April 11, 2006

Kobe Japan!

            Our pre-port lecture before we arrived in Kobe was very up lifting and encouraging.  The presenters talked about what a great country this was, and how safe it was.  There is no threat of bad water, or disease carrying bugs, or anything really, even the crime rate is incredibly low.  The only thing we needed to be concerned about was the fact that everything would be incredibly expensive and getting back to the ship on time!  They were right on with this port!

            We got off the ship at 12:30, which is what they said it would be, so we all had a leisurely morning, and got ready to brave the cold and rain as soon as they cleared the ship.  When we did finally get cleared, I was so happy to have my rain coat (that my mom insisted I take with me.  Moms always know best!)

            Off the ship, we had a few priorities.  First, we needed to find the train station, so Maria and Sam could trade their rail pass vouchers for the actual rail pass, and also to find an ATM, and maybe an internet café if we were lucky.  Well, Jen insisted that she could get us to the rail station, so we decided to walk the 20 minute walk instead of taking the train.  The train would have taken us right to the right station and would have taken about 5 minutes and 200 Yen.  (There are 118 Yen per dollar.)  We let Jen lead us around the city, map in hand.  After walking for 45 minutes, we knew that something wasn’t right and finally asked for directions.  Asking for directions in the first place is an adventure.  None of us speak Japanese, and we soon discovered that their English is very limited.  We knew the words for hello and thank you.  So, we stopped the first guy that walked by (a cute little old man), said hello, and pointed at the map where we wanted to be.  We shrugged our shoulders to show that we had no idea where we were.  He laughed a little and started pointing and talking.  We couldn’t understand a single word he was saying, and I think he knew that.  He started pulling on Maria’s arm, and was trying to lead us in the right direction.  At least we knew what direction to go in!  After a little ways of walking, we saw an ATM, and decided to try that.  We thanked the old man and he hobbled away.  The ATM did not work on any of our cards, but we were happy we at least knew which direction to go.  After walking for another 45 minutes, we finally arrived at the station that we had been trying to find for the last hour and a half.  We told Jen she was fired from her navigator position and Maria took over.

            Once we were in the right station and found the right line to stand in, Maria and I stood in line while Meghan, Brandy, Jen and Sam found an internet café.  The line for the rail pass was really long, and we suspected that we would be in line for at least an hour.  Sam still needed to register for her classes for the next semester, so, I stood in line for her, so she could get that done.  The line did take an hour, and Sam was back right n time.  We also found a money exchange office and an ATM, so we were doing great with our to do list!

Next we all headed out to try and find this café that we were told had excellent hot chocolate.  We were all cold, wet and miserable, so hot chocolate sounded just about perfect at that moment.  We got another tour of Kobe as we wondered around for another 30 minutes, unable to find this café.  We couldn’t find the café that we were looking for, but we did pass another café that had pictures of steaming hot waffles topped with chocolate ice cream and whipped cream.  That was all the convincing we needed.  We headed up the stairs to the little café.  When we went inside, we were the only customers.  The two waiters greeted us, and we sat down.  As we looked at the menu, the only thing we understood was the pictures.  Luckily for us, there was a picture of the waffles on the menu.  When the guy came to take our order, first I pointed to the picture, but then he continued to ask me more questions, and pointing at a different box on the menu.  I just smiled and looked confused.  I had no idea what he was saying, I just wanted the waffle and a cup of coffee.  So, I pointed at the waffle again, and a picture of a cup of coffee.  He kept pointing and saying something, so I just kept smiling and nodding my head.  I had no idea what I was agreeing to or what was going on.  Finally, he moved on to the next person, Jen.  At this point, we saw this was going to be a little more complicated than we thought, so we decided to all just order the same thing.  The waiter kept asking us questions, so we all kept just nodding our heads yes.  Finally we must have done something right because he left with our order.  Ten minutes later, we got three cups of coffee, one cappuccino and a hot tea.  I guess we must have ordered that when we were nodding.  A few minutes later, our waffles arrived and they looked just like the picture.  This is the first time for any of us to have waffles of any sort since we left the USA in January.  They tasted even better than I remember, and the chocolate ice cream on top was just another added bonus! 

Meghan was tired of being wet cold and miserable, so she headed back to the ship, but the rest of us continued on. The night was still young, so we went out on a search for some night life.  We walked up and down streets, laughing at the poor English translations on some of the buildings, and trying to pick up a few Japanese words along the way.  Brandy and I still really wanted some hot chocolate, so when we came across another café, we went inside to try our luck once again.  This time we hit the jack pot!  This café had English on one side of the board and Japanese on the other.  I ordered my hot chocolate and then wrote down the word for hot chocolate in Japanese for future reference.  We then were back to wondering the streets for some more excitement. 

We kept passing these signs for Karaoke clubs, so we decided that the thing to do while we were in Japan was to go Karaokeing, since it is so popular here.  Well, we were in for a surprise!  We thought that we would be going into a club where there would be a lot of people, and everyone would be taking turns singing different song, and we would all laugh at each other and have a good time.  We go inside, and of course we can’t understand the signs and they can’t understand us, so the guy points at how much we have to pay to get in.  It is only 150 yen, so we are like, why not?  We nod yes to the price, and the guy does not take our money, signals to this woman.  We figure she will lead us to the room where the Karaoke is.  Instead, she leads us to this little room, just big enough for the five of us, points at the clicker, the microphone and a huge catalog book of songs, says something else, and walks away.  We all just bust out laughing!  We thought we would have a chance to hang out with the Japanese people and have fun with them, but instead, we got locked in our own little room.  We hit buttons on the clicker until something happened, and found out how to make it play English songs, and then the real fun began.  None of us have a good singing voice, so we all had a blast singing all these songs that we all knew at the top of our lungs.  We could not believe that this is what a karaoke club was!  It was defiantly a good time!

After so much fun, we were getting more and more tired, but it had finally stopped raining and it was really a beautiful night, so we continued to walk around and go in and out of various little shops we saw.  It is so funny how when ever we see a shop we actually know, we all naturally migrate towards it, and nobody says a word.  We were walking down this one line of shops and saw a Starbucks; we all got excited and took a picture.  Then we walked a little further and saw a GAP, and of course we all had to go in.  Surprisingly, the prices were comparative to what they are at home.  It was fun to see their styles, so I decided to buy a little souvenir while I was there.  (That long sleeve shirt was a great buy, considering the weather that we ended up having the next couple of days!) 

We wondered around and laughed at the signs some more before heading back to the ship.  Where else can you find a shop called “we support your sock life” , or one of my favorite things I found was this shirt that was made in the USA.  I can’t find clothes made in the USA even when I am at home!  We all just looked at the tag and laughed.  Everything in the USA is made in China, and here we are in Japan, and we find clothes made in the USA!  As we walked back to the ship, we laughed some more and took a lot of random pictures of us being silly.  We all happily agreed it was a great day! 

