Kobe beef comes from), I was very pleasantly surprised/relieved to find my friends Andrea, Katie, Rosemarie, Nate and Taylor still waiting for me to go out to eat. We were in Japan, sooo we obviously needed to find some sushi! (I say this like I'm a sushi eater..I never had it til then, but they were all big sushi lovers). We were walking around looking for a sushi place when this cute Japanese guy started talking to us. We told him we were looking for a sushi place, and he was like, "Oh I'll bring you to one!" He was so sweet. Hilarious too-he was called Taylor and Nate handsome and said one of them looked like a football player. Too funny. We got to this small sushi place and no one there spoke English. The menu was in all Japanese, no English. With some hand gestures and such we got the cooks to give us whatever sushi wasn't too expensive. We had a great dinner. We had so much fun together-they were all some of my closest friends on the ship. Afterwards we found some funky ice cream in a 7/11. There are 7/11s EVERYWHERE you look in Japan. I was able to find Stride gum (only gum I ever buy) for the first time in Japan! Then we looked for a Karaoke place. Karaoke was invented in Japan, and its..Karaoke..so obviously it was a must! It wasn't hard to find a place, but it was pretty expensive, and you're committed to a big chunk of time, so we decided to skip it for the night. What we did instead ended up being perfect. We went to a rooftop restaurant/bar and just chilled and talked and played that ask anything game. We had so so much fun. After that we found a place to chill outside and continue chatting, then we headed back to the ship, it started raining, which ended up being funny. We didn't want the fun to end there, so we went to Katie and Andrea's room and chilled some more. A neighbor knocked on the door, complaining about us being loud. Rosemarie answered the door and said, "sorry, we're bonding." hahaha it was so funny, and so true.
I took this picture in an elevator. This is the cute Japanese guy we met, and he was bringing us to the sushi place in this pic-you can see how happy everyone was :)
I was really unsure about the next day. I knew I wanted to go to Kyoto and walk down Philosopher's Path (the famous walk lined with Cherry blossoms) and take in all the beautiful Cherry blossoms and gardens, but I didn't know who I was going with. When I woke up, things we're looking really iffy, plans seemed to be falling through, but once again, God worked out things perfectly. I had been wanting to travel with one friend I made in India, but didn't get to spend time with her since then. I don't see her much around the ship, but right as I was kind of starting to worry about what I was doing for the day, I walk into the dining hall, and who is sitting at the very first table you come to? That friend!-Ali! I instantly got excited..then I asked her what she was doing and she was doing exactly what I wanted to do-go to Kyoto and then head to Tokyo that night (with her 1 friend). She invited me, and of course I agreed! What was also perfect about this, at by this time in the trip, I realized how much better it is to travel with small groups..like maximum 4. So I really wanted to travel in a small group in Japan, and Ali was only traveling with one other person. It was perfect. So shortly after I talked with her, we left for the train and traveled to Kyoto. It rained all day-which was kind of a bummer, but hey-this was literally the first day in port the entire voyage that it had rained-really couldn't complain!! Especially because it was spring and raining season for Japan. We rode some buses, and found some beautiful temples, and of course the many beautiful cherry blossom trees. We walked down beautiful Philosopher's path, which was lined with cherry blossoms. We were tired of the rain and were kind of cold, so we headed to the train station where I was going to meet Andrea. She was on a field trip in Kyoto and planned to meet us at the bus station and we were all going to take an overnight bus to Tokyo together. The plan was to get wifi-but that was never a guarantee, and was always very difficult. About 2 hours had passed and Andrea wasn't showing up. We decided to get dinner. She had the bus info, but I was still worried about her. As we headed into the restaurant I thought to myself, imagine if Andrea came into this restaurant...ahhh that would be something. The bus station was huge and there were many restaurants. Just as we're looking at our menus all of a sudden Andrea walks in with none other than one of my other close friends, Rheanna. I could not believe it. God once again! The chances that they walked into that restaurant. Crazy! And Rheanna had actually found Andrea walking around the bus station looking for us. Another example of God being great and another godwink. Shortly after dinner we boarded the bus for a 8 hour ride, where they stopped almost every hour! It left at like 11ish and got there at about 7am.
