Hawaii Mammii

ALOHA AMERICA!!!! Even though it's not the continental US, I was so happy to walk off the ship onto American soil.  As we stepped off the ship for the last time, we knew it was our last time being able to get off and return to the ship later. 
We walked in the rain to Ken's House of Pancakes.  It is a local favorite and the Hawaiian girls on the ship told us we had to go eat there.  I got a Hawaiian turkey (omg—deli meat!) and a chocolate chip pancake. They had all kinds of flavors of syrup to choose from—coconut, boysenberry, mango, and orange.  It was so nice to order in English and have the server know what you really want.

After Ken's, we went on a helicopter tour! None of us have been in a helicopter so it was really exciting for us.  The ride itself was a little scary at first but it was really fun and relaxing.  We flew over the Mauna Loa grove and factory, the side of the volcano, and a few homes that are built on the cool lava remnants of a previous eruption. I couldn't believe that some people live out in the middle of nowhere until I heard how cheap it is to live there.  The lots are lest than $3,000 for an acre and the homes are pretty cheap as well.  When we flew over the lava, we could see the line where the lava has cooled off and where it is still hot.           

After the helicopter tour, we went to the Mauna Loa factory and store.  The ride to the factory looked vaguely familiar and I realized why—I've been there before!  It was very strange to have this realization so late into my arrival in Hawaii and it was weird to finally travel somewhere that I've been before.  At the Mauna Loa macadamia nut factory, we learned about the process that occurs before I am able to consume the delicious nuts.        

Then, we stopped at Walmart to get beer and drove to Richardson's beach.  It was a black sand beach with rocks and a little cove.  There were a lot of SAS students there and it was nice to relax and take pictures at a nice beach.  It rained a little while we were there but in all, it was a really nice location.  We were observing the cove at the beach and we notice there was a green turtle relaxing in the cove. It was pretty awesome seeing a turtle in its natural habitat.          

Going back to the ship was surreal.  I can't believe it is almost over. But maybe this is just the beginning…

Japan

I can't believe it's our last country. We still have Hawaii, but Japan is the last port where we don't understand the language, get ripped off, and accidently perform cultural taboos. It's surreal to think Semester at Sea is almost over.

 

Kobe

            We are finally docked in a very convenient location. The MV Explorer is docked at a cruise ship terminal that has a direct metro line into the heart of the city and the other connecting trains. You would think that would make it easy for me to not get lost, but I still managed to do so. I got lost pretty much every time I went on the subway because of the language barrier. My lack of ability to pronounce the locations I wanted to go to and the Japanese lack of map reading skills helped me get lost.

            Today we (me, Melissa, and Jill) went in search of a sake brewery. Kobe is famous not only for their beef, but also for their abundance of sake breweries. We got lost and/or misdirected on the metro about 5 times because each person we talked to told us to take a different route. We were discussing where to go next while we were on one of the trains and an old lady came up to us to help. Her eyesight was poor so instead of helping us directly, she got the whole train involved and acted like a translator. She was adorable in her houndstooth jacket. The people in Japan have been my favorite people so far. They all seem so nice and helpful.

            We finally made it to the brewery and took a self-guided tour. It was really interesting to see how they make the sake from the rice.  We tasted some sake then headed back to the shopping area.  I had the most amazing Kobe beef burger for lunch—I was able to taste both of the foods Kobe is famous for in one day!

 

Kyoto

            We (me, Colleen, Kendra, and Melissa) woke up early and got on a train to Kyoto from Kobe. Kyoto is famous for the cherry blossom festival and we were lucky enough to be visiting while the blossoms were blooming. People sit around and contemplate while looking at the beautiful blossoms during the 3 week time period they are present. Unfortunately, it rained the whole time we were in Kyoto. Since everything was outside, it was really hard to grasp the beauty of the cherry blossoms (although some say the blossoms are prettier in the rain).  After we visited a park littered with blossoms, we hailed a taxi to the Golden Pavilion.  The Golden Pavilion was breathtaking. It was yet another sight that I was so shocked to be looking at in real life. The entire building is made of gold.  The whole time at the pavilion we were trying to get out of the rain, so we did not stay long.

            Once we decided we saw enough blossoms in one day, we took a 2-hour bullet train to Tokyo. The bullet train reminded me of a larger airplane. It was very clean and had a stewardess that came around and sold refreshments.  

            It was still raining in Tokyo, which crushed a few of our plans. We wanted to go out in Tokyo every night and experience the nightlife to the fullest. Instead, we walked around and ended up at karaoke.  I call it simply 'karaoke' because it was not a bar at all. In fact, it barely served any alcohol. It was more like a recording studio and had rooms lined down the hallway with people singing their hearts out inside.  We walked up to one of the rooms and peeked inside to find 4 Japanese guys singing. They invited us to hang out with them in their karaoke room so we stayed for a few songs. They picked American songs for us to sing and it was funny to watch the Japanese guys sing the English lyrics.  After saying our goodbyes, all of us girls headed to the bathroom. The toilets in Japan are interesting to say the least. They have buttons for a flushing sound, front bidet, rear bidet, and seat warmers. I sat down on the seat to go to the bathroom and "swoooosshhhh"! The toilet was squirting back at me.  I jumped off the seat and attempted to find cover in the corner of the stall, but the toilet wouldn't stop fighting back.  I was traumatized.

