I learned I usually do not know what day of the week it is. I will actually be traveling with the ship tomorrow, arriving in Yokohama on Monday, and leaving Tuesday evening. All these time changes and school 7 days a week has gotten the best of me!

Japan, Part I

We arrived in Kobe, Japan yesterday, Friday morning. We had a strange immigration process to follow, so at exactly 7:45am we had to be read to go to the Faculty Lounge to walk in front of a camera, which supposedly took our temperature and got our face on screen. After all 1,000 of us completed that, we had to go through customs with a face to face inspection and get our passports stamped. After that, we went to a local Japanese restaurant to have noodles. They tasted like they had some sort of barbeque sauce on them which I found strange, but mine was shrimp and was very good. Next a group of us headed on the monorail to the train station, where myself, Tori, Brittney, Rebecca, Savannah, and Lauren left to go to Kyoto. For about 1050 yen ($10.50 American), we took a 50 minute train ride to Kyoto. Because the morning had taken so long to depart from the ship, it was early afternoon by the time we arrived, and most of the temples and sites closed at 5. We did get a chance to go to a temple, where Brit bought birdseed and we got to feed the pigeons. I know most of you are probably saying, pigeons, gross! But the pigeons in Japan are very clean and they were beautiful. When we put birdseed in our hands they would hop up so I have pictures of them fluttering on my hands eating. Hopefully we don’t have bird flu. Just kidding…sort of. By the way, that’s why we had to have our temperatures taken before Japan, to make sure we didn’t have bird flu. I ordered an iced white chocolate mocha from Starbucks (my favorite drink), which is very popular in many of the countries we are going to, and very nice in Japan. In fact the toilets have heated seats. The leaves have been absolutely beautiful. I think I have taken autumn for granted in the Northeast, but missing it this year, and then seeing it hear in Japan, I appreciate it on a whole new level. It has been breathtaking here – I don’t know if it’s because it is brighter and more vibrant or because well, I am in Japan – I think a little mixture of both. So at this point it already started getting dark so we decided to get some dinner. From across a small bridge we saw a red sign and lights and thought it looked like a cute place to eat. When we walk in, it is absolutely deserted, but looks nice enough so we have a seat. When we look at the menu, everything is very cheap. About 250 yen for most things. Well, it turns out there are very few normal things on the menu, and most are chicken hearts, livers, stomachs, etc. I got a rice ball with cheese. Literally a ball of rice with cheese on top. It was actually really good and the only thing I thought would sit well with me. The funny thing is, a few of my friends ordered chicken on sticks, and while it was very good, they got one stick. That is why it was so cheap, because it was like 3 pieces of chicken. It was really hilarious, you had to be there, but we were really getting a kick out of the whole thing. I also had soybeans for the first time, which I didn’t realize the outsides were hairy. I am using chopsticks at every meal these days, and only see forks when I am on the ship. I enjoy using them for rice – sticky rice. There are Christmas decorations everywhere. It’s so weird because in the states they come up after Thanksgiving, but here they don’t have Thanksgiving so they are up months before. We walk through the streets hearing Christmas music and see Christmas trees all lit up. It really is a lot of fun :)

So after that we headed back to the ship to get ready for the night. When we had first gotten off the ship in the morning for customs, we had been given little fliers specially made for SAS students, with open bar and DJ for 1500 yen for girls and 2000 yen for guys. We had planned on going there for the night, but as always, things change… I wouldn’t have it any other way. We go out, eight of us – myself, Rebecca, Savannah, Tori, Tess, Iman, Katherine, and Lauren, on our way to this club. We have a small map from the flier but we find it is somewhat useless, and spend a good hour and a half looking for it, when it was really about 15 minutes walking from the ship. Before that we asked a few Japanese people at little food marts, and it is very interesting trying to communicate when neither know each other’s languages. We run into other students at the end and they say the place isn’t that good and is packed with lines. We decided to look for another place and stop at a family mart to get a few drinks. I got an apple cocktail…one of the girly, fruity drinks…and we walk around outside. Well long story short, we never make it anywhere and spend the evening walking the streets of Kobe. It was so much fun, I can’t even explain. It was so much better than going anywhere and we got to meet so many people. Tori and Lauren went home, leaving 6 of us so it was still really safe. We met Japanese guys and some people from Israel I think who live in Japan, and ran into a lot of people from SAS doing the same thing we were. It turned out to be a really amazing night and much better than going to some club. 2 of my favorite things of the night – fruity punkin pie and charred cinnamon over an open Christmas fire …and Bec eating her custard…and mickey d’s. haha That is how the night ended, with a line of SASer’s at McDonald’s. I hadn’t really had dinner (besides the rice ball!) so I got a cheeseburger and was so happy about it. I don’t really eat fast food at home (except Wendy’s occasionally with Matt!) but it is really nice to have American food sometimes. We got home pretty late, after figuring out how to tell the taxi driver where our port was. Japan is known as a very safe country, safer than the U.S., and we all stuck together so it really turned out to be a good evening. I also turned out to be very tired when I had to get up today…

This morning I skipped breakfast because I wanted a half hour extra sleep. We left the ship around 9:30am I guess to take the monorail to the train station again. We went to mickey d’s (again) and I got a mcgriddle, which was delicious. After we all ate our breakfasts, we spent some time figuring out the trains to get to Mt. Rokko. It’s about 30 mins. from Kobe center. When we got there we had all kinds of plans of going to a cheese castle, seeing goats and sheep, rowing on a lake…the list goes on. …But with our on-ship time at 6pm this evening so we could leave the port, we weren’t left with much time. The afternoon turned out to be one of exploration and it was fabulous. There were 8 of us again today: Britt, Tess, Savannah, Tori, Tristan, Lauren, Christy, and myself. After many buses and trains throughout the day, and a really fun cable car ride to the top, we decided to just walk around the area and enjoy the fall weather and the beautiful scenery. Oh, before this we went to lunch and I got french fries. Only french fries, and luckily for that, because I guess the noodles my friends got were terrible. So anyways, after lunch, we went exploring and stumbled upon a cliff covered with beautiful red, yellow, orange, and green trees, and rocks and ledges. It was gorgeous and we got so many fun pictures up there. We also saw two Japanese men rock climbing which looked pretty cool (and scary). We left Mt. Rokko at about 3pm to make it back to the ship, and boarded the numerous (5 and counting…bus, cable car, bus, train, monorail) modes of transportation to get back. The way it works here is that we get a ticket we put through a machine before we get on, and then we put that same ticket through after the ride. Well, after about 10 successful so far, I lost my ticket. The man at the counter only spoke Japanese so I ended up just purchasing another ticket – glad it was only 180 yen mistake instead of some of our $10+ rides. When we got back 3 of the girls decided to get an early dinner, and 5 of us went to get some delicious pastries, which I guess they are known for over here, and are so good. Japan hasn’t been as expensive as I thought it would be, as it is supposed to be more than the U.S. right now. That’s what I’ve been up to the last 2 days. I have really loved Japan and have had some of my most fun times yet here. We will be at sea tomorrow, and arriving in Yokohama about 8am on Sunday. Our tentative plan is a train ride to Tokyo on Sunday, and Mt. Fuji on Monday. We shall see… 4 weeks left from tomorrow! :/ :) :( ?