Alissa in Japan

Hey Everyone,

I am now crossing the Pacific so it is time to tell you about my journeys through Japan, our last International Port. For the first day in Japan, we were not allowed off the ship until about 12:30 even though we pulled into port at about 8:00 am. That morning we had a lot to do, including walking through the Union to get our temperatures taken by a thermal scanner to make sure none of us were sick. We then had a diplomatic briefing from a couple U.S. consolers. The next thing that morning was a little welcome reception by some drumming performers from Japan. It was amazing how well they could play drums, while performing dancing as well. The last thing that was done that morning was a group shot of everyone on the ship. Everyone had to stand on any deck from 4 to 7 and then the photographer, while standing at a distance on the dock, took several photos for the yearbook. I actually looked on the semester at sea website and saw one of the photos he took. If any one sees it on the webpage and tries to look for me, I am on the bottom deck and towards the left hand side. Well anyways after the long morning, we finally got off the ship at like 1:00 and just went to explore Kobe a little bit. In order to get into the main city we had to take the port liner (a train). Once we arrived in the city, we walked around and ended up going to a garden that was absolutely beautiful. One cool thing about Japan is that amongst the huge city there are several gardens that people can just go into to relax. Another interesting thing about Japan, in comparison to all the other countries we have been to is that it was very quiet even though so many people were out and about. One more interesting thing about Japan is that the city was so clean and smelled so good from all the restaurants everywhere. This port, from the minute I entered it, I could tell that it was going to be different from the other ports I had been to. The last thing about Japan that was noticed almost instantly is there respect for order. Before getting on the train, all the people line up and get on based on who was there first. There was no pushing or anything.

Anyways, back to the rest of what I did that day. After walking through the garden, we had to go back to the ship because we had a welcome reception with local students from Japan, who had actually gone on a semester at sea like program that is sponsored in Japan. At the welcome reception, we had a few performances from semester at sea students and then a couple of the Japanese students performed some magic tricks. After the performances, the Japanese students taught us how to do origami as well as calligraphy. I was not very good at the origami, so the Japanese student pretty much made the whole ninja star for me. I then moved on to the calligraphy station and had my name written out for me in Japanese. It was very cool because there is actually an equivalent for my name in Japan and they didn’t have to spell it out letter by letter. After I was done with the calligraphy, a few of the students asked for a tour around the ship so Alex, Chris, Jay and I showed them around. This was then the end of the welcome reception and since we had kind of made friends with some of the students we planned to meet up with them a few hours later in the city to go to a karaoke bar. Later that night we met up with them and had so much fun at the karaoke place. In Japan, the group you go with gets their own private room and then you get to just have fun. All of the songs sang that night were popular American songs and it was so much fun watching the Japanese students sing. They got so into it and just enjoyed themselves. After karaokeing for about an hour, Alex and I went back to the ship, while Sheryl, Casey, Chris, and Jay went to a bar. Once I was back at the ship, I went to sleep because it was already pretty late.

The next day Alex and I had planned to walk around the city again, but he woke up with a sore throat so we decided to take it somewhat easy and just relax during the day so that he would get better so we could do some major touring in other cities. After laying around for most of the day, that night we went to the Osaka Buffalo baseball game. It was so strange; at the game, the stadium was so empty. I had never been to a baseball game that was so empty. It was still tons of fun though. We even got to eat some American food; I had a corn dog. In addition, like in America they partake in activities during the 7th inning stretch. For theirs though they blow up these long balloons, then at the end of the singing, they let them go, and you see tons of balloons flying in the air around the stadium. It was very cool. Well at about 10:00, we had to leave even though the game wasn’t over. At that time, the game was going into the 12th inning and the teams were tied with 3. I still don’t know how that game ended, but either way it was a lot of fun. Once I arrived back at the ship that night I went to sleep because Alex and I had to get up early the next morning to go to Hiroshima.

The next day Alex and I met for breakfast at 8:00 and then headed out into the city to catch the bullet train to Hiroshima. In order to get to the bullet train, we had to walk about 25 minutes to reach the station. Once we got there, we finally found where we had to be, then bought our tickets, and then got on the train. The bullet trains in Japan are the fastest trains and got us to Hiroshima in only an hour and fifteen minutes. On the train, you could tell how fast you were going because every time we entered a tunnel my ears kind of popped and hurt a little from the pressure. In addition, every time we passed a train going the other way you could feel the train get pushed out a little and then once the train passed we shifted back to the original position. It was definitely an experience. Once we arrived in Hiroshima, we had to get on one of the local buses that took us right to where the Peace Park is, where the atomic bomb had exploded. The first thing we saw at this park, was the A-bomb dome, which was one of the few buildings that remained standing after the explosion, and it is now the only building that was not taken down and rebuilt. After seeing the dome, we walked more into the peace park and we came across the children’s memorial with all of the paper cranes. This memorial was started originally for a girl that got leukemia after the bomb, and she thought that if she folded a thousand paper cranes she would be cured from her illness. Unfortunately after folding 1300 she died. Now this memorial contains paper cranes that people all over the world have folded in her and other children’s’ memory. On the ship, we even made a thousand paper cranes and some people brought them down to be hung at this memorial. It was a very amazing site to see. After walking around the park a little, we headed to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, which displayed many objects that remained from the bomb, as well as images of people who were harmed from the bomb. It was a very disturbing museum and it makes me wonder why we still have nuclear weapons in the world. The effects are so horrible that I can’t even imagine a person who could make the decision to bomb another country that they know will pretty much destroy everything. At this park, a flame constantly burns, and it is supposed to burn until all nuclear weapons are destroyed. Overall, this experience at the Hiroshima Peace Park was unforgettable.