           

Tokyo

            The next morning, we left our hotel that we were illegally staying at (I'll get to that later) and walked 3 minutes to Shibuya.  When you look at pictures of Tokyo, the Shibuya intersection is where there are thousands of people crossing the street at one time. We ate at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant! It was so delicious and very fresh.  After eating some sushi, we went shopping in Shibuya 109. The fashion within this building is amazing.  All the girls working in the boutiques were wearing the cutest outfits so I obviously had to dress just like them. I bought a complete Tokyo outfit to wear later that night after the baseball game.   We left the shopping area, much to my dismay, and headed for the Tokyo Dome. The Giants were playing the Dragons that night and it was an awesome game. Yes, they do serve bento boxes in the stadium but they also serve hotdogs and beer.  I enjoyed this baseball game a lot more than the ones in the states because it was a lot more like a football game. There was constant cheering (which was surprising because of their usually calm demeanor) and they sung almost the same songs we do at our baseball games. This sport was not obviously American; it has been retrofitted to fit the desires of the Japanese viewers—a display of localization.  After the game, we went out in the Rapungee district with fellow SAS students.

            We woke up early the next day and decided we didn't want to stay at the hotel illegally anymore. We were staying there illegally because one of our friends that reserved the room only reserved it for 2 people but there were 5 people sleeping in one room.  We snuck out the fire escape and walked to the convenience store to wait for the rest of our group.  The receptionist from the hotel came running after us and asked us whom we were staying with. We didn't know what to say to this screaming Japanese lady so we made up a name.  She looked at the 3 of us, and told us she was calling the police. Fight or flight—I chose flight.  We ran across the street and took refuge in an American café. Once we felt like we were somewhat in the clear, we left the café and ran to the train station to ditch our bags in a locker and change our shirts.  The whole day I was checking my back, convinced that the angry Japanese lady sent the cops on me.

            Once the excitement subsided, we took the metro to the Tokyo Dome area and went up to the top of a hotel there. After we viewed the city, we walked to a nearby garden.  The garden was full of cherry blossoms surrounding a lake.  I was happy to finally see the blossoms without getting drenched by the rain.  After the garden, we took the metro to the Harujuku area to go shopping.  I think we walked down the wrong street, but we were still able to shop in cute boutiques and visit a toy store with a floor dedicated solely to Hello Kitty.  Our relaxing evening stopped there. It was our last night in port so we wanted to go out, but we needed to find somewhere to stay and it was getting late.  We were determined to find a capsule hotel that accepted women.  We found one through word of mouth but once we walked to the area where we thought it was, no one knew where it was. We walked around in the rain for at least an hour asking anyone we thought would understand us where we could find the capsule hotel.  At this point, it was already very late and we were going to miss our Ninja restaurant reservation so we took the metro to the restaurant.  I was so happy to sit down where I could place all my shit nicely. I had way too much baggage with me to be walking around in the rain. 

            The Ninja themed restaurant was an awesome experience. When we walked in a Ninja came and welcomed up to the restaurant. He took us through this dark hallway with trap doors and made us perform magical movements in order to get to the seating area. Each table was gated off on its own and had little lamps and the entrance. Our Ninja presented the menu on a scroll. It was more of a dinner show than an actual dinner.  He preformed tricks with every meal and we even had a mini magic show. The meal was generally good, but the fact that we still had to find a place to stay that night lingered.

            We went to the closest hotel and they were booked.  They called every hotel near them and they were booked as well.  We had literally no idea what to do so we went back to the Shibuya area.  Our plan was to try to stay at a love hotel with our last option being sleeping in the McDonald's.  When we got to Shibuya we walked to the love hotel district but no one would let us stay there since they thought we were lesbians.  The Japanese women working the desks held up a big 'x' to our faces.  It was extremely frustrating.  Luckily, we found a fellow SAS student wandering the streets.  He said he was staying at an Internet café called 'Moopa'.  We ran to this 'Moopa' and luckily they had two cubicles left but they were in the smoking section.  We slept in a room with a computer, TV, and desk.  Two of us were in a cubicle and we could barely stretch our legs, but at least it was a place to sleep.

            After a very restless night (there was no lock to our cube so I was convinced something terrible was going to happen to me the whole time) we took the metro to Yokohama to get on the ship.  It was raining again but we made the most of it.  We went to the mall and relaxed for our remaining time in Japan.

 

Shanghai

On our flight to Shanghai, SAS took over.  We occupied 95% of the economy class.  I can only imagine what a swarm of English-speaking parents and students sounded like to the lonely Chinese passengers. The flight was delayed by an hour and our tour guides neglected to inform us until I asked them why we weren't leaving. We sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes as well.  When we are traveling with such a short amount of time in each country, every minute is important.

