Japan, our final foreign port, was a fantastic way to finish this international journey. We returned to the “first world” and returned to a way of life that felt familiar in ways we’ve missed for the last 3 months. It was also a surreal different world that many of us did not expect. I know that some previous voyages spent only a few days there, but I don’t know how I could possibly have seen enough of Japan in 3 or 4 days; I felt squeezed with our 6 days. When we arrived in Kobe, it was drizzly and grey. The bright spot in our dismal arrival was that there was a fireboat shooting water sprays and a brass band waiting at the pier playing Sousa marches to welcome us to Japan. About 20 or so faculty and staff members were all up on the 7th deck as we pulled into the port, and we ended up marching around the deck in a huge parade to “76 Trombones.” It reminded me of being a kid when my sisters and I would follow my Dad on similar parades around our house to the same tune. We were all laughing and having a good ole time. The Japanese immigration folks on the dock waiting to board the ship got a kick out of it and were (politely) pointing and waving to us. Oddly, there weren’t any students out on the deck to join in the revelry…. Eh, their loss.
Eventually, the ship was cleared and RD’s Lesley, Matt, and I went with our friend Shayla into Kobe to explore for the day. We wandered around for a bit and finally figured out where the bank was located, and then how to redeem our Japan Rail passes and figure out their rail map. Rail travel is amazing in Japan, but it’s somewhat complex since there are so many trains and passengers on any given day. I was astounded. The first thing I noticed about Japan is that everything is impeccably clean and polished and landscaped. There was no trash anywhere. In the middle of a large industrial city, there was no gum on the ground, no graffiti, no dirt or grime on the sidewalks… nothing. The second thing I noticed was how quiet everything was. We were walking in the middle of the downtown area around lunchtime on a busy day in the middle of the work week. There were a lot of people around, but you could hear a pin drop. The silence was deafening it was so loud. It’s tough to try and compare Japan to home, especially after having been to so many different countries. When I compare Japan to India, with the constant barrage of sights and smells, and traffic, and people… it’s tough to keep perspective and know what is “normal” anymore, you know? All I know is that after my previous ports, Japan felt calm. I never realized how over-stimulated I’ve been on this voyage by ports like India or Brazil or Vietnam until I had a point of comparison, like Japan.Something else I noticed in relation to the lack of noise in Japan. Occasionally we saw people chatting in pairs or small groups, but never at a loud volume. I’m used to people shouting and horns blaring, and all manners of aural assault, but none of that in Japan. Also, I know that when I’m at home I find myself talking on my cell phone more frequently than I would probably like to admit, but the Japanese people are too polite compared to typical Americans when it comes to cell phone etiquette. Even when on the trains or subways, or busses, it was common to see people emailing or text messaging, but never holding an actual conversation, or worse yet, shouting into the phone. (Can you hear me now?). I’m used to life in the OC where it seems your social status is determined by the amount of time spent jabbering into the cell phone or Bluetooth. The lack of noise walking through the cities was disturbing at first, but once I got used to it, it was so calm and refreshing. Even being back on the ship felt loud after my time in Japan. Again, it makes me wonder how I will adjust back to life in the loud United States.
But, I digress. As I said, our port city was Kobe, home of the famous Kobe beef. I was determined to eat some of this famous culinary fare while in Japan, but found out pretty darn quick that a Kobe beef dinner would not come cheap. I had wanted to get a group together to eat it the first night, but no one really wanted to splurge on an expensive steak dinner. My friends Matt, Lesley, Mindy, Dia, and Prof. Mary Keller all went out to a revolving sushi place in the entertainment arcade district. It was definitely a whole different experience than I am used to back in the states. First, not being able to communicate with anyone working in the restaurant was new for me. Luckily, every restaurant in all of Japan seems to have plastic replicas of all their dishes out in front of the store and menus with pictures. I learned that there are actual competitions held each year to see who can craft the most realistic replicas of food dishes. Some of them looked pretty appetizing sitting out in front of the restaurant. So, that’s how I knew what to order. Invariably, I would to point and the sushi chef would whip it up. The tougher part was trying to ask what something was. There was one large piece of sushi that looked a blackish-blue color and tasted awful. I think we later determined it was some sort of pickled vegetable, but I’m still not 100% on that one. I actually ate a boatload of sushi while in Japan. For all those who know me, I am a BIG sushi fan. I eat it whenever I can back in the states. I have to say that while eating sushi in Japan was novel, and surely fun. I wasn’t really impressed. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad. On the contrary, it was pretty darn good, but so is most of the sushi I eat in Cali. What I DID like, however, is that in every 7-11/Circle K store there was always a wide selection of sushi available. This meant that whenever I needed a pick-me up snack, or a quick breakfast fix, or late-afternoon munchie, I could stop in and grab a tuna roll. And even better, the seaweed comes wrapped separately from the rice and fish, so the rolls stay crunchy! SO important to any sushi connoisseur. If I were to estimate how many times I ate in sushi in my 6 day in Japan, it would probably be somewhere around 15. Scary I know!
After our revolving sushi dinner in Kobe we all wandered through the shopping arcades in downtown Kobe. These shopping arcades are a phenomenon in all the big cities in Japan. They are huge and long covered streets with floors and floors of shops and restaurants and casinos and game arcades. Now, if you’re thinking arcades and picturing pimply teenagers in dark rooms, you’re mistaken. These arcades are bright noisy sensory-overloaded spaces filled with pachinko games (seemingly the national arcade/slot machine game) and every manner of virtual reality game known to man. They are also packed full of people. Sure, they are usually around 20 years or so, but there were also lots of salarymen at varying levels of drunkenness (ubiquitous suited business men… they were everywhere), and families and the strangest assortment of people. Kobe is not a tourist Mecca. There are only a couple sites to see, including an Earthquake Memorial Park honoring the 1997 Earthquake that destroyed much of Kobe,. Since there really isn’t much for tourists to see in Kobe, most of the folks went back to the ship, But Prof. Mary and I wandered around until we found an internet café. We discovered one and found that the internet cafés in Japan are delux affairs with food and showers, and plush booths with couches and all sorts of perks. Trying to find the internet café was an experience all its own. Very little is written in English in Japanese cities, which surprised me. I assumed I would see more English in Japan, than in our other ports, but this was not the case. Very few people spoke English and almost all signs and papers and advertisements were in Japanese. So I would wander around and have no idea if I was in front of a restaurant, drug store, or love hotel (I’ll get to those later). The lack of English around didn’t frustrate me at all, and I know it would have been a big issue for me 3 months earlier. In that sense I know I have grown on this voyage. But what’s more, I enjoyed being able to detach from everything behind my language barrier and observe the culture around me. It made the fact that everything around me was so unfamiliar all the more exciting and new.
The next morning Lesley, Matt, and I made our way on the subway to the train station for our rail trips all around Japan. We were each heading to a different city and had plans to meet up in Hiroshima three days later with Mindy and Prof. Jen Mincer. We rode the train together to Osaka, and then I jumped another train to the city of Nara. I was carrying my newly purchased fake North Face bag (zipper broke on the first try) packed full of warm clothes. Once the rain cleared in Kobe, the temperature was perfect. Nice and cool, but perfectly warm during the day and sunny as can be. I can’t imagine more perfect spring weather. We were lucky. Anyways, I recently learned that I have gotten a reputation as a solo traveler. I actually think I earned it when I decided to travel alone in India, and then had such a great experience. No one else did anything like that by that point in the voyage, and most people were pretty intimidated by India (me included). In each port people assumed I would be striking out on my own to explore the country without Semester at Sea on my elbow. By and large, it was my preferred way to travel, though it is nice to share an experience with friends as well. The beauty of S@S is that inevitably, I run into friends at regular intervals and can touch base and share stories without feeling stifled by constant company. With so much to do in Japan, I was glad to once again, continue my independent traveling and go off on my own and see Japan.
Nara is a small city, in relation to others in Japan. It was the first real capital of Japan, but is still an important place for the cultural legacy of Japan. I spent most of the day wandering through the Nara-kōen area checking out the sites. Nara-kōen is a wooded hilly area that has some of the most important sights inside the area, right off the city’s downtown center. Some of the main sites I came across were the Tōdai-ji, which is a temple complex that includes the largest wooden building in the world, the Daibutsu-den Hall which has an enormous bronze Buddha image inside. 
