So far on this voyage I have seen more of the
world’s oceans than I have of it’s countries, including those I visited before
Semester at Sea. Still Japan is one of the most beautiful countries I have ever
seen. Everything there was wonderful: the places, the people, the history, and
even the food. I am not a huge fan of fish and by the end of my five days there
I was pretty much done eating seafood. But I definitely went out of my comfort
zone there and in other areas and I am glad for all of it.
The ship’s first port was Yokohama and I did
see some of that city but I did not spend more than a few hours there. With two
of my friends I traveled to Tokyo from Yokohama by train. Even by that point it
was hard to believe I was actually in Japan. It took us a while, more than an
hour, to find a hotel to stay the night. Finally we found a place called
Capsule 510. When I learned of capsule hotels I was imagining a big wall full
of small sections with the beds. I was worried about sleeping in one in case I
got claustrophobic. But the place we stayed was nothing like that. There were
different rooms for relaxing in, a locker for our things, and even a shower
area. The bed wasn’t even so bad, there were two rows of beds with a small
ladder for the upper ones, almost like a bunk bed. And instead of some sort of
plastic shield over the opening like I expected, we had curtains for privacy. I
kept mine partially open. There was even a TV, but I did not use it.
By the next day our group expanded from three
to six as more of our friends joined us. That full day in Tokyo we did quite a
lot. In the morning we went to the area called Asakusa (perhaps not spelled
that way) and visited a shrine there. There weren’t any other groups of obvious
foreigners besides one other semester at sea group. Many local school groups
were visiting, all dressed in their matching uniforms. Almost all of the groups
of girls we saw asked for photos with us. I posed with different groups at
least ten times. I almost felt famous or something, never have I experienced
such a thing before. I did get photos with them on my own camera too. Next we
visited an area of Tokyo where there used to be a castle. Now there are
historical signs and maps posted there and the gardens remain like a park for
locals. The view of the city from there was fantastic.
The weather turned a bit rainy after that and
we decided to find a place to sing karaoke. I have only been to karaoke once in
my life and that was a bar in Quito, Ecuador. There I didn’t stay long and
didn’t overly enjoy the experience. I was expecting something similar in Tokyo
but I was way wrong. The building was like a hotel, with a lobby and front desk
and elevators and everything. We split the cost for the six of us for an hour,
and the man showed us to our own private room. There were windows overlooking
the city, and couches, and two microphones for us to share. It felt great to
sit and relax and be out of the wet. There was a huge selection of English
songs, and when the lyrics and music would play the background images were very
amusing. We all had a fantastic time.
After that we all split up. Two of our
friends went to the airport to fly to a different town, and the next morning I
left on my own to get to Kobe and meet the ship for an activity. Tokyo Central
Station is very large and confusing, but with the help of three wonderfully
nice people, I found the right train and even got a window seat. The experience
reminded me of riding the Amtrak in California, though the views out the window
were very different. I didn’t sleep, just looked outside. I saw Mount Fuji and even
got a few decent pictures from the speeding train. The man sitting next to me
was extremely kind. He didn’t speak much English and I had only a sheet with a
few Japanese phrases (my name is this, I am from here, how are you?) but with
his mobile translator, lots of mimed hand gestures, and drawings we were able
to communicate quite well. His name is Mr Murai and I have a photo with him to
remember him by. I had to switch trains at Shin Osaka station (another large
and confusing place) and he went well out of his way to help me to the next
train. I kept all my tickets from that day as mementos.
Kobe is not one specific town, it is more
spread out over a larger area. Or that’s how it seemed to me. I spent the rest
of my day in Sannomiya, an area of Kobe very near the ship. I found my way to a
hostel to stay at and along with Mr Murai were some of the nicest and most
helpful people I have ever met. This is common for Japan and their culture, I
think. I have heard many other voyagers mention strangers being extremely
helpful and patient to them. The main lady who ran the R2 hostel did not speak
a whole lot of English but enough for me to get by. Her friend was a man who
was there a lot but did not work there, he recommended some fantastic places to
eat. My best dinner in Japan I ate there. I went to bed early that night in the
R2 hostel and I slept very well.
