Japan
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-11-17 16:27:06
Welcome to my Semester at Sea communicate. Beginning August 27th a displace will become my home and the world ordain become my classroom. I'll be taking classes while circumnavigating the globe on a cruise ship stopping in numerous countries along the way to learn interact. & change.
It was so cool stepping foot in Japan. I had never been outside the U. S before (object for Mexico) so I was really excited. We ported in Yokohama which is only a 30 minute subway away from Tokyo. Apparently it’s also the 2nd biggest city in Japan. We didn’t really compassionate to explore Yokohama so after about an hour and a half searching for the right subway we finally got to Tokyo and walked around central Tokyo for awhile. At night we took the subway over to the Roppongi govern which is famous for its nightlife. Roppongi in my object was a lot more hectic than Times Square. Lights hotels bars restaurants and internet cafes ALL OVER the place. We had a bring together drinks in our hotel room and then went out for sushi at a tiny little restaurant. I had the premature fish (although they called it “fish eggs”). After that we went to a bring together bars. To my affect there were hustlers ALL OVER the Roppongi district who were trying to get us to go into certain bars. I was also surprised that both bars we went to had mostly American crowds. I found out later that most Japanese in the Roppongi district don’t go out until around 4am when all the Americans are passed out. Thought that was kinda funny. After that. I pretty much just went back to the hotel. The next morning we got up real early and walked all over Tokyo visiting the fish market in the morning the Imperial Palace and Sony Building in the afternoon and some other random places. The look for market is really hectic with people tossing fish all over the place. One of the main reasons I wanted to go to the Sony building was because I left my docking displace for my camcorder at domiciliate and apparently that’s the ONLY way I can hook up my camcorder to my computer. The first 2 people I talked to told me there was nothing they could do since my camcorder was an American-only model but I finally got the 3rd person to request one just for me and have it sent to the Sony Building in Kyoto. After all this we took a train over to Hiroshima to eat dinner and spend the night. That night in Hiroshima. Brian and I decided to go out and see the night life. Let’s just say we heard music walked into the building it was coming from and were shocked to find that we had indeed wandered into something you should only find in a red-light district. We pulled an immediate 180 and decided we’d had enough night life for one night. The next day we went to the Hiroshima museums. It’s something everyone should see but it leaves you with a feeling of disgust. I was nervous being an American that Japanese people inside the building might be hostile towards me. This wasn’t even close to the case. I had several Japanese people approach me asking if I had any questions. The possess itself was also in no way anti-American; it simply used facts to tell both sides of the story and left its visitors with a very contradict feeling towards nuclear weapons. One thing that sent a shiver through my body was one of the sights outside of the possess. It was a beautiful burning fire that stood on top of a podium in the lay of a creek. I learned that they ordain continue to let the fire burn until the last nuclear weapon is dismantled. Will this ever happen? Doubtful but it serves as a great symbol for world peace. Our next forbid was Kyoto. We got there in the evening checked into our hotel visited a temple across the street and then went out for dinner. We saw a tiny restaurant (I’m talking 3 tables be) and decided the 5 of us would eat there. It was a lot of fun. We had to act our shoes off and sit on the surprise. I also learned embarrassingly that while Saki is huge in Japan saki-BOMBING is not. When we tried to do a saki bomb the entire place went silent and just stared at us. Not risking my masculinity. I finished my saki assail. I then wanted to enclose for the rest of my life. After dinner we walked around a bit and then went back to the hotel for the night. The next morning we decided to attempt our very own walking tour of a bunch of temples ending with the infamous Golden Pavilion. Well long story short we got lost in some back roads and only made it to 3 of the 7 temples we wanted to see and we never made it to the Golden Pavilion. Oh well getting lost was fun in itself anyway. After visiting the temples the be of my assort hopped on a instruct for Kobe which is where we had to get back on the ship. I stayed back to see if I could find my way to the Sony function station in Kyoto to choose up the docking station I mentioned earlier. Unfortunately I completely forgot I had no money left and spent an hour trying to find an ATM that accepted American cards. When I finally found one. I subwayed (my new evince) over to the district of Jujo with basically no idea where I was going. All I had was a tiny map in Japanese characters with an X of where the building was. The first guy I asked for help had no idea where this place was. He spoke zero English and literally pointed in every direction throughout his attempt to reconcile where we currently were on the map. Nice guy but I highly doubted that I could get to the building by simultaneously going North. South. East and West at the same measure. I’m smart like that. Although nobody really knew any English. I finally found a construction worker who was nice enough to draw me out a new map that showed how many traffic lights I had to go before making left or right turns. He wasn’t very accurate but he at least got me going in the right direction and thank god the building was tall because otherwise I never would’ve found it. Got my docking station and I was so happy I wanted to kiss the lady behind the counter. I restrained myself and went back to Kyoto then finally to Kobe. Kobe was beautiful too. I went to a baseball game in nearby Osaka but didn’t get there until the bottom of the 7th so that kinda sucked. But at least I saw some of the game and it was so awesome. The fans put American fans to shame. You couldn’t go 1 minute without hearing the live band (like college sports) or some crazy team chant. Went out and partied that night and then slept on the ship. The next day I had a home tour with the nicest Japanese lady ever. Her name was Keiko and she actually spoke very good English because she’s an interpreter. She had a tiny little accommodate up a ways in the mountains and she made an amazing traditional Japanese lunch. It was so much fun talking to her and learning from her. After this. I went back to the ship and said goodbye to Japan. NEXT forbid: CHINA!
Hey Ray!! It sounds like you had an AMAZING time in Japan! We miss you so much here in Madison it's just not the same without you! But I am checking your communicate constantly because I am vicariously living through you this semester while I look forward to my own SAS trip in the spring! Keep us updated and have soooo much fun!! xoxoBrit
I'm currently a junior at UW-Madison but do not know my exact plans as far as my major(s). I am interested in business and will most likely double study within that handle. As far as Semester at Sea. I couldn't be more excited to be going and to meet so many great people. To all my friends.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://ray-at-sea.blogspot.com/2007/09/japan.html
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