The Buddha is one of the largest bronze figures in the world and was originally cast in 746. (yes, that was only a three digit year, yikes!). Also in the complex is the Nandai-mon, an enormous gate with two fierce Niō guardians carved out of wood. They were huge sculptures and very dramatic and looked as though they would spring to life at any moment. The quirkiest thing about the whole complex was not the swarms of Japanese school children (and there were seriously hundreds of them), but rather a big wooden column at the back of the temple with a hole in the bottom of it. According to legend, anyone who can squeeze through the hole, which is exactly the same size as one of the giant Buddha statue’s nostrils, are ensured enlightenment. I watched as many school kids went through and took my place in line. I towered over them all, and they were jabbering with one another about me being among them, and giggling with me. I pantomimed that they would need to shove me through the hole, and when my turn came, they shoved me from one side and pulled me from the other. But instead of squeezing through, I ended up being wedged in place for about 3 minutes. It was pretty scary for a couple minutes there, because I started to panic, and I had no way to communicate with anyone who was around me. Luckily I was managed to wriggle free with only a bruised ego. But I had inexplicably become a celebrity of the moment, and was in many of the school kids photos for the rest of the afternoon.
After leaving the temple, I climbed into the hills and checked out the Nigatsu-dō which is a beautiful shrine that felt very serene and peaceful and had an amazing view over all of Nara. There were Buddhist monks strolling through the grounds and burning incense and ringing bells ceremonially. It was as I they were trying to find ways to make Japan a full service sensory experience, and it worked, right down to the cups of green tea I was given by a couple of monks sitting near the building watching the school kids fight over ringing the bells. I continued on and walked past a huge pasture filled with school kids playing with the famous sacred deer of Nara.
The Buddha is one of the largest bronze figures in the world and was originally cast in 746. (yes, that was only a three digit year, yikes!). Also in the complex is the Nandai-mon, an enormous gate with two fierce Niō guardians carved out of wood. They were huge sculptures and very dramatic and looked as though they would spring to life at any moment. The quirkiest thing about the whole complex was not the swarms of Japanese school children (and there were seriously hundreds of them), but rather a big wooden column at the back of the temple with a hole in the bottom of it. According to legend, anyone who can squeeze through the hole, which is exactly the same size as one of the giant Buddha statue’s nostrils, are ensured enlightenment. I watched as many school kids went through and took my place in line. I towered over them all, and they were jabbering with one another about me being among them, and giggling with me. I pantomimed that they would need to shove me through the hole, and when my turn came, they shoved me from one side and pulled me from the other. But instead of squeezing through, I ended up being wedged in place for about 3 minutes. It was pretty scary for a couple minutes there, because I started to panic, and I had no way to communicate with anyone who was around me. Luckily I was managed to wriggle free with only a bruised ego. But I had inexplicably become a celebrity of the moment, and was in many of the school kids photos for the rest of the afternoon.
After leaving the temple, I climbed into the hills and checked out the Nigatsu-dō which is a beautiful shrine that felt very serene and peaceful and had an amazing view over all of Nara. There were Buddhist monks strolling through the grounds and burning incense and ringing bells ceremonially. It was as I they were trying to find ways to make Japan a full service sensory experience, and it worked, right down to the cups of green tea I was given by a couple of monks sitting near the building watching the school kids fight over ringing the bells. I continued on and walked past a huge pasture filled with school kids playing with the famous sacred deer of Nara. The Nara-kōen park area is home to about 1,200 deer, which in pre-Buddhist times were considered messengers of gods and today enjoy the status of “national treasures.” They roam the park and surrounding areas in search of hand-outs from tourists, often descending on petrified children who have the misfortune of carrying food. These deer are ruthless. If you have food or bought any shika-sembei (deer biscuits) then they won’t leave you alone until you feed them. These aren’t your normal cuddly Bambi deer either. These deer are big, and can be aggressive. The upside is that if you are feeding them, they will also allow you to pet them. It was VERY cool to pet these domesticated deer and be surrounded by them (and also a little scary… not gonna lie). Because it is starting to get warm in Japan, the deer were molting, or in the process of shedding their long winter coats. As a result they looked pretty mangey, with patches of fur falling out… like I said, not your idea of Bambi. I washed with a lot of Purell after I finished feeding them (which I admit I did a bunch of times throughout the day).
Before my day was done in Nara, I strolled through the Kasuga Taisha, a Shintō shrine that was founded in the 8th century and was rebuilt every 20 years according to Shintō tradition until the end of the 19th century. The approach to the shrine was lined with hundreds and hundreds of stone lanterns standing sentry. These lanterns were really very cool, and I wished I was there at the time of year when they are all lit to celebrate special holidays. I also got to take some nice picturess of the Kōfuku-ji five-story pagoda and other sites.
Everywhere I went the cherry blossoms seemed to have bloomed. After living in Washington DC where everyone (me included) makes such a big deal about the cherry blossoms, it was intense to be in Nara and Kyoto where cherry blossoms are a matter or national pride and celebration. It seemed that everywhere I looked there were pink flowering trees and blankets of pink petals on the ground. The people in Japan were quick to apologize that we were there a week after the blossoms bloomed, but I loved seeing the full blooms. They were also quick to tell us that we were lucky to be there as the azalias and wisteria were in bloom. The wisteria was blooming all over Nara-kōen and the smell, mixed with the Asian incense and green tea was intoxicating. Anytime I sat down to rest or drink some tea, inevitably someone would sit down next to me and strike up a conversation about what brought me to Japan and my homeland. This happened without fail, and while it was incredibly endearing, sometimes all I wanted was some quiet time for reflection. Invariably, I would tell people I was from the United States and they would talk about the US with specific knowledge, but when I asked, they would tell me they had never been to the US, and often never even out of Japan. Clearly, the Japanese take more care in exploring and understanding world affairs than most Americans.
Once I was templed out for the day, I hopped a train back to Osaka and then made my way to the Osaka Dome to see a Japanese baseball game with a big group of S@S folks, including my friend Dia. I had heard they were an experience not to be missed, and that was the truth. The game I saw was between the Orix Buffaloes, based in Osaka, and the Screaming Eagles from… uh… somewhere else. These were two lesser teams. If I had gone another night I would have seen the Hansei Tigers play, and they are the big team in the area with lots of rowdy fans. As it was, there were plenty of fans in the Osaka Dome to cheer on their teams. The weird thing, again, is that the stadium was so quiet, except when the big sections of fans for each team would stand and do their big cheers in unison. It seemed a little programmed, how the fan sections respectfully took turns doing their cheers and chants. While I knew the rules of baseball, and have been to games before, there were definitely a lot of time spent where I had no idea what was going on. Each team was full of Japanese players, but they each had about 4 or 5 gaijin players, or Americans who were either just past their prime, or working to get into the big leagues. Dia and I decided our favorite player was a guy named “Tuffy Rhodes.” He was actually one of the Buffaloes better players, but didn’t do much for them that night. We enjoyed cheering (loudly) for him anyways. Because the crowd was pretty thin, our Semester at Sea group spent a lot of time on the JumboTron screen. Even in Japan, we all got such a kick out of that, waving our arms and making fools of ourselves on the screen. In contrast, when the Japanese fans were put on the JumboTron screen, they invariably would ignore it, or try to hide from the camera or move out of the frame. It was pretty darn interesting. The tie game went long and into extra innings. Since it hadn’t been a very exciting game, we all left around 10:30pm. The S@S folks boarded a bus to head back to Kobe, and I went to Kita-ku, the main downtown entertainment district to explore Osaka for the evening. Osaka is a great place to explore at night. It’s like one huge arcade and amusement park mixed up into one. It also has a real flashy Las Vegas feel to it with the small bars and love hotels mixed in. Love hotels are, as the name suggests, used by Japanese couples for discreet trysts. They can be rented by the hour, but you shouldn’t automatically get the grimey dirty feeling you would in the US. These love hotels are perfectly fine, but really strangely decorated. They often have themes and outrageous flamboyant facades. My favorite one that I saw had a Christmas theme. It looked like it was straight out of a bad Disney theme park with mechanical Santas and elves moving all over it and flashing lights and fake snow. It was so bizarre and kitchy, and before you ask, no I did not go into any of the love hotels (get your mind out of the gutter). Anyways, the entertainment arcades were filled with people milling around and moving from bar to bar. I wandered around a bit, and dropped my stuff off at my hotel and grabbed a snack. I was definitely experiencing sensory overload, and was staring at a map outside of a bookstore when a few people asked me where I was from and if I needed directions. I ended up spending the rest of the evening hanging out with them. They were JR, a Mexican-American who was teaching English in Japan, Pieter an Australian guy who manages a bar in Osaka, and Roger, a Kiwi who does advertising in Osaka. They were nice guys and showed me around Kita-ku, introduced me to sake, shōchū, some strange noodle dishes, and karaoke. We went to Pieter’s bar and sang a few numbers there with some of the bar patrons (George Michael & Lynard Skynard never sounded so bad!). Afterwards we went and took part in a Japanese tradition.