Ali and I in Kyoto:
Philosopher's Path:
When we arrived in Tokyo we headed to the subway station-the most highly used rapid transit station in the world! It was pretty complicated, but we managed to finally find our way to our hotel. Once the four of us checked into our hotel we decided to start checking out TOKYO! So exciting to be there! After getting some breakfast, we headed back on the subway to Harajuku street! What I knew about Harajuku street was the Harajuku girls that Gwen Stefani used to have as her back up dancers, or whatever they were. They dressed in a "Harajuku" style, and Harajuku street consisted of stores with Harajuku/trendy Japanese styles. Bows are huge. Everywhere! Lots of cute cute things. Why I didn't buy something I do not know..well I do, Japan was the first country we came to where prices were similar to American prices, not crazy cheap. So I couldn't bring myself to spend $30 on a dress when I was spending $4 in every other country. Anyways, we had a good time checking out the cute shops on Harajuku street and ate at a cool restaurant that was on top of a building. Andrea and I went to a shop that was upstairs, I don't even know why we went up there-it was a guys store. But we went up there, and a guy that worked there started talking to us. Turns out he was from Ghana! Even from the city we visited-Accra. He was so excited to hear we were just there-he couldn't believe it. We reminisced about the yummy food, music, and great great people. Crazy cool! Andrea and I got separated from the 2 other girls, so we headed back to our hotel on our own, getting kind of lost when we were almost there. We asked some boys walking down the street, and we eventually found it. Andrea and I decided to go to a baseball game that evening. Professional baseball is huge in Tokyo! We had a blast at the game. The Japanese really get into their baseball! They have a million cheers, and everyone participates, with hand motions and all. The cheers aren't like yelling, screaming cheers. They're straight up songs! It was so cool to see everyone get into it so much!
After the baseball game, Andrea and I wanted to do something fun. We wanted to go out and heard that a lot of Semester at Sea kids were going to a club, but we honestly weren't feeling a club. We decided to head over to Shibuya and check it out. That is where the worlds largest pedestrian intersection is. We got there at probably 10 or 11 and it was packed with people. We saw a few girls that looked around our age with a cute little dog near the huge intersection, and we stopped and talked to them. They were so sweet! We even got a picture with them. We asked where a good place to go out was and they directed us. Then we made it to the huge crossing. I honestly didn't even know that we were at the infamous spot that is seen in many movies, but I was like wow, this is quite the intersection with a whole lot of people! Andrea and I stood there for a little bit, about to cross, and a bunch of people kept coming up to us and talking to us. One guy was from India so we talked about India for a bit-haha. It was pretty hilarious how we kept making "friends" just standing there for a couple minutes. Then we crossed the street and looked for bars or some place to check out. We saw some place that looked like a cool bar. We went downstairs and a guy stopped us and said "Japanese only." What?! We couldn't believe they said that. I was shocked. Then we kept walking. We saw a couple white guys with beer hats on their heads. We contemplated talking to them but decided against it. Shortly after that we found a bar to go up into. It was very small, but cute. A little while later the guys with the beer hats came in! We ended up talking for a bit and Andrea talked with one guy for a while, finding out that he lived in Colorado at one time (thats where Andrea's from) and they exchanged info. We had a great time at the bar, having an adventure just the 2 of us. We realized the last subway time was approaching, so we scurried out of there and ran down the streets of Shibuya-haha I memory I'll never forget and one that Andrea just texted me about today! We ended up being too late and missing the subway, so after a McDonalds stop we hailed a cab and made our way back to the hotel.
The Tokyo Subway system:
Harajuku Street:
The intersection at Shibuya:
The next day I had another FDP, this time for my theater class. It was a Kabuki theater performance-an incredibly popular form of theater in Japan where the actors have incredibly animated faces, which are painted dramatically white. My friend Ali's roommate, Elenie happened to be staying with us in the hotel, and also happened to be going to the Kabuki theater show. Seriously, what a Godwink, because if she wasn't going, I probably would've had to take a subway to Yokohama where the ship currently was, find the ship, and ride the bus back to Tokyo (about an hour ride) and I most likely would've gotten very lost and not make the bus in time. Such a Godsend! And on top of that, Elenie is AWESOME. I was so glad I met her and got to spend the whole day with her. She's also christian, so it was cool to talk about that, and she is just so joyful and life loving, it really made the day a blast hanging out with her. Before the show started we found a pretty cherry blossom tree to look at and take pictures by. I really enjoyed the show, even though I couldn't understand a word! It was so much to take in with their very animated faces, the funny sounds they made, the incredibly detailed background and scenery, and the fighting going on. It was also so calming to me to just sit back and relax. When in port you just go go go, and if you aren't, you feel guilty for not go go going and utilizing every second you have. So to do this guilt free, was awesome. It was 4 hours! There were 3 intermissions-1 every hour. And I enjoyed all of it, because it was just so relaxing, and actually entertaining because there was so much to take in without the words.