April 12, 2006

Nara and Kyoto

This morning, I got up, had breakfast and was already to go, and then realized that my trip still didn’t leave for another 45 minutes.  I decided to do this trip with Semester at Sea because I kept hearing from everyone how expensive Japan was.  This way, I could make sure that I still got to see other parts of Japan and not have to worry about how much to budget for this country.  Turns out, this was one of the best Semester at Sea trips of all the ones that I did. 

The bus ride to Nara was about an hour long.  I knew of a few people on my trip, but I didn’t know anyone very well.  Evelyn, who I met in Puerto Rico at the university welcome reception, was on my trip, along with Terry who I met at the Sea Olympics. There were only 25 people on the trip total, and small trips are always better. Our first stop was the oldest wooden Pagoda in the world.  The thing that is amazing about this structure is that it has survived numerous fires and earth quakes, and it is still standing!  There were four different bronze scenes set up to tell the Buddha story from his birth to his death.  Our guide explained how each scene represents the most significant part of Buddha’s calling and how he inspired other people to follow him.  The pagoda was interesting to see, I just think I am all pagoda-ed out.  I have seen so many pagodas and Buddha’s in the last month; I should be set for a life time! 

All around the pagoda and even within the compound, there were cherry tries in full bloom.  This is one thing I could never have enough of!  They were so beautiful!  There were so many of them all over the place.  With the petals that were on the ground it looked like pink snow!  I just kept taking pictures and could not get enough of these trees.  There were two senior passengers on my trip who are from the Washington D.C. area, and they said they have a lot of these trees there.  They always laugh at all the people that try and time it just right to be in D.C. during the one week the trees are in bloom.  We are so fortunate that we are in Japan for the one week out of the whole year when they are actually in bloom!  I really could not get enough of them!  The only problem is that when I decide to return to Japan, it has to be during that one week when the trees are in bloom, or I will be disappointed!  I was spoiled on this country! 

So, after taking even more pictures, we headed to our restaurant for lunch.  Lunch was very good, but looked a little suspicious at first.  There was an ornate box sitting in front of each person’s chair, and inside it was partitioned off into 4 blocks.  The first block was a small salad and a blob of some sort of crispy vegetable with a thick creamy sauce over the top.  The next section was two shrimp tempura (really good) and raw okra.  Te next one was what we think were pork slices with green beans, and then a piece of grilled chicken, with this sesame seed and something spicy on top, along with two sausages and brussel sprouts.  It was a very nice presentation, and I think everyone agreed it was very tasty! 

Our next stop was to the largest wooden pagoda in the world.  Asia really loves their pagodas!  The interesting thing about this place was the deer.  The deer here are every where, and they are not afraid of anyone.  They have become so use to the people that it is hard to avoid them!  There are these venders that sell cookies that you can feed the deer with, but for some reason the deer never bother the venders.  The venders can leave the cookies right on the edge of their stand, easily within reach of the deer, and the deer will never even attempt to take them.  However, as soon as the deer see someone hand the vender money, they come from all over and all shove to the front.  One poor lady bought cookies and about 10 deer were there before she could even turn around!  We all stood and watched her as she fed the begging deer.  If you hold the cookie up high where they can’t reach it, they bow to you.  So, the lady made them bow before she fed them.  These are obviously Japanese deer with all of the bowing they do!  Inside this pagoda they have a huge shrine to Buddha, where people were lighting incense to the shrine.  But if you walk beyond the shrine and beyond the other mean looking statues, there is this huge wooden pillar with a hole carved out of the bottom.  This is said to be Buddha’s nostril.  They believe that if you craw through the nostril, you will be blessed with happiness for the rest of your life.  We watched a bunch of the Japanese children slide through as well as some other tourists. 

Our next stop was Shinto pagoda.  A Shinto pagoda or shrine has no gods or statues inside.  Shinto is a belief that there are 8 million gods, to many for one building, so to represent this number, they simply put nothing inside.  So, there was a huge empty building at the top of the hill that we climbed up to.  The good thing about these Japanese pagodas is that they are usually surrounded by a Zen garden or some sort of beautiful landscape.  A lot of the trees are carved, and I really did feel very peaceful just walking through these gardens.  The gardens are amazing!  So beautiful!  There is something about these gardens that makes everyone calm and relaxed.  They have lots of trees and flowers and some sort of flowing water running throughout.  I could spend all day in one of these gardens. Evelyn bought some cookies to feed the deer here, so Evelyn, Jessica and I took turns feeding the deer.  Jessica and I sat next to each other at lunch and got to know each other a little better.  I also met Katie at lunch, and we had fun exploring the gardens together.  Before we left, I decided to try the green tea ice cream, since it was everywhere.  I think the Japanese have thought of just about every way possible to use green tea!  The first couple of bits of the ice cream, I thought, this really isn’t good.  Then, by the middle, I was like; this isn’t so bad, I kind of like it.  By the end of my ice cream cone, I realized I did like it and considered buying another!   

The path to get up to this pagoda was lined with cement lanterns.  There were over 1000 lanterns there, all different shapes and sizes.  We were told that they were lit once a year in February, which is the start of their new year.  Speaking of years, whatever year you were born, there is an animal assigned to that year.  Well, this happens to be the year of the Dog, and I happen to have been born in the year of the dog, so this is my year!  (And it really is!  I am doing Semester At Sea, graduating from collage, passing my boards for nursing, getting married, and starting my nursing career!)  So, in these Asian countries, you never ask someone how old they are, but you ask what their animal sign is.  The animal signs run in 12 year cycles, so, a person that was born in the year of the dog is either a new born, 12, 24, 36, 48… and so on!  Very clever way of finding out someone’s age!

After this shrine, we headed to our ryokan, a traditional Japanese Inn, where we would be sleeping for the night.  Our guide warned us to not be alarmed when we got to our room and found it very empty with no beds inside, and that is exactly how we found our room, very empty.  When we got to the Inn, there was a shoe man who took our shoes and gave us slippers to wear in the house.  We were instructed that we had an hour before dinner, and that we should come to dinner in our “Pajamas”.  In Japan, when a person gets home from work or school, they get into their pajamas so they can relax, and we were suppose to feel right at home here.  Our pajamas were provided for us in our rooms.  There were 4 people to a room, and my three other roommates just happen to be Evelyn, Terry and Jessica, who I had met earlier that afternoon.  Our pajamas were typical kimonos.  We all just looked at them and wondered aloud how we were suppose to put them on, and how this all worked.  There was a hotel attendant in the hall that offered to help us, so we invited her in, and she showed us how to put the kimono on, and tied us all up.  We later asked our guide how anyone could ever tie themselves up, since it is suppose to be so tight.  She told us that very few people can tie their own kimonos.  It was fun and very relaxing to be all tied up in our kimonos.  Evelyn, Terry and I decided to go explore the Inn, since we still had 45 minutes before dinner.  We found a beautiful Zen garden with foot paths and even a little bridge.  We trotted around in our house slippers, and when we came to the garden there were some traditional Japanese sandals there waiting for who ever wanted to walk in the garden.  As we were out in the garden, some people in the restaurant also connected to our Inn wanted to take pictures of us.  We must have looked funny in our kimonos!  Everyone was so kind to us at the Inn, pointing out different things in the Inn and the gardens for us to explore. 

