throughout the voyage, until we got there and saw that we were no
longer in the land of cheaply priced goods. It was probably a good
thing that we only had four days there, at least money-wise. However,
later in my life I would love to travel all around Japan, because we
easily filled up four days just by staying in the few towns around
Kobe.
The second I got off the ship, I felt a connection to the land around
me. It was probably because I wanted to feel it; I wanted a place to
feel rooted to. It was a strange feeling because it was completely
foreign to me, yet I felt a feeling of familiarity.
The first day in this foreign, yet familiar country, two of my
friends, Libby and Caleb, and I had planned to go around Kobe. We had
an extensive customs process, and were letting people off the ship
alphabetically, by last name, starting with Z. Strangely, almost all
of my friends are in the K-L range, so I was one of the last ones off.
I got off the ship after having my picture and finger prints taken to find not just Caleb and Libby standing there, but four of
my other friends as well letting me know that we were going to Kyoto
instead, which was great because I had been wanting to go to Kyoto but
didn't think there would be time. That is one of the things I have
loved most about this trip, the sheer unpredictability of each day. At
the beginning of the trip, I got stressed out when I did not have
every detail of the day planned out, but as the trip went on, I
learned to love waking up and not knowing where I would be later that
day.
We traveled to the train station and bought tickets for the 50-minute
train ride to Kyoto. The trains in Japan are not easy to maneuver, at
least not at first. Very little is in English, very few people speak
English, and the stations are huge! Once we were safely on the train
and convinced that we were in fact heading towards Kyoto, we began to
relax and even play with some children on the train, making faces at
them and trying to communicate as best we could.
When we arrived in Kyoto, we ate a quick sushi lunch and headed to a
shrine, by public bus. The shrine was not what we were expecting. When
the bus stopped, we stepped off to see a large orange building with
two guardian dragons on either side of the gate. When we passed
through, there were dozens of stands set up selling dried fruit and
other goods. There were even a few booths with carnival-type games.
The path wound around to a large open park where teenagers with trendy
hairstyles sat on tarps eating and talking in a language completely
foreign to us. In the center of the park was a pond with a small
bridge over it and just beyond the bridge were paths lined with cherry
blossom trees in full bloom. The pink trees gave the area a very soft,
delicate look, like a Japan out of the movies. Underneath one of these
trees were two younger women in kimonos sharing a soda and
conversation, a picture perfect moment. (Which I took a picture of,
sneakily). After spending some time exploring this large park with
small shrines scattered around the perimeter, we headed out onto the
street. Partially by luck, and partially because my friend Amy had
some idea where we were going, we stumbled onto this little
cobblestone path that lead through an area with shops that were all
closing for the night, and small houses who were just turning their
lights on. It was getting dark, and in any other setting this little
lane would have made me nervous, but it seemed so sleepy and welcoming
that I felt right at home amongst the women who would pass by in
kimonos.
We found our way back to the train station and ascended the Kyoto
tower, a space-needle-like building, to get a view of the town we had
been exploring. Kyoto is a town that mixes modern with traditional. We
could see lit up temples not far from business buildings. We watched
as the train wound in and out of the station just across, but far
below us. We looked out to the places we had just been, remembering
how big they had looked to us at the time, but how small they seemed
now. Then we got brave and decided to descend and enter a pachinko
center, just to see what all the fuss was about. Now, here's how I
know pachinko; a small vertical box with pins in it and small openings
and when you flick the little lever on the side a steel ball is
catapulted through the pins and hopefully into one of the little
openings. This is the way I grew up playing it in my grandparents'
computer room, but this is far from what I saw in Kyoto and throughout
the rest of Japan. The sliding doors in Japan are not automatic, you
have to push a button on the outside, and then they will glide open
for you. As soon as we pressed that button, our ears were ringing with
loud carnival-like music and the smell and taste of smoke engulfed us.
People were sitting in front of vertical boxes, but they were
completely digital. I have no idea how this game worked, and I
couldn't hold my breath in there long enough to figure it out. We
quickly left with our ears still ringing and the taste of smoke
lingering in our mouths. The funny thing was that most of the people
in there appeared to be in their sixties. We couldn't handle the sound
and the smell, but they sure could. If you ever have the opportunity
to walk into a pachinko center, do it, just for a few seconds.
The next day, after getting back to Kobe the night before, we boarded
the bullet train and headed for Hiroshima. The bullet train looks
exactly like something out of the future. It is painted spotlessly
white and has a front that looks like that of a futuristic airplane.
Inside the cabins are roomy, and a few even have vending machines
(there are vending machines everywhere in Japan). It honestly doesn't
feel like you are going all that fast when riding one, but the second
another train zips past you in seconds, it's not hard to tell that the
country-side is flying by. I'm not sure the exact speed, but I know
that it would take 5 hours to drive from Kobe to Hiroshima and we got
there in just under an hour and a half.
The first day we visited Myajima Island, an island famous for a small
orange shrine that was built in the water to appear as if it were
floating. The shrine is shaped like a gate, called a Torii (yes, Twins
and Angels fans…spelled just like that!) and in order to worship,
people pack into small boats and sail underneath it. The surrounding
areas are filled with shops and more shrine and temples. Once again,
all of these are engulfed with the pink cherry blossoms, light enough
that they almost look like snow.
After we had spent some time here, we went to a Japanese garden,
about one kilometer away from ground zero of the atomic bomb
explosion. The garden had been severely damaged during the explosion
and it was said that nothing would grow in Hiroshima for one-hundred
years, however sixty-three years later and the garden is flourishing.
It was a traditional Japanese garden, with a pond in the middle,
unique bridges and more cherry blossoms. One Japanese couple dressed
formally and traditionally, the man in a nice shirt and pants, the
woman in a kimono, holding a white umbrella to protect herself from
the sun, quietly strolled the parameter of the gardens, a symbol of
the tranquility of the area.
