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It all happens so quickly. Nothing feels better or is more fun than just sitting down. The soft skin against the smooth, warm surface is like a small piece of heaven - like apple pie, but without the cold of the ice cream. But it is just as fun, and just as relaxing, as eating apple pie because of all the buttons to push and games you can play. There are four buttons, each a different color with a different outcome; all along, you are still kept warm to the core - right into your soul, almost. You can choose from different sounds or a variety of fountains of water to play in. As soon as you get up the moment is over and you begin to feel the crisp clean air surround you again. Then you push your final button and one more sound arrives and leaves the audience amazed, begging for more. Unfortunately, you have to get up - you have to move on. As soon as you leave, the sensation is missed and can only be described and understood by those who have shared such a soothing experience. It will happen again later on, and when it does it is like you pull another slice of pie straight from the oven.That is what it is like to sit on a Japanese toilet.
From the beginning Japan seemed annoying. The weather from Hawaii to Japan was terrible and there was an earthquake and underwater volcano that caused some obvious weather issues. We arrived in Japan only 30 minutes later than we had originally planned but customs was much more intense than it had been between Hawai'i and Mexico. Lunch on the ship consisted of chicken fajitas and green apples, which was collectively pretty delicious. My sea, the Baltic Sea, was called right after I finished eating so I grabbed my bag and headed for Timitz Square to disembark the ship. I had enough in my book bag for only one night but I knew I wanted to take full advantage of the free internet I would be getting in the hotel with Chris, so my bag was very heavy. My back was killing me almost immediately, but it was later very much so worth it.
I made it through customs and laughed at Chris still looking over the barricades trying to find me as I made me way towards him. I got the typical Chris bear hug and he told me that he had been waiting for me since about 9AM, the time that the ship docked; we didn't go through customs until about noon. He met Thomas and Erik while we waited on Carson to appear, as her sea was called after mine. She showed up and met Chris and we made our way to the Yokohama train station to head towards Tokyo. We got lost for a second then made our way into the right train and eventually showed up at the Park Hotel Tokyo, which was awesome - so awesome that I forgot to take pictures at any point. We got our room, threw our stuff down, discovered that the toilets had heated seats, and went back downstairs to plan the day.
Carson used the internet to check her bank statements while Chris and I had a beer and orange juice, respectively. We decided to spend the rest of the day in Shibuya, a town known for cheap fashion and a popular spot for young locals. We got on the train and headed over; as soon as we got there it seemed like Times Square in New York. We picked a random direction and headed out past the shops, lights, and mobs of people in suits. We were immediately struck by the thousands of shoes that lined the streets for sale which I was quickly drawn to. By the end of the day I had acquired three pairs of shoes - brownish flats, Reebok easy tones [which kicked my butt the next day], and a pair of blue and green slip-ons - as well as gifts for some people. We found a Condomania, a store that was full of various sex things and comdoms - something Carson and I needed to look at for our global studies project on the sustainability of sex and population around the world. We found a used clothing store called Bingo where Carson got a scarf and a sweater; I wished I was a guy because the men's section was far more amazing than the woman's.
We then followed the track of plastic food until we made it back to the place that had originally caught our eye due to the window display. We saw something in the window that everyone would eat and headed through the doors. I was instantly excited because it looked just like a Yokosos at home where the chefs cook right in front of you, just with smaller tables. I quickly realized that the griddles were put there so that I could cook my own meal, scary. We ordered pork, chicken, two types of noodles, and bean sprouts and got to cooking. After some assistance, in Japanese of course, we got headed in the right direction and everything came out deliciously. We cleared the grill and then hunted for ice cream. Carson and I remember a lit up ice cream cone in the sky a few blocks over from earlier that read "Big Dip" so we headed that way.
