Monday, April 1, 2013
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Lively India
As I type this, my henna is wearing off. There are traces of it left on my right hand, but they're only noticeable if you bother to take a second look.
We are currently on day 5 of 6 on our way to Mauritius, and as I sit here I realize that I'm over the half way mark in every way possible. I have more countries behind me than in front of me. There are more days behind me than in front of me. There are more class days behind me than in front of me.
Where did time go?
I know I have not been the best blog updater, and I haven't updated in awhile, but I think it's important that I talk a little bit about Burma and India. (I am also procrastinating)
Recently my social psych professor said that we shouldn't try to qualify our time in each of these ports. If we try to explain why we loved a place, or why we loved a certain experience, we often cannot put into words what we truly feel. Either we don't know what we're feeling or we don't know why we feel the way we do. If we try to use words to explain, we use words that can't properly state how we're feeling. Why did I love Burma so much? Why did l love India so much?
I have this thing where I'm trying think of a word that describes my time in each country, and I feel like it is a good compromise between trying to share how I feel without ruining my experience by trying too hard to explain how I feel. For Burma, my word is serene. I spent most of my time in Inle Lake, and the entire time I just felt a sense of peace. For India, my word is lively. The crazy tuk tuk driving, the crowds, the yelling, the colors...everything just screamed alive. And although Burma has a place in my heart forever, India got it beating like no other place has.
We have this thing where after each port there is a "post port" reflection. I've been to almost every single one, and each time I leave slightly frustrated but also enlightened. Frustrated because people seem to complain if things don't go their way. Enlightened because it often makes me realize how I feel.
I didn't even want to go to the "post port" for India--I didn't want to hear anything bad that people had to say. But of course I went anyway. People complained about the trash. People complained about not getting things for as cheap as they wanted to. People complained about the fact that people were overcharging them because they were "white Americans who are wealthy". And the entire time I felt so frustrated. How can people feel this way after leaving a place so alive? How?
We come to these places expecting to get things for dirt cheap. And sometimes we do. But when we don't, we think we're getting ripped off or cheated.
What we don't think about is that these people we are buying things from have a life to live as well. They're trying to make ends meet. They're trying to feed their children or keep their shop open. They're not here to please us at all costs. We're the ones who are guests, and bargaining with them is a social interaction that we signed up for. And when you decided that yelling over 50 rupees (1 dollar) is a good idea, you've lost what you've come here for--learning, interacting, socializing, being outside of your comfort zone, compromising, laughing, loving.
There was a time when I referred to myself as getting "ripped off". A tuk tuk driver who had been with us all day told us he would charge us $10 each for the day and decided at the end of the night to ask for $80 all together. It was just another girl and I, and we decided that since it was nightime, and no one else was around, we would just pay the money to get out of the situation. And I was mad. This was money that I could've spent on something else.
While at post port, a professor said something that really stuck me him. He said "How much does it cost us to go to the movies? To drive to the theater, to buy the tickets, to buy our favorite snacks and a drink. How much does it cost?" In my head I'm trying to do the math. Well, if I go with both my parents that's automatically $30 for just our tickets. Driving there? Well, it takes about 30 minutes to get to the nearest movie theater, so there's that cost. What if I want popcorn? Another $7 or so. And a drinks for all of us? Add $20. Licorice? $5. Right there thats nearly $70, and that was just a leisure activity.
So yes, I paid more than I originally thought we had agreed on. But I could spend the same amount on a piece of jewelry and not really think twice about it, or be angry about it. This guy had been with us all day, he had driven us all around (even to places we didn't ask to go), and I think he was generally concerned with whether or not we were having a good time. He had a house, two kids, and a wife to look out for. So the $40 I contributed to the $80 "tuk tuk fund" really was not worth getting angry over. It happened. And he can do a lot more with that money than I can.
One of our Dean's said something on the first day, and I constantly think about it. He said that "One percent of the world gets a college education. One percent of the world gets to travel. And you are doing both." So even though Semester at Sea has been years in the making for me, and we have taken out a loan to pay for this journey, I am already wealthier and luckier than a significant population of this world. Yes we are all on budgets and don't have money to "blow" in all of these countries, but we're here. And just by being here we're extremely fortunate.