When it was finally dinner time, we wondered upstairs to the banquet hall, reserved for our group.  There was one Japanese girl assigned to each table, as well as a gas burner and wok.  Our “chef” started cooking our food right away.  She put all sorts of fresh vegetables in and simmered it in this soy sauce dressing.  She then added this thinly sliced red meat which cooked up very quickly.  Another girl came around and asked if we wanted anything to drink.  Since we normally get a beverage with our meals when we are on SAS trips, I thought that we would get our first beverage here included as well, so I ordered a sprite. The lady continued cooking up our meal, and started saying something motioning to the stack of raw eggs on our table, but no one really could understand what she wanted us to do.  Our guide came over and said that she was asking us to break the egg in our extra bowl that we had on our tray.  We broke the egg, and beat it up, and then our guide instructed us that it was very traditional to dip all of your food in the raw egg before you eat it.  We all just looked at her like she was from another planet.  She was telling us to dip our fully cooked meal into a raw egg and then eat it.  We all just looked at each other, seeing who would be the first to brave this new idea.  I finally did it.  It didn’t taste bad at all, and it made the Japanese lady happy, so I ate a few more things dipped in my raw egg, but then I started thinking about it, and I couldn’t believe what I was doing.  Dipping anything in raw egg and then eating it went against everything I had ever learned.  The more I thought about it, the more I got grossed out about it.  Suddenly, all I could think about was how sick I was going to get from salmonella poisoning.   Just the thought of what I was eating suddenly made me nauseous, and I no longer had an appetite.  Dispute the raw eggs, dinner was fun.  We were all sitting on the floor in traditional Japanese style, wearing kimonos and eating typical Japanese food. 

Later that night, after dinner, we changed out of our kimonos, back into our street clothes and decided to go discover Kyoto.  Most of us had watched the movie Memoirs of a Geisha (very good movie, go watch it!) and we all wanted to go see our own Geisha.  We asked our guide how to get to that district and what our probability was of actually seeing one.  She laughed at us, wrote the directions down in Japanese and told us that we would defiantly see them if we went to this district.  The shoe man at the hotel called a taxi for us, and we were off to the Geisha district. 

The taxi dropped us off, and we were told to just walk around and we would be sure to see them go from one tea house to the next.  We were told that it was a very high accomplishment to be geisha, and they do not mind having their pictures taken, but that they would not stop for us. 

True to our guide’s word, within the first 10 minutes of being in the Geisha district, we saw one scurry across the street and into a tea house.  This really got us all excited!  We had our cameras ready, and our eyes peeled!  Over the next hour, we saw about ten more Geishas (they actually call them Gaicos here).  We were all satisfied with our sightings, and decided to go sit at Starbucks and watch the people go by. 

Sitting there, we talked about what this whole trip has meant to each of us, our most profound memories, what we wish we could make everyone else understand.  We are realizing that when we go home, we are going to have all these jokes that nobody is going to understand, or have these different realizations that nobody is going to care about us.  A lot of things that we have experienced here, we can’t expect anyone at home to understand.  This is why reunions are so important, so we can talk and share about our amazing experiences.  Nobody can really understand unless they do it!  We all agreed that we do live in the best country, and even though it was great to discover all of these countries, we are glad that we are going home to the USA!

April 13, 2006

Kyoto to Kobe

            We packed up our rooms and headed down to breakfast before our tour of Kyoto.  Breakfast consisted of a small lettuce salad, three rolls, jellies, coffee, juice, and a raw egg.  The thought of raw eggs still just made me nauseous, so I tried not to think about it and enjoyed my coffee and roll.  As we were checking out, they gave us a list of our room charges.  Turns out that sprite I had with my dinner was not included with the meal.  That sprite cost me $6, the most expensive sprite I’ll ever drink!  Japan really is expensive!  It is so hard to go to Japan and see all of the price jumps after being in Vietnam and Burma where everything was $1! 

            Our first stop was the Golden Pagoda.  We were informed that when President Bush came to Japan last year, this was the only pagoda that he visited.  I have to say this is my favorite pagoda, I can see why he would make it a priority to see this one.  The pagoda is completely gold, but the compelling part of this pagoda is the gardens.  It is surrounded by a pond on three sides and then a mossy forest on the fourth side that stretches all the way around the pond.  The forest looked like it belonged in a fairy tale.  There were all of these trees, and then just moss covering the ground with some flower petals.  All that was missing was for the fog to roll in!  The pond was peaceful with the occasional small island loaded with trees.  There were a few rocks that jutted out as well.  It was all so beautiful!  If you plan on going to Kyoto (Which you really should do!), go see the golden pagoda. 

            There were a whole bunch of school kids there in uniform.  Our guide told us that school was just starting here, and to begin each new school year, the first week is all field trips to help the kids all get to know each other better, and of course to learn history as well.  Each school kid has assignments to do while they are on these trips.  One of them is to interview am English speaking person.  Since our guide told us of this ahead of time, we were all ready to help the kids practice their English.  One girl came up to me and said “hello” (I think her friends dared her to do it, they were all giggling), so I replied and asker her how old she was and what grade she was in.  Her teacher was right there, and he would help her out a little, but he made sure that she was trying.  She was so excited she got to practice her English that she asked to take a picture with me before I left.  It was fun interacting with the school children throughout the day. 

After we were done enjoying the gardens and the golden pagoda, I stopped at the gift shop to buy some post cards and stamps.  The transaction took longer than it should have.  When I left the shop to find our bus, I realized there were about 100 tour buses, and I had no idea which bus was mine.  I started to get a little bit panicky at this point.  I had no idea where the tour bus was going to next, and I had no cash in my pocket.  I didn’t know where I could find an international ATM to even get some money out to pay for a taxi or for the train ticket back to Kobe.  Not very many places, like train stations, take Credit cards.  I was getting more and more worried as I was now 10 minutes late for meeting my bus, and I still had no idea of what bus to even look for!  I was worried that if I got left behind, I wasn’t sure how I would get back to the ship.  I knew that I would make it back to the ship, but then I would miss out on the rest of our tour.  It is a scary feeling when you have no money, and you are lost in a foreign country and nobody understands you and you can’t ask anyone else for directions, because you don’t understand them.  I continued to search for the bus, and finally saw our guide wondering around.  She was looking for me.  I was never so happy to see her!  I made sure to take a good look at that tour bus before I got on!