We found the ice cream inside of a place called Blue Seal Café, where there were a lot of choices for dessert as long as it involved ice cream. We settled on a waffle bowl with Chocolate [for safety], Banana Suzanna, Ube [which was purple], and something that looked like vanilla but was some salty Japanese flavor that I don't remember the name of. It came covered in sprinkles and chocolate sauce and was wonderful. The Ube ice cream tasted similar to red velvet cake, but I really liked the Banana Suzanna which was banana flavored with chocolate swirled in. Chris took some pictures of Carson and I eating it from the street and then we did some more shop browsing.
We would up four floors underground in a Manga shop looking at millions of anime comic books, costumes, cards, toys, and action figures. Carson got her brother some books; I got some as gifts for friends [NBA anime] and two to take back to the kid's classrooms. Chris got Drake a huge stack of Pokémon cards and we made our way back to the cool air of Shibuya as it was extremely hot underground. We found strawberries on the side of the road from a vendor so I got a box and ate them while Carson randomly, in my opinion, got an avocado. Because the amount of plastic food in the windows in Japan is overwhelming we decided we needed more ice cream because it kept looking at us around every corner.
We went upstairs to a dessert café where everything looked either amazing or nasty, as in covered in whipped cream. I got a strawberry parfait which I traded Carson for her strawberry shortcake, and Chris got a plate of crepes full of random fruits and ice creams. It was fun to sit in the café and look down onto the street and watch some of the crazy people go by. We finished and explored more only to be met by the "Hot Now" light of Krispy Kreme which no mortal human can resist, so we didn't even try. It was the first time I had gotten milk in a while as the milk on the ship is powdered, only available at breakfast, and not tasty by any means.
From there we made our way back to the train station and ultimately back to the hotel. The game plan for the next day was to go to the fish market, which was only open from 5 - 7 AM. By the time we got back to the hotel it was 11PM so my desire to sleep was low, mostly due to the free internet I had access to. I spent the night uploading photos and blogs and talking to Bobby. It was nice to get to see him for a while, even though Croix had to wake him up for me since he didn't have class until 1PM and it was about 9AM his time. Chris and Carson said hi to them and then went to do their own things. By 130AM I figured some sleep would be helpful and made my way into bed before Carson showed back up from using the computers available in the hotel lobby.
At 430AM Carson and I woke up, got dressed, and packed to head out to the fish market. We walked outside and it was about seven thousand times colder and windier than it had been the day before when we were in Shibuya. The Tokyo fish market is the biggest in the world and I knew I could get extra credit for my Biology of Sharks class if I went and brought back some good shark photos. We walked a few blocks until we made it to the entrance which was full of three wheeled short, open cars that were used to transport fish. The drivers seemed to have no concern as to whether or not we got run over so we dodged them the entire morning from start to finish.
There were millions of dead, frozen sea creatures everywhere: fish, squid, octopus, lancelet worms, shrimp, etc. Some of the yellow fin tunas were easily bigger than I was and were frozen in giant blocks. I was bummed at the amount of octopus everywhere since all of them were very dead, which was a bummer since they are currently my favorite animal. There were no shark anywhere, which was good because it would mean that they were finned for shark fin soup, which is cruel assuming the animals are put back into the ocean. Sharks need all of their fins for balance and speed in order to swim in a straight line, something impossible to do without all of their fins. I left without shark pictures but with a fascination for all of the fish that were being cut up, packaged, and served for markets across Japan.
After the fish market, Chris and I made our way to Asakusa to see the Senso-ji temple. In order to get there we took a train and were let out next to a construction site around the corner from a Denny's. From the street we could see the entrance to the big Buddhist temple, a large market lined with paper lanterns and young school children in their uniforms. Before passing through the large entranceway we posed for an "I Love the Eclectic Chef" picture because I still do not have one and that is unacceptable. We turned around and walked under the arch into the market which was full of waving good luck cats, rice cookies, and samurai swords. We walked through everything, confused as to why the kids weren't in school and finally got to the next entranceway which took us to the temple's front door.