As I travel around the world I'm learning lessons that I didn't know I would learn. Friends and I have been talking a lot about going home lately, and what that will be like. I think that's when the biggest change will come--right now everything is normal. All 1000 of us on this ship are going through the same thing. But back at home I'll be leaving this ship of comfort, this place that has become "normal".
So when I come back, what I'm asking for is patience. Sometimes I may not be able to describe what I'm feeling and at other times I may tell the same story over and over again. There are going to be pictures that seem insignificant to you, but will probably be my screensaver for the next couple of months. There are inside jokes that I may blurt out thinking someone will understand, but no one will. Laugh anyway.
To all my friends who have studied abroad. I promise you the same. I promise to listen to your stories and look at your pictures and not roll my eyes when you tell me the same story I know I've heard before. I promise to ask questions and to genuinely care. Because our adventures are our adventures for a reason. They make us who we are and who we are becoming.
I also promise to try to blog more, but this six day stretch in between India and Mauritius is going by way too fast. I haven't caught up on my journal, I have a paper due, I have a midterm, and that's just tomorrow.
Sometimes it's easy to forget that this is school as well.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Shipboard Life
Traveling is a huge component of Semester at Sea. Within a couple of months I have visited and will visit Japan, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, Burma, India, Mauritius, South Africa, Ghana, Morocco, and Spain. When people ask to hear stories, they'll expect to hear about what I did in country--the story of the snake around my neck in Vietnam, our lost in translation moments in Japan, the hypothetical beach day in Mauritius, my homestays in South Africa and Morocco.
And these will be wonderful stories to tell.
But what get's overlooked a lot of the time is the journey--the days we spend getting from one place to another. It's hard to believe that I've been on the M.V Explorer for nearly 2 months (!!!!!!). It feels so much shorter and longer at the same time. Shorter because time is flying, but longer because the people who have become my friends feel like friends that I've had for years, not a couple of months.
So what I'm going to tell you about to day is a normal day on the M.V Explorer--my home.
It's common to say good morning to Arch (as in Desmond Tutu) every morning. I'll go to breakfast around 8am with my roommate, we'll meet up with our usual crowd of friends (Michela, Wendy, Kaitlyn, Cali, Emily), and we'll talk about anything and everything. Sometimes we wonder what we're missing back home, if there's a song equivalent to Call Me Maybe out right now and we're just blissfully unaware. Sometimes we'll talk about the paper that's due that we should be writing, or a test that snuck up on us. Sometimes we'll lookout for the new cereal that is being put out and whether or not there was any pineapple leftover in the fruit selection. Sometimes we'll talk about what we did in past countries and what we're doing in future countries.
This has become normal.
What astounds me is that we're able to say "Oh, I need to finish this paper before India", or "I can't believe I have a midterm right after Burma", or "What are your plans for Ghana?". Referring to countries instead of days has become the way that we keep time. When everybody around you is going through the same thing you are, it's easy to forget that this isn't a common journey that we're on.
Sometimes we'll sing Taylor Swift songs as we're walking up the stairs, or we'll meander from one side of the hallway to the other due to a wave. The day goes by in a blur of errands and conversations...visits to the field office trying to figure what to do in a country, talking to Unreasonable people in line during lunch, taking malaria pills, and sanitizing hands "or risk pooping" (so threatens our Dean).
There's usually a lot that goes on at night--we go to Zumba, go to the gym together, eat dinner, hang out in the Piano Lounge. Around 8pm (or 2000) there is usually some sort of preport that goes on in the Union where we learn about the country that we're heading to. These usually go on every night, but the one that happens the day before we get into port is mandatory. The doctor tells us about all the diseases we could contract, how to avoid travelers diarrhea (whoops), what foods to avoid, all that fun stuff. The Dean will tell us statistics from the last port (ex: 29 stolen iPhones in Vietnam), a couple credit card frauds, etc. The head of the Field Office will come and tell us about all the amazing things to do, and interport students will chime in with things to add to our to do list and helpful phrases. For example, last night at the cultural preport for India a interport student taught us how to say "yes, spice" and "no, spice".
A day in the life.
Usually there will be other things going on after the Explorer Seminar/Preport. Last night there was a panel discussion on "How to Change the World" with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Tori Hogan, and Ken Banks. The people on this ship just astound me. Ken Banks has been acknowledged by National Geographic, Tori is barely 30 and she's written a book (check it out, it's called Beyond Good Intentions), and I don't think I have to list anything about Desmond Tutu.
