Japan

There are 10 foreign countries on our itinerary for this voyage and Japan was our last country before heading back home to the States.  Right now we are on our way to the beautiful islands of Hawaii and if all the other students are feeling the same as I am then they are able recognize that the voyage is coming to an end as we are winding down to our last port with Hawaii in sight.  Before embarking on this journey, people would ask me what countries I am visiting and I could answer by simply saying the names of the countries but I must admit that I could not point out exactly where every country was on a map.  It goes much deeper than that now.  I am fortunate enough to the extent that I have met and made friends with people from each of these 10 amazing countries and I can say that these interactions have opened my eyes to things that otherwise would have gone unseen.  I believe that I am wiser, experienced, more tolerant, and proud to say, worldly.  The latter of these terms can be ambiguous.  I believe that it is only after seeing, experiencing, and immersing oneself into multiple cultures that vary greatly from your own is one able to fully appreciate the weight of this term.  After this voyage, the world seems so small now and I can fully comprehend my insignificance in this world.  At the same time that doesn’t mean that my insignificance should stay this way.  There are many ways we can help people and sometimes it’s as easy as saying hello.  In Japan it sounded like this…“Konichiwa.”  As a sign of thank you, the Japanese would bow their heads, Indians would shake their heads side to side, and South Africans would handshake with a snap at the end.  There are many ways to communicate the same thing and learning these kinds of things was very fun for me.  A Vietnamese phrase that embodies this is “same same, but different.”

Japan, the home of future hall-of-famer Ichiro, was yet another favorite stop for me.  In hindsight, it probably IS my favorite (I know I’ve said this about nearly every port, but I mean it this time!).  The people there are just amazing; they are so eager to help and even go out of their way to do so.  I’m not talking about one instance we asked for directions, I’m talking about every time.  We would reluctantly ask someone for help and on one occasion, where a man didn’t seem to know where our destination was, he got out his phone, called a friend, and relayed the information to us in broken English and hand motions.  This was followed by a big smile and multiple bows.  On another occasion we were lost in the subway station and asked a woman for guidance.  We pulled out our map and pointed to where we wanted to go, a light bulb went off in her head as she pointed her finger in the air in understanding.  She gestured us to follow her and briskly guided us to our station, which was clearly out of her way.  There are many examples this sense of generosity.

Our ship arrived in Kobe on the 19th of November.  We had no plans for the day so we walked to a place where we were told was a large mall and completed a little sightseeing.  Our first order of business was to get some food and some wanted to try Kobe beef.  Well we came across a place and found that a dish of Kobe beef would cost us over $100.  And that’s just the beef.  No potatoes or salads with it, just a $100 slab of beef cooked to perfection and placed on a plate.  I guess the cilantro on top was the appetizer.  So we ditched that place and found some Japanese sushi.  I’m not a fan but I had to try it.  After eating we walked around the mall a little bit and came across a Japanese arcade and multiple specialized anime figurine stores.  We spent nearly an hour on this floor, it was quite entertaining.  Upon walking out of the mall we saw a poster for Harry Potter and the date read Nov. 19.  Opening Day!  We had some preconceived notion that it wouldn’t come out in Japan until we were already on our way to Hawaii.  We were very excited and practically ran to the theatre to purchase our tickets.  That night after a dinner and a movie, a group of us went out to a club to celebrate Myndi’s 21st birthday, which was at midnight.  The club we went to was a small little place and was crowded with SAS students, but they had great music, friendly locals, and good drinks.  The next morning Myndi, Ari and I woke up and had to catch a flight to Tokyo.  Luckily the airport was only a subway station away.  Japan has some of the best public transportation in the world.  The subways and trains are so easily accessible and safe that it makes the taxi services jack up their prices because the public transportation is used so frequently.  Upon getting off our plane, we had no reservations at hotels so we asked someone where the best and cheapest place to stay would be.  We soon find out that the man we’re talking to was the pilot of the place that just brought us here.  He got on his Iphone and found listings that seemed reasonably priced.  We arrived at this city and for the life of us we could not find a hotel that wasn’t booked.  It was a Saturday and weekends in Tokyo are absolutely hectic.  Every major hotel every weekend is booked.  To make a long story short, after hours and hours of walking through the streets and getting turned down at Hotel after Hotel, we taxied to an Internet café which sported individual rooms and couches with free internet.  It was quite an experience as you can imagine.  The man at the front was very friendly and guided us to our “rooms.”  I learned that when traveling you can’t be bogged down by unfortunate scenarios, you have to make the most of what you have and enjoy it.  At the time, we thought, “this is just ridiculous that we’re doing this” but in hind sight I’m really glad we did it because it was that entire night was an experience to say the least.

Very tired and very groggy, the three of us awoke and quickly booked a hotel in downtown Tokyo so as to not make the same mistake twice.  We trained to a town called Goyabacho and found a relatively cheap hotel to stay at for the next two nights.  We spent the day walking around and enjoying our new surroundings; soaking up Tokyo.  Myndi had to take her GRE test for grad school the next day so Ari and I spent most of the day and night trying new things and meeting cool people at night.  We watched some sumo wrestling before heading out for the night.  Everywhere we walked, we felt underdressed as about 90% of the people wore freshly pressed suits.  And the people who weren’t wearing suits had a great sense of style.  We went to a bar and spoke for a couple hours to a group of Japanese girls who had actually studied in Tacoma this past summer.  It was fun to find some common ground in which to communicate with.  The next day we celebrated Myndi’s completion of her GRE and went out to Shibuya – this is where the worlds largest intersection is…you’ve probably seen this area in movies as it resembles Times Square.  Walking under the lights and past thousands of people was crazy.  Some people still wore suits at night while others just looked classy.  The Japanese know how to dress!  Shibuya Street was one of my favorite developed places of the trip.  I can definitely see myself making a trip back there.  We came across a Dart bar and had to check it out.  This place was like a stadium of Darts, so many games going at once.  We played a couple games and decided it was time to see what else this area had to offer.  After a great night of bar hopping, arcade playing, club dancing, we decided to call it quits and head home.  The next day our ship was leaving from Yokohama so we had to catch a train there from Tokyo.  Unfortunately, we had to leave this great place.  With our bags packed, we got off in Yokohama and got directions to the port.  She told us it was a long walk but we didn’t believe her and decided to walk anyway.  Besides, we wanted to see the sights.  Well, as you can imagine it turned into a very long walk especially with the extra weight of our backpacks on our shoulders.  My whole time in Japan, I wanted to go see a baseball game but unfortunately it was not baseball season.  But we came across the Yokohama baseball stadium and there was a convention of some sort there.  We walked in, grabbed a pamphlet and a postcard, and continued on our way.  The stadium seemed like a minor league stadium but the Yokohama Baystars seemed to have a significant fan base.  People kind of stared at us white guys as we walked by (they must have known I was a championship pitcher back in my prime).  (:  Tired legged and somewhat exhausted, we finally arrived to our ship and put our down our bags for the last time in a foreign country.  It was a sad realization but a happy one too because we knew that our homesickness would soon be alleviated.  I continue to miss everybody so much and I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  By the sounds of things the company seemed great and I regret not being there.  Well, maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing I wasn’t there because all the food would have been on my plate if I was there.  Hawaii is on tap for us next, which after all