            Our next stop was yet another pagoda.  This pagoda was where the lead Samaria would stay when he was in the area.  He had lots of concubines.  It was considered a great honor for a family to send their daughter to the pagoda to be a concubine to the Samaria.  The floor was called a Knighting Gale floor (after the bird), because when ever anyone walks on it, it squeaks like a bird.  This is to warn the house hold of an intruder. Another interesting fact is what they consider beauty.  The head concubine, the one that had been there the longest and gained the most seniority would make herself more beautiful to the Samaria by painting her skin completely white (white represents wealth), and she would pluck out her eye brows and paint her teeth black.  This was considered ultimate beauty.  The other concubines would also paint their skin white, and as they went up in seniority they would gain the right to pluck their eye brows and eventually color their teeth black.  It is funny to see the differences in what each culture sees as beauty!

The grounds outside were completely covered with cherry blossom trees!  I was in my own personal heaven!  I just love these trees!  I couldn’t stop taking pictures!  (This may be a factor in why I loved Kyoto so much.)  The other entertaining part of this particular pagoda was that the bathrooms were labeled, “Western” or “Eastern” bathroom.  The eastern toilet was a hole in the ground, and the western toilet was a toilet as we all know it.  It is always nice to run into a western toilet, but I have finally conquered my fear of the eastern toilet.  Our guide also told us about the two different types of cherry trees.  The standard one is what you see everywhere and the second is the weeping willow cherry tree.  The weeping willow cherry tree is very sacred and old, there are not many of these kind still around, so it was a rarity and a treat to see these trees! 

            For lunch we stopped at a café with a garden in the back.  On the schedule we were suppose to have shrimp tempura, but when we sat down at the table we had a dipping sauce, a pile of red meat, some cabbage, a batter bowl sitting on top of a candle and white rice.  We were instructed to light the candle, wait for the batter to boil, add the red meat and cabbage and wait for it to cook.  The batter heated up, and the food cooked, but the batter never cooked, it remained slimy and milky.  I tried the meat, and it tasted fine, but I really don’t like the slimy texture on everything.  The cabbage was the same as the meat, slimy.  The white rice was looking better and better all the time!  Next they served us a soup loaded with seaweed.  I tried the seaweed, but I just don’t like it.  Next we got something that looked like chicken strips, so we guessed maybe that was our tempura meal.  We were all starting to get full, and thought the meal was almost over.  Actually, the next dish was these three huge prawns and vegetables fried in tempura.  They tasted so good, but I was really getting full from all the food we had already had.  I was also really thirsty, but didn’t know if I could order a drink, because I didn’t want it to cost me another $6.00.  We asked our guide if we had any beverages included in this meal, and she said water and tea, so everyone started asking for water and tea.  The only problem was that these glasses held maybe 4 ounces of water, so every two drinks and I needed another refill. I was so dehydrated since I hadn’t had any water yet that day.  I was not the only one so thirsty. The waitress got tired of refilling our glasses and finally just put a pitcher of water on the table for us.  That too was gone pretty quickly!

            After lunch, we had 30 minutes to wonder the gardens and let our food digest for a little while before heading to another pagoda.  This pagoda is famous because it is situated on top of a hill, and you have to walk through a maze of venders just to get to it.  On top of the hill, after all the venders, you finally see the view.  The view is amazing, especially since all of the cherry trees were in bloom.  Also, at the top there was a meeting of three rivers, and the people believe that if you drink from one of the rivers you will either be wealthier, healthier or wiser, and you can choose which one you drink from, but if you drink from all three you will be poor, sick and ignorant.    I just really enjoyed the view from up here! 

            On the walk back down to the bus, we had an hour.  Katie and I took our time and browsed the shops for any much needed souvenirs.  As I said before, it is so hard to shop here when I am so use to paying $1 for everything!  The one thing that I found that I defiantly wanted to bring home to share with everyone was these cinnamon cookies.  I love anything cinnamon anyways, but these cookies were incredible, and the best part was the after taste.  These cookies are so good, so hopefully some of them will make it home.   

When we were all on the bus again, our guide told us we had one more stop at one more pagoda.  Everyone was getting really exhausted, and even more tired of all of these pagodas.  Some people asked if they had to get off of the bus as they had seen enough pagodas for this lifetime. 

This pagoda was known because it had over 1000 brass Buddha’s inside.  Throughout the Japanese history there was a ruler that thought by putting the symbol of Buddha in every community, it would remind them of the life they should be leading, so he had all of these Buddha’s made.  We walked rather swiftly through the shrine.  We couldn’t read anything as it was all in Japanese, and there were so many people there that we lost our guide before we were barely in the door.  Everyone was back on the bus ten minutes ahead of schedule, and ready to head back to the ship. 

As I sat on the bus and we head back to the ship, I thought about what a great trip it was! I got to stay in a typical Japanese Inn, see lots of Cherry trees in full bloom, and taste a huge variety of Japanese food (although, the thought of those raw eggs still makes me a little nauseous). 

When I got back to the ship, I unpacked my bag and called everyone to see who was around, but no one answered.  I decided to get an early start on some of my post cards and letters.  I was just getting ready to switch to doing something else when Jen and Brandy called me.  We decided to eat something on the ship, and then go out on the town for dessert. 

Jen’s knees were hurting from trying to hike the great wall in China in flip flops.  Brandy’s back was hurting from taking a fall at one of the Pagodas the day before; so the three of us are walking into town, both Jen and Brandy limping.  My first priority was to go to an ATM, I really do not like the feeling of being in a foreign country with no cash, it makes me wonder what I would do if I got lost and had to take a taxi back to the ship.  My ATM card worked but Jen and Brandy’s did not, so I became their bank for the rest of Japan.

I had seen a pastry shop on our first day in Japan, and I saw a picture of Crème Brule on the menu outside.  Jen and Brandy both agreed that we could go to that shop and I could get some Crème Brule and they could get something chocolaty.  I was pretty sure that I knew right were the shop was, so we started walking in that direction.  A couple of times Jen suggested that we go this way of that, but Brandy and I reminded her of what happened the last time we let her lead.  It was all fun, and we laughed all night long.  After walking around for 30 minutes and still not finding my pastry shop, we decided that the donut shop across the street would have to do.  After placing our order for the donuts, the clerk handed me a scratch and win card.  This is very entertaining because I scratched off the circle, but then I had no idea if I won or not!  It was all in Japanese, so I showed to the guy and gave him a thumbs up signal and shrugged my shoulders.  He laughed a little but shook his head no, I did not win. It is so funny how we communicate when we don’t know the language, but for some reason, it works!  As we walked down the street, I decided this would be as good of a time as any to try out these vending machines.  The Japanese have a vending machine for everything!  You can get ice cream, snacks, hot and cold beverages, jewelry, souvenirs, personal items and accessories, all from the vending machines on the street!  I decided to try the coffee out of the vending machine.  Once again, there was the whole problem of everything being in Japanese!  I just looked for the container with coffee beans on it and hoped it was good. 