But by far what astounds me the most is the fact that this ship has become home. It is literally the place that is taking me to all these countries. I open my cabin door in the morning, I walk up the stairs, I reach the sixth deck and then I have the option of turning right or left, both will take me around the same circle above Tymitz Square, through the piano lounge, and into the Garden Lounge, which is one of the decks where meals are served. I know how long it takes for me to get to each class from where I am (tops 2 minutes), and I have become a pro at using the demonic ice dispenser on the 6th deck. My twin size bed and small cabin are welcome sites when I return from a country where I have left the city where the ship is. Getting back on the ship feels like coming home, even if it's just at the end of a very long day.
The community that has been built on this ship deserves a whole blog post of its own, but to put into words what it actually is isn't possible. As my psych prof told me, sometimes trying to put things into words just messes up the experience in the first place. So picture this: a place where you feel absolutely comfortable and satisfied. The minute closet space and 3 drawers that you own you know by heart. Should I mention that someone cleans your room every other day? The showers are nothing special but they are your shower. You wake up in the morning, see somebody you've never even talked to, and you acknowledge eachother for no other reason than the fact that you are on a ship, in the middle of an ocean, going on this incredible journey together.
We are all in this together.
I hope that I've managed to convey (at least a little bit) what makes Semester at Sea so special. All the youtube videos I've watched, emails I've sent to alumni, pictures I've seen online...this is now my life. I am the "current voyage" on the Semester at Sea website, it's my voyage that is being talked about, my life that is being lived.
So as I get ready to step foot in India, I want to send out a sincere thanks to all the people who listened to me talk endlessly about SAS, staring my sophomore year of high school. This is everything more than I wished for, and even though I've spent a night in the bathroom losing everything inside me (and more), I currently have a head cold, and I'm pretty sure I'm missing out on one of the sunniest days so far, this is still by far one of the best days of my life...because I am home.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Tough Days are Good Days
I am currently sitting on my bed in cabin 3037 on the MV Explorer. Vietnam is physically behind us...we are now sailing to Singapore, but the emotional implications of my time in Vietnam is just starting to hit me. I am no longer in intense travel mode (I think I spent 3 hours on the ship aside from sleeping hours), and the dust is beginning to settle. Reflection after Japan was enlightening, reflection after China was awe inspiring, and the reflection that I'm going through after Vietnam is just downright extremely overwhelming.
There's no moment I can point to and say that that's when everything changed. Rather, the accumulation of my six days in Vietnam has all been put into one big pot, molding and melting together to the point where I can't tell what happened on what day. All I know is that it all happened. When thinking of Semester at Sea, I knew that there would be moments where I just wouldn't know what to do with myself, and I think that this is my first moment of the trip. I don't want it to seem as though I'm hating life right now, but I'm definitely feeling my experiences in a way that I haven't in the past.
Water freezes at 32 degrees. There are 12 inches in a foot. My current favorite color is red. Four divided by four is one. I write better on lined paper. Post-its are amazing. Hawaii is a state and DC is a district. Crossing the street in Ho Chi Minh is dangerous. The metro system in Japan is extremely easy to navigate. The Great Wall is everything everybody thinks it is. These are facts. These are things I can explain. These are things that no one will object to. However, what I don't know how to explain are experiences and perspectives. Everybody has a different one. I was with a friend for the entirety of Vietnam, and although we were in the same situations, we have had completely different experiences.
It will be too complicated to go through every single thing I did in Vietnam, so I would rather just talk about some experiences that stood out to me. I did a homestay for 2 nights/3 days on the Mekong in Vietnam. Within my time there, I visited a family owned shop, drank snake rice wine, had a giant boa wrapped around me, ate shrimp with its head and appendages still attached, drank a coconut on a boat floating down the Mekong, hung out in a garden, floated down the river some more, arrived at the village of our home stay, found a lizard in the bathroom, learned how to make traditional Tet cake, ate questionable food, walked around the most serene place I have ever been, fell asleep to the sounds of nature, had a traumatic experience walking through the meat market, got chased around by ladies selling pants in a different market, seen the floating market of the Mekong, and have sweated more than I thought possible.