There was a large incense burner that people were putting giant burning incense sticks into, next to a giant fortune station. You put 100 Yen into a hole in the wood, shake a long metal box full of sticks until you were satisfied [or sick of shaking] and then pulled out a stick. The stick had a Japanese character on it, which you matched up to a drawer which held your fortune. Mine, which I pulled from inside of the temple, read the following:
No. 14 GOOD FORTUNE IN FUTURE
There are various kinds of stones but you still can't distinguish jewels from stones. If you want to succeed in life. You'll come across lots of difficulties and become sad. What you hope will be completed just like flowers bloom on old branches.
*Your wishes will be realized in the end. *A sick person has to be in bed for a long while, bud will not lose life. *The lost article will not be found. *The person you are waiting for will come but late. *Building a new house and removal are half fortunate. *Marriage is not so good now, bud will be good later. *Making a trip and employment should be stopped.
There were two small gardens next to the temple, both housing a Buddha statue and flowers. They were very small gardens but were nice to walk by and get a few quick pictures of. There was also a five story pagoda next to the temple that was the first I had ever seen. The temple its self was being rebuilt so the outside was largely covered up and hard to see, but the inside was beautiful. The doors were left opened and a service seemed to be going on across the other side of some sort of fence. On the walk out Chris and I noticed a giant sandal hanging on the backside of the gateway into the temple as we walked under the three giant paper lanterns.
Upon leaving the temple we walked along the outside of the market looking for streets we thought of as sketchy, but instead ended up getting a rice cookie dipped in soy sauce and continues through the market. We branched off into an outdoor shopping area where we found a store called "Momo" which was closed, unfortunately. We continued walking on the hunt for food, which we could not tell wouldn't open until 11AM. By the time we found somewhere to eat that was opened we weren't too picky about how the plastic food in the window looked. The menu read "Asakusa Juraku" so I am running on assumptions that that was the name of the restaurant.
Our guessed order based on the small pictures turned out to be pork and white rice for me and tempura, shrimp and fish, and noodles for Chris. Mine was good and I have become a chop stick semi-professional and would like to publicly declare that I will no longer use the children's chopsticks at Yokosos. Chris enjoyed the shrimp tempura but made a strange face at the fish and the discovery I made about his noodles - which was that they were ice cold and not delicious at all. A Japanese man sat at a table across from us eating a bowl of warm ramen and I am pretty sure that we were both jealous of his ability to order exactly what he wanted to eat.
After Chris paid the bill I saw that Momo was open and decided, because it is my nickname that I needed to at least go inside and look. I tried on a skirt and two dresses but ultimately had no success. We kept shopping around and walking when I found a store called "Shanit" which reminded me of a slightly nicer version of Loose Lucy's. I got three t-shirts - one black, one white, and one green - which came in a [free] big black and gold tote bag that I have decided I will keep in my car when I get home to use in order to be more environmentally contentious. I was very excited about the purchase because we had seen the same store in Shibuya but I couldn't find the shirts I wanted in my size.
After getting a little bit more lost we headed to Starbucks in order to regroup our thoughts and plans for the rest of the afternoon. A hot chocolate was a welcome gift as it was extremely cold and windy outside; a drastic change from the cool day we had before. We looked through a knife shop where I wanted to get the meathead something but didn't find anything appropriate since the shop sold mostly kitchen knives; Chris thought some of them were neat though. I cannot have a knife on the ship anyway, so we made our way back to the hotel in Tokyo to shower and pack. I uploaded a final round of photos while Chris showered and got ready to take me back to the ship and go meet his friend at the airport.
I have had to find so many other ways to procrastinate because of the fact that internet is so expensive on the ship. Using Facebook and uploading photos to my travel blog for free and at high speeds were such a luxury that I could hardly contain myself. I packed the world's largest backpack full of everything I could and used my new tote bag to bring everything else back to the MV Explorer. We left the room, got on a train, got to the port, got a pack of past cards [and a solar powered good luck waving cat, because really, who can resist], and made my way through security after a giant hug. They searched all of my bags, which contained nothing prohibited, which took forever and resulted in them messing up my orderly packing job.
