Japan Days 1 & 2

                Well the first day was pretty uneventful. We came alongside Japan at 8am. However, Japan’s immigration process is very rigorous. First, we had to walk in front of a machine to have our temperatures taken. Then we had to wait in line to get out passports from the ship. Then we had to wait to be called by sea (or floor) to leave the ship and go through actual immigration. The Japanese government makes us have our picture and finger prints taken. The immigration process took so long that I was not allowed into Japan until noon. So Hannah and I went and got some lunch and money and headed back to the ship for our music Field program.

                Needless to say our field program was not good. We took the subway to the Bunraku Theatre. The Bunraku Theatre is a traditional Japanese puppet show. Here each puppet is almost life like and requires three puppeteers to control it. On the right side of the stage there are two men who are also performers. One of them plays the Shamisen, something similar to that of a guitar, and the other one sings, is the narrator, and speaks for all characters. While this is a very interesting set up and seems entertaining. However, when the shows are as long as full length operas and there are no English sub titles it becomes very difficult and boring to watch. In fact, within the first ten minutes or so everyone had fallen asleep. The show was so hard to follow that even our professor was having trouble. She let all of us leave at the intermission. So, we all went back to the ship and had dinner.

                Hannah was not really feeling well and we both had a long couple of days ahead of us so we decided to call it an early night.

                The next morning we both woke up for another field program.  We both went to Kyoto, but on different trips. The trip I went on was to visit four scared temples and gardens for my religion class. I went and saw a Zen Garden, the Golden Temple, and two other temples. My two favorite are the two that I remember the most. Well, the first one we visited was a temple that had 1,000 statues of Buddha’s. This was intense simply because at a glance they all look so similar, but when I looked harder I could find subtle differences between each and every one of them. The second garden we went to was a Zen garden. This is when the rain started to really pick up. The garden was beautiful though; full of luscious trees, tulips, and cherry blossom trees. Even through the rain I could see the intense colors of the petals from the cherry blossoms and tulips. The third temple we went to was the Golden Temple. Here we saw a temple that sits on a small island like land mass in the middle of a small lake. The temple is covered in gold plate with a dark tin roof. This temple was beautiful, the rain hitting the temple made the little bit of sun reflect the gold plate against the water. This was one of my favorite temples I have seen on my whole journey.            

                To be honest though, in the eleven countries that I have visited I have seen nearly twenty temples and they have all begun to morph together in my brain. While I have enjoyed all of the temples, in the end of my voyage it has become difficult to keep them all straight in my brain.

                In between the gardens and temples the group went to the city to eat lunch. I went with some friends: Mike, Josh, and Doug to this random restaurant that none of us knew the name. I ate some random meal that contained beef, rice, soup, and corn. It was good and very filling. The best part about lunch was that none of us had any idea what we ordered. We literally looked at this menu and just pointed to something. We all enjoyed are lunches though. On our way back to the bus we stopped at a local 7-eleven and I found this candy that I absolutely love! Now this candy that I like is a Japanese candy that is like a long lasting starburst. This candy is really expensive in the states and really hard to find, so when I found it I got so excited! My favorite souvenir to buy in a country is a native candy.

                Well, after all the temples our trip took us back to the ship. The ship was going to be leaving that night to transit to Yokohama. Hannah and I had decided to transit on land so we were not allowed on the ship. The time at this moment is 6pm and our overnight train was at midnight. So what do you do for six hours in Kobe? Well…

1.       You spend an hour and a half or so randomly walking around the city during rush hour. This was interesting to see all the people rushing around trying to get home. In this moment I realized that I had become one of those people that I laugh at. As I walked around the city I realized that I had become a back packer. I never understood why so many people enjoyed back packing until now. This made Hannah and I crack up which of course made everyone look at us because Japan is a very quiet country.

2.       You walk into random restaurants and try to read the menu to see if you want to eat there.

3.       You finally find some restaurant that says they have the best burger in Japan and try it. This was so interesting simply because it tasted nothing like a burger in the states.

4.       You walk around again experiencing a very silent 8pm city. Everyone is at home with their families or still at work.

5.       Find a Baskin Robbins and try all the cool ice creams that are here. While trying them you try to decide if these flavors are new or just something that exists only in Japan.  Fun Fact: Baskin Robbins are like coffee shops in Japan. People go to ice cream parlors and just hang out. It was so cool to hang out in this random place with a bunch of locals.

6.       Finally, get on the train at midnight!

Once midnight came Hannah and I got on our overnight train. This train was AWESOME!!!! We really had no idea what to expect when we got on the train. So, we walked onto the train and walked through the sliding door and could not believe our eyes. This car was a bunk bed like community room. There were two levels of long plans of wood. On each level there were about 15 bed like areas. The only way each “bed” was separated was by a small divider by the window where I would lay my head down that night. We each also got this cool sheet like sleeping bag that was actually warm! While this was not the most comfortable place to sleep I am so glad that I was able to experience it. I think that the states should definitely consider these! What a great way to stay sustainable and save money!