When in Japan...

I am back on the ship for two days after a whirlwind five day visit to Japan. Wow! What an amazing country. I made my way through the country setting foot in six different cities. We docked at Yokohama, Japan on Wednesday, September 12. It took about seven hours from the time we docked till when the ship was cleared as the Japanese officials went through all of our passports individually. That was then followed by a very long customs line. It felt like the longest seven hours of my life. It was Nick’s birthday at home and I made it to a telephone with just 30 minutes left of his 21^st birthday. =)

It was raining when we docked, but luckily it never rained in the places I visited when I was there. I spent my first three days traveling independently with four of my girlfriends. After being pointed to the wrong train station and walking 20 minutes in the wrong direction, we opted for a cab to the right station and hopped on the train bound for Tokyo. We got to our hotel in the business district of Tokyo, Akasaka, and were surprised at how nice it was considering it was the cheapest we found online. We navigated the brightly lit alleys and walked into a small restaurant and were escorted to the top level where we sat on mats and had to take our shoes off. I ate some fried fish and drank miso soup with floating shrimp heads (eyes and all). I did try sushi this night, but it didn’t go as well as I could have hoped. And we did sip some sake, for traditions sake of course.

We spent this night in Roppongi, which is the tourist nightlife area. It was fun because we saw A LOT of other SAS students, but we navigated away from this area the next night in an attempt to experience a little bit more of the authentic Tokyo nightlife.

We spent the morning of our second day roaming Tokyo. We visited the Imperial Palace gardens. This large open space with moats surrounding the traditional Japanese palace was set upon a background of some of the tallest city buildings I have ever seen. This contrast of modern and traditional was something I noticed all throughout Japan. We also visited Meiji Jingu, the only shrine in Tokyo, which was built to honor Emperor Meiji who was responsible for the Meiji Restoration in Japan in the 1600’s. It was a 20 minute walk deep into these forests before we reached the shrine. It was amazingly beautiful and we even got to watch traditional blessings of some Indian ambassadors that were visiting. It was a very peaceful site deep inside the most modern city I have ever visited.

Our afternoon was spent searching for the Harajuku district. We thought we were there and then once we stumbled upon it realized that we had seen nothing yet. It is so hard to describe the hubbub in the small streets and the outrageous way the young “Harajuku girls” dress. It looked like Halloween on a random Thursday in September. My best suggestion is to Google “Harajuku girl” and see what comes up. I felt like an ugly American all day in my tshirt and nike shorts and flipflops. I have no problem making this statement about ALL Japanese women: they don’t leave the house in shoes that aren’t heeled and without full makeup.

This night we were very lucky. Our friend Kristi met up with us Thursday morning and spent the next two days with us. One of her friends from home is going to University in Tokyo and so we met up with him and his friends this evening. They took us to a wonderful restaurant on the fourth floor of a building (we would never have found it) where they ordered and we ate and ate and ate. I had three different types of sashimi and shrimp and really liked it. Wow! I know! Then, they took us to a karaoke bar. Karaoke is huge in Japan and so different from Western karaoke. You pay a flat rate, around $8 for a room for karaoke and unlimited drinks. They said they go every Friday and Saturday. You sit on the floor around a table and each room has its own karaoke system and flat screen television. They knew exactly what they wanted to sing and were really practiced. They passed the microphone around and each guy had their personal part that they were good at. Us girls just belted Madonna and Britney Spears, etc. Culturally, the Japanese are very quiet, but when you put them in the small karaoke room, you have never heard someone sing so loud. That was a great experience to get to have!! They kept us out pretty late; I think we walked around the whole city. They said if you go out in Tokyo, you don’t go home until six because the subway doesn’t run between 12 am and 5 am. We couldn’t keep up and went home at four, but had to get up at six to catch our train to Hiroshima. It was really sad to leave Tokyo, but Tokyo is a city I can see myself returning to at some point.

We took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Hiroshima and spent about five hours there. We walked all through the memorial peace park and the memorial museum. The monuments were beautiful and it was a wonderful way to get some perspective on Japan. It connected it to history and the United States. The museum was intense, they really want to get their point across that peace = no nuclear weapons. A lot of the things displayed were really gory, including any piece of clothing/shoes/items pulled from the rubble and a life size wax diorama of a family right after the bombing (“half dead/half alive”.)

Our group split in Hiroshima, four girls went on to Kyoto, and my friend Allie and I went to Kobe, where our ship would arrive in the morning and where we needed to meet up with our respective SAS sponsored trips the next day. It was sad after our three days of travel together that had gone so smoothly. Allie and I arrived in Kobe at 7:30 pm, walked straight into the first hotel we found and passed out. The next morning we made our way to the Port of Kobe and watched our ship dock. I had about 30 minutes to run in, change, and switch out the clothes in my backpack before I left for my visit to Konan Women’s University and homestay.

This was the most amazing experience. My host, Mizuho, was adorable and spoke better English than a lot of the other Japanese students. All the girls were studying English at the University. Mizuho has plans to begin working at a Swiss hotel in the spring. We had structured sharing activities for the first few hours and then got to go out on our own. There were four Japanese girls and four SAS students that traveled together this day. They took us on the subway to Osaka, where Mizuho lives, and we walked up to Osaka Castle. We really got along well. Most of the homestays were only one student per home, but Mizuho took three students because her house was so large for Japanese standards. Her mom picked us up from the station in their luxury Toyota. Their family was amazing and soo welcoming. They took us out to dinner where we sat on the floor. They ordered a large variety of food and I had a little of everything. I even tried raw octopus! After dinner, Mizuho and her sister took us to a traditional Japanese spa. Wow! This was an amazing experience. If you are self-conscious in the gym locker room, stay far away! Males and females are separated and you start by showering on a stool in a long row of showers. I washed my hair three times over by the time Mizuho was finished. They wash every part of their bodies for a few minutes. After you shower, there are about 10+ different baths to choose from. The first five minutes were really awkward especially since two of the girls were from SAS and I see them around the ship now. But, once I relaxed it was amazing. It is almost like a cocktail party outside, all the women chatting. Mizuho says she goes with her girlfriends once a month. The tubs were different sizes and temperatures and some with jets. Some had televisions above them. My favorite part was the salt scrub sauna. We spent about an hour strolling the different baths. The next morning, her mom’s sister came over during breakfast and we met her two young children who were adorable. For breakfast, we were served sandwiches, salad, and corn soup. Very different! It was a sad goodbye to her family. We had to promise her mom we could back for a “long stay.” We left for the train to spend the day in Kyoto. On the train Mizuho received an email to her cell phone from her Dad saying (in her words) “he wanted to give you a hug but didn’t know if it would be (thumb’s up).” In Kyoto, we met back up with another Japanese student and SAS girl. We walked up this huge hill and visited a temple. I have never sweat so much, it was such a hot day, I thought I would pass out. They escorted us back to the ship and Mizuho got teary saying goodbye. It was really touching. We really got along so well and I became really good at choosing the right words to communicate with her and understanding what she was trying to say.

So that was my whirlwind five days! Japan was an amazing combination of tradition, culture, beauty, modernity and order. We are spoiled that that was the first country we visited. It was so easy to get around and I met some of the nicest people. These two days involve catching up on sleep and resting my body before we reach China tomorrow! O, and febreezing all of my clothes so I can wear some of them again in China…I really should have brought more clothes! I was supposed to attend a family planning neighborhood committee meeting tomorrow which I was stoked about but we just found out it was cancelled. The second day I leave for Beijing to spend three days at a University, meet students and faculty, and see the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City.

Hope you enjoyed my extensive report of Japan. It deserved it!