When it popped out, I was surprised at hot it actually was, a can of hot coffee!  I tasted it, but it was way to sweet, like drinking sugar (I don’t like any sugar in my coffee, just cream), so Brandy said that she would drink it, so I let her have it.  I was holding out for something better, like Starbucks.  This is one thing that defiantly translates.  We went up to the next man and said “starbucks?” and shrugged our shoulders.  He laughed a little and pointed us in the right direction.  Inside the Starbucks, the aroma of coffee greeted us warmly (that was even better since it was so cold outside!)  We got our caffeinated beverages and tried to find a place to sit, but that was a lost cause!  I decided to use the bathroom before we left.  I knew that a starbucks had to have a western toilet.  Not only did they have a western toilet, but this toilet was high tech!  The sea was heated and it had about a dozen different buttons for different options (you think of it, it did it).  They also had a privacy button. This was if you needed extra “privacy” to cover any bodily functional noises, you push this button and is sounds like a waterfall with chirping birds.  They also had a spot to strap a child into a seat so you didn’t have to worry about holding a child while doing your duty.  Also, they had a smaller seat that folded over the regular seat so small children could also use this bathroom.  This bathroom was so clever! 

We finally gave up on finding a seat in Starbucks and decided it was getting late anyways, and we might as well head back to the ship.  As soon as we walked out of Starbucks and headed up the street, we saw the Tooth Tooth pastry shop that I had wanted to stop at!  I knew we would find it as soon as we gave up on it!  At least now I knew right where it was!  Maybe another night I could get my Crème Brule!  Heading back to the ship, we walked slowly so gimpy Jen could keep up.  I did feel bad, because I am sure she was in a lot of pain, and she just walked all over Kobe for me to get some Crème Brule, and she never even got her chocolate out of the deal!  We laughed the whole way back to the ship over the fact that we didn’t accomplish what we set out for, but we sure did enjoy the alternatives!  What a great night, and what great friends I have!

April 14, 2006

Kobe

            The night before, Jen, Brandy and I had discussed the possibilities of going to Hiroshima the next day.  We were all going to go, but then Meghan would have nobody to hand out with, so I stayed behind to spend the day with Meghan and Brandy and Jen went to Hiroshima.  (Maria and Sam got a rail pass and spent a few days in Tokyo.)  Meghan ended up having a rough morning with her roommate, so we didn’t start our day until noon.  We decided that we would walk to the port line and take the train to the center of Kobe, and from there, walk to the zoo.  I had not used the trains at all yet, so Meghan showed me how you pick which button to push, since they are all in Japanese.  The port liner took about 4 minutes and we were suddenly at the main train station.  From there, we thought the zoo would be about a 10 minute walk away.  After walking for 45 minutes, we finally showed someone our map to see if we were still heading in he right direction.  They said yes and continued to wave us forward.  We walked for another 45 minutes and asked two more people if we were going the right direction before we finally saw the zoo.  We were so excited to finally see that sign, but both agreed we would be taking the train back. 

            We spent four hours at the zoo, watching all the animals and just having a great day!  There were also a lot of cherry trees here, so everything was absolutely beautiful!  We really had good timing!  We got to see the polar bears, giraffes, panda, koalas and elephants being fed.  The hippopotamus, which is actually the most dangerous animal in the wild, was out walking around (instead of hiding in the water).  That guy was so huge!  He seemed upset to be there (and who wouldn’t be).  He snorted at us, gave us his backside, and then turned around and headed for the water.  In the water he swam around a little bit, and hen he turned around and started throwing his body around, splashing anyone to close.  Nobody was expecting this, and we all jumped back!  Every other time I have seen hippopotamuses, I have only been able so see their nostrils above the water, so it was fun to see so much more!  I think one of the most fun things was when we went around from one cage to the next; the sign introducing the animal would say where the animal was from.  Almost at every cage, we would read the sign and say “hey!  I’ve been there!”  We laughed all day at our stupid joke.  There was also this big house in the middle of the zoo, and se saw people inside walking around, so we figured it must be warm in there (it was probably 35 to 40 degrees outside), so we decided to take a tour of the house too.  We went in side and from the pile of shoes; we figured out that you have to take your shoes off before you go in.  What we didn’t figure out until we were already on the second level, was that we were suppose to put the slippers on that were sitting beside the pile of shoes.  It only took us a few glances at the other participants as to why we were getting stared at.  We also somehow took the tour the wrong way and we constantly going against the flow of traffic.  We had no idea whose house we were in, or why it was on display, but it was a beautiful home.  Lastly, we stopped at the gift shop, thinking it would be fun to bring home a souvenir from the gift shop to remind us of all the fun we had that day.  That great idea lasted just long enough to get in the door and take a good look around.  Everything was so expensive!  We ended up going across the street to another gift shop and just getting something small and even that was a pretty penny! 

            Our next goal was to make it to the public baths before they closed.  We could see on the map where we needed to go, and we knew that we had to take the train to get there.  When we arrived at the station, we met our next obstacle.  Everything, every sign, and every machine to get the ticket out of was in Japanese.  We started by comparing characters to see if we couldn’t figure out which ticket to buy, and which train to get on.  We finally decided the old game of miming was a better bet.  The next person that came up to buy their ticket, we pointed at the map where we wanted to go and shrugged our shoulders, hoping that that translated to, “how do I get there?”  The first girl pointed at the map and nodded and then started talking rapid fire Japanese giving us instructions.  We gave her our best confused look and just smiled.  Finally, I just handed her money, pointed at the spot on the map where we wanted to go, and then pointed to the machine where you buy the ticket.  She must have understood because she went over to the machine and started hitting buttons.  We watched her as closely as we could, since we would have to get back sometime that night. Soon, she turned around and handed us our tickets.  I am so glad that people are so nice here!  We fed the machine our tickets to get punched, and then we were up against yet another challenge; which train do we get on.  The girl must have seen our confusion, and she started motioning us to follow her.  I felt like we should follow her, since she had already helped us out so much.  Meghan was saying no the whole time, she was insistent that this was the wrong side of the tracks and that we needed to be on the other side.  We tried to motion that to the guide, but our makeshift guide insisted that the train that was pulling into the station was the one we needed to get on.  As soon as the train was leaving and we saw what the next stop on the map was, we knew we had indeed gone the wrong direction.  Meghan had been right all along.