Bathing is treated as a ritual in Japan, and I went with my new friends to an onsen, or Japanese bathhouse. Everyone in Japan goes to these baths on a regular basis. It is a part of the culture. Even at 1:00 in the morning, the bath we went to was full of men cleansing and soaking in the hot tubs. I knew I wanted to try out this Japanese ritual, but I was really hesitant to get naked with complete strangers. Getting naked with strangers is not my cultural norm, but for the Japanese it is the great social leveler. Company presidents rub naked shoulders with truck drivers, priests with politicians. Everyone revels in the anonymity that nudity allows. The only people who stand out, are the yakuza, or Japanese mafia, because of their ornate tattoos. I saw a couple of them in the bath, but I steered clear. Once I was undressed, I saw down on a stool, in front of a strange tap in a room full of other naked men. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I tried stealing a few glances at the men around me to figure it out, but tried to be discreet in my glances. Turns out that discretion doesn’t really exist in these baths. These Japanese men explained, with gusto, the process of filling bowls with warm water and then pouring them over yourself, soaping up and rinsing off. They spoke no English, so much of this was done in pantomime and by me following their examples. After rinsing off all the soap, you then climb into a hot bath and soak. There were four different baths of varying temperatures. One was only lukewarm, and one was so hot I thought it was melt the flesh off of me. After soaking in the two middle tubs for a while I got out and re-rinsed off and then dressed and was on my way. Again, this was one of the most hilarious, yet culturally interesting experiences I have ever had. Sadly, I have no pictures to show for it (go figure, right?).
I eventually made it back to my hotel, which was a whole different experience. I decided to try something different that night and had checked into a capsule hotel. Capsule hotels are for businessmen who missed the last train and need a cheap, but nice place to stay for the night. Essentially, you rent a tube to sleep in for the night. The tube is the size of a large twin sized bed, and has a very comfortable mattress, down comforter, and nice bedding. Each tube also has its own coin operated TV, radio, alarm clock, and light. That’s it for amenities. There were something like 500 of these tubes on 3 floors in this capsule hotel, all in double bunks. My tube, #3085, was an upper bunk, so I had to climb up and then slide in for the night before closing the screen across the front. It must sound like sleeping in a drawer, and some of my students thought it sounded like a coffin, but it really was a pretty cool experience. I mean, why do I need to rent a whole room when all I need is the bed, right? When you come in to the hotel, you leave your shoes in a locker in the lobby, and then are given a key for a locker corresponding to your capsule. You put all your belongings into the locker at the front of the hotel and then change into a yukata, or cotton kimono to wear in the hotel. Inside there are a couple of very nice lounge rooms with television, etc and very nice restroom and changing areas, much like in a country club, or the like. Other than the fact that I was the only gaijin in the place, the funniest thing was changing into the yukata. When I walked in, I saw all sorts of Japanese men in their yukatas which were large and floor length and covered them completely. When I put on the same yukata, it barely reached my knees and only barely closed across the front. I got a few strange looks from the other patrons, and even saw a couple of them chuckling at me. In the end, I just went with it and had fun overall. I wouldn’t have believed it, but I got an awesome night sleep in my “spacious coffin” capsule.
The next morning I went back to the train station for the Shinkansen bullet train to Kyoto. Kyoto is often called one of the loveliest cities in all of Asia, and I believe that to be true, as it was one of my favorite places that I visited. With over 1,600 Buddhist temples, more than 400 Shintō shrines and 17 UNESCO World Heritage sites, Kyoto is an incredibly culturally rich city. For 1,000 years it served as the capital of Japan, and even though the capital has long since moved to Tokyo, Kyoto is still the place where even the Japanese come to discover their cultural roots. But Kyoto is more than just temples, shrines, and history, and I was glad to explore it all. I could easily have spent an entire week in Kyoto alone, and still not been tired of the architecture, culture, food, and people. Once I arrived, I first wandered around until I was able to find a room in a ryokan. Ryokans are traditional Japanese inns, where rooms have tatami floors (straw mat floors), and futons on the floor instead of actual beds. You leave your shoes at the door, and once inside, take an onsen bath before changing into your yukata robe for the night. It is a very serene type of place to stay, and relatively cheap. I wandered around trying to find a room when I got to Kyoto, but struck out the first few times as the inns were full. But the helpful owner of the second ryokan called around and found me a room in a nice little place called Chidori Ryokan. The proprietor was a nice little wizened old woman who had a perma-smile and spoke maybe 3 words of English, but she clearly wanted to take care of me and the other guests while we stayed in her ryokan. So cute! I decided to spend two full days in Kyoto, and I began my first day taking a Plonely Planet walking tour. I love Lonely Planet, and they always steered me in the right direction and Kyoto was no exception. I began with the Kiyomizu-dera, one of the most important temples in Kyoto. It is on the list of sites being considered for the new list of the 7 Wonders of the World. The temple complex had a collection of beautiful buildings, all dating back to the year 798. The complex is at the top of a hill and set into the forest, so it appears even more serene and natural, despite the throng of Japanese tourists checking out the site. I took some amazing pictures of the main buildings and the colorful pagoda, and even of the city of Kyoto off in the distance. 
There were some cool shintō shrines in the complex, and I learned the proper way to send up a prayer, clapping twice, ringing the bell, and lighting incense. I also drank from the natural wells spaced through the temple complex. Legend has it that the cool sweet waters there are reported to have therapeutic properties (and also thought to improve school test scores). The Tainai-Meguri was a strange room under one of the main halls where you entire “the womb” of the female Bodhisattva goddess. The room was completely pitch black, and you had to feel along the wall around many curves, until you reached a huge stone in the middle of the room. You then turned the stone clockwise a few turns in order to make a wish and earn good luck. It was totally bizarre and a strange experience, but wickedly cool as well. The complex also included the Jishu-jinja, which were two large stones spaces 18 meters apart. People walk between the two stones with their eyes closed. If they miss the second stone, then their desire for love would go unfulfilled. When I walked between the stones, a man shouted for me to stop walking, and then to reach down and feel the stone to my right. If he hadn’t stopped me, I would have missed the stone altogether and been condemned to a loveless life. Phew, dodged that bullet!! It was within the Kiyomizu-dera complex that I saw my first geishas. Kyoto is known for its cherry blossoms, temple roofs, and the geishas. I learned that what we traditionally think of as geisha, with the white faces and elaborate kimono, are actually the maiko, or apprentice geishas. True geishas no longer wear the white make-up, though they do wear different, and less ornate kimonos. At any rate, I saw bunches of geisha maiko in Kyoto, usually scurrying along with their wooden shoes hailing cabs, or dodging into restaurants or private parties. So mysterious!! 
After the Kiyomizu-dera, I wandered through what are considered some of the cutest streets in Kyoto, filled with little tea houses, and beautiful homes, and galleries. I also wandered through gift shops and souvenir shops looking for things to buy to commemorate my trip to Japan. I was sad to find that everything in the shops seemed really cheap, or garish, or looked like crap for children. The things I found to be really neat or cool ended up costing a fortune. Plus, we learned that much like in the US, all prices are fixed. Gone are the days of bargaining down the undesired price for items found on the street. So sad. I guess this means I will have been weaned off before getting back to the states and embarrassing myself trying to bargain in Albertson’s, eh? So in the end, I didn’t end up buying almost anything in Japan. Sad, especially since I enjoyed the country so much. I kept walking and passed a few more important temples, like the Kōdai-ji, Hōtoku-ji, and Dainichi-do. Next I wandered around in an incredibly picturesque park called the Maruyama-kōen where the cherry blossoms were still in full bloom, near koi ponds, and willow trees.
