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.