            At the next stop we got off the train and walked to the opposite side to catch the train going the opposite direction.  Finally we were at least headed in the right direction.  We got through two stops without much trouble, but at the next stop, everyone got up.  We figured that was note worthy, but the train was still heading in the direction that we wanted to go, and from the looks of it, we shouldn’t have to switch trains for another 4 or 5 stops.  We sat there for a few minutes, and then Meghan got up and motion to the boys where we wanted to go, and then gave the thumbs up signal, as if to ask if this was the right way.  The boys began furiously shaking their heads no and saying something in Japanese.  We took that as a no and quickly got off the train before the doors closed.  Turns out that as soon as we got off the doors closed and the train took off in the same direction we had just come from!  (By the time we all get home we should be excellent at the game charades… and our balance should be greatly improved after being on this ship for so long!)  We went over to the other side and again motioned on the map where we wanted to go, and gave the current track a thumbs up, asking if this was the right train for this direction.  The lady smiled and nodded and motioned for us to sit down with her.  We sat down and the three of us waited for our train.  As the train approached, the lady stood up, smiled at us, and motioned for us to follow her. 

            The Japanese people are so organized!  They have little lanes on either side for people to stand in out of the way of the doors and they let everyone get off before they neatly file on.  That is one thing that I really noticed and loved about Japan.  Their focus is on the common good of the people, not the individual, like it seems to be in the USA. Everyone one here is willing to help anyone and everyone, and they are very considerate and polite to one another.  Even going up and down the escalators is very organized.  The Japanese are excellent people. 

            So, we sat on the train for about 4 stops and we could see on the map that we needed to change lines.  We motioned to the lady if this was the right stop to change trains and she nodded yes.  We were on our way again.  At this train stop, there were about five different trains merging, so not only did we have to figure out which track was headed in our direction, but which line all together was the right one.  We looked for the city of the last stop on the line that we wanted and looked for those Japanese characters.  Once we realized which train we thought we should be on, we hurried over to that track, and saw that that train was sitting there still waiting.  We rushed over and jumped on the train.  Once on, we needed to quickly find someone and mime our question to them, “Is this the right train?”  This lady nodded and started saying something to us and pointing at a point in the map that was still a good 8 stops away.  We finally figured out she must be saying something about changing trains again at that point, but at least we were on the right train for the time being.  This train ride was the best yet!  We were finally out of the under ground tunnels and into the outside world. We got to see the outskirts of Kobe and some of the country side as we moved farther and farther away from the city.  There were cherry trees dotting the hill side in the distance, and small apartments stacked one on top of the other.  Also, we got to see the typical garage.  These people have thought of everything!  So, there garage is stacked on top of each other, so a two car garage is one car wide and two cars high, and so on.  You pull your car in on to a lift, it lifts the car up and then you part the next car under it.  At parking garages it is like a huge indoor Farris wheel.  You pull the first car in on these metal tracks, get out, and the attended rotates the car over and up, like a Farris wheel, making room for the next car.  You never have to worry about finding a spot, or how far away you will have to park, or finding your car after a long, exhausting day, you just go to the attendant and they rotate your car down.  I love all of the inventions here!

            So, we sat on the train for a while, watching the country side go by.  When we got to the spot the lady had been motioning at, she started motioning again, and when the train stopped and the doors opened, she was practically pushing us out the door, and motioning to the other train.  We walked around and got on the other train.  Now, according to our map, we were only one stop away from where we wanted to go.  On the new train we once again repeated our charades act to see if we were on the right train, and got the conformation we needed.  At the next stop, we got off and walked into a quite little hill side town.  The streets were all cobblestone.  There was a river running through what seemed to be the middle of town, all pushing to the endless towers of waterfalls.  The cherry tree blossoms looked mystical in the sunset, and we started our trek up the hill.  As we passed one local bar, we saw two fellow Semester at Sea women.  One was the ship registrar, and the other was one of the AV techs on board.  We went inside and asked if they knew where this hot springs was.  They told us that they had just been there and it was wonderful.  They gave us directions and we were off again.  When we reached the top of the next hill, according to their directions, it should be right there on the corner, but this corner did not look like a hot springs, but rather a grocery store.  We saw a Japanese lady walk out of a hotel and started miming and pointing to where we wanted to go, and looking confused so she would understand that we didn’t know how to get there.  As if music to our ears, she replied in perfect English, “turn left here, go up this hill and it will be at the top on the right had side.”  We both just stared at her like she was an angel sent from heaven.  We walked maybe another five minutes and the spa was right where she said it would be. 

            Now, the public baths are a traditional Japanese thing to do.  They use these public baths on a regular basis, and to get the full Japanese experience and really say that we experienced the culture, we decided that we really should go to the baths. (They are exactly what they sound like they are, so you have to be comfortable with your own body, and not be embarrassed by seeing other people’s bodies).  As we walked in, we could see a shoe shuffle was our first obstacle.  We took our street shoes off and locked them in the locker provided. We slid into the first pair of slippers, but if you want to go to the bathroom, then you take those slippers off and put on some other one, then you head over to the desk and pay.  Once we paid and headed to the stairs, we had to take those slippers off and put on a different pair.  Once we reached the top of the stairs, there were two curtains for choices of rooms to enter.  One was a blue curtain, and the other was a red one.  We both looked at each other and said “I think it is the red one”, this is not really something you want to confuse or mess up, considering the consequences of getting this one wrong. 

            We peaked behind the red curtain, and were rushed with a flood of relief.  So basically, this is how the public baths work. You go in, put all of your things in a locker, and then go in the next room scrub down, rinse off, and then go sit and soak in the hot springs. The pools for the hot springs are hot and very hot.  You do not want to confuse these two!  The baths were both to hot to get into initially, but we slowly eased ourselves in, and once we were in, it felt great!  Any aches or pains that we might have had, were now gone! 

            After the baths, the journey back to Kobe began.  We were getting hungry and decided we would get back to Kobe and the part of the city that we were more familiar with.  As we stood at the train station in front of the machine that would give us our ticket back down the mountain, we were once again faced with a decision of what button to push.  The first person to approach was a man, so we asked him.  With just our luck, he was a mentally handicapped gentleman, and was not much help to us.  The man standing behind the other ticket counter saw our struggle and came to our rescue.  We pointed to the spot on the map that we wanted to go to, and he pushed the buttons for us again.  We were running extremely low on cash at this point, so we had no room for mistakes, or it would be a long, long walk home. 

            Our train ride back was made slightly more eventful simply because two other SAS kids also got on the train with us.  They were taking a different way down the mountain, so we would only be riding the train a short distance together.  Meghan knew both of the other students, so we all made small talk until they got off the train.  There were some high school girls sitting a few seats down from us, and when Matt, the one guy go off, they just bust up laughing and making gestures like a monkey, and pretending they were swinging around the bars in the train.  Matt never knew what happened, but the reason they were so riled up was that Matt had a beard.  Japanese and Asians in general do not have body hair besides the top of their heads.  So, these girls thought Matt looked like a monkey because they do not commonly see men with facial hair.  The girls just had the time of their lives hooting and making monkey motions.  One girl even whipped out a banana! 