There were scores of Japanese teens gathering for a huge pot luck under the blossoms chatting away on mats and enjoying the final hours of the evening. I don’t know what the group was, but they seemed to really be enjoying the evening. In this park, I also stumbled across one of my favorite families from the ship, the Zimmerman’s. Mom, Toni is a professor on the ship, and her husband Craig and daughters Misha and Sage (13 and 11) are SO much fun, and always good for some laughs. We met up three more times that afternoon/evening, even though we always went in completely opposite directions. It was so funny. After wandering through the park, I checked out another important site, called Chion-in. The temple complex is at the top of a huge hill of stairs, and is still a hive of religious activity. I was there in time to watch the monks in the middle of a ceremony where they were chanting and consecrating some type of family event in the main hall. The buildings were all gorgeous, with carvings, and gilding, and ornate metal work. It was while looking at these temples that it struck me that temples in Japan are almost always in muted earth tones; browns, tans, greys. This is very different than in China and other areas where temples are always bright colors, like reds and golds and greens. Just one more example of Japanese culture being understated, calm, and serene. The final site of my day was to see the Yasaka-jinja. The colorful shrine is one of the important places people visit to celebrate the new year. It has huge paper lanterns hanging from all the surfaces and I arrived in time to see them all lit up as dusk fell over Kyoto. It was a nice way to end my day or temple viewing.
My evening was spent exploring Kyoto’s traditional entertainment areas of Gion and Pontochō. Each night a legion of kimono-clad mama-sans, slick-suited businessmen, and harijiku styled trendy 20-somethings descend on these areas to transact the business of fun. There are long streets filled with small bars, and restaurants. I learned that many of them do not allow gaijin like myself to enter. I ran into the Zimmermans again, stalking geisha and then into JP and Shannon, two folks from the “Dalit Village” crew on the ship. I joined them and we went in search of dinner for the night. We ended up finding a very trendy restaurant for the young Kyoto set in the downstairs of an arcade building. The restaurant was posh, but pretty cheap. We had a pretty interesting meal, even if we did stumble through the ordering process a few times. After that, we hurried back to our respective ryokan in time for the 11pm curfews. The futon and tatami mats and down comforters made for one heavenly night sleep after a long day of temple-hopping.
Before my day was done in Nara, I strolled through the Kasuga Taisha, a Shintō shrine that was founded in the 8th century and was rebuilt every 20 years according to Shintō tradition until the end of the 19th century. The approach to the shrine was lined with hundreds and hundreds of stone lanterns standing sentry. These lanterns were really very cool, and I wished I was there at the time of year when they are all lit to celebrate special holidays. I also got to take some nice picturess of the Kōfuku-ji five-story pagoda and other sites.Everywhere I went the cherry blossoms seemed to have bloomed. After living in Washington DC where everyone (me included) makes such a big deal about the cherry blossoms, it was intense to be in Nara and Kyoto where cherry blossoms are a matter or national pride and celebration. It seemed that everywhere I looked there were pink flowering trees and blankets of pink petals on the ground. The people in Japan were quick to apologize that we were there a week after the blossoms bloomed, but I loved seeing the full blooms. They were also quick to tell us that we were lucky to be there as the azalias and wisteria were in bloom. The wisteria was blooming all over Nara-kōen and the smell, mixed with the Asian incense and green tea was intoxicating. Anytime I sat down to rest or drink some tea, inevitably someone would sit down next to me and strike up a conversation about what brought me to Japan and my homeland. This happened without fail, and while it was incredibly endearing, sometimes all I wanted was some quiet time for reflection. Invariably, I would tell people I was from the United States and they would talk about the US with specific knowledge, but when I asked, they would tell me they had never been to the US, and often never even out of Japan. Clearly, the Japanese take more care in exploring and understanding world affairs than most Americans.Once I was templed out for the day, I hopped a train back to Osaka and then made my way to the Osaka Dome to see a Japanese baseball game with a big group of S@S folks, including my friend Dia. I had heard they were an experience not to be missed, and that was the truth. The game I saw was between the Orix Buffaloes, based in Osaka, and the Screaming Eagles from… uh… somewhere else. These were two lesser teams. If I had gone another night I would have seen the Hansei Tigers play, and they are the big team in the area with lots of rowdy fans. As it was, there were plenty of fans in the Osaka Dome to cheer on their teams. The weird thing, again, is that the stadium was so quiet, except when the big sections of fans for each team would stand and do their big cheers in unison. It seemed a little programmed, how the fan sections respectfully took turns doing their cheers and chants. While I knew the rules of baseball, and have been to games before, there were definitely a lot of time spent where I had no idea what was going on. Each team was full of Japanese players, but they each had about 4 or 5 gaijin players, or Americans who were either just past their prime, or working to get into the big leagues. Dia and I decided our favorite player was a guy named “Tuffy Rhodes.” He was actually one of the Buffaloes better players, but didn’t do much for them that night. We enjoyed cheering (loudly) for him anyways. Because the crowd was pretty thin, our Semester at Sea group spent a lot of time on the JumboTron screen. Even in Japan, we all got such a kick out of that, waving our arms and making fools of ourselves on the screen. In contrast, when the Japanese fans were put on the JumboTron screen, they invariably would ignore it, or try to hide from the camera or move out of the frame. It was pretty darn interesting. The tie game went long and into extra innings. Since it hadn’t been a very exciting game, we all left around 10:30pm. The S@S folks boarded a bus to head back to Kobe, and I went to Kita-ku, the main downtown entertainment district to explore Osaka for the evening. Osaka is a great place to explore at night. It’s like one huge arcade and amusement park mixed up into one. It also has a real flashy Las Vegas feel to it with the small bars and love hotels mixed in. Love hotels are, as the name suggests, used by Japanese couples for discreet trysts. They can be rented by the hour, but you shouldn’t automatically get the grimey dirty feeling you would in the US. These love hotels are perfectly fine, but really strangely decorated. They often have themes and outrageous flamboyant facades. My favorite one that I saw had a Christmas theme. It looked like it was straight out of a bad Disney theme park with mechanical Santas and elves moving all over it and flashing lights and fake snow. It was so bizarre and kitchy, and before you ask, no I did not go into any of the love hotels (get your mind out of the gutter). Anyways, the entertainment arcades were filled with people milling around and moving from bar to bar. I wandered around a bit, and dropped my stuff off at my hotel and grabbed a snack. I was definitely experiencing sensory overload, and was staring at a map outside of a bookstore when a few people asked me where I was from and if I needed directions. I ended up spending the rest of the evening hanging out with them. They were JR, a Mexican-American who was teaching English in Japan, Pieter an Australian guy who manages a bar in Osaka, and Roger, a Kiwi who does advertising in Osaka. They were nice guys and showed me around Kita-ku, introduced me to sake, shōchū, some strange noodle dishes, and karaoke. We went to Pieter’s bar and sang a few numbers there with some of the bar patrons (George Michael & Lynard Skynard never sounded so bad!). Afterwards we went and took part in a Japanese tradition.
Bathing is treated as a ritual in Japan, and I went with my new friends to an onsen, or Japanese bathhouse. Everyone in Japan goes to these baths on a regular basis. It is a part of the culture. Even at 1:00 in the morning, the bath we went to was full of men cleansing and soaking in the hot tubs. I knew I wanted to try out this Japanese ritual, but I was really hesitant to get naked with complete strangers. Getting naked with strangers is not my cultural norm, but for the Japanese it is the great social leveler. Company presidents rub naked shoulders with truck drivers, priests with politicians. Everyone revels in the anonymity that nudity allows. The only people who stand out, are the yakuza, or Japanese mafia, because of their ornate tattoos. I saw a couple of them in the bath, but I steered clear. Once I was undressed, I saw down on a stool, in front of a strange tap in a room full of other naked men. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I tried stealing a few glances at the men around me to figure it out, but tried to be discreet in my glances. Turns out that discretion doesn’t really exist in these baths. These Japanese men explained, with gusto, the process of filling bowls with warm water and then pouring them over yourself, soaping up and rinsing off. They spoke no English, so much of this was done in pantomime and by me following their examples. After rinsing off all the soap, you then climb into a hot bath and soak. There were four different baths of varying temperatures. One was only lukewarm, and one was so hot I thought it was melt the flesh off of me. After soaking in the two middle tubs for a while I got out and re-rinsed off and then dressed and was on my way. Again, this was one of the most hilarious, yet culturally interesting experiences I have ever had. Sadly, I have no pictures to show for it (go figure, right?).
