Japan

We docked in Kobe, Japan on January 24th and we left the 28th (five days). I really haven’t experienced too much culture shock yet, I don’t think, due to the modernity of these cities and available english. The public transportation is super impressive here; a little chaotic at times, but nothing too extreme. We got the hang of it pretty quickly, although the first day was interesting, to say the least. It’s all very fast and efficient here! The buses and trains are on time all the time, people are orderly when they enter, exit, and walk through the stations, everything is clean, and oddly silent. There is no diversity at all—we stand out so much. A few people have taken our picture, but otherwise they get on with their day and don’t care about us. Caroline especially—having curly blonde hair and height. That being said, we have split up our big group of 11-14 people into three to five people for many reasons. I can’t stand traveling in large groups. There is no possible way to fit in one taxi, restaurant, or quickly get around the stations. We waste too much time waiting up for people at each corner or to make decisions about food, shops, etc. The small groups have been awesome, though. Caroline, Jack, Abbey, and I work really well together. We ran all over the cities and up mountains in a stylish fashion.

Haven’t seen a fork in five days and have been only drinking hot tea…

Day 1: Osaka

As soon as we got off the ship and through immigration (which took hours due to fingerprinting, passport scanning, baggage searching, and individual interviews with Japanese officers), a group of the girls and I headed to Osaka, Japan on the train. Our first time on land in 11 days!!!! It was cold and snowed for a few hours, but we grabbed a quick lunch and walked to Osaka Castle. We actually strolled through a random park and watched some young boys play a game of cricket for a minute. We reached Osaka Castle park and wandered until we found our way across two moats!! The setup was pretty interesting and well preserved. Inside the castle was a museum with historical warrior garb and old battle scenes. I tried to talk my way through trying out the ancient headgear for free, but the language barrier was a definite disadvantage there, LOL. We got to the top—eighth floor—to look out over the city and then headed back to Kobe!

I then branched off with some other peeps for dinner. Our strategies of wandering through alleys, climbing up or down stairs and into a restaurant, and then closing our eyes to choose a meal on the menu in Japanese symbols has proven highly effective. Fried chicken cartilage and sake for day one dinner: √

Day 2: Field Class in Kobe & Osaka

So, a great educational day!!! Because I’m studying abroad!! For each class on the ship there is also a “field day” that you take with your class and professor, worth 20 percent of your final grade. My “Global Issues with a focus on Migration” course was day two of Japan. Our professor and a local guide/translator took us to a super boring immigration museum in the morning (no pics for that). Eventually, we stopped for lunch at an amazing underground restaurant that actually fit our whole class, complete with ciders and a five to sixcourse meal!! We had no idea what we were eating—still don’t—except for a few pieces of raw salmon, tuna, and rice, of course. We then got a little time to wander around. I found a cute shop and got some “Matcha and Milk” frozen custard. Absolutely had to take an artsy pic for that. We ended the trip in Osaka (30-ish minute bus ride) at the consulate. This was the most interesting part. Although we only had an hour there, we spoke to the the Foreign Service Officer, who is the the dude who goes through every visa application from Japan to the US. He quizzed us on all that we knew—my professor got a kick out of that. It was pretty eye-opening to hear about who gets denied or accepted depending on their application. It made me think about Trump’s plans… Anyways, this guy and his team gave some awesome insight on immigration and the United’s States's policies. Well worth the trip.

We got back to the ship somewhat early and so I jumped onto another train to meet up with my friends in downtown Kobe. We bar hopped for a little while, first to an underground hole-in-the-wall with live penguins… Yup. I tried salted chicken hearts on a stick and a strawberry placenta cocktail—both 10/10. A couple of my friends were repulsed, haha. We made our way to a place that required you to remove your shoes and sit on the ground/cushions (b&w picture), but eventually we ended up talking to the table next to us who knew the owner of a bar around the corner. We finally found that “Bar 1134” and became the party. Actually though. Only the one woman bartender was working and tending to her friends. Their faces lit up when we walked in, continued to give us half priced drinks, turned up the speakers and the disco balls. Abbey requested “Teach Me How to Dougie” and the thus it became an American club.