I trudged back to my room, left a note on Carson and Lydia's door and then dropped everything onto my bed where I left it while I showered for the first time since leaving the ship. I blow-dried my hair, shaved my legs [which I later regretted as I wanted as much warmth in any way possible], and got dressed and repacked for the rest of Japan. I had used my large North Face book bag that Peggy got me from Half Moon Outfitters to go to Tokyo because I wanted to carry my laptop. I quickly got over that, as my back was killing me, and packed everything in my small, red LL Bean back pack with a small amount of room to spare. From there I began my very short nap as Carson and Lydia got back from their Mt. Fuji trip a little bit early.
Carson needed packing assistance which surprised no one and I quickly provided. From there we got lunch while Lydia made a math test for a "sea monkey" she is tutoring on the ship named Sophan. Lunch consisted of steak, banana nut bread, rolls, green apples, and peanut butter & jelly. Carson and I grabbed our bags and met Lydia at Timitz Square on the fifth deck where I dropped off two more post cards and then left the ship. It began getting dark as we walked to the post office so Lydia could get stamps and exchange some money while Carson and I used an ATM [one of the few that worked for US cards and gave English instructions]. We got on the Yokohama JR line and transferred to Shin-Yokohama where we got tickets for the bullet train to Kyoto.
After boarding the train we were separated within the fifth car; Lydia was closer to the front of the car with Carson and I in the same row because a young Japanese woman offered her seat so that Carson and I could be together. We looked through the Japan guide book Carson had in her purse and began to plan tomorrow in Kyoto. After one or two stops Lydia made her way back to us as Carson and I were putting our iPods in. As soon as I hit Paramore on shuffle I remembered that they were in Osaka that night! Obviously we had to go; Carson was easy to convince but Lydia had never heard of them before. I played Lydia "Misery Business" and she finally gave in.
Carson and I talked to the train attendant about our tickets after trying to ask the beverage server who had no idea what we were saying because of the intense language barrier. We finally got him to change our tickets to arriving in Osaka instead of Kyoto for only 480 Yen more. We stayed on the train one extra stop, got off in Shin-Osaka and made a transfer to the Osaka line. Once we got off in Osaka it was close to 11PM, when Carson said the nightlife in Japan starts to come alive. We found a hotel so that we could use their internet and have them help us find where Paramore would be. We would up in Hotel New Hankyu where we used the internet for 10 minutes for 100 Yen. Paramore was playing at IMP Hall in Osaka, and the bell boy was having a hard time trying to understand Lydia's explanation of what we needed [as did everyone else in Japan because she spoke to them in English as if there was no language barrier at all]. By the time we figured out what was going on we realized that the show started at 6PM and even with an opening act there was no way that the show was still going.
We asked the reception desk how much a room for 3 people for the night would be. They told us 15,000 Yen and we asked them if that meant per person or per room. The way he motioned with his hands made it seem like per person, but we realized it was per room and we moved onto the eight floor for the night. The hotel lobby was beautiful and covered in marble and fancy lighting; the room was much less impressive but comfortable none the less. I claimed a bed against the wall under the window that had, what we discovered to be, a double sided pillow - one side was hard in a comfortable way and the other side felt like it was made of beans, which was also comfortable in its own way. I slept on the bean side.
After checking in we decided that we needed to be fed. We asked the bell hop [who probably understandably had no interest in having to help us ever again] where a good place to eat was, not thinking about the fact that it was midnight. He told us not much was open so we crossed the street for a Family Mart which we knew to have good ice cream. I got Ritz crackers with cheese, an ice cream cone and a box of orange juice, as did Lydia, and Carson got Ramen. We learned that night that all convenience stores had hot water faucets for customers to use to make their Ramen on the go; exactly why they are called convenience stores. We brought our goodies back to the hotel and got to work.