**This doesn't really fit anywhere, but I figured it would be
something that some people would be interested in. I've been talking
about a lot of women in kimonos, but that is actually a rarity in
Japan today. They are typically only worn for special occasions. Most
of the women in Japan made all of us in our jeans and tops look
frumpy. The teenage and twenty-something girls, dress up, often in
skirts with high, funky knee socks and cute, but not revealing tops.
Everywhere that we went, we felt underdressed, because most of us
didn't bring that type of clothing on this trip, and some of us just
haven't had a laundry day in a really long time and keep having to
give bags of clothes to their best friend on the ship so that they get
washed with her stuff (Like me). The style suits the petite Japanese
girls very well and is trendy and put-together without…exposing too
much. I realized I had not yet spoken much about fashion in these
countries and this seemed like the perfect country to make a little
side not about it.**
That night, after eating more sushi, we did something that everyone
must do in Japan, karaoke. Karaoke in Japan is not like karaoke in the
US where people get up on stage in front of people that they don't
know. In Japan, customers rent out their own room, pick the songs and
sing with their friends for hours. We even got unlimited soda and ice
cream factored into the price of our four-hour karaoke session. This
was one of the most fun nights of my trip. I was with some of my
closest friends, singing and eating ice cream. What more could anyone
want? We even got a visit from some Japanese people who were doing
their own karaoke and wanted to join in with us. They did not know the
words to many of the songs that we were singing, so they brought
tambourines and just played along to the music, while laughing at how
off key some of the people in our room were (I won't name names).
The next day we headed past the Hiroshima Carp stadium (the baseball
team which would be playing out of town while we were there…but I'm
not bitter or anything), and to the atomic bomb memorial park and
museum. The A-Bomb dome, as it is called, is just feet away from where
the bomb exploded above the city on August 6, 1945, yet the structure
is still standing and serves as a memorial for the attack. The area
has been made to beautifully reflect the spirit of Hiroshima. The town
suffered an attack, of which the affects due to radiation, are still
being felt more than 60 years later, yet they quickly decided rather
than retaliating or harboring feelings of hatred, that they would
dedicate their city to peace. It is difficult to explain, but this
spirit can be strongly felt within these gardens. There is color and
sleek statues, all of which give off the feeling of peace and hope. It
is all clearly designed to look soft, rather than harsh and to look to
the future, rather than dwell on the past. The whole place promotes
such an amazing attitude that I know would be hard to find if
something that horrific happened. It takes a lot of strength.
The museum was so dense with information about the atomic bomb
attack. It took a good two hours to get through. They had exhibits
about why the bomb was dropped (it was a political decision that much
of the military was against), why it was dropped in Hiroshima (there
were no known allied POW camps there), what an atomic bomb is, the
effects of the bomb on the people of Hiroshima, and even exhibits
displaying almost completely incinerated clothing and toys. It was a
hard thing to take in all at once in a museum. I can't even imagine
what it would have been like to be standing on that exact spot 63
years ago.
The last day, after taking the bullet train back the night before, we
finally were able to explore the city that the ship had been docked
in. Our mission: Kobe beef. I brilliantly spoke with a woman working
at the hospitality desk to find a reasonably priced place for lunch. I
even had the woman write down the name of the restaurant in Japanese
characters so that our plan would be foolproof. One thing that I have
learned about traveling in foreign countries, however, is that nothing
is foolproof. Every time we have a place in mind that we want to eat
or visit, there is always a very real chance that we won't get there,
or will get lost, or will get on a rickshaw with a driver who has no
idea where he is going, and once again, this was one of those times.
We walked around staring at our map, asking people for directions
before two women pointed to the building that we were standing in
front of and told us that this was the restaurant we were looking for.
'Perfect', I thought to myself, 'that was fairly easy.' It was easy,
except for one small detail, a small sign hanging on the window
screamed at our rumbling stomachs and watering mouths that this
restaurant was closed. We soon found out, as we scoured the
surrounding buildings advertising Kobe beef, that many restaurants in
Japan are closed on Mondays. We finally found one that was open,
however when we looked at the menu, the numbers 137 yen per person
(about 130 dollars) seemed to be mimicking us and our hungry,
college-budgeted selves. Finally, we asked another information desk
for help and they told us to look for a place called…Steak World.
Well, there was nowhere called Steak World that we could see, at least
not that said Steak World in English characters, but we managed to
find a a reasonably priced, open restaurant serving a Kobe beef
sirloin steak lunch special. It was a small dark, but nice restaurant
and each table had its own hibachi where the chef cooked the steak
right in front of us. It was one of the best meals of the entire trip.
We ate slowly so that the melt-in-your-mouth steak did not disappear
too quickly and left feeling full and happy.
We decided to work off the food by going on another adventure, our
last in Japan. We took a train to the Rokko station and then bus to
take a cable car up Mount Rokko for a view of the entire port. It was
the perfect way to say goodbye to Japan and remember the four
jam-packed, but great days in Japan.
I don't think I will write another email, because, as I mentioned, I
only have three port days left and after Costa Rica will only have
five days left on the ship to spend with my shipboard family. Thanks
for reading all of my emails! I hope you enjoyed them. I learned so
much about the world and myself on this trip. I hope you learned a
little bit too and are encouraged to go travel yourself! Honestly, the
most valuable thing that I think I learned about myself, is that I am
capable of a lot more than I gave myself credit for before I left on
this trip. It was such a great lesson to learn and I had a great time
learning it. Every moment, high and low, was totally worth it. I hope
you all get an opportunity to experience some of those moments too.
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