Day 3: Kyoto

Heading out early in the morning, the big posse boarded the train to Kyoto, which is the old capitol of Japan. Immediately breaking apart, CP, Jack and I headed away from the station looking for authentic lunch.

We actually came across a hidden gem. Like everywhere else, we had to duck to get into the sliding door of the restaurant. It only sat about eight people inside and we barely fit in the tiny chairs. However, we watched the chef roll out the dough, slice it into noodles and create our specific bowls.

They were, without a doubt, the best noodles I’ve ever had. We debated returning there the next day. Like we planned, the group met back up to find the AirBnb we rented for the night in southern Kyoto. It fit all 11 of us!! So cuddly!!

Day 4: Kyoto Continued

Thanks to a wonderful wake-up call by Brandon, our crew packed up and gracefully bussed to the Fushimi-Inari Shrine. We hiked about halfway up the mountain to see the overlooks of tons and tons of individual shrines scattered amongst the hillsides. It was bizarre. I wish I knew more about the religion there. I would have kept going to the top, a decent two hour hike, if we had had more time [and snacks]. Everything I’d seen had been kept up so nicely and the nature surrounding the shrines seemed to be so cooperative. I can see how these places are so spiritual.

Side note: Everywhere is so clean, even in the center of the cities. I never really saw trash on the ground or littered streets, which is nuts because there are no trash cans anywhere!! I'm not exaggerating when I say this. Apparently there used to be problems with people setting the garbage cans on fire...so they got rid of them. You have to carry around your trash (I'm talking like candy wrappers, pop cans, papers, etc.) and dispose of it yourself.

We then headed back down and snacked on street food—highly recommended, and honestly too difficult to pass up. I set a pretty high food budget…but what better way to culture and contribute to their economy than stuffing your face?? Of course, the first thing that caught my eye was the thick cut slabs of bacon on a stick with hot sauce. We tried some other interesting looking plates or sticks of different meats and sauces and sweets and unidentified objects. I give myself a lot of credit for having the self control to leave that tantalizing, fragranced street. The shrine was cool, too…

Not done yet. We found a conveyer-belt sushi restaurant not too far away that fulfilled all our dreams of unlimited raw fish and rice. The plates of individual sushi rolls (not many in actually roll formations) quite literally flew by your face on a conveyor belt so that you had to grab the plates of whatever you wanted before they escaped your arms reach. So innovative. I love Japan. The fatty raw tuna there was better than any American tuna roll I’ve had, at least. I also scooped up some octopus, blowfish, a random roll, eel, and Jack got “horse mane...?"

We worked all that off once we got to the edge of the mountainside across the city of Kyoto. We were on the lookout for a bamboo forest and monkeys, but only came up with one of two: Monkeys. With 30 minutes left to spare before the park closed, we entered Arashiyama. It was a short, 20 minute hike up the muddy slope, but well worth every bit of it. The view at the top was gorgeous and the monkeys didn’t let us down, either; they just ran around all over. There were a few guides that helped scare away the alpha males from attacking you or your things, but other than that, it was fair game for them. There were signs up warning you to watch your water bottle and your hair, not to point your camera in their faces, not to look them in the eyes or to crouch down. This place would never fly in the US. However, there was a little more regulation when it came to feeding the monkeys. You had to go into a house-type building with wire windows and feed them through that. Even still, a few times the bigger ones would attack the initial monkey you were feeding. They were pretty intimidating. One even grabbed my hand!! It may have been one of the weirdest feelings ever. You are used to animals maybe eating out of your hands, but they never have fingers…this was like a tiny baby hand but aggressive and hairy!!

Day 5: Kobe

I woke up super sore from walking and lack of sleep (LOL D5 athlete) and took advantage of not having plans for the day. I slept in, went up to the terminal in PJs to get wifi, and hung out for a little while. We all went to get lunch in Kobe and see the city for the last time. I grabbed a few Japanese candies as souvenirs and headed back to the ship to depart.

Pretty uneventful.

Got to FaceTime and few lovies before losing access to the outside world again, though. (:

Next Stop → Shanghai, China