I eventually made it back to my hotel, which was a whole different experience. I decided to try something different that night and had checked into a capsule hotel. Capsule hotels are for businessmen who missed the last train and need a cheap, but nice place to stay for the night. Essentially, you rent a tube to sleep in for the night. The tube is the size of a large twin sized bed, and has a very comfortable mattress, down comforter, and nice bedding. Each tube also has its own coin operated TV, radio, alarm clock, and light. That’s it for amenities. There were something like 500 of these tubes on 3 floors in this capsule hotel, all in double bunks. My tube, #3085, was an upper bunk, so I had to climb up and then slide in for the night before closing the screen across the front. It must sound like sleeping in a drawer, and some of my students thought it sounded like a coffin, but it really was a pretty cool experience. I mean, why do I need to rent a whole room when all I need is the bed, right? When you come in to the hotel, you leave your shoes in a locker in the lobby, and then are given a key for a locker corresponding to your capsule. You put all your belongings into the locker at the front of the hotel and then change into a yukata, or cotton kimono to wear in the hotel. Inside there are a couple of very nice lounge rooms with television, etc and very nice restroom and changing areas, much like in a country club, or the like. Other than the fact that I was the only gaijin in the place, the funniest thing was changing into the yukata. When I walked in, I saw all sorts of Japanese men in their yukatas which were large and floor length and covered them completely. When I put on the same yukata, it barely reached my knees and only barely closed across the front. I got a few strange looks from the other patrons, and even saw a couple of them chuckling at me. In the end, I just went with it and had fun overall. I wouldn’t have believed it, but I got an awesome night sleep in my “spacious coffin” capsule.
The next morning I went back to the train station for the Shinkansen bullet train to Kyoto. Kyoto is often called one of the loveliest cities in all of Asia, and I believe that to be true, as it was one of my favorite places that I visited. With over 1,600 Buddhist temples, more than 400 Shintō shrines and 17 UNESCO World Heritage sites, Kyoto is an incredibly culturally rich city. For 1,000 years it served as the capital of Japan, and even though the capital has long since moved to Tokyo, Kyoto is still the place where even the Japanese come to discover their cultural roots. But Kyoto is more than just temples, shrines, and history, and I was glad to explore it all. I could easily have spent an entire week in Kyoto alone, and still not been tired of the architecture, culture, food, and people. Once I arrived, I first wandered around until I was able to find a room in a ryokan. Ryokans are traditional Japanese inns, where rooms have tatami floors (straw mat floors), and futons on the floor instead of actual beds. You leave your shoes at the door, and once inside, take an onsen bath before changing into your yukata robe for the night. It is a very serene type of place to stay, and relatively cheap. I wandered around trying to find a room when I got to Kyoto, but struck out the first few times as the inns were full. But the helpful owner of the second ryokan called around and found me a room in a nice little place called Chidori Ryokan. The proprietor was a nice little wizened old woman who had a perma-smile and spoke maybe 3 words of English, but she clearly wanted to take care of me and the other guests while we stayed in her ryokan. So cute! I decided to spend two full days in Kyoto, and I began my first day taking a Plonely Planet walking tour. I love Lonely Planet, and they always steered me in the right direction and Kyoto was no exception. I began with the Kiyomizu-dera, one of the most important temples in Kyoto. It is on the list of sites being considered for the new list of the 7 Wonders of the World. The temple complex had a collection of beautiful buildings, all dating back to the year 798. The complex is at the top of a hill and set into the forest, so it appears even more serene and natural, despite the throng of Japanese tourists checking out the site. I took some amazing pictures of the main buildings and the colorful pagoda, and even of the city of Kyoto off in the distance. 
There were some cool shintō shrines in the complex, and I learned the proper way to send up a prayer, clapping twice, ringing the bell, and lighting incense. I also drank from the natural wells spaced through the temple complex. Legend has it that the cool sweet waters there are reported to have therapeutic properties (and also thought to improve school test scores). The Tainai-Meguri was a strange room under one of the main halls where you entire “the womb” of the female Bodhisattva goddess. The room was completely pitch black, and you had to feel along the wall around many curves, until you reached a huge stone in the middle of the room. You then turned the stone clockwise a few turns in order to make a wish and earn good luck. It was totally bizarre and a strange experience, but wickedly cool as well. The complex also included the Jishu-jinja, which were two large stones spaces 18 meters apart. People walk between the two stones with their eyes closed. If they miss the second stone, then their desire for love would go unfulfilled. When I walked between the stones, a man shouted for me to stop walking, and then to reach down and feel the stone to my right. If he hadn’t stopped me, I would have missed the stone altogether and been condemned to a loveless life. Phew, dodged that bullet!! It was within the Kiyomizu-dera complex that I saw my first geishas. Kyoto is known for its cherry blossoms, temple roofs, and the geishas. I learned that what we traditionally think of as geisha, with the white faces and elaborate kimono, are actually the maiko, or apprentice geishas. True geishas no longer wear the white make-up, though they do wear different, and less ornate kimonos. At any rate, I saw bunches of geisha maiko in Kyoto, usually scurrying along with their wooden shoes hailing cabs, or dodging into restaurants or private parties. So mysterious!! 
After the Kiyomizu-dera, I wandered through what are considered some of the cutest streets in Kyoto, filled with little tea houses, and beautiful homes, and galleries. I also wandered through gift shops and souvenir shops looking for things to buy to commemorate my trip to Japan. I was sad to find that everything in the shops seemed really cheap, or garish, or looked like crap for children. The things I found to be really neat or cool ended up costing a fortune. Plus, we learned that much like in the US, all prices are fixed. Gone are the days of bargaining down the undesired price for items found on the street. So sad. I guess this means I will have been weaned off before getting back to the states and embarrassing myself trying to bargain in Albertson’s, eh? So in the end, I didn’t end up buying almost anything in Japan. Sad, especially since I enjoyed the country so much. I kept walking and passed a few more important temples, like the Kōdai-ji, Hōtoku-ji, and Dainichi-do. Next I wandered around in an incredibly picturesque park called the Maruyama-kōen where the cherry blossoms were still in full bloom, near koi ponds, and willow trees.
There were scores of Japanese teens gathering for a huge pot luck under the blossoms chatting away on mats and enjoying the final hours of the evening. I don’t know what the group was, but they seemed to really be enjoying the evening. In this park, I also stumbled across one of my favorite families from the ship, the Zimmerman’s. Mom, Toni is a professor on the ship, and her husband Craig and daughters Misha and Sage (13 and 11) are SO much fun, and always good for some laughs. We met up three more times that afternoon/evening, even though we always went in completely opposite directions. It was so funny. After wandering through the park, I checked out another important site, called Chion-in. The temple complex is at the top of a huge hill of stairs, and is still a hive of religious activity. I was there in time to watch the monks in the middle of a ceremony where they were chanting and consecrating some type of family event in the main hall. The buildings were all gorgeous, with carvings, and gilding, and ornate metal work. It was while looking at these temples that it struck me that temples in Japan are almost always in muted earth tones; browns, tans, greys. This is very different than in China and other areas where temples are always bright colors, like reds and golds and greens. Just one more example of Japanese culture being understated, calm, and serene. The final site of my day was to see the Yasaka-jinja. The colorful shrine is one of the important places people visit to celebrate the new year. It has huge paper lanterns hanging from all the surfaces and I arrived in time to see them all lit up as dusk fell over Kyoto. It was a nice way to end my day or temple viewing.My evening was spent exploring Kyoto’s traditional entertainment areas of Gion and Pontochō. Each night a legion of kimono-clad mama-sans, slick-suited businessmen, and harijiku styled trendy 20-somethings descend on these areas to transact the business of fun. There are long streets filled with small bars, and restaurants. I learned that many of them do not allow gaijin like myself to enter. I ran into the Zimmermans again, stalking geisha and then into JP and Shannon, two folks from the “Dalit Village” crew on the ship. I joined them and we went in search of dinner for the night. We ended up finding a very trendy restaurant for the young Kyoto set in the downstairs of an arcade building. The restaurant was posh, but pretty cheap. We had a pretty interesting meal, even if we did stumble through the ordering process a few times. After that, we hurried back to our respective ryokan in time for the 11pm curfews. The futon and tatami mats and down comforters made for one heavenly night sleep after a long day of temple-hopping.