These are the experiences that I won't forget, that I'll remember to tell people about. However, it's the overwhelming emotions of traveling that often get swept under the rug. The moments when you realize that this is a journey of a life time. The moment I realize that had I been born in Vietnam, I could be eleven year old Nga selling bookmarks and fans to tourists until 1 in the morning. The moment when I'm at a orphanage and realizing that "poverty/orphanage tourism" is a real thing, and I'm witnessing it right now. The moment when I'm in class and the professor asks what "white privilege" is and the fact that none of us can answer that is what "white privilege" is. The moment when you step out of the War Remnants Museum and you wonder if the beggar on the street was affected by agent orange. The wonderful moment when you're walking down the street with your friends and we realize that we're in Vietnam.
There's something to be said for itineraries. There's something to be said for pictures. There's something to be said for sites and good food. But there's also something to be said for putting the map and camera away and just...experiencing. I think I was more aware of that than anything else in Vietnam. And because of that I'm at a loss for words. I'm sorry if this is rambling, or confusing, or if it seems as though I'm being negative. But as this blog post says, tough days are good days. Tough days are good days because that means that I'm experiencing this journey in its entirety. It's been smooth sailing (emotionally speaking), for the past couple of ports, but I think it's just going to continue at this pace for the rest of the time. A journey isn't a journey for its easiness. We don't talk about Marco Polo because he had it easy. Archbishop Desmond Tutu isn't Archbishop Desmond Tutu because his life was simple.
So it's my time for some rough seas...literally and metaphorically.
There's no moment I can point to and say that that's when everything changed. Rather, the accumulation of my six days in Vietnam has all been put into one big pot, molding and melting together to the point where I can't tell what happened on what day. All I know is that it all happened. When thinking of Semester at Sea, I knew that there would be moments where I just wouldn't know what to do with myself, and I think that this is my first moment of the trip. I don't want it to seem as though I'm hating life right now, but I'm definitely feeling my experiences in a way that I haven't in the past.
Water freezes at 32 degrees. There are 12 inches in a foot. My current favorite color is red. Four divided by four is one. I write better on lined paper. Post-its are amazing. Hawaii is a state and DC is a district. Crossing the street in Ho Chi Minh is dangerous. The metro system in Japan is extremely easy to navigate. The Great Wall is everything everybody thinks it is. These are facts. These are things I can explain. These are things that no one will object to. However, what I don't know how to explain are experiences and perspectives. Everybody has a different one. I was with a friend for the entirety of Vietnam, and although we were in the same situations, we have had completely different experiences.
It will be too complicated to go through every single thing I did in Vietnam, so I would rather just talk about some experiences that stood out to me. I did a homestay for 2 nights/3 days on the Mekong in Vietnam. Within my time there, I visited a family owned shop, drank snake rice wine, had a giant boa wrapped around me, ate shrimp with its head and appendages still attached, drank a coconut on a boat floating down the Mekong, hung out in a garden, floated down the river some more, arrived at the village of our home stay, found a lizard in the bathroom, learned how to make traditional Tet cake, ate questionable food, walked around the most serene place I have ever been, fell asleep to the sounds of nature, had a traumatic experience walking through the meat market, got chased around by ladies selling pants in a different market, seen the floating market of the Mekong, and have sweated more than I thought possible.
These are the experiences that I won't forget, that I'll remember to tell people about. However, it's the overwhelming emotions of traveling that often get swept under the rug. The moments when you realize that this is a journey of a life time. The moment I realize that had I been born in Vietnam, I could be eleven year old Nga selling bookmarks and fans to tourists until 1 in the morning. The moment when I'm at a orphanage and realizing that "poverty/orphanage tourism" is a real thing, and I'm witnessing it right now. The moment when I'm in class and the professor asks what "white privilege" is and the fact that none of us can answer that is what "white privilege" is. The moment when you step out of the War Remnants Museum and you wonder if the beggar on the street was affected by agent orange. The wonderful moment when you're walking down the street with your friends and we realize that we're in Vietnam.
