Sayonara Japan

        Japan was amazing.  The people are so incredibly nice.  Just walking around is an experience, even if you’re lost.  Whenever people travelling in my group got frustrated about not knowing the directions I would just shout heyyy!...uhh we’re in Tokyo!! Be happy, relax.  We’re all living on this ship together and get to casually ask each other, hey what time are we getting to China, when does immigration start…?  How amazing is this? We haven’t gotten over all the happenings in Japan and we’re going to be in china tomorrow morning.  I will be stepping off the ship in Shanghai, floating around China and their crazy New Year celebrations, then eight days later meeting the ship in Hong Kong.  No I don’t know exactly how I’m going to get to Hong Kong yet, but I’ll figure it out.  Overnight busses or trains are the cheapest option. 
        So, lets talk about Japan!  The subway map resembles a bowl of noodles.  After few days of traveling by train I realized how nice and efficient they are, mainly if you understand Japanese.  The trains are always on time, and there is a clock telling you exactly when to expect the next train.  People wait in lines behind arrows that line up exactly with the doors of the train when it gets there.  When on an escalator you stand to the left in a line to let people who wish to walk by get through.  Don’t eat and walk, this was a new concept for me.  The very first train we got on broke down for about five minutes.  It was very nerve racking because it reeked of burning rubber and all the announcements were in Japanese.  After we got to Tokyo from Yokohama we got some delicious Japanese food.  I ate a bowl of noodles with I think pork, or some type of meat in it.  All of the food I ordered was amazingly good, and not too expensive either.  It took a long time to find our hostel.  People would frequently stop and offer directions.  I didn’t think we looked that lost, but apparently we did. 
        Our hostel was amazing! The people there were so nice and interesting.  We met a lot of travelers staying there from all over.  Our room had about twenty people staying in it.  About half of them were in our group.  It was a long skinny room lined with plywood crates that were stacked two high.  Everyone had their own crate to sleep in.  It was very roomy and clean, and during the day you could lock your luggage in it.  We went to a karaoke bar, where you rent your own room to sing in.   Going to all the different restaurants was probably my favorite part.  Other than the people we met.  The neon lights and amounts of people at night were amazing.  I wish I could put pictures up.  I might be able to upload some pictures before the ship leaves Hong Kong.  We got back to the hostel really late one night and I ended up playing poker and Egyptian Rat Screw with some guys I met at the hostel.  They were from Colorado and just clean the bathrooms and live there.  We played till around three in the morning.  I won…hehe, too bad it wasn’t for real money. 
        After two nights in Tokyo we hopped on a bullet train to Kyoto.  We stayed in a nasty little hostel there for one night.  It wasn’t that bad, but compared to the first one, it was disappointing.  We saw a few temples in Kyoto then headed to Kobe.  There was a lot to do in Kobe.  It’s a huge city.  We walked around some shops and met two older Japanese men that could speak a little English.  They showed us around for a while and chose a sushi restaurant for us.  They helped us order and sat down to eat with us too.  The waitress was so cute.  She saw my friend struggling with the chopsticks, so she took the chopsticks and fed her this huge slimy piece of raw tuna, and stood there watching and smiling as she chocked it down.   Everyone in Japan throws up the piece sign for pictures.  We got a lot of pictures with random people we met. 
        I experienced being squeezed into a subway like a sardine.  I ate a lot of strange things.  The eggs there are different.  The yolks are really dark orange.  An order of bacon is half a slice.  When we went out to breakfast everyone ordered at least two meals.  I ate sushi and sipped on sake.  We became best buddies with two bartenders.  They put on the clash for me.  It was a good time.  So much happened.  I know I’m forgetting so many things to tell you all.  I would love to go back to Japan some day.  The only souvenir I bought was a really cool bright yellow and turquoise watch for 2339 yen.  I think I did really well with saving money.  That was definitely the most expensive country we will be going to.  I know I’m forgetting things.  It’s just impossible to write everything down.  I have to go continue preparing myself for China rite now.  I’ll be living out of my backpack once again, but this time for about a week.  I am so excited to see the Chinese New Year Celebrations!  I will update you when I reach Hong Kong.  Zaijian….