            We finally made it back to the main station, surviving all of the train stops and train switches.  There was a man that got on the train wearing snake skin shoes, so we basically just followed him, he looked like he was probably going to the same place we were, and he was!  Our agenda back in Kobe was to find an edible dinner (you have to remember that Meghan is a picky eater, so this could be a very difficult task), and then try again to stop at the Tooth Tooth pastry shop to get Crème Brule (I knew right where it was this time).  We started wandering around Kobe, and looking at the picture menus outside, since that was the only way we would be able to order anyways.  We walked for about 45 minutes, getting hungrier and hungrier all the time.  But nothing looked appetizing to Meghan yet, so we continued walking.  We finally saw a big sign for pizza on one of the buildings, and Meghan said that would be alright, so we went there. 

            Meghan got her cheese pizza, and I tried a gorgonzola cheese and honey pizza, which was surprisingly good.  After dinner, we found our way back to the Tooth Tooth pastry shop to finally get Crème Brule, unfortunately, their was a wait for a table, and we were both tired, so we instead headed to Hagen Daus for ice cream.  We ate our ice cream and headed back to the ship. 

            Back at the ship, Maria and Sam had just gotten back from Tokyo, and Brandy and Jen had just gotten back from Hiroshima.  Jen, Brandy and I had planned to just bum around Kobe fore our last day, and Sam and Maria were planning on going to Hiroshima and then returning to the ship before we set sail at 8:00 pm the next night.  After talking to Maria and Sam, I decided that since I am in Japan, I might as well spend the extra money and go to Hiroshima, so at the last minute, I decided to just go. 

April 15, 2006

Hiroshima

Early in the morning, we all rushed around to get ready to go to Hiroshima.  Since Sam and Maria both had rail passes for the whole week, they already had their tickets for Hiroshima, but I still had to get mine.  I left a note on Jens door, so they wouldn’t wait for me at breakfast, and the three of us headed to the train station.  At the station, I stood in line for my ticket on the bullet train.  It cost me about $85 one way to get to Hiroshima. (This was a little bit of a shocker since I had found a round way ticket the day before and gave it to Jen to do Hiroshima for a total $40 with SAS.) 

We took two smaller trains to finally arrive at the bullet train station.  I was very excited to be riding on the bullet train in Japan!  Our seats were very comfortable and we all napped a little bit until we finally arrived an hour and a half later.  (The SAS trip was by bus with a 5.5 hour bus ride each way, so paying the extra for the bullet train made it worth it.)

It was a cold soggy gray day.  Our first stop was the Peace memorial museum and learning all about the atomic bomb that we dropped on Hiroshima.  The first thing we saw was the only building that survived the bomb.  Thinking about it all, I am surprised that even that building survived.  It is one of the closest buildings to where the bomb was dropped.  The museum was a shock to me, simply because I was all prepared to walk into this museum and hear about how bad Americans are, and for the whole presentation to be very one sided.  One of the first displays we came across was about how they started the war by bombing Pearl Harbor.  I was not expecting that.  They gave a lot of history on Japan and wars; there have been a lot of them.  They had copies of letters that went back and forth and described how we were originally going to bomb Germany, but they surrendered, and that we offered Japan the chance to offer, but they refused, and that is how it was settled to be Japan as the target.  They picket Hiroshima because there were no Prisoner of War camps there, and it was major port city.  The reason they bombed them was to stop the war altogether, and after the bomb was dropped, the war was stopped all together, so the Americans accomplished what they set out for.  We spent 4 hours at this first museum, as Sam and I wanted to read everything.  Either Maria is a faster reader, or she is a better skimmer, but she finished way before Sam and I did, and was forced to sit and wait on us.  We had hopped that by the time we left the museum, the rain would have stopped and the sun would be out, and it would be a whole new day.  We were being a little too optimistic on that one. 

As we left the museum in search of lunch, it was raining even harder and it seemed to be even colder.  Maria was the only one with an umbrella, so the three of us huddled together under it and tried to stay dry.  I’m sure all the Japanese were laughing at us as we walked by, three of us crammed together!  But we did stay a little drier, and a lot warmer!  We have a phrase list with a few key words written out in Japanese; one of the words was restaurant.  We found a lady on the street and pointed to the word and then shrugged our shoulders so she knew we were asking a question.  She waved us down the street, speaking the whole time, and then it appeared she was asking us a question, so we gave her our best confused look, smiled and nodded.  She seemed to be satisfied with that answer and soon we both were headed in our separate directions. 

The first restaurant/café we came to, we decided to eat at.  There were a lot of people inside, so we figured they must have good food.  So, like I said before, the Japanese love their vending machines.  After Maria checked her Umbrella at the stand outside the door, we headed into the restaurant.  There were a few people crowding the door, standing at this vending machine looking thing.  We watched the people around us and figured out the system. First, you put money into the machine, hit the button the meal you want, the machine gives you a ticket, you take the ticket to the counter, find a seat, and the attendant will bring you your meal when it is done.  Our next obstacle was that the pictures of the meals were above the machine and the machine itself only had a single Japanese word on each button.  The next un-expecting patron in line behind us was suddenly designated as the “orderer.”   We just turned to him, pointed to the picture of the meal we wanted, and then pointed to the buttons, as to say “which one do I push for this meal?”  He just smiled at his, instructed us to put our money in the machine, and then after we pointed at the picture, he would hit the correct button, and give us our ticket.  This is such a smart idea, although a little impersonal.  They are smart in the fact that you never have to struggle with getting the wrong order, or have to wait on your check after the meal, this is a very efficient way to run a restaurant.  Once we sat down, a lady rushed over with glasses of cold water for each of us.  I really wanted something hot to drink, since it was so cold and wet outside.  I didn’t know how to say hot tea, since I figured that was my best bet.  I drew a picture of a tea cup with steam and a tea bag, and signaled the attendant over.  I pointed at my picture and smiled, but she quickly said no, so I had to stick with my ice water.  Our ice water glasses were so tiny, it was like a two sip glass, and my water was gone before the meal even arrived.  I was wondering how to order a refill.  Luckily, Sam had been paying attention, and realized there was huge jug behind me, and everyone just refilled their own water glass.  I refilled our water glass and by the time I sat down again, there were steaming bowls of food on the table. 