There's something to be said for itineraries. There's something to be said for pictures. There's something to be said for sites and good food. But there's also something to be said for putting the map and camera away and just...experiencing. I think I was more aware of that than anything else in Vietnam. And because of that I'm at a loss for words. I'm sorry if this is rambling, or confusing, or if it seems as though I'm being negative. But as this blog post says, tough days are good days. Tough days are good days because that means that I'm experiencing this journey in its entirety. It's been smooth sailing (emotionally speaking), for the past couple of ports, but I think it's just going to continue at this pace for the rest of the time. A journey isn't a journey for its easiness. We don't talk about Marco Polo because he had it easy. Archbishop Desmond Tutu isn't Archbishop Desmond Tutu because his life was simple.
So it's my time for some rough seas...literally and metaphorically.
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Japan reflections
My reflection from my time in Japan made it onto the SAS blog! Just thought I'd share it here. I've been reading this blog for YEARS now and it's absolutely astounding to see my name attached to a quote about my time in a country.
Friday, February 8, 2013
Pictures Tell a Story...
Friday, February 1, 2013
Arigato, Japan
4 days in Japan, 4 different cities, and a whole lot of stories. I don't even know where to begin, so I'll probably split this up by different cities.
The travel exhaustion is really start to get to everybody, which is funny considering we have about 10 more places to go. We all look like we're extras on The Walking Dead. I think it would be abnormal if someone DIDN'T look exhausted right now.
Day 1/2-Yokohama/Tokyo:
Japan really knows how to welcome people. There was a crowd waving to us as the ship pulled into port, and they had a band playing as well! It was an amazing moment, and we're all joking that Japan has set the standards too high for the rest of the countries. There was an old man who was at the terminal, and he would wave his hat in the air and then bow to us.
After standing in the longest line I have ever encountered, we finally got off the ship around 12, and then had to go stand in line for immigration. This was the scariest immigration moment of my life. There were booths set up in this empty terminal and it was dead silent. Honestly, it looked like a scene from the Hunger Games or something. Luckily the lady I got actually smiled so I didn't feel like I was being incarcerated or anything. She took a picture, my fingerprints, stamped my passport, and then I was good to go.
There was a group of us that wanted to explore around Yokohama the first day, so we set off for a train station. We wanted to go to the Ramen Museum first, and when we were in the ticket line for the subway, I ran into my Women Writers professor and her husband. They had met a young couple who spoke English and were helping them purchase their ticket, and so they started to help us as well. When we told them were we wanted to go, they said "You want to go there? But there's nothing there!" Apparently all there is to see in that area is the Ramen Museum, so we decided to take the subway to the heart of Yokohama.
I could tell you every little thing that we did, but then I would be writing this blog until we got to China, which is actually in 2 days. We walked around a lot, ate good food, found that we really needed to know more Japanese than we did, went to the Cup of Noodles museum, and stopped at every single vending machine we saw. They really were that awesome. After dinner, Cali and I split from the rest of the group and went to the ferris wheel that was near the port. It was amazing! At the top we could see the ship all lit up on the harbor and everything.
We walked back to the ship, got our overnight stuff ready, and met the gals we were traveling with to Shibuya, Tokyo. Luckily the station near us was a one way to Shibuya, so we didn't have to trade trains or anything. A couple of girls were already in Shibuya, and we said we would meet them at the dog statue Hachi when we got there, which is apparently a statue that is very famous around Japan. I'm pretty sure I even watched a Hallmark movie about this dog with my mom a while back. We were about 30 minutes late meeting Tori and Laura, and we knew that Tori would be worried out of her mind, probably on the verge of calling Tom or Jim and telling them that we were missing.
We got off the train, and when we entered into the heart of Shibuya, we realized just how difficult it would be to find the dog statue. There were people everywhere, billboards flashing lights, and just about every type of sight and sound that we hadn't encountered since being on the relatively peaceful M.V Explorer (aside from the last 2 days before Japan where we were all sure the Captains voice was going to come on telling us to abandon ship). We ended up asking everyone we saw here Hachi the dog was, and just as promised, EVERYONE knew what we were talking about.
The funny thing is, it wasn't even the dog I saw first, it was Tori's blonde hair. By the time we got to them it looked like they were about to freeze, so they said they wanted to go check into the place they had found for us to stay before going out again. I knew things were about to get interesting when they said "Don't scream until you actually see it." They took us down a road in Shibuya, and then turned the corner where there was advertisements for Manboo, some sort of internet cafe. Sketchy. The elevator was too small to carry all of us, so only about 3 or 4 of us could go at a time, and then Tori told us not to press the button for floor number 8, because it was an adult shop. Whoops. So we successfully got off on the ninth floor…and then all I saw were lights and comic books and everything screamed that this was going to be a very interesting night.