We didn't have to check out until 12 noon and there was free wired internet which Carson and Lydia took full advantage of. I passed out hard and woke up at 11 to the sound of Lydia's voice saying we weren't going to make check out. I didn't care and had no interest in moving or being alive, but I was given no choice. I packed up everything I had slept under [I was too tired to move it from the end of my bed] back into my little red book bag and made my way to the lobby for breakfast. After checking out of the hotel we made an immediate U-turn back to the clear glass cases we had walked by on the way to the front desk. It was a giant dessert case full of fruit and chocolate and cakes. Since it was so close to Valentine's Day, the dessert cases all over Japan looked amazing.
I figured that I needed strawberry shortcake for breakfast, and Carson and Lydia apparently needed these small brownie mousse squares. We sat in the lobby and ate our breakfast while we finalized our plans for the rest of our day in Osaka. We crossed the street and went into a huge multi-story department store where we ate lunch at a place called Baku. I got shrimp and rice and Lydia got noodles with shrimp; Carson had some of each of ours. From there we took a train to the oldest castle in Japan. By the time we got there it was freezing, windy, and rainy in the ugliest of ways. We slowly made our way up to the Osaka Castle Museum, taking pictures of the landscape along the way.
We stopped and got hot chocolate from a vending machine next to a phone booth which housed the infamous green Japanese phones. This was a sign for Carson that she could call her mom to wish her a happy birthday, which she ultimately had to do collect. It was about 11PM on the night of her mother's birthday when the call went through but she was happy to talk to her. I called Peggy for good measure and because I was slightly jealous of getting to talk to someone back home on the phone. She was happy to hear from me, and if I woke her up she didn't seem to care. From there we climbed a stair case which gave us a much better view of the castle and surrounding area, even though we could see the top of it as we left the train station.
While the three of us were photographing the mote, since the rain was still light, a Japanese man came up to us and began telling us about the castle. He seemed to be knowledgeable and very nice and liked to tell us about the castle's history. He started to chuckle to himself and none of us knew why, only to find out it was because of the language barrier. He knew what he was going to say wouldn't sound good, but he knew no other words to explain what happened during the war. In an attempt to explain that the castle had to be rebuilt after it was bombed by the United States in WWII he said that the castle had to be fixed after "we" bombed it. It was a very interesting way to think about it.
Once we got through the castle gate Carson and I took an "I Love the Eclectic Chef" picture for good measure, and then she got one with her Clemson flag. After we passed around our cameras we paid the 600 Yen the ticket machine asked for and made out way up the stairs and inside the castle. The museum was huge and interesting, and largely in Japanese. Carson and I are much less historically inclined than Lydia so we made our way down from the eight floor together, spending most time outside on the observatory or on a bench talking about how we were not looking forward to our summers. There was an exhibit of local children who painted on the theme of peace, and some of their art work was really good so I photographed about half of the paintings.
We met back up downstairs at the gift shop where Carson and I ultimately ended up with matching t-shirts and Lydia finally got some post cards. She sends at least ten post cards from every port to the same people and seems to almost lose her mind if she cannot find stamps, which ends up making me lose my mind as well trying to be accommodating. From there we made our way back to the train station and headed to the Osaka Aquarium. Once we stepped out of the station we found a McDonalds and Carson was in dire need of fries so we stopped in. McDonalds is much more expensive in Japan, but is also not as salty or greasy which I appreciated. From there we were back on the street and obviously lost.
It was still cold, rainy, and windy and a middle aged Japanese man stopped to see if he could help us. He spoke enough English to take us to the police station next to McDonalds and get us in the right direction; however, he came with us. The aquarium was about five blocks away and he walked us there and let Lydia, who had nothing more than a rain jacket for weather gear, use his umbrella the entire way there. He explained to us that when we travelled to California that locals were so friendly and helpful that he wanted to do the same when we went home. It inspired me to be more helpful to all of the stupid tourists in Charleston who want to find Hymans, which really doesn't even serve that good of food.
