Kobe, Japan - Saturday, February 13 ...my last day in Japan

My last day in Japan arrived and I realized that I would be in China in 3 days…this is so crazy!!!! Anyway I knew 2 things: One it needed to be a low key day and two I needed to eat sushi. So my day started by getting to downtown Kobe, walking around a bit before Janelle and I settled into a Starbuck’s to sip coffee and write postcards. We chatted for a little while and took our time finishing up our coffee and then headed out to meet Laura at the conveyor belt sushi that I had been craving for some time. The restaurant was on the 8th floor of some multilevel shopping center and we had a little bit of a wait but then we were seated in a booth that had a conveyor belt conveniently running by!! Basically you can take any plate that passes you by and at the end of the meal you pay per plate. We were also able to order some things off of the menu and they were made fresh to order. We chatted with one of the women who was working there and discovered that she had studied for a year in Seattle and she seemed quite excited to chat with us. As we were leaving friends from the ship were coming in, we wished them happy eating and we headed to Chinatown.

Now you are thinking didn’t she say she was going to China in 3 days…true statement. But, it was the start of the Chinese New Year and there was some sort of festival going on so we thought we would check it out. We walked around and ate some of the festival food and then on the way back to the ship we tried this pancake, cabbage omelet type thing that we were told we needed to try.  

Everything I ate today was delicious and I look forward to eating more tasty treats. We made it back to the ship with plenty of time to spare. And good news…everyone was on the ship on time!!!!!

I loved Japan; everyone was very friendly and helpful whenever it was needed. I did forget to mention the wonderful toilets that I got to put my tush on!!! They were headed which was quite lovely on some of our cooler days and there were all of these other buttons that did things. For example there is a button you can push that sounds like you are flushing so that way if you do not want others hearing you take care of business you can push this button!

Yes, I took photos of the toilet!!!

The next two days I will spend on the ship having meetings, resting up and mentally preparing to be in China.  I still can not believe that I am actually here on this ship traveling around the world.  And, I am so grateful to be with the group of people I am surrounded by...such an amazing group of people.

Nara and Kobe, Japan - Friday, February 12

he day that we travelled from Yokohama to Kobe was a much needed rest. Since there were less than 200 people on the ship we were treated to a fancy dinner (almost as good as the captain’s dinner).

When we arrived in Kobe I immediately got off of the ship and went to a bus that would take me to Nara. I was joining my first Semester at Sea trip, courtesy of one of my students who decided she did not want to attend. It is amazing to me how the students have bought a lot of trips before arriving to Semester at Sea and then when they get here and have made new friends they give up these trips after spending quite some money.

Anyway we had about an hour and half drive before we would reach the 1st of 3 destinations we would be visiting in Nara. The first stop was Horyu-ji and it is said to be one of the most important temples in Japanese history.

We walked around there and came upon a group of Japanese children who were on a field trip and they were very excited to take pictures with our students.

After departing this temple we took a walk through the Nara Deer Park where tame deer are found who at one point in history were seen as messengers to god and if you were to kill one of them you would be executed. Our tour guide let us know that in days long ago if you woke up in the morning and found a dead deer in front of your house you would move it in front of your neighbor’s house and this is the where the phrase “Pass the Buck” came from. I know…who knew!!! These deer definitely did not behave like the skidicious deer that appear in our headlights. It was almost like we were at some sort of petting zoo petting goats but they were deer. They were very pushy deer who if you put your hands in your pockets they assumed you were going to be pulling out food to feed them. They also bowed to you if you bowed to them…it was fascinating!
Here is Toby, one of our faculty members, getting picked on by some deer:

So we pushed our way past the deer towards Toda-ji which is the most important temple in Nara because it houses the Daibutsu (Hall of Great Buddha) and the biggest Buddha in Japan. As we walked in we saw these large statues of what would be the protectors of the Buddha.

Then we saw medicinal Buddha – legend has it that if you are sick or hurt in a particular part of your body and then touch that part of the Buddha while touching that part of yourself you will be cured. Laura had a sore throat and lost her voice and by the evening her voice was back…Don’t knock the power of medicinal Buddha. I touched the Buddha’s stomach just as a proactive measure for the rest of the journey!
I do not really have a stomachache; I am just trying to br proactive.  A preemptive strick as my brother woud call it!!!!