The process of checking in was quite the feat. Nobody really spoke any English and plus there were about 8 of us all together. I now have a card declaring me to be a lifelong member of Manboo. Although I don't really think I'll be going back. We went upstairs, and we all kind of looked at each other. There were little cubicles with nothing but a semi reclinable chair, a desk attached to the wall, and a computer screen on top of the desk. I felt like I was at my first job or something. I should also mention that the smoke was so strong that I'm pretty sure I smoked the equivalent to 10 packs just by being there for a couple hours. I have pictures to describe just how…intense this place was, so I'll just to upload some in the future. Trust me, words will not prepare you for this.
Everybody sent out a couple emails saying that this might turn into a Criminal Minds episode, and then we left again in search of a karaoke club. We found one relatively quick, rented a room for an hour and a half, and got our karaoke on. Taylor Swift, Spice Girls, P!nk, Journey, Mika, Backstreet Boys, and many more were sung, and it was probably one of the most fun experiences of Japan. By the time we finally headed back to our cubicles, it was about 3:30am. I left my passport belt on, put on pj pants, got a drink out of the free vending machines (which made the whole experience worth it), and tried to sleep for the next 3 hours.
At one moment I woke up and I felt like I was rocking a shaking. For a second I forgot where I was and I thought that I was back on the ship. I went back to sleep, and when I woke up around 7, I decided that that was probably the most amount of sleep I was going to get and decided to just stay awake. We all agreed to be ready to leave around 8:30, so I just relaxed and went to get more drinks out of the free vending machine. Turns out we were all awake and couldn't sleep, and we started talking and it turns out that everyone felt the rocking and shaking! So someone said that it might have been an earthquake. I'm not sure if that's the case, but it would make sense that we all felt it.
We got up, left, and went in search of a breakfast place. Turns out everything wasn't open yet, so we ended up at a McDonald's. Usually I wouldn't go for that, but the fact is that I was starving, super tired, and we all just needed some sort of energy. I don't need to spend more time talking about our McDonald's adventures.
Turns out Dahanah's boyfriend had told her about a store that seemed pretty cool, so we went in search of it. I'm pretty sure that we walked halfway across Tokyo in search of it. The entire time I was looking for places that might have flags, but alas, I was unsuccessful. We stopped a couple of places along the way, including a crepe place, and I'm pretty sure my tastebuds have never been so happy. In fact, I have decided that I'm going to eat on the 7th deck today because all the food I have eaten the last couple of days has spoiled my tastebuds. But that's not part of the story.
We ended up finding the seemingly nonexistent store (which was in a totally different district I'm pretty sure) and it was cool, but a bit touristy and expensive. We had managed to evade super touristy places so far, and as soon a we went to the store almost everybody there was a tourist of some sort doing some shopping. I thought that that might be the place where I could find a flag, but alas…I still did not find one. A couple of girls did some major shopping, and then we set out for a place to eat.
We ended up going down some random streets and alleys until we came across a legit looking place. Some of the people were looking for sushi, so when we asked if they had it, the guy said no, but that it was a gyoza place. We all decided to stay there and it was awesome! It was pretty small, but the food was amazing! We could see them making the gyoza behind the counter, and I swear my tastebuds are watering just remembering it. After we ate, we walked to a subway station, and we split into 2 groups: one who was going back to the ship for in transit, and the others who were traveling overland. I was part of the group who was traveling with the ship during our in transit time from Yokohama to Kobe.
After getting semi lost, taking the wrong train, and someone leaving a bag on the train and losing some purchases, we finally made it back to the terminal. When we were in the terminal, a lady walked up to us and said "Thank you, thank you", and then went on to say how she was one of the tour guides for the SAS trips. Emily ended up telling her about losing her bag and the lady brought us to a group of men she was with, and they spent about 20 minutes on the phone calling different stations trying to find the bag. And guess what? It was found! They described to her how to get to the station and back, and Laura and I were worried for time so we stayed behind, and Emily didn't want to go by herself. One of the men and the lady ended up offering to take her to the station where her bag was AND back to the terminal. Their kindness was just astounding, and that's just one example. When Emily got back, she told me that they bought both of her train tickets and gave her gifts and snacks along the way. It really was quite amazing.