Maria and I had the same dish, and Sam had one that was varied a little bit.  It really was like a big bowl of salty, steamy ramen noodles.  Of course, it had a heaping side of seaweed, maybe a few green vegetables in there, and a few slices of some kind of meat.  The soup really did a great job of warming me up, and soon, we were all ready to go out once again and face the cold.  We decided that we would walk over to the palace and look at that, since we were in Hiroshima, might as well see as much as possible! 

Once we got outside and started walking again, we realized that it had gotten even colder and was sleeting now.  We were all wearing thin jackets of just sweatshirts, since we didn’t really have clothes to ward of the cold.  Feeling how cold it was outside, we decided the palace might be to far away to walk to in these weather conditions.   Also, we all kind of felt like we have seen enough palaces and pagodas and shrines to last us for a while, so we would all be just fine if we didn’t see this palace.  As we started heading back to he bus stop, we saw a remembrance hall dedicated to the survivors of the Hiroshima bombing, so we went in their to warm up, and learn some more history.  They had this hall set up very methodically.  You walk in to the hall in down this long winding all way counter clockwise, and when you get to the bottom, it explains that the reason you walk counter clockwise was to “turn back the hands of time”.  It told stories of people’s recollections of that day and where they were, and their struggle to find family members all over the city.  It was all interesting.  I was surprised really at the message of Hiroshima.  It was not “Americans are bad” like I thought it would be, but rather, “don’t fight wars with atomic bombs.”  They have a peace torch in front of one peace memorial that they have vowed to keep burning until all atomic bombs are eradicated from the world. 

After this museum, we decided to head back to the train station to get tickets for our ride back to Kobe.  On the bus, we just watched everyone else to figure out how much to pay, where to pay and when to pay.  It seems like it would be very easy to get on and off without ever paying, as you have to by pass two open doors before you get to the front to pay.  The surprising thing is, everyone must always pay, because they don’t seem to have any problems with this.  I love how the people are so organized and respectful of each other here!

We made it back to the train station and stood in line to get our tickets.  I had to buy mine, but Maria and Sam just had to get a reserved seat.  When we got to the front, we were trying to find a spot for all three of us to sit together, but we soon realized that a lot of the trains had already sold out for the day, and getting seats together was to be our last concern. 

Our on ship time was at 8:00 pm.  It was 3:00 pm when we were trying to get seats back.  There was a 3:25 train, so we thought we would just take that.  That train was sold out, and os was the next one after that, and other one after that.  As the lady continued to flip page after page, we all began to get a little nervous.  We couldn’t be late on our last port!  (If we were late that would mean that we would be punished by not being able to go to the Ambassadors Ball, which we all had dresses made for, and we would be the last group of students to get off the ship in San Diego, so our families would be left standing outside waiting until almost 5:00 pm probably.  We did not want to be back late!)  Finally, the lady said there were enough seats left for the three of us on the 5:15pm train.  That would get us back in Kobe around 6:45 pm, and give us one hour to get back to the ship.  We had originally planned to try and get some dessert one last time in Kobe before getting on the ship for our two week voyage across the Pacific Ocean.  We also knew that the trek across the Pacific has a reputation of being very rough, and it might be our last chance at a meal that we could actually keep down for the next couple of days.   Since we were cutting it so close in getting back to the ship as it was, we knew that we could not risk taking time for good food.  (The commute back to the ship from Kobe was about 20 to 30 minutes, depending on train schedules.  We then would have to wait in a line of other students rushing back, and still get on the ship before 8:00 pm.)

We now had two hours to wait in the Hiroshima train station until our train left.  Maria and Sam had a lot of extra Yen left over, so they were trying to find a place to get their money exchanged back.  ( I didn’t have any Yen left as I already Own Sam and Maria for my train tickets each way, but at least I was paying them back in USD, so they wouldn’t have to worry about losing money on that exchange!) I wasn’t too worried about paying them back, since I had been the bank all week for Meghan, Brandy and Jen, (There ATM cards didn’t work in Japan) I knew they would be paying me back soon, and then I could pay Maria and Sam back. 

Sam and Maria found the money exchange but it was closed (I really have no idea on days of the week, but I think today is a Saturday, or maybe they had just closed because it was after 3:00 pm.)  On the way back to the train, they decided to buy some snacks, since we wouldn’t have time in Kobe.  Maria got these chocolate filled Koala cookies and Sam got Doritos.  We were all sure these would come in very handy when we were all sick of the ship food.  We decided to also get these deserts that were delicious to look at and to eat and sit in starbucks to burn some more time.  After people watching and finally warming up, it was time for our train to be coming in.  We moved to the platform, fell in the organized line, and boarded our train.

We had out tickets out and we were all ready for the conductor to come by and check them, but he never came.  However, as we sat there, ladies with beverages and snacks did come in and out.  As each attendant opened the door, they would bow, and then proceed with their business.  Before each one left, they would bow again, and then close the door and leave.  At first I don’t think it registered that this was weird that they were bowing (I have seen so much, it is hard to remember what weird is), but after this scenario repeated itself over and over, it hit me that this indeed, was very weird.  Maria and I just laughed about it, and I dared her to do it.  So, we waited for Sam to wake up to see if she would get the joke behind it all.  She had been sleeping this whole time and didn’t see the attendants and their bowing rituals (At least not on this train, but I am sure she saw it on other trains!)  When she woke up, Maria, trying to keep a straight face (which she really can not do), went to the door, bowed, and closed the door behind herself.  About five minutes later, the door opens again, Maria bows, and then she busted up laughing and sat down.  Sam was probably thinking “What just happened”, and she gave Maria her best “What?  Did you really just do that” look.  We had a good laugh, and soon we were pulling into the Kobe station.

At this station we had to catch another train to get to the center of the city, and then once we were there we had to walk to the station that would take us to the station servicing the Port.  As we got closer and closer to the station that would take us to the port, we saw more and more SAS kids out wandering around.  We still had a good amount of buffer space before we needed to be on the ship, but we decided to head back anyways, it is always better to be safe than sorry.  As we were approaching the central station, we ran into Meghan.  She caught us up on her day as we loaded onto our final Japanese train experience.  The train was loaded with SAS kids and a few locals.  I felt sorry for the locals; a lot of the SAS kids were really loud and rude.  One kid spilled beer on the floor and didn’t clean it up.  It was quite embarrassing at that point to be associated with them.  In the first place, this culture considers it rude to drink anything (even coffee) on the train (except if it is a long train ride like the bullet), simply because they do not rush and multitask with everything.  In the second place, a lot of other cultures view Americans as loud drunk people who like to go around and shoot people, because that is what they see on TV, and with these kids drinking beer, being way to loud, pushy and disrespectful, it just confirms their suspicions about Americans, even though the majority of America is not like that. 

We finally made it back to the ship, and it actually didn’t take that long to get through the line to get on the ship.  Once on the ship, the six of us once again met up and talked about our great adventures in this wonderful country of Japan!