Now we entered the Hall of Great Buddha and it was an amazing site to see, the size of Buddha and the powerfulness of the experience was pretty amazing. These pictures do not really capture the greatness of what we saw.

After we left we went to Kasuga Taisha Shinto Shrine. Now I have been to a lot of temples in my days but I have not seen anything as cool as this. There were these lanterns that lined the way up and we were told that they are only lit twice a year and of course we missed it by a week. It was an awesome site to see and of course we saw a few deer poking their heads here and there. This was the last stop on our tour of Nara and then we headed back to the ship.

I forgot to mention that we were given a box lunch to take with us on this trip. The box lunch was comprised of a lunchmeat sandwich, Capri sun, Oreos, an apple, banana bread, a hardboiled egg and a chicken leg. Yes a chicken leg, not sure why but apparently it was tasty (I did not eat my chicken leg).

So anyway when Laura and I got back to the ship we went into downtown Kobe to find something to eat and went to a department store because in the basement of department stores there are lots of food vendors. So we grabbed some sushi and tempura, found a bench and ate our dinner. The food was not great mostly we think because it was the end of the day. We got a sampler sushi and one of the rolls was one of the most disgusting taste I ever had in my mouth. It was not until the next day did I find out that it is some sort of “spoiled” beans. I think spoiled in this case is fermented but I can not even describe it but it was foul.
Here is a picture that I took the next day at conveyor belt sushi:

The night ended with plans to meet up at 10am with Laura and Janelle to seek out conveyor belt sushi (uoyatei) my last Japanese need!

Tokyo, Japan - Wednesday, February 10

Though I am not a morning person at all, I did not mind starting my day at 6am knowing that this is the only day I will get to spend in Tokyo. I met up with Laura, Marvel (one of the ship’s counselors), Sopahon (Marvel’s daughter) and Gayle (Marvel’s friend) and we headed out in the dark to start our Tokyo adventure. It was 6am and our first stop was going to be the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market (fish market). We very quickly learned to navigate the train system to Yokohama and then the Metro (subway) when we were in Tokyo. It is probably the most user friendly subway system I have ever been on. As we traveled on it during rush hour we rode the train in silence. It was so odd to be on a packed subway car in complete silence. We whispered to each other for fear of being looked at as stupid Americans.


From 5am to 6am the fish market has an auction where the fishermen auction off their fish to markets and restaurants and then after the auction the market is open to the public. Now this public usually consists of restaurant or shop owners buying fish to then be sold but we went to take it in as a tourist attraction. Once we got there around 8am we walked around the vendors that were outside of the market; sampling all sorts of food we have never seen before the best of which was raw tuna that melted in your mouth like butter. Laura and I were trying to figure out if there was a way to buy a hunk and then eat it as we walked around. As we remembered that it was not even 9am yet we opted against that and continued our way through sampling as we went along.

Those are little fish that I will be sampling:                

My face after sampling:

Not sure what the creature to the left is but the tuna we sampled is in the bowl to the right:

Everyone we encountered was super friendly including a woman we starting talking to who when we asked her where we could get some tea she walked us through the streets to show us where. We continued to walk through these vendors for about an hour and then we approached the fish market. As we did we saw that there was also a Shinto Shrine we think it was called the Kikobashi Gate. What is important to note is that the Shinto’s have Shrines and the Buddhist’s have temples (there will be many more of these to come as my travels continue around the world).

 

  We finally entered the fish market and walked around the hustle and bustle of business taking place all the while avoiding getting hit by this quick moving cart type things that were being used to transport fish from the vendors to the vehicles that were outside. We did see whale meet for sale that is seen as a delicacy in Japan (I believe) for 12,000 yen/kg; this equals over $130/kg.

Shark:

After walking around some more we decided it was time to head out to the electronics district. My camera broke while we were in Hawaii and I wanted to see if it could be fixed here. Luckily I have some great people with me on this journey who have lent me their cameras so I would not be without one. Unfortunately I was unable to get it fixed, but I hope to try again in Hong Kong.