After the Peace Park, Alex and I decided to explore a few more sites in Hiroshima. We first went to a castle called Hiroshima Castle, which is actually the namesake of the city. At this castle there were many artifacts including samurai swords, which were very cool. This castle was very tall with probably about 6 stories. Once we reached the top, we had an amazing aerial view of the whole city. It was very pretty. After the castle, we walked a little more in the city to a garden that was very beautiful. We just walked around leisurely and just sat for a little while to relax and take in the peacefulness. At this garden, we saw an image of what it looked like right after the bomb and it was pretty much completely destroyed. I was happy to see that after all of these years the beauty of this garden has been restored. Once we were relaxed and a little rested, we decided to walk back to where the train station was. On our way back, we happened to stumble across the school where the girl who folded all the cranes had gone to school before she was sick. This spot wasn’t even on the map and we were so happy that we came across it. Just seeing things from people’s lives who had been killed from the bomb, brings the whole disaster to heart. We eventually arrived back at the train station and caught the next train back to Kobe. In Japan, one thing I have yet to mention is how timely everything is. Trains run constantly and we never had to wait more than five minutes for the next train. It was amazing. On arrival back to Kobe, Alex and I went back to the ship to relax for the rest of the night.

The next morning began early again, because we decided to go to Kyoto, which was about 45 minutes away by the regular train. Today it was Alex, Joanne, Kevin, and I. When we got to Kyoto, we bought an all day bus pass and then hopped on the bus to first go to Kiyomizu Temple. This site is actually a candidate for the next Seven Wonders of the World. It is a beautiful temple on the side of a hillside with an amazing view. We walked around the temple for a little while and then went back to the bus to go to our next site for the day, The Silver Pavilion, which is a Zen Buddhist temple. Before actually going up to the temple, we stopped for a quick lunch. Alex and I shared some rice with veggies. On this trip, I have definitely improved my chopstick skills. Anyways once we got to the temple, it was amazing. Since it was a Zen temple, it had amazing sand sculpted designs, kind of like the little sets we can get and play with in the U.S.. After walking around this temple, we then headed back to the bus to go to the Golden Pavilion, which was another Zen temple. This temple though has a very interesting history. Many years ago, a deranged student burned down the temple, so the temple was rebuilt into its current glory. It was an incredible site to see. It just appeared across the water and it is just magnificent because it is completely covered in gold. Anyways once we saw this, we had to quickly catch a cab to get to our last site of the day, which stopped admitting visitors at 4:00. This site was the Nijo castle, which is where a couple shoguns lived during the period where shoguns were in power. We got to go through the shoguns house, which was very plain and simple. There wasn’t any furniture in the house and everyone used to just sit on the floor. After going through the house, we walked around the premise, which had an amazing garden. Once we walked around the garden, we went back to the train station to catch our train back to Kobe. When we got back to Kobe, Alex and I went back to the ship for dinner and then just watch TV for the rest of the night.

The next morning Alex and I slept in a little because we planned to get breakfast off the ship. We met up at about 9:15 and then headed into the port. For breakfast, we went to a bakery and had some custard-filled donuts, tater-tots, and a pizza-tasting thing. All of the food was very delicious. After we ate, we decided to go to an Aqualife park for the day so that Alex could write a field practicum paper for one of his classes. This aquarium was pretty close to Kobe, in the nearby town of Suma. Once we got there by train, we had to walk along the beach for 20 minutes to get to the aquarium. The beach was gorgeous and it was strange, every person on the beach had a bag and was cleaning it up. I don’t know if it was a designated beach clean-up day or if that is just what the Japanese do. It was very interesting. Once we finally arrived at the aquarium, we looked at all the animals there including many fish, turtles, penguins, sea otters, and dolphins. The sea otters were probably one of the cutest animals I have ever seen. They just play in the water and are constantly flipping over. At this aqualife park, we even watched a dolphin show, where the dolphins performed for us. It was very interesting and fun even though we couldn’t understand the Japanese-speaking host. Overall, the Aqualife Park was a lot of fun and a nice way to spend part of our day. On the way back, we decided to stop at China town to walk around for a little while. China town was mostly a lot of food and it made us very hungry, so we decided to keep walking to go back to where the port liner train was. At the train station, there were tons of places to eat so we decided to stop at a restaurant to have some vegetables covered in a crispy breading, almost like tempura, even though the waitress said it wasn’t actually tempura. The veggies were really good and helped fill us up a little. The last stop before we headed back to the ship was to a little Belgium waffle maker that sold many flavored Belgium waffles. Alex and I decided to get six of these waffles to finish off our extra Yen. The waffles were absolutely delicious and they were gone by the end of that night. Once we got back to the ship that night, we both had to do some homework before the next day of classes so that ended our journeys through Japan. Overall, I loved Japan. It was so easy to navigate and get around on our own and it seemed as if everyone was very nice and genuinely wanted to help us. Well I am officially crossing the Pacific Ocean now and only a week and a half left until I am home. Today we had our repeat day of May 2, so now instead of being many hours ahead of you, I am now several hours behind. We keep changing our clocks though. It is about an hour ahead almost every night from Japan to Hawaii. It is a little difficult, but at least I get to take naps during the day, and I don’t really have any more homework to do besides studying. Anyways I hope you enjoyed my last international blog entry.

I love and can’t wait to see you all soon!
Alissa