The next day I slept in a little bit, and when I finally left the ryokan, I ran into JP, Shannon, and Matt I. the tech guy, outside of my ryokan. We were all searching for the entrance into Shōsei-en which was a beautiful walled garden, complete with small pagoda, bridge, carp pond, cherry blossoms, etc. It was lovely, and a nice peaceful way to begin the day.
Then I left the three folks and hopped on the subway for some more sightseeing. I wandered through some more temples, and brick aqueducts, and tried my best to avoid the slow drizzle that had started. I wandered in and out of a few galleries and purchased a small wood-block print, and then the rain started to come down a little harder. I looked at my guidebook and found an udon noodle restaurant right nearby that was popular with locals. True to form, I was the only gaijin present, but was welcomed by the proprietor. I waited outside along with bunches of couples and families for a seat at one of the large family style tables. I ordered a bowl of udon noodles in broth with a shrimp tempura on top. There was also a very soft boiled egg dropped into the broth, and some interesting vegetables that were foreign to me. The soup was so warm and so tastey… the perfect lunch on a chilly drizzly grey afternoon. It was incredibly yummy, even the egg, which cooked up in the warm broth. I slurped my noodles, just like the other patrons (a sign that you are enjoying the meal) and watched them all as they chatted and enjoyed their lunches. I almost felt like I disappeared into the background, and got to observe all of these people in a way that most foreigners don’t. It was neat. I rolled out of there with a toasty warm, and full belly and ran into JP, Shannon, and Matt again coming from a different direction. As the sun came out, they pointed me along the Tetsugaku-no-michi, also known as the Path of Philosophy. It was a nice stroll along the water canal that allowed one to be alone with his thoughts and ponder life’s “big questions.” Sad to report, no big answers came to me. Sorry. I finished my Kyoto sightseeing with a stop at Gingaku-ji, one of Kyoto’s most breathtaking temples, though also thronged with Japanese tourists. It was well worth it. This temple was truly magnificent, and was surrounded by perfectly landscaped Zen gardens that just oozed serenity. After that, I hopped a bus back to the train station and was off on the Shinkansen bound for Hiroshima.
Two and a half hours later, I arrived in Hiroshima, where I hopped on a cable car to make my way over to the Peace Memorial Park area where I was to meet Matt, Lesley, Mindy, and Jen at our ryokan. Turns out I got on the wrong cable car, and was completely lost. The people on the cable car immediately tried to find ways to help me. They grabbed at maps and got the driver to stop the cable car to let me off. One woman even paid for my cable car ride since I had already paid to go in the wrong direction. A couple of the people on the car with me actually got off the cable car, and then waited to make sure I got on the right one, going in the right direction. They spoke to the new cable car driver to look out for me. I was pretty sure that one of the nicest little old ladies was going to get on the cable car with me until I finally got the point across that they were being too helpful and embarrassing me. This kind of over (and sometimes suffocating) helpfulness was the rule and not the exception in Japan. Once I got off the cable car the ryokan was supposed to be a 1 minute walk from the cable car stop, and I had the address, but no idea how to find it. Not a single road sign was in English, and none of the buildings were correctly labeled either. Even showing the address to people brought about some perplexed and confused looks. As I expected, they then all tried in earnest to help me find my way, but usually in vain. I felt bad because it seemed that they were all just as frustrated about not being able to help me as I was about not being able to find the ryokan. It was as if they took it as a personal assault when they weren’t able to be helpful. (Why can’t Americans treat one another the same way???). At any rate, after about 30 minutes of searching a woman walked me to a street and pointed. When she saw I was still clueless, she actually walked me to the door of the ryokan, and I am glad she did, because I never would have known it was an inn. The Kasuga Ryokan was not as nice as the one I had in Kyoto, but it was decent. Mindy was waiting in the ryokan, and we sipped our green tea on the balcony waiting for the others to arrive. Once they arrived, we wandered around downtown Hiroshima and checked out the entertainment arcades before finding a noodle shop for a late bite. After dinner a couple of us used the restrooms in the mall and were in for a bit of strange Japanese culture. I was used to squat toilets after my time in the rest of Asia, and I had found them in Japan as well, though much cleaner and easier to use. But in this bathroom the toilets looked like normal western toilets. However, when I sat down, I jumped back up in fright. I hadn’t realized there was a seat warmer on the toilet, to keep your booty comfy. It was quite the shocker. Another interesting thing was a little button you can press that works like a bidet and “cleanses” your bottom with a spray of water. You can even adjust the pressure on your posterior (I played with those dials for a while). It was a very strange sensation, and in some ways I felt like my booty was its cleanest ever, but I don’t think I could get used to a wet bottom. Ok, enough toilet talk. I will move on.
Then I left the three folks and hopped on the subway for some more sightseeing. I wandered through some more temples, and brick aqueducts, and tried my best to avoid the slow drizzle that had started. I wandered in and out of a few galleries and purchased a small wood-block print, and then the rain started to come down a little harder. I looked at my guidebook and found an udon noodle restaurant right nearby that was popular with locals. True to form, I was the only gaijin present, but was welcomed by the proprietor. I waited outside along with bunches of couples and families for a seat at one of the large family style tables. I ordered a bowl of udon noodles in broth with a shrimp tempura on top. There was also a very soft boiled egg dropped into the broth, and some interesting vegetables that were foreign to me. The soup was so warm and so tastey… the perfect lunch on a chilly drizzly grey afternoon. It was incredibly yummy, even the egg, which cooked up in the warm broth. I slurped my noodles, just like the other patrons (a sign that you are enjoying the meal) and watched them all as they chatted and enjoyed their lunches. I almost felt like I disappeared into the background, and got to observe all of these people in a way that most foreigners don’t. It was neat. I rolled out of there with a toasty warm, and full belly and ran into JP, Shannon, and Matt again coming from a different direction. As the sun came out, they pointed me along the Tetsugaku-no-michi, also known as the Path of Philosophy. It was a nice stroll along the water canal that allowed one to be alone with his thoughts and ponder life’s “big questions.” Sad to report, no big answers came to me. Sorry. I finished my Kyoto sightseeing with a stop at Gingaku-ji, one of Kyoto’s most breathtaking temples, though also thronged with Japanese tourists. It was well worth it. This temple was truly magnificent, and was surrounded by perfectly landscaped Zen gardens that just oozed serenity. After that, I hopped a bus back to the train station and was off on the Shinkansen bound for Hiroshima.Two and a half hours later, I arrived in Hiroshima, where I hopped on a cable car to make my way over to the Peace Memorial Park area where I was to meet Matt, Lesley, Mindy, and Jen at our ryokan. Turns out I got on the wrong cable car, and was completely lost. The people on the cable car immediately tried to find ways to help me. They grabbed at maps and got the driver to stop the cable car to let me off. One woman even paid for my cable car ride since I had already paid to go in the wrong direction. A couple of the people on the car with me actually got off the cable car, and then waited to make sure I got on the right one, going in the right direction. They spoke to the new cable car driver to look out for me. I was pretty sure that one of the nicest little old ladies was going to get on the cable car with me until I finally got the point across that they were being too helpful and embarrassing me. This kind of over (and sometimes suffocating) helpfulness was the rule and not the exception in Japan. Once I got off the cable car the ryokan was supposed to be a 1 minute walk from the cable car stop, and I had the address, but no idea how to find it. Not a single road sign was in English, and none of the buildings were correctly labeled either. Even showing the address to people brought about some perplexed and confused looks. As I expected, they then all tried in earnest to help me find my way, but usually in vain. I felt bad because it seemed that they were all just as frustrated about not being able to help me as I was about not being able to find the ryokan. It was as if they took it as a personal assault when they weren’t able to be helpful. (Why can’t Americans treat one another the same way???). At any rate, after about 30 minutes of searching a woman walked me to a street and pointed. When she saw I was still clueless, she actually walked me to the door of the ryokan, and I am glad she did, because I never would have known it was an inn. The Kasuga Ryokan was not as nice as the one I had in Kyoto, but it was decent. Mindy was waiting in the ryokan, and we sipped our green tea on the balcony waiting for the others to arrive. Once they arrived, we wandered around downtown Hiroshima and checked out the entertainment arcades before finding a noodle shop for a late bite. After dinner a couple of us used the restrooms in the mall and were in for a bit of strange Japanese culture. I was used to squat toilets after my time in the rest of Asia, and I had found them in Japan as well, though much cleaner and easier to use. But in this bathroom the toilets looked like normal western toilets. However, when I sat down, I jumped back up in fright. I hadn’t realized there was a seat warmer on the toilet, to keep your booty comfy. It was quite the shocker. Another interesting thing was a little button you can press that works like a bidet and “cleanses” your bottom with a spray of water. You can even adjust the pressure on your posterior (I played with those dials for a while). It was a very strange sensation, and in some ways I felt like my booty was its cleanest ever, but I don’t think I could get used to a wet bottom. Ok, enough toilet talk. I will move on.