We got to the aquarium a little before 6PM after we managed to get lost and not find the entrance because we took a left instead of a right after jamming our book bags into the locker we rented. The first thing was a small tunnel where everything swam around and above us and we were already fascinated; unfortunately we didn't have time to be too fascinated because the aquarium closed at 8PM and the Japanese are very time conscious. We walked by small otters, huge otters [that I really wanted to keep], spotted sea lions, seals, fish, penguins [that we couldn't see because their lights had already been turned off for sleep], dolphins, and then finally the giant whale shark tank.
I was speechless and it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen in my life. In my global studies class on the ship the teacher said that only about 2% of people ever reach self actualization as stated by the standards of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, but I knew in all seriousness that I had just done it for the second time on the trip. There were two whale sharks in the five story tall tank surrounded by tiger, nurse, wobbegong, Blacktip reef, and other types of sharks as well as fish and rays. Lydia and Carson were stuck on the dolphins and I wasn't even aware of time at this point. They finally showed up and joined me in awe. It genuinely was amazing to see such huge animals just swimming around in front of me. I thought it was interesting to see a whale shark and a tiger shark in the same cage because they are completely opposite ends of the shark spectrum as far as aggressiveness towards humans.
Eventually we had to move on and we saw sea turtles, more fish, and a giant eagle ray that was easily bigger than my car, more rays, guitarfish, and an entire room full of jelly fish that Carson loved. By the time we made it through we were kicked out and ran to the gift shop where we found Lydia getting shirts. I found a whale shark ring and I knew that I needed it so I asked the lady at the register if they had my size hiding somewhere. They did and I got it and grabbed our stuff out of the locker as they turned the lights off in the building. Outside the entire entrance was lit with blue and white Christmas style lights in the shapes of rays and dolphins and penguins. It was beautiful and I got loads of pictures of it all as we made our way to our next event, the world's biggest Ferris wheel.
There was no line and no question. We paid our 700 Yen and got onto the car as it slowly moved by us. It took 15 minutes for the car to go around one entire circle and we spent the time looking out through the rain drops onto the city of Osaka. We put Carson's camera on Lydia's little tripod and took self timer burst mode photos in the dark. They came out hilarious because we tried to make "SAS" with our hands, to stand for Semester at Sea, but Carson could not seem to figure out how to make an "A." We just ended up with a lot of uneven, cutoff photos of us cracking up. We were never actually successful.
After the 15 minutes was up it was back to the station and off to Kobe for the rest of the night. On the way to Kobe we met a man from Texas who teaches English I Japan. He started talking to us immediately and quickly, as we later learned he was only on for one stop. He gave us potato cookies and Japanese oranges which were juicy, seedless, and amazingly delicious [as we discovered later on in our hotel room]. Once we got off the station into Kobe we went to a hotel that cost way too much, one that was just right but didn't have any three person rooms available, and one that had no rooms available. Lydia voted for the one where we would just end up in two separate rooms because she wanted to use their wireless internet.
We got the two rooms, which were a welcome break from each other for the night, and decided we were hungry, as usual. We walked around for a while until we found a place where we could cook our own food. Carson and I loved doing it so much in Shibuya and Lydia hadn't been there for it so we decided to do it again in Kobe. There were no pictures or English on the menu so we pointed to a picture that was on the wall and represented the cut of meat we wanted. She brought us a warm green tea, charcoal grill, short ribs, flank steak, vegetables, white rice and soy sauce to cook with. Carson and I cooked the steak like the pros we are and we all enjoyed it. No meal in Japan is complete without ice cream, which we got on the way back to the hotel where I showered and passed out while Carson Skyped with some friends at Clemson.
We had to wake up around 645AM to make it back to the ship in time for Carson and Lydia's trip to Hiroshima which left at 8AM. We pulled up in the cab as the gangway was getting ready for people so we got on the ship in time for them to dumb their stuff and run. I dropped my book bag off and showered and got ready for my FDP with Professor Medora for my Child Development class at 9AM. Our small group met at the port terminal and got on the bus to head towards the Kobe YMCA.
