i'm turning japanese

November 11-15, 2011 – Kobe and Yokohama, Japan

holy hell was japan amazing! and all you haters that kept telling me that i wasn't going to get to go to japan... jokes on you. so we got to kobe on the 11th... it took forever and a day for the ship to get cleared. had to go through face-to-face at customs and stuff. but once we finally got through, me, maddy, brooke, molly, and chris took the port liner to the big train station and got on a train to kyoto. it was super clutch that i can read and speak a little japanese, cus all the maps and machines were in japanese. we didn't really have a game plan (as always) so we stopped at the tourist info center in the kyoto train station and asked them what we should do with our one day there. she told us to buy a bus pass then take it to the golden temple. before we actually went into the temple, we decided to find some lunch. we stopped at this little whole in the wall place where they didn't speak any english. perfect. and we had these japanese pancake things that we had to cook ourselves on the skillet that was in the middle of our table. it was really fun and turned out to be delicious. then we went to the temple and it was amazing! i don't really know much about it... but i'm pretty sure it was made out of all gold. it was really beautiful. we walked around the gardens of the temple for a little bit. after that we took the bus to a different area where there were a ton of temples. we got some coffee at a gas station then walked around and saw like a bajillion temples. it was really beautiful cus some of them were lit up at night. then we got some dinner at this little fast food restaurant. i had this rice and pork bowl. then we walked through some streets, stopped in a grocery store and found this magical candy, and then found a train station to come back to kobe. that day was 11/11/11 and so at 11:11pm, our group went to a convenient store and bought 11 beers and shot gunned them and made the most epic wishes ever. then we got back to the ship around midnight.

the next day, brew & i had a field trip to hiroshima. it took us about 4 hours to there by bus. we drove through the rural areas and saw these beautiful small cities. we finally got there and it was unbelievable. our first stop was the "a-bomb building." like you know the picture everybody shows when you think of or hear of hiroshima... that's the building we saw. it was out of control. but i was expecting hiroshima to be kind of like chernoble... all ruined and nobody living there. it was a huge surprise to me to find out that the city is all built up now and alive now. but there were definitely reminders. we saw a memorial to this girl that died of leukemia 10 years after the dropping of the bomb. it was pretty tough to see cus she thought she would surprise if she made 1000 paper cranes... so her memorial is this huge statue of her holding up a paper crane. then after that we went to the peace memorial museum. now i've been to some pretty crazy museums, but the holocaust museum in dc and the war museum in vietnam had nothing on this. the hardest part was the documentary we watched that showed some of the victims right after the bomb when they were burned and everything. it was disgusting and so hard to watch. but the museum was awesome... really well organized and put together. after the museum, we took the bus to the train station and we got to take the bullet train back to the kobe to meet the ship. the bullet train reaches like 200 mph and it was awesome. except we were riding it at night so we couldn't really see anything. once we got back to the ship, we grabbed our bags and me, maddy, molly, brooke, cassie, heidi, and keara went back to the train station to go to osaka to catch an overnight bus to tokyo. not the best night's sleep... but the most efficient way to travel, both saving money and time in the city.

so we got to tokyo at like 6am. nothing was open so we just walked around a little bit and waited for starbucks to open at 7. got some coffee and relaxed for a little. then we took a train to this district in tokyo. turns out there wasn't anything there (that's what happens when you leave other people to look up travel plans). so we had to buy another train ticket to go to ueno. once we got there we found this really cool place with markets and restaurants. we found a place to eat first and i got gyoza and noodles. then we found a hotel. so expensive, but so is all of japan. we took some time to relax for a little bit. then we walked around the shops for a while, got some dinner, and some drinks for the hotel. we planned on going out that night, but we bought some crazy juice alcohol stuff and we didn't end up making it out. but it was fun, we talked for and played games for a few hours in the hotel. then passed out.

the next morning i woke up and got ready, then left the hotel by myself. i went and got myself some breakfast and coffee then did a little shopping. wayyy too expensive. then i went to the train station and figured out how to get myself to yokosuka. i had to take 3 different trains and it took me 2 hours to get there, but yokosuka is where my grandma is from. i wasn't originally planning on going there, but i figured if i'm in japan, i might as well make my way down there. i didn't take anybody with me cus nobody else would have appreciated it. and it was also the first time i've been alone since august so it was really nice to have some time to myself. i just spent the entire day walking around. i got some lunch when i first got there. then i found this really cute street that had a bunch of restaurants and cute little shops. then i found this weird mall thing that i walked around for a bit. while i was there, i found this side door that had a flight of stairs going up into this hill. so obviously i was like "yep." and so i climbed up them. there wasn't anything for a while, then all of a sudden there was this really awesome temple that came out of nowhere. nobody was around, so i sat there and just thought for a while. i was just thinking about how my grandma was from there and it was so amazing that i had the opportunity to be there. then i continued up the stairs for a while, walked through this bamboo forest thing and found the most awesome cemetery i've ever seen. after a while there, i went back to the waterfront area cus yokosuka was a little harbor town. idiot me forgot that this is where my grandma met my grandpa when he was there in the navy... so i forgot that there was a HUGE US navy base there. so i saw a bunch of navy men all over the place. i sat at a bench near the harbor and again just sat and thought and people watched for a little bit. then i went to starbucks to get some coffee and warm up. while i was sitting in starbucks, these two guys that were maybe a little younger than i am asked me for help with their english homework. it was so funny. i could speak enough japanese and they could speak enough english that it worked out. after i helped them with that, i headed back to the train station and took the train to yokohama to meet the ship. i ended up running into all my friends in the yokohama train station, so we headed back to the ship together. i wasn't really in the mood to go out that night because i had such an awesome, peaceful day... so i just stayed in with everyone cus we were all tired.

the next morning maddy & i woke up and had to go to this lecture. which totally blew. it was supposed to be about japanese perceptions of the UN. but it sucked. so after that was over, we got lunch then left the ship in search for some internet and some food. we ended up sitting in a hotel lobby for a while, stealing their internet. then we found a grocery store on our way back to the ship so we could stock up on food. then we had to go through customs and stuff and got back on the ship.

so i did 5 cities in 5 days which was kinda crazy. but it was really really amazing. i knew i'd love japan, and i was right. i just wish the dollar was stronger cus japan was SO expensive! i'll have to wait until it does get stronger before i come back. and it was perfect that i could read and speak japanese. definitely helped when all the signs were in japanese and i could be like "well, there's a hotel... there's a coffee shop." and it was nice that i could kind of speak to people. at one point, this security officer in a train station in kyoto made me translate for this random white girl so she could ask him questions. pretty awesome! and it was nice knowing about the culture beforehand. especially knowing the food cus i could tell my friends what to stay away from and stuff. i ate SO much delicious food. i just figure it's a preview to japanese new years. yay! but i can't wait to go back to japan. hopefully i'll have more time there next time... and like $4 million. a girl can dream.

well we're moving the clocks ahead tonight so i should probably go to bed. love and miss you all. but as of japan i'm only a month away from home. i think today was 27 days until ft lauderdale! craziness. see you all soon. love love love.