After dinner, we went into the entertainment arcade and found to SEGA-world full of fun video games. There was a taiko drumming game, similar to Guitar Hero, that we all loved, even though it gave a few of us blisters on our hands (3 blisters for me, boo!). We also popped into a photo booth and took a bunch of group shots which you then can digitally enhance with graphics and words and clip art. It was so bizarre, but another one of those “things people do in Japan.” There is a whole cottage industry around the picture booths, where you can rent costumes, or wigs or upgrade to different and better clip art or options. It was fascinating. We all especially liked the way the photo booth washed most of the color out of your face, and wiped away any and all wrinkles making us all appear about 10 years younger. (If only!).
Things seem to shut down pretty early in most Japanese cities during the week, so we made our way back to the ryokan before the curfew, but not before stopping off at Lawson’s (their 7-11) for some mochi ice-cream balls, sushi, sake, Japanese beer, and strange fruit mixers. We went back to our ryokan and played card games and enjoyed our beverages until late into the evening. I’m so thankful to have made such fun friends on this trip. My night in Hiroshima just made that even more obvious to me.
Don't I look hot in my Yukata w/ Lesley??
The next day, we woke pretty early and headed to Starbucks (at Lesley’s request/demand). It was weird to be back in a western establishment. It was also strange because they were playing Hawaiian music in the store, which previewed our next port a week later. We enjoyed our drinks and pastries and then headed for the park. Wandering around Hiroshima, it was obvious that this was a very young city, especially when compared to Nara and Kyoto, which are filled with ancient sites and history. Almost everything in Hiroshima was destroyed in one instant at 8:15am on August 6, 1945 when it became the world’s first nuclear target. The city has risen from the ashes, and though the heritage is ancient, none of the buildings are older than 60 or so years. We spent a considerable amount of time reflecting on the A-Bomb and its damage on the city for most of the day. We started with the Peace Memorial Museum. Most museums bore me, and I get through them pretty quickly. I joke that when I visited Paris, I did the Louvre at a dead run in 2 hours flat, but prior to my time in Hiroshima I had done a lot of reading about the destruction of the city and time discussing nuclear proliferation, so I was inspired to really enjoy this museum. I appreciated that the A-Bomb Museum, as it is commonly known, is really named the Peace Memorial Museum. The clear message of the museum is the need for peace and an end to the nuclear age. Yes, the exhibits tell the story of the bomb and the destruction it wrought on Hiroshima and it people, but it does it in a sensitive way and without assigning blame or alienating anyone. It chronicled the events leading up to the bombing and immediately after. It displayed pictures and remains of the victims, pictures of demolished buildings, accounts of death and radiation, and a simple plea for peace. I expected that as an American, I would be subjected to a lot of messages present to make me feel guilty. In the end, I left horrified over the destruction, sad that it was my homeland that caused it, and inspired to try and make a difference… but not full of guilt, as I had feared. This museum was so great because its message was so incredibly simple, even if it was delivered with sledgehammer force. My favorite exhibit featured copies of telegrams and letters from the Mayor of Hiroshima. Since the day the bomb was dropped, the mayor of Hiroshima, regardless of who they have been, has responded to every single bomb test or instance of nuclear power with a personal letter sent to the leader of that nation pleading with them to abandon their nuclear programs in favor if more peaceful and less destructive methods. I found the exhibit stirring, but then again, the entire museum grabbed me. When we left the museum we entered the Peace Memorial Park which is a beautiful park that is dedicated to the memory of the lives lost as a result of the bomb. It includes a cenotaph that contains the names of all known victims of the bomb, and the Children’s Peace Memorial inspired by Sadako Sasaki, the child survivor who developed leukemia and then folded 1,000 origami paper cranes, the symbol of longevity and happiness in Japan, convinced it would help her recover. The Children’s Memorial is a nice statue, but the highlight is boxes that surround the memorial filled with thousands of folded paper cranes sent by children from every corner of the globe. The dependant children on our voyage worked with out community to fold over 1,000 cranes which were brought to the memorial. When we found our cranes in the huge collection, it gave me a sense of being part of something much larger than myself.
Beyond the park is the A-Bomb Dome, which is one of the few buildings that was still standing after the bomb exploded over Hiroshima. The only reason it remained was that it was directly under the hydrocenter of the blast. Even though the building was destroyed, the hollowed dome still stands over Hiroshima as an eternal reminder of what violence can do to a city, a nation, and a people. 
After such an intense morning, we left the park and walked past the Hiroshima Carp Stadium where the local Hiroshima Carp baseball team was getting ready to take on the Tigers. The stadium was swarmed with people and we almost decided to buy tickets at the last minute. Instead, we went back to the entertainment arcades in order to grab some lunch. We weren’t doing a good job of agreeing on what to eat. Some wanted noodles, others wanted sushi, and I was in the mood for tempura or shabu-shabu (cross between hibachi and fondou). I admit, I was being pretty stubborn and didn’t want to just settle on a restaurant, so we all went our separate ways. I know, imagine… me? Stubborn? Forgive me, but I figured that I only have a few meals to eat in Japan, and I didn’t want to settle for something convenient, when I can try something new and special. I ended up finding a really cool place and got my tempura fix, and was able to try Japanese curry as well, which is very different than Indian curry, but equally good. After lunch we went back to the SEGA-world and played the taiko drum game a bit more, then Mindy and I set out for one last adventure in Hiroshima. We went to explore the Hiroshima Castle, called the Carp Castle. The building was really beautiful and is a replica of the original which was destroyed in the bomb. The others didn’t want to join us because they were tired of stuffy museums, but this one turned out to be very cool. Inside were some really interesting exhibits about samurai culture and traditions, and explanations about how the feudal lords in Japan protected themselves in their castles. Mindy and I especially liked being able to dress in full samurai regalia, both the informal yukata and the ornate battle dress uniform. Also, the views from the top of the picturesque castle were also very cool. We could see out across the entire city to the water, into the stadium where cheering crowds threw balloons, and up into the hills surrounding the city. The city seemed so small from up there, that I would never have believed that it was home to 1.1 million people if I hadn’t read about it.
We eventually met back up with the other folks and we boarded trolley cars, and then the Shinkansen train back for Kobe. When we got to Kobe, Mindy took the train home to the ship in order to work the on-ship time line. Matt and Lesley decided to walk back to the ship and I convinced Jen Mincer that we should finally get some Kobe beef before leaving Japan. We got some advice on a couple of good places in the center of town and made our way into the city. We eventually were seated in a nice place around a hibachi grill type of table, along with two S@S students. Or chef prepared our food right in front of us, and it was amazingly good. I don’t think I will ever taste meat as good as in Brazil, but the Kobe beef came damn close. It had incredible flavor, and was so tender. It practically melted in my mouth. It’s hard to compare it to Brazilian meat, or meat from anywhere else. “Same same, but different” as our Vietnamese friends would say. I think that works perfectly here. It was just damn good. The price tag, however, was not so nice. We paid about $45 each for a very very very small piece of meat, and that was the cheapest price we saw anywhere in Kobe. We had been told that the restaurant accepted credit cards, but at the end of the meal they wouldn’t take mine, so a quick panic ensued until I was able to scrounge up the cash to pay for the meal. (***Mental note, I need to pay off my IOU’s around the ship before San Diego. Yikes!). Once the bill was settled, we took the subway back to the ship. Japan is the first port where every single member of our community was back, on ship, and sober by on-ship time. We were so proud of them, especially in our final international port, which we heard can be crazy. In typical Student Life style, we finished the night by playing cards in Studio 7 (F/S Lounge) and watched Kobe and Japan sail away. We took a quick break to watch the water around the ship swirling and bioluminescing bright blue as we sailed out of the harbor. We were all excited about the natural phenomenon until I recalled that it only happens in warm water. What we were seeing was really “red tide” and is not a good thing at all. Yikes! Let’s hope it wasn’t an omen for the rest of our voyage, eh? Well, time to jet off for some yearbook photos. I send my love back to everyone stateside.