When we arrived all of the children seemed curious, as if they had never seen anything like us before. We changed into slippers and then went into their classroom. We all sat with the kids while they did their crafts and interacted with us individually. I sat next to a little girl who I noticed never seemed to smile, which for obvious reasons was a major bummer. I wasn't sure how to make her smile; she seemed to like looking through the pictures on my camera so we did that for a while - still nothing. I made her a small brown paper crane, which some of the boys watched me make as well, and gave it to her and she finally smiled a little bit. I cut out a green heart from the construction paper they were using and gave her that as well. From there we had to leave to go to another room. I got a quick picture of the two of us, in which she was also not smiling. I don't know why she never smiled but it gave me heavy boots.
We then went to the gym where a class was practicing a song and dance for a play they were going to put on for their parents. A lot of the songs were from Carmen, which seemed like a funny thing for such young Japanese children to be singing and dancing to. From there we left and headed to the YMCA exercise facilities a few minutes away in Kobe. We ate our boxed lunches - a cold chicken leg, pear, bologna sandwich, two hardboiled eggs, Capri sun, and Oreos - and then toured the two story building. There we no kids there because that is where they went afterschool but there were adults swimming and using some of the exercise machines. After the tour our aids, one of them a young Japanese woman named Eiko, showed us how to make origami paper cranes. I already knew how so I asked her to show me how to make twin cranes because she had given me one on the bus earlier as a gift.
She showed the entire group how to make twin cranes but I was the only one who could figure it out on my own. Afterwards they presented professor Medora with multiple strings of cranes that they had been making for the past couple of days. Cranes are an international symbol for peace and are hung at the Hiroshima children's memorial from people around the world. Medora was so excited to be able to keep the strands she had been admiring all day and brought them back on the bus with her as we left. She held them the entire way to our next stop, city hall.
The city hall building in Kobe was huge and had a great lookout area on the upper level of the building, where we went next. I looked around quickly and then the group wanted a post office so we walked there next. I had already sent out my post cards in Yokohama before we left for Osaka so I had alternative goals in mind. I told Medora I would meet up with the ship later and went to find a 100 Yen store in order to buy some origami paper that I could bring back to the ship with me. As I found the crosswalk I needed Eiko met back up with me and came along. She knew where we were going, since she is from Kobe, so she led the way. Eiko spent a year living in Toronto recently so her English was good and we spent a lot of time talking about everything that young girls do, I assume - music, boyfriends, hobbies, shopping, etc.
After I got the origami paper she walked me back to the station and we exchanged email addresses and got a picture together. I plan to send her a postcard from all of the ports I go to and add her on Facebook when I get a change to be online again. She was really nice, and very funny. One of her problems with Japan is the fashion and the overly high heels that some of the girls wear, that she said made her just want to push them over - a feeling I completely agreed with and understood. I got on the train, she told me not to get lost, and I made it back to the ship easily. I love riding the train no matter where I am - DC, Europe, Japan, wherever - and wish there was one in Summerville or Charleston to use.
As soon as I got back on the ship I ran into Collin who was on his way out going nowhere specific. I threw my stuff down in my room and took him to the area I had been in with Eiko. We walked around the shops for a little while, I got a dress, that originally was going to be a gift but will be determined later on, an orange [so Collin could see how good Japanese oranges are], and four English books [Scar Tissue, Fox Fire, How to Be Good, and The Discomfort Zone]. From there we were on a hunt for food. We found a place that had a plastic waffle in the window covered in bananas, ice cream, and chocolate syrup so I decided that's where I needed to be. We went inside and all they had was Italian food which was not what I wanted from Japan. We left and got lost and found a sushi bar because I thought the lanterns out front looked neat.
We went inside and they yelled stuff that made me feel like I was in Moe's. There was a long clear sushi bar and we sat down right in front of it and looked through the world's two longest menus which had no pictures but luckily included English. I ordered sweet soy chicken skewers with rice and Collin got some sushi sampler. I am not the world's biggest fan of sushi so I let him do his thing alone. Before either of our orders were complete someone at the other end of the bar, who I later learned was a nice, overly happy, older Japanese woman, sent us down a plate of tuna sashimi. We were told by the chef, who was busy at work in front of us, that it was a present.