Well, that's my time in Yokohama and Tokyo. I still have to blog about the in transit day (yes, that deserves to be talked about), as well as my days in Hiroshima and Kobe. I think I'll save those for the next post.
As always, thanks for reading!
The travel exhaustion is really start to get to everybody, which is funny considering we have about 10 more places to go. We all look like we're extras on The Walking Dead. I think it would be abnormal if someone DIDN'T look exhausted right now.
Day 1/2-Yokohama/Tokyo:
Japan really knows how to welcome people. There was a crowd waving to us as the ship pulled into port, and they had a band playing as well! It was an amazing moment, and we're all joking that Japan has set the standards too high for the rest of the countries. There was an old man who was at the terminal, and he would wave his hat in the air and then bow to us.
After standing in the longest line I have ever encountered, we finally got off the ship around 12, and then had to go stand in line for immigration. This was the scariest immigration moment of my life. There were booths set up in this empty terminal and it was dead silent. Honestly, it looked like a scene from the Hunger Games or something. Luckily the lady I got actually smiled so I didn't feel like I was being incarcerated or anything. She took a picture, my fingerprints, stamped my passport, and then I was good to go.
There was a group of us that wanted to explore around Yokohama the first day, so we set off for a train station. We wanted to go to the Ramen Museum first, and when we were in the ticket line for the subway, I ran into my Women Writers professor and her husband. They had met a young couple who spoke English and were helping them purchase their ticket, and so they started to help us as well. When we told them were we wanted to go, they said "You want to go there? But there's nothing there!" Apparently all there is to see in that area is the Ramen Museum, so we decided to take the subway to the heart of Yokohama.
I could tell you every little thing that we did, but then I would be writing this blog until we got to China, which is actually in 2 days. We walked around a lot, ate good food, found that we really needed to know more Japanese than we did, went to the Cup of Noodles museum, and stopped at every single vending machine we saw. They really were that awesome. After dinner, Cali and I split from the rest of the group and went to the ferris wheel that was near the port. It was amazing! At the top we could see the ship all lit up on the harbor and everything.
We walked back to the ship, got our overnight stuff ready, and met the gals we were traveling with to Shibuya, Tokyo. Luckily the station near us was a one way to Shibuya, so we didn't have to trade trains or anything. A couple of girls were already in Shibuya, and we said we would meet them at the dog statue Hachi when we got there, which is apparently a statue that is very famous around Japan. I'm pretty sure I even watched a Hallmark movie about this dog with my mom a while back. We were about 30 minutes late meeting Tori and Laura, and we knew that Tori would be worried out of her mind, probably on the verge of calling Tom or Jim and telling them that we were missing.
We got off the train, and when we entered into the heart of Shibuya, we realized just how difficult it would be to find the dog statue. There were people everywhere, billboards flashing lights, and just about every type of sight and sound that we hadn't encountered since being on the relatively peaceful M.V Explorer (aside from the last 2 days before Japan where we were all sure the Captains voice was going to come on telling us to abandon ship). We ended up asking everyone we saw here Hachi the dog was, and just as promised, EVERYONE knew what we were talking about.
The funny thing is, it wasn't even the dog I saw first, it was Tori's blonde hair. By the time we got to them it looked like they were about to freeze, so they said they wanted to go check into the place they had found for us to stay before going out again. I knew things were about to get interesting when they said "Don't scream until you actually see it." They took us down a road in Shibuya, and then turned the corner where there was advertisements for Manboo, some sort of internet cafe. Sketchy. The elevator was too small to carry all of us, so only about 3 or 4 of us could go at a time, and then Tori told us not to press the button for floor number 8, because it was an adult shop. Whoops. So we successfully got off on the ninth floor…and then all I saw were lights and comic books and everything screamed that this was going to be a very interesting night.