XOXO
-Drew
Things seem to shut down pretty early in most Japanese cities during the week, so we made our way back to the ryokan before the curfew, but not before stopping off at Lawson’s (their 7-11) for some mochi ice-cream balls, sushi, sake, Japanese beer, and strange fruit mixers. We went back to our ryokan and played card games and enjoyed our beverages until late into the evening. I’m so thankful to have made such fun friends on this trip. My night in Hiroshima just made that even more obvious to me.Don't I look hot in my Yukata w/ Lesley??
The next day, we woke pretty early and headed to Starbucks (at Lesley’s request/demand). It was weird to be back in a western establishment. It was also strange because they were playing Hawaiian music in the store, which previewed our next port a week later. We enjoyed our drinks and pastries and then headed for the park. Wandering around Hiroshima, it was obvious that this was a very young city, especially when compared to Nara and Kyoto, which are filled with ancient sites and history. Almost everything in Hiroshima was destroyed in one instant at 8:15am on August 6, 1945 when it became the world’s first nuclear target. The city has risen from the ashes, and though the heritage is ancient, none of the buildings are older than 60 or so years. We spent a considerable amount of time reflecting on the A-Bomb and its damage on the city for most of the day. We started with the Peace Memorial Museum. Most museums bore me, and I get through them pretty quickly. I joke that when I visited Paris, I did the Louvre at a dead run in 2 hours flat, but prior to my time in Hiroshima I had done a lot of reading about the destruction of the city and time discussing nuclear proliferation, so I was inspired to really enjoy this museum. I appreciated that the A-Bomb Museum, as it is commonly known, is really named the Peace Memorial Museum. The clear message of the museum is the need for peace and an end to the nuclear age. Yes, the exhibits tell the story of the bomb and the destruction it wrought on Hiroshima and it people, but it does it in a sensitive way and without assigning blame or alienating anyone. It chronicled the events leading up to the bombing and immediately after. It displayed pictures and remains of the victims, pictures of demolished buildings, accounts of death and radiation, and a simple plea for peace. I expected that as an American, I would be subjected to a lot of messages present to make me feel guilty. In the end, I left horrified over the destruction, sad that it was my homeland that caused it, and inspired to try and make a difference… but not full of guilt, as I had feared. This museum was so great because its message was so incredibly simple, even if it was delivered with sledgehammer force. My favorite exhibit featured copies of telegrams and letters from the Mayor of Hiroshima. Since the day the bomb was dropped, the mayor of Hiroshima, regardless of who they have been, has responded to every single bomb test or instance of nuclear power with a personal letter sent to the leader of that nation pleading with them to abandon their nuclear programs in favor if more peaceful and less destructive methods. I found the exhibit stirring, but then again, the entire museum grabbed me. When we left the museum we entered the Peace Memorial Park which is a beautiful park that is dedicated to the memory of the lives lost as a result of the bomb. It includes a cenotaph that contains the names of all known victims of the bomb, and the Children’s Peace Memorial inspired by Sadako Sasaki, the child survivor who developed leukemia and then folded 1,000 origami paper cranes, the symbol of longevity and happiness in Japan, convinced it would help her recover. The Children’s Memorial is a nice statue, but the highlight is boxes that surround the memorial filled with thousands of folded paper cranes sent by children from every corner of the globe. The dependant children on our voyage worked with out community to fold over 1,000 cranes which were brought to the memorial. When we found our cranes in the huge collection, it gave me a sense of being part of something much larger than myself.
Beyond the park is the A-Bomb Dome, which is one of the few buildings that was still standing after the bomb exploded over Hiroshima. The only reason it remained was that it was directly under the hydrocenter of the blast. Even though the building was destroyed, the hollowed dome still stands over Hiroshima as an eternal reminder of what violence can do to a city, a nation, and a people. 
After such an intense morning, we left the park and walked past the Hiroshima Carp Stadium where the local Hiroshima Carp baseball team was getting ready to take on the Tigers. The stadium was swarmed with people and we almost decided to buy tickets at the last minute. Instead, we went back to the entertainment arcades in order to grab some lunch. We weren’t doing a good job of agreeing on what to eat. Some wanted noodles, others wanted sushi, and I was in the mood for tempura or shabu-shabu (cross between hibachi and fondou). I admit, I was being pretty stubborn and didn’t want to just settle on a restaurant, so we all went our separate ways. I know, imagine… me? Stubborn? Forgive me, but I figured that I only have a few meals to eat in Japan, and I didn’t want to settle for something convenient, when I can try something new and special. I ended up finding a really cool place and got my tempura fix, and was able to try Japanese curry as well, which is very different than Indian curry, but equally good. After lunch we went back to the SEGA-world and played the taiko drum game a bit more, then Mindy and I set out for one last adventure in Hiroshima. We went to explore the Hiroshima Castle, called the Carp Castle. The building was really beautiful and is a replica of the original which was destroyed in the bomb. The others didn’t want to join us because they were tired of stuffy museums, but this one turned out to be very cool. Inside were some really interesting exhibits about samurai culture and traditions, and explanations about how the feudal lords in Japan protected themselves in their castles. Mindy and I especially liked being able to dress in full samurai regalia, both the informal yukata and the ornate battle dress uniform. Also, the views from the top of the picturesque castle were also very cool. We could see out across the entire city to the water, into the stadium where cheering crowds threw balloons, and up into the hills surrounding the city. The city seemed so small from up there, that I would never have believed that it was home to 1.1 million people if I hadn’t read about it.
We eventually met back up with the other folks and we boarded trolley cars, and then the Shinkansen train back for Kobe. When we got to Kobe, Mindy took the train home to the ship in order to work the on-ship time line. Matt and Lesley decided to walk back to the ship and I convinced Jen Mincer that we should finally get some Kobe beef before leaving Japan. We got some advice on a couple of good places in the center of town and made our way into the city. We eventually were seated in a nice place around a hibachi grill type of table, along with two S@S students. Or chef prepared our food right in front of us, and it was amazingly good. I don’t think I will ever taste meat as good as in Brazil, but the Kobe beef came damn close. It had incredible flavor, and was so tender. It practically melted in my mouth. It’s hard to compare it to Brazilian meat, or meat from anywhere else. “Same same, but different” as our Vietnamese friends would say. I think that works perfectly here. It was just damn good. The price tag, however, was not so nice. We paid about $45 each for a very very very small piece of meat, and that was the cheapest price we saw anywhere in Kobe. We had been told that the restaurant accepted credit cards, but at the end of the meal they wouldn’t take mine, so a quick panic ensued until I was able to scrounge up the cash to pay for the meal. (***Mental note, I need to pay off my IOU’s around the ship before San Diego. Yikes!). Once the bill was settled, we took the subway back to the ship. Japan is the first port where every single member of our community was back, on ship, and sober by on-ship time. We were so proud of them, especially in our final international port, which we heard can be crazy. In typical Student Life style, we finished the night by playing cards in Studio 7 (F/S Lounge) and watched Kobe and Japan sail away. We took a quick break to watch the water around the ship swirling and bioluminescing bright blue as we sailed out of the harbor. We were all excited about the natural phenomenon until I recalled that it only happens in warm water. What we were seeing was really “red tide” and is not a good thing at all. Yikes! Let’s hope it wasn’t an omen for the rest of our voyage, eh? Well, time to jet off for some yearbook photos. I send my love back to everyone stateside.XOXO
-Drew
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