Japan

Japanese people are some of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. My friends and I quickly got off the ship in Kobe, Japan to take the Shinkansin bullet train to Tokyo. When we arrived in Tokyo at 8pm we had no idea where we were staying, what we were going to do or how we were going to get around one of the biggest cities in the world. As we all stood in a circle in the middle of the Tokyo train station looking confused at a map in Japanese, a man named Yoshi came up to us and asked if we needed help. We told him our situation and he spent the next three hours with us helping us find a hotel and plan our stay in Tokyo. He let us use his laptop, went with us on the subway to the district he recommended we stay in, translated signs and books for us and eventually got us a great deal at a hotel that in other circumstances probably would have turned us away. At first I was weary of this man and why he was so willing to spend so much time with us, but as the night went on I realized that he was literally doing this out of the kindness of his heart. He saw six confused Americans standing in the middle of the train station and wanted to help.

After putting our bags in the hotel we offered to take him out to dinner because that was the least we could do. He led us to a little sushi restaurant in the Shinjuku district and we had great conversation about Japan and America and the vast differences between the two. He left us that night with a great first impression of Japan that would ultimately continue throughout our four days in one of my favorite countries I have visited on Semester at Sea.

Our second day in Japan was spent exploring the city of Tokyo. We went to the Ginza district where we visited the Sony Building that houses some of the newest and coolest electronics and gadgets. We then headed to a beautiful park in the middle of the city. We walked along the river then visited the Imperial Palace where we hung out all afternoon taking pictures and taking in the culture. This was the first time my “family” (my group of 6 best friends on the ship) was together in a country on our own. After spending a few hours in the park we split up. Rudy, Leila, Todd and I went to the Hirajuku district where we went shopping and walked around taking in the surroundings. Some of you may know the Hirajuku district as the place where Gwen Stefani started and got a lot of inspiration for her LAMB clothing line. We left Hirajuku around 5pm because we were meeting up with Vamsi and Ashley at our hotel at 5:30. This is when our night got a little interesting.

Rudy of course had to buy a leather jacket so we were running on the late side; however, we were pretty sure we could get back to the hotel just in time to meet up with our friends. We got to the subway and realized we had to take two different lines to get back to our hotel. This took over 45 minutes and by the time we got to the station we wanted to be in we were 30 minutes late. So without thinking we run outside and start walking towards the hotel. In reality we were walking in the opposite direction of the hotel. We walked for 15 minutes until we realized that we didn’t recognize where we were. We then had to ask someone how to get back to where we began. Using hand gestures and a map we showed a Japanese man where we wanted to go and he pointed us in the right direction. We walked for another 20 minutes and got to the hotel over an hour late. Ashley and Vamsi were worried and we were exhausted from running around the city. We went down to the street and found a restaurant to eat and relax at.

The wait to be seated was 40 minutes long, but we didn’t mind because all we wanted to do was sit down. We sat down on the floor and played cards for a while then were finally called to the table. We ordered nachos, fajitas, burritos and guacamole with chips. YES we went to a Mexican restaurant in Japan. After eating a huge dinner that reminded me of going to Chili’s back in Syracuse we headed back to our rooms for a good nights sleep.

The next morning, Leila, Rudy, Todd and I woke up early to catch a train back to Kobe. We arrived in Kobe around 11am, ate lunch then headed back to the train station to go to Osaka. In Osaka we went to one of the worlds biggest aquariums where we saw penguins being fed, dolphins, a whale shark, huge manta rays and jellyfish. Although the aquarium was very busy it was still really fun to visit and see the marine life we have been sailing over for the past couple of months. After spending a few hours in the aquarium we walked outside and bought tickets to go on one of the biggest ferris wheels in the world. During our 15 minute ride on the wheel we saw the entire skyline of Osaka and caught a glimpse of Universal Studios in Japan. After riding the ferris wheel we ate dinner at a local mall then headed back to Kobe late that night.

On our last day in Japan Lelia, Rudy and I decided to go to Hiroshima to learn more about the end of WWII and Japan’s feelings towards America and the dropping of the Atomic bomb. It was a beautiful day out. As we slowly walked through Peace Park where different memorials stand, I noticed a sense of somberness in every person I saw, bother Americans and Japanese.

The memorial museum was definitely worth seeing. As I was walking through the museum I realized that I didn’t know as much as I thought I knew about WWII and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I read memoirs of survivors and watched a short video about that fateful morning.  I found it really interesting that the Japanese were so nice to us as Americans coming into their country after what we did to them only 65 years ago. The hard feelings are gone, and what’s left is the grave reality of nuclear war and the deaths of so many innocent people. After visiting the museum we saw a couple more memorials in the Peace Park then went back to the train station for our ride back to Kobe.

The train rides in Japan were absolutely beautiful. We sped through the country on what used to be the fastest train in the world. I watched us go through the deep valleys and wooded mountains of the countryside. I took in all of the sights as I sat comfortably by the window. If (I mean when) I come back to Japan I not only want to visit Kyoto which I didn’t get a chance to go to, but would also love to see the countryside and the beautiful more rural areas of the country.

When we got back to Kobe we quickly got into a cab because there was one more thing to do before we left Kobe…eat Kobe beef of course! Three of my friends and I asked a couple people on the streets what the best place to go for steak was. We had an hour before “on-ship” time but knew we had to do this before leaving Japan. We got to a restaurant recommended by a couple people on the street and sat down to look at the menu. The cheapest steak was $105. So being the four college students we are we decided to split one steak between the four of us which still made for a pretty expensive dinner. The steak was cooked right in front of us hibachi style on our table and was served with a few vegetables and a thin slice of toasted bread. The steak tasted better than any bite of meat I have ever tried. It was so tender and juicy and the three bites I had were definitely worth the $25. After finishing dinner and feeling very accomplished after a packed four days in Japan we headed back to the ship to get ready to leave Japan and start heading through the Pacific Ocean towards home.

Back in January I split up the trip into four sections in my head. The first was through South Africa, the second was the middle countries before Asia, the third section of the trip was the Asian countries and the fourth is the trip back home. Right now I am sitting on the ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean gaining hours back day by day as I head home. I have gone to all of those “devastatingly different” countries I was so scared to go to before I left and am now only 20 days away from again being in the safe harbor of my home in America. I don’t think I have had enough time to process where I was and what I have done in the past three months; however, I have come to realize how absolutely grateful I am for having this experience. I wouldn’t change a thing about it. I am grateful not only for the great and fun times, but also the hard times because what truly made this trip amazing were the ups and downs. In some aspects I feel the trip is over, but I have to realize that I still have three weeks left and I need to make the most out of every single minute left on my second home- the MV Explorer.