Elenie and I before the Kabuki theater show, taking a picture with a Japanese lady
These boxes of food/treats, are popular in Japan:
Kabuki!
After that, Andrea took the subway to meet us at the theater-found us without a problem. Andrea and I then had to figure out where we were going to spend the night. It was evening time at this point, and we really wanted to find some place that was cheap-which was very difficult because its Tokyo! We also didn't want to waste time, and it was already 6pm. We were at a place with wifi and the guy from the previous night happened to add her on facebook and then facebook message her. She mentioned we were trying to find a place to stay, and he said we were welcome to stay at his friend's apartment-where he was staying that night with his friends as well. Now it probably sounds crazy-but it felt right, and it came at the perfect time, and we trusted them. We took a subway to their place, they met us outside, went to about the top of the building to this beautiful apartment that overlooked Tokyo-an insanely expensive place. The guy who was renting it wasn't there, but his friends (the ones we met) were staying there on vacation. They lived in Tokyo for a couple years, but were visiting at this time. They were from Poland. We had a great time chatting with them for a couple hours. And then I realized that it was our last night in Japan and we still hadn't made it to karaoke yet! So that is what we did! Now karaoke is different in Japan. When you go to do karaoke you get a private room that fits about 5-10 max. Its like a small living room, with a couch, table and the TV, 2 microphones and a huge book of songs! Andrea and I did most of the singing..it was a fun time. The guys were good sports haha. We then headed back to the apartment, and I woke up with yet again another incredible view! Andrea and I left that morning and decided to explore Rapungi-another cool part of Japan. It rained all day that day, but we weren't too grumpy about it since we'd been so blessed with weather the entire trip. Andrea and had such a great day the 2 of us. We are just so on the same page, and really enjoy each others company. When it comes to traveling, we have basically the same goals, and we're just really good traveling companions! We started off the day with breakfast at Starbucks and a long, deep chat. Then we headed to Rapungi and explored a little garden, window shopped, which was really fascinating because we realized Japan is big on appearance when it comes to say displays in stores. Everything is insanely neat and particular. Its fascinating. We stumbled across a dog hotel! We went in there and watched the cute puppies run around, and saw pictures of the dog hotel rooms with fancy beds and everything-crazy. Across from there was a dog salon where we saw dogs being pampered like they were in a spa! Next door there were kitties on display in the windows. We went in there and got to play with kittens-how cool! Then we stumbled upon a wine festival with free wine tasting! They even gave us a free bottle opener-what luck?! After that we stumbled upon a fancy movie theater..it was such a cool day of exploring ordinary things in Japan that aren't so ordinary for us.
Our new Polish friends:
Waking up to this:
Exploring Rapungi in the rain:
Kitties in the window!
Dog salon
After a fun day in Tokyo, we went on a subway to Yokohama, where the ship was. It was a quick hour ride. When we got there we were a little early so we checked out a couple shops, and then headed back to the ship, got a picture with a Kimono and gifts from Yokohama-so nice! Then we boarded the ship, leaving the last country on our voyage...
Some notes about Japan:
1. Vending machines-They are EVERYWHERE. And you can find ANYTHING in them...at preport they told us they even have cars you can buy in vending machines. I don't see how that can be true, but I don't think they were joking..
It was convenient for me whenever I wanted a coffee! They even sell beer in vending machines.
2. Cutesy. From Hello kitty to bows Japan has a whole lot of incredibly adorable things. So many stuffed animals and you name it cute! Japan has it.
3. Japan was the first place in a while that I didn't feel like I was constantly being gawked at, even though we were a definite minority. There aren't many white people there, but I felt like I blended in because I didn't notice everyone staring at me like I did in the other countries. Now I think this may have to do because the economic state of Japan is much more similar to American than any of the other countries...but it was interesting. And I must admit-it felt nice to not be stared at and not feel that you don't belong.
4. Something I didn't get to experience but that is very popular in Japan is a capsule hotel. These are what they sound like. To save room you get just a little capsule, big enough for a bed and yourself-thats it. It pulls out of the wall, like a capsule, and then you go inside the wall. Space saver! They're mostly for men-for business men, but there are some that house women.
I loved Japan! Tokyo was such a fun, beautiful city! I had an amazing, unforgettable time there. I went there in April, but I remember every single detail like it was just yesterday-it amazes me!
Now all that is left to write about is Hawaii..that was only 1 day, but what a great day it was! I'll blog about Hawaii within a couple days and will share my conclusion of my Semester at Sea, and how I've adjusted to life afterwards. Thanks for hanging in there-I know its crazy how long its taken me to write some of these posts, but every detail is important to me. :)
Conclusion coming soon!