Laura and I parted ways from the rest of our little group at this point and went on to explore the Imperial Palace (where the Emperor resides). We walked the grounds for about an hour looking at the different aspects that make up the Palace and also realizing that winter was not the best time to be looking at “beautiful” gardens since it was chilly and the vast ‘green’ lawn was actually beige!

We left the Imperial Palace and went to Harajuku; this is supposed to be the area where the young people who are into Anime hang out and shop. First things first we were in need of some food, though we had sampled and actually stopped for a Starbuck’s before getting here we were quite hungry. We stopped in a restaurant that was just about to close (which we did not realize until later) and order from a picture again some tasty food. I had a rice dish with cabbage and chicken and a miso soup. I do not like miso soup but this was the best miso soup I have ever tasted and I may actually like it now.

Here is the restaurant owner closing up shop while we finish our tasty meal:

We walked the street of Takeshita-dori and observed among many things people pushing their dogs around in baby strollers, dyed hair and outfits for sale that look like they hopped out of a cartoon.

After a very long day it was now time to head back to the ship. The next day I spent on the ship traveling to Kobe and though at first I was sad to be missing a day in Japan it turned out to be a much needed day of relaxation and recharging that ended with a fancy sit down dinner!!!

Yokohama - lots of walking around - Tuesday February 9

First I would like to call your attention to the right hand side of the blog. I was able to create a photo album through picasa and hope to have one for the rest of our ports.

I am happy to report that we only arrived an hour later then we were originally scheduled for arrival. This was great because we as LLC’s once again had to assist with the debarkation process. This took a lot longer than it did in Hawaii. We got off of the ship and hung out in the terminal handing out passports before everyone went through customs and immigration. We were last to go through this process and I finally headed out around 1:30pm. I left with Laura, Debbie, Danielle and Nate (Danielle’s husband) on a mission for an ATM and lunch. We walked around for quite some time. It took 4 different ATMs before we found an ATM that everyone was able to use. I also found it amusing that instead of selling hotdogs like are sold in every 7-11 in the United States they sold pork buns.

Pork buns:

We went to the Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse for lunch near the port and ate at their equivalent to a food court. I ordered something that I picked from a picture and it was some sort of rice bowl with cut up dumplings on top. It was quite tasty. For dessert we shared an ice cream sundae – ice cream served on top of cornflakes topped with a donut and honey. Try this!!! The cornflake, vanilla ice cream, honey combo was delicious.

Here I am with my first meal in Japan:

After lunch we did some more walking around Yokohoma. The part of Yokohoma we were in was mostly office buildings and what was bizarre was that we felt the need to whisper as we walked around because there was silence all around us. Our next goal was to get to the Yokohama Brewery. On our way there we ventured down this great street which combined the history of this city with the modernness of some of the buildings. When we arrived at the “Brewery” we realized it was much more of a small bar with a restaurant upstairs though they were brewing beer there. We sampled some beer, sat and chatted for sometime all while being left on our own. We are almost certain that the restaurant was closed for a private party and the bar did not open until later but they let us in and were very gracious hosts. When we were ready to leave we asked if they sold t-shirts or glasses and the bartender showed us a very large pint glass, shrugged his shoulders and said 1000 yen (about $10). When none of us seemed interested in purchasing this he came back to us looked at me, handed me a glass and said “Present…shhh.” This was the first of many offerings that we would encounter in Japan.

This is what we saw when we walked into the brewery.  I am pretty sure the sign says closed for private party.  We are still waiting for it to be translated for us.

After the brewery we walked around and came upon a much more lively part of Yokohama, Isezaki Mall, a bustling area that was a street closed to traffic aligned with shops and restaurants. We ate dinner in this area. I had the Japanese plate of fried goodness…gyoza (Japanese dumplings), some sort of battered chicken and a big bowl of sticky rice. There were talks about going to Karaoke this evening but after dinner we were all very tired and knew that we had a long walk and I had plans to meet people at 6am the next day.

Plate of Fried Goodness:

This is part of the Yokohama skyline, the building all the way to the left is the Yokohama Landmark Tower, which is the tallest building in Japan.  The Ferris Wheel in the middle is the largest ferris wheel that is also a clock (it is digital!).