Next up Japan!

Tomorrow morning I get to wake up in Japan.  It’s almost midnight here, so this is going to be a short post.  I’ll be getting off the ship tomorrow to explore Yokohama, then head to Tokyo.  After spending two nights in Tokyo ill be heading to Kyoto, and then will meet the ship as it docks in Kobe.  This is so unbelievable, and it’s only the first stop in our journey.  For the next few days Ill be living out of my backpack and staying in hostels.  I am so excited to see Japan! I’ve never been so incredibly far from home, it’s a very weird feeling.  There’s an entire planet between my feet and my front door steps...

Hilo, Honolulu, and the Ship

        It’s been such a long time since I’ve updated this.  I’ve seen Hilo and Honolulu since my last update.  It’s so hard to be productive at all on this ship.  I don’t know why ship-life does this to me.  Normally I just find a nice seat and sit there for hours accomplishing nothing, except for defeating people in card games like Egyptian rat screw.  The ship left Hawaii three, or four days ago.  I actually have no idea, for all I know a week could have gone by.  Right now I’m sitting outside and the glare of the sunlight is making it impossible for me to see what I’m typing.  I know the weather is going to get really cold in a few days so I’m spending as much time as possible outside, while we’re still relatively near the tropics.  The days go by and I spend them flipping through card games and travel guides. 
        Hilo was a very laid-back port.  It’s a small town and the people there all seem to be friendly and social.  The first day in Hilo I went to tour Mauna Kea.  This trip took all day and it was exhausting.  We got on the tour van at eleven in the morning, and we didn’t get back to the ship until past eleven at night.  The tour brought us to a local waterfall before going to the mountain.  The waterfall was beautiful.  There was a man sitting near the entrance to the park making bowls and little animals out of these huge, long leaves.  He had found a really cool lizard.  The lizard was almost as big as my hand, bright green, and had three long horns on its head.  He found it in the forest, and had tied a little string around it as a leash.  He was going to let it go when he left for the day.  I was excited I got to hold it.  We asked him how much he was selling his little grass animals for and he says, “bird two dollars, fish four dollars, lizard fifty dollars”….. he was just kidding.
        After the waterfall we started our long trip up Mauna Kea.  It took about two hours.  When we got to the top it was about thirty degrees up there.  The view was really nice.  We got to walk up to the huge telescopes, but that was about it.  We were stuck up there for over three hours in the freezing cold.  We waited up there for so long so that we could see the sunset.  It was very nice, but I wish we didn’t waste our whole day up there.  The ground was covered in these little red lava rocks.  I curled up on them and took a two-hour nap.  The tour guide that took us down the mountain was….a character.  Instead of dropping the van off at the ship afterwards he took us to an all night local restaurant and we all had a meal and hung out for a while.  He was really cool, the most interesting part of the day.  It definitely was worth seeing Mauna Kea, but the day dragged on unnecessarily long.  The next day in Hilo was much more relaxed.  I woke up late because I was exhausted.  By the time I was ready to start my day, around noon, everyone was already out and about.   So I had to walk the 40 minutes into town by myself to meet up with people for lunch.  It was a nice walk, right along the water.  We had lunch, and walked around the farmers market, before heading back to the ship. 
         Then we were in Honolulu, so we went to the beach of course.  This city is completely different from Hilo.  We spent the night out at Waikiki beach.  It was a lot of fun.  I got back to the ship at three in the morning.  The next day I had another not so good tour.  We got in a van and were driven around Diamond Head.  I’ve decided I’m not going to sign up for any more Trips through Semester at Sea.  So far they have been really overpriced, and not worth it at all.  We’re going to plan our own independent trips for the most part from now on.  I almost have my plans for Japan worked out, but not quite yet.  It’s very difficult to make these plans without Internet access. 
        We are passing the prime meridian rite now.   I have more than a week left before I see land.  My sanity is definitely suffering.