The process of checking in was quite the feat. Nobody really spoke any English and plus there were about 8 of us all together. I now have a card declaring me to be a lifelong member of Manboo. Although I don't really think I'll be going back. We went upstairs, and we all kind of looked at each other. There were little cubicles with nothing but a semi reclinable chair, a desk attached to the wall, and a computer screen on top of the desk. I felt like I was at my first job or something. I should also mention that the smoke was so strong that I'm pretty sure I smoked the equivalent to 10 packs just by being there for a couple hours. I have pictures to describe just how…intense this place was, so I'll just to upload some in the future. Trust me, words will not prepare you for this.
Everybody sent out a couple emails saying that this might turn into a Criminal Minds episode, and then we left again in search of a karaoke club. We found one relatively quick, rented a room for an hour and a half, and got our karaoke on. Taylor Swift, Spice Girls, P!nk, Journey, Mika, Backstreet Boys, and many more were sung, and it was probably one of the most fun experiences of Japan. By the time we finally headed back to our cubicles, it was about 3:30am. I left my passport belt on, put on pj pants, got a drink out of the free vending machines (which made the whole experience worth it), and tried to sleep for the next 3 hours.
At one moment I woke up and I felt like I was rocking a shaking. For a second I forgot where I was and I thought that I was back on the ship. I went back to sleep, and when I woke up around 7, I decided that that was probably the most amount of sleep I was going to get and decided to just stay awake. We all agreed to be ready to leave around 8:30, so I just relaxed and went to get more drinks out of the free vending machine. Turns out we were all awake and couldn't sleep, and we started talking and it turns out that everyone felt the rocking and shaking! So someone said that it might have been an earthquake. I'm not sure if that's the case, but it would make sense that we all felt it.
We got up, left, and went in search of a breakfast place. Turns out everything wasn't open yet, so we ended up at a McDonald's. Usually I wouldn't go for that, but the fact is that I was starving, super tired, and we all just needed some sort of energy. I don't need to spend more time talking about our McDonald's adventures.
Turns out Dahanah's boyfriend had told her about a store that seemed pretty cool, so we went in search of it. I'm pretty sure that we walked halfway across Tokyo in search of it. The entire time I was looking for places that might have flags, but alas, I was unsuccessful. We stopped a couple of places along the way, including a crepe place, and I'm pretty sure my tastebuds have never been so happy. In fact, I have decided that I'm going to eat on the 7th deck today because all the food I have eaten the last couple of days has spoiled my tastebuds. But that's not part of the story.
We ended up finding the seemingly nonexistent store (which was in a totally different district I'm pretty sure) and it was cool, but a bit touristy and expensive. We had managed to evade super touristy places so far, and as soon a we went to the store almost everybody there was a tourist of some sort doing some shopping. I thought that that might be the place where I could find a flag, but alas…I still did not find one. A couple of girls did some major shopping, and then we set out for a place to eat.
We ended up going down some random streets and alleys until we came across a legit looking place. Some of the people were looking for sushi, so when we asked if they had it, the guy said no, but that it was a gyoza place. We all decided to stay there and it was awesome! It was pretty small, but the food was amazing! We could see them making the gyoza behind the counter, and I swear my tastebuds are watering just remembering it. After we ate, we walked to a subway station, and we split into 2 groups: one who was going back to the ship for in transit, and the others who were traveling overland. I was part of the group who was traveling with the ship during our in transit time from Yokohama to Kobe.
After getting semi lost, taking the wrong train, and someone leaving a bag on the train and losing some purchases, we finally made it back to the terminal. When we were in the terminal, a lady walked up to us and said "Thank you, thank you", and then went on to say how she was one of the tour guides for the SAS trips. Emily ended up telling her about losing her bag and the lady brought us to a group of men she was with, and they spent about 20 minutes on the phone calling different stations trying to find the bag. And guess what? It was found! They described to her how to get to the station and back, and Laura and I were worried for time so we stayed behind, and Emily didn't want to go by herself. One of the men and the lady ended up offering to take her to the station where her bag was AND back to the terminal. Their kindness was just astounding, and that's just one example. When Emily got back, she told me that they bought both of her train tickets and gave her gifts and snacks along the way. It really was quite amazing.
Well, that's my time in Yokohama and Tokyo. I still have to blog about the in transit day (yes, that deserves to be talked about), as well as my days in Hiroshima and Kobe. I think I'll save those for the next post.
As always, thanks for reading!
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