I have allowed myself, or forced myself at times, to be adventurous so I shoved the giant piece of raw tuna and rice into my mouth with very little talent. I still am unsure of whether or not I liked it because I don't think I disliked it but I had no desire for more at the same time. He enjoyed his piece and then was given his order, which took less time to prepare than mine for obvious reasons - such as it was raw, obviously. He ended up with octopus, eel, and a variety of other strange things that will never be put in my mouth. My chicken came out later on, cooked which I greatly appreciated, and was amazingly delicious. I, being Simone, needed ice cream so I ordered a bowl of raspberry and vanilla ice cream with fresh berries on it while Collin got puffer fish and sea urchin sushi for "dessert."
Mine was much better than his, in my opinion which is based solely on eating the ice cream because there was no way that his dessert was going anywhere near my face. He enjoyed his after I took a picture of him in case he died from eating the puffer fish. We figured that since some kinds are poisonous if they are not served appropriately we should get a picture to prove my innocence. He is still alive, so no worries. While we were eating our dessert the chef apparently ran out of something so he took a couple of steps down the bar to a fish tank, snatched out a fish, and chopped its head off on the spot. I was speechless. We headed back to the ship in order for me to pass out and have dreams of unfortunately headless fish.
The next morning Carson woke me up around noon to go back out for our last day in Japan. I had gone to bed about 10PM so I apparently was just going to sleep the day away as I had already gotten well over 12 hours of sleep. We went back to the same station and went into the Kobe Mint building which was an ugly green color. We found a floor map and went to the food floor where we were greeted by a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, where we decided to eat our final lunch in Japan. We got a booth next to the belt and waited to see what was passing us by.
The first thing we grabbed was a normal looking sushi roll - which, reminder, I am not accustomed to eating as I am not a huge fan of fish, let alone raw fish wrapped in sea weed - which we each had three of. Then we each had a shrimp sashimi and she tried the tuna sashimi that I had tried last night which resulted in a very unpleasant face. She then got what we discovered to be a California roll while I ate what seemed like dessert sushi, sweet rice rolled up in light bread with a few black sesame seeds on the outside. Carson didn't like the dessert roll so I got to eat hers as well. By the end of the meal we needed more water so the waitress pointed out that there was a faucet of warm water at our table under the conveyor belt. We got some warm water and made green tea which was especially hot in the ceramic cups we were given, but still not bad [as I am also not a huge tea person, as in I never drink it].
Everyone knows what sushi does to the body - makes it crave ice cream. We went next door and got a bowl of very berry ice cream which was strawberry and raspberry ice cream, vanilla soft serve, fresh blue berries and strawberries, and some strange clear cubes which may have been aloe. It was delicious and we discussed our business plan to open a dessert bar in South Carolina in the near future because nothing like what is in Japan exists in Charleston or Hilton Head. So far we have no more ideas than the fact that it will be amazingly delicious, which I feel is a great start.
From lunch we went to the 100 Yen store so Carson could get some origami paper and we could grab a few gifts before getting back on the ship to leave Japan. The issue with this idea was that the 100 Yen store only takes cash, none of which Carson had. I checked out after I put back a few items, like squid jerky for Trenton and more Pocky for me, and had literally just enough money [save 200 Yen to get back on the train to the ship]. Carson had to find an ATM, which had taken a thousand years from previous knowledge and experience. ATMs are everywhere, but VERY few of them will accept American cards. I waited with Carson's basket while she hunted an ATM and after about 20 minutes she reappeared with cash. She checked out, we wrapped some breakables in news paper and made our way back to the ship to set sail.
We got back on the ship in time for dinner and were reminded of what a bummer ship food can be. I don't even remember anymore what it was, partially because the buffet is so repetitive and partially because I try to repress the memories of unfortunate dinners, but I know I ate a lot of rolls and apples. We pulled away from Japan and had two days of class in front of us before we made it to China just in time for Chinese New Year.
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