Japan, Part 2

 

Day on Ship

Today was just a lazy, quiet day.  My estimate is that there were 200 students and faculty on the ship, probably about 50 faculty and 150 students.  Being exhausted from Kobe as well as our previous adventures in other ports, most everyone just slept all day.  They played the 3 Borne movies, and I caught a little of them but every time I tried to watch I just fell asleep.  I woke up at my normal time, went to breakfast, and then did a little bit of homework.  Chris and I watched movies most of the day, did odd jobs, and just moped around pretty much.  Most people stayed in their rooms all day.  Not a whole lot to say about the day, it was very uneventful.

 

Yokohama, Day 1 (Japan Day 4)

Today I got up at my normal 0700 to watch the ship come into port.  The port was awesome . . . there is a port building right next to the ship and a hall connecting the building to the ship, just like at the airport.  The port building has a park with grass on the roof, so as we arrived there were many observers sitting up there.  There were also photographers and some artist who was drawing our ship for a good part of the day.  The ship was cleared fairly quickly, and we were able to get off around 0900.  Chris and I got off and walked around for a little to get acquainted with the city and port area.  We then walked to Landmark tower, the tallest building in Yokohama.  As we walked into the city we saw a Ferris wheel and small amusement park, right in the middle of the city.  I didn’t really understand the location, but they do weird things like that in Japan I guess.  We were both impressed by how pedestrian friendly Yokohama is.  There are pedestrian walkways everywhere that are extremely clean and convenient.  The whole city, in fact, is extremely clean and convenient.  After we found Landmark we walked down to the waterway and walked in the park on the edge of the water for a while.  We saw that there are tons of people with small dogs in Japan and they like to dress them up in clothes.  We walked around for a while, got Starbucks, found a mall, and found a Cold Stone.  The guy who worked there spoke very good English so I was able to communicate that I worked there.  They had some of the same flavors as China, like green tea, and they also had mango ice cream.  I sampled everything I had never had before and then got sweat cream and peanut butter, boring, but delicious.  They also had some drinks that looked like floats, but I am not quite sure.  Also, they were having a “bouquet” promotion where they put ice cream and mix ins in a waffle cone to make it look like a flower arrangement, I don’t really know, but it was something for spring.  Something else that was weird/different is that they had strawberry chocolate flavored dipped waffle cones and bowls, and green tea flavored chocolate dipped waffle cones and bowls.  The guy that served me was the best Cold Stone employee, ever.  He sang as he mixed my ice cream (a song specifically about mixing ice cream) and he flipped the ice cream, threw it, tossed it into the cup . . .  it was awesome, and has also inspired me to be a more interactive employee.  (Rich – I got a video of him doing this, you will want to hire him!)  After that we got sushi for lunch.  We got the sushi from the grocery store because it was cheap and still great.  I don’t know exactly what kind of sushi we got, but there were two different types of rolls in my pack of 12.  They were so good . . . I have really turned into a fan.  Also, sushi in Japan is supposed to be amazing compared to other countries so it was such a treat.  I hope that I like sushi at home now!  After we ate we had to head back to the ship because our Semester at Sea trip to the Yokohama baseball game met at 1600.  There were about 100 of us on the trip, and we all walked from the port to the stadium which was about 15 minutes away.  We got there very early, so we were allowed to do whatever until the game started.  A lot of people left the stadium to get food and/or drinks, but Chris and I just stayed in the stadium and hung out with a few other people who were there.  In addition to the 100 kids that went on the trip, many Semester at Sea kids went independently and managed to get seats in our section, we had quite a large section.  The home team was the Yokohama Baystars, and they got destroyed in a landslide loss.  The game was not too different from Baseball games at home.  The stadium was very small, smaller than a minor league stadium at home.  There weren’t a whole lot of people at the game, either, but there were a lot of people from the opposing team because it is one of the best teams here.  There were two large cheering sections for the Baystars, and in each section there was a drummer and a trumpeter.  There was a man on a stool with a whistle who stood between the sections (in front of our section) and started the cheers.  The crowd would do cheers for 10 minutes straight and then take a break for a while, but the cheering definitely occurred frequently.  The game was so much fun, just hanging out with everyone and meeting some new people.  After the game Chris and I walked around until we found a bar we wanted to go into.  As we walked we drank Sake, a Japanese alcohol that we bought from 711.  It tasted a little bit like the rice wine that I had tried in China, but it had a bad aftertaste and wasn’t my favorite.  We ended up in a tiny upstairs bar that had a group of about 10 other foreigners (I don’t know where the were from) stuffed into a tiny room.  It was an island themed place, and had food such as jerk chicken and served fruits.  The drinks were cheap and it was cute though so we stayed.  I ordered a margarita and they poured the following: one shot of tequila, one shot of Southern Comfort (we think), and lime juice.  I wasn’t anything like I was expecting and was quite gross actually.  After a while we headed back to the ship. 

 

Yokohama, Day 2

Today, after we were both up, Chris and I headed into the city.  We walked to Landmark Tower and went up to the highest observatory in Japan.  The elevator is also one of the fastest in the world, and you could definitely tell that it was going so fast.  My ears popped, and we went from the 1^st floor to the 80^th in less than a minute.  From the observatory we could see Mt Fuji and a great view of Yokohama.  It was an amazing day out and you could see so far . . . we couldn’t have gotten any luckier.  After we had soaked in enough of the amazing view we came back down and got lunch at the Hard Rock Café.  We had both been craving some greasy American food so we split the nachos, with extra cheese and guacamole.  It was a grossly large amount of nachos, and we practically licked the plate clean.  They were amazingly good.  It was the best $24 plate of nachos, ever, EVER!  After lunch we walked around some more, got Starbucks, and then headed back to the ship.  It was a good day.  Japan was fun, even though I didn’t do a whole lot of “cultural stuff.”  I feel like there isn’t that much “cultural stuff” in Japan to begin with, so just walking around and soaking in the culture is one of the best things to do.  The kids that went to Tokyo said that it was awesome but that it was just a city.   I am happy that I decided to stay on the ship and save some money.  The next few days on the ship are going to be crazy.  We haven’t been on the ship from more than 2 days at a time for the past month, and now we have 9 days in a row until Hawaii.  We have a global studies exam in a few days, I have a paper to write due in a few days, and there is so much reading to do.  I am caught up on all of my reading up until this point, but having class day after day is going to be rough.  We also have Easter in a few days, but we actually get two Easters because we cross the International Date Line on Easter.  They aren’t having an egg hunt on the ship but they are doing two church services and stuff.  I bought some jelly beans in port to make it feel at least a little bit like Easter.  Easter just will not be the same, though, without Reese’s eggs, Cadbury eggs, Chocolate Bunnies and Easter breakfast.  Hmmm, oh well, I can’t complain too much, I will be on my way to Hawaii after all!