The following day I met the ship to unpack
some things and to meet the group I would go with to visit a local Japanese
family through Semester at Sea. There were less than ten of us signed up for
the visits that day, they split us into two groups. One group had four people,
mine only two. To get to our family we rode the subway for quite a while,
almost 20 minutes. But we knew that they would be waiting for us outside the
main station. Sure enough, upon seeing us and older man stood up with a young
girl who jumped around and pointed. Mr Oshima was his name and the girl Idina
lived with his neighbor. She was seven years old and chattered away in Japanese
the entire three block walk to the apartment. Some Mr Oshima would translate,
if she had a question, but mostly he just let her chatter. She commented on my
sunglasses so I gave them to her before she left. The Oshima family was extremely
hospitable and very nice. When we came in the house there was a huge table of
food they had made for us.
They were worried that I was wearing shorts,
I assured them I was fine. When we entered the house we took off our shoes and
accepted the slippers they offered. There was a second set of slippers for the
bathroom. I knew to expect that cause the hotels I had stayed in were the same
way. They had a pet golden retriever, I was super excited to play with a dog.
Mr and Mrs Oshima were retired and had a grown up daughter. She couldn’t be
there to meet us but she left us each and entire bag full of Japanese
souveniers. One of them was a wind up toy that we gave to a girl on the train
back to the ship when she gave us some of her candy. Mrs Oshima used to do shows
for the tourists, it seemed. She knew how to do the tea ceremony she said, but
she didn’t offer and we did not ask for her to do that for us. She did, after
we ate, take out a large wooden instrument Mr Oshima translated as a Japanese
harp, and began to play it. She but our hands over ours and had us play it too.
It wasn’t with our fingernails, there were small pieces of ivory attached to
leather bands to put on the fingers and used to pull the strings. It was really
cool. They had a friend over too, similar in age to them. She showed us her
photos of traveling around Asia and taught us how to make origami trains.
I hope I will be able to keep in touch with
that family, it was such a great experience to meet local people and see how
they lived. I got on a train that night to meet up with my friends again in
Kyoto. Our hotel there was really cool, the floor was all woven mats and we
slept on the floor and ate from a low table. Kyoto is an older city, the
buildings aren’t as modern and large as Tokyo. The next morning we checked out
of that hotel and went to a really big temple and lots of things to see. Going
there was one of my favorite parts of Japan, the architecture was really old
and authentic looking. Also there was a trail through the woods, we could hear
many birds calling. It was like a rainforest. It led to a small area, like an
outside temple, that was very private and secluded. It was like a great
discovery. I am not sure I can really explain it, why that sticks with me.
Before we left Kyoto to go see the town
called Nara, we visited a monkey park. The hike up was pretty tiring after such
a long day, and I was not expecting to see many monkeys, I thought they might
be a rare sight. But I saw three before I even reached the top of the trail. They
were everywhere. The rules were not to touch them, not to look them in the eye,
and to only feed them inside this building with protective wire over the
openings. The food was fruit or peanuts we could buy inside, no outside food
was allowed in the park. Lots of Semester at Sea people were there and many
took lots of photos. I did too. The view of Kyoto from up there was
spectacular.
I think once we got to Nara we went to bed
pretty early so we could get up early the next day. That day was the last full
day we had in Japan. We spent the morning in Nara, looking at various sights. The
town and some temples. Nara is an interesting town. It, like Kyoto, is older
and smaller. The most interesting part about it was the wildlife. Japan, at
least the areas I saw, were really developed. So I wasn’t expecting to see lots
of monkeys in Kyoto, and I was not expecting to see deer in Nara. I knew they
were there, I heard the professors talking about it at the preport meeting. But
I thought they would be only in certain areas, on the outskirts of town. But
no, they were everywhere. Like ravens in Anchorage. People and cars would just
go around them. We fed a few of them our frosted flakes. One ate our map at one
temple we visited. They weren’t large deer, just small ones. And they were
quite an important part of that community, deer symbols were on various buses
and buildings.
Posted for4 February 2014
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