We ventured up to the top of the Shanghai World Trade Center and saw the lights of Shanghai start to illuminate.  At the very moment the lights started to turn on, we saw a man propose to his girlfriend. SO CUTE!!!
            On April 5^th, the Semester at Sea Parent Trip Spring 2012 completed the 100 shot challenge at blue frog! We completed it with only a total of 12 people, all in one sitting. 
Shanghai was one of my favorite cities. I can't really put into words why, I think it felt a lot like New York City to me.  It was very modern and it had a young vibe. 
            Babies walking around without backs on their pants…? I saw so many babies butts! What was the purpose of this? My question was answered when I saw a mother holding her baby over a trashcan while the baby pooped.
            In regards to the one child policy, the Chinese mostly agree with this law. They do not believe they should have more than one child unless they can afford it.  The people that can afford to have another child can afford to pay the fine to the government for having this second child.

            

The Great Wall

Yep, the Great Wall is huge.  There is a fantastic view from the top, but it takes some traveling to get there.  We left the hotel early and drove about an hour and a half to the northeast side of Beijing.  We drove through the countryside roads and saw people farming. We asked to tour guide about the farm workers, and he said a lot of the farmers have changed what they do for a living, and are instead working as merchants in the markets.  They make more money haggling tourists than farming and carrying on the traditional work of their ancestors.

            The little English they know perfectly relates directly to the goods they are selling.  I can't begin to describe how many times I heard "Excuse me miss, you want knock-off?  Knock-off. Why you no like?"  (of course in a very stereo-typical Chinese accent). They are very persistent.  At one point near the Great Wall, the roads were very uneven and steep.  The merchants got in my way and I, in turn, lost my footing.  After almost falling to the ground, I flailed my hands in the air (subconsciously making sure no one touched by purse) and yelled that I would not buy from anyone that approached me and I will keep on walking if another merchant got in my way, even if it meant pushing them over.  Of course, they did not understand a word I said and continued to try to sell me souvenirs.  If I saw a disgruntled tourist in America, I know I would step away.

            Once we reached the parking lot at the Great Wall, we walked through the street lined with merchants to get to the cable car to take us up to the Great Wall.  A lot of people hiked instead of taking the cable car, but no one did on the parent trip.  Our tour guide, 'Tony', said that the parents like the cable cars the best.  The ride to the top only took about 3 minutes and brought us to the top of one of the peaks.  At the top, we walked through a narrow passageway in order to be standing on the wall.  The feeling of standing on the wall and touching the Taj Mahal is very similar, but different as well.  It's amazing how many man hours went into building the wall as well as how long ago it was built.  The materials used originally were stone and sticky rice. Because of the high amount of visitors at the wall every day, the Matianyu section has been restored using cement and stone.  It upset me that they did not use the ancient method—it decreased the value of the experience in my mind. A lot of the sights we visited were completely recreated instead of being restored and they used different technologies. By using this method, the fascination and wonder associated with the wall and temples (cities) in Beijing.  The steps and walkways were still very hard to walk on and have a lot of cracks.

            In order to climb the wall, you really needed to be able to walk without any problems. This is similar to the other World Heritage Sites, but at the Great Wall this was evident. Nevertheless, the wall was magnificent.  We were lucky to be in Beijing when it was sunny, so the views were clear. It amazed me how the Ming dynasty was able to complete such a labor-intensive task.  It was literally on the top of the steepest mountain. At first glance, I wondered why anyone would even need a wall there—it looked like such a treacherous time to get to the top. Who in their right mind would attempt to overthrow an emperor that could rally his troops to build the massive wall? At the top of the wall, Mom and I took a lot of pictures.  I was not able to get as many angles and artsy pictures as I wanted, but I think we did pretty well. 

            On our way out of the Great Wall, after having a beer at the top, we shopped at the market.  Everyone was selling the same stuff and it got frustrating.  The t-shirts were only 8 yuen, equivalent to about $1.  We would've bought one but they were obviously very poor quality.  Instead of a t-shirt, Mom got a rice hat with the wall painted on it, and I got a small replica of a section of the wall. I also found a man that carved my name in Chinese onto a marble stamp.

            Once we left the magnificent Great Wall, we went to a 'local' chinese restaurant.  After going to India with extreme spices and Vietnam with lime and light spices in everything, the food in China was very bland. Americanized Chinese food (especially at the P.F. Changs) has a lot more flavor. It was yet another food I thought I liked until I had it in the native country.

            That evening, we went to the Beijing acrobatics show.  I always fall asleep during live performances, but this one kept me awake.  The acts included a handstand 50 feet in the air, plate spinning on bicycles (10+ people on one bike), running in rotating metal circles suspended from the ceiling like hamsters, and 7 motorcycles twirling around in a metal ball. At first, the one man inside the ball astonished me; each additional driver/acrobat in the metal ball astonished me.  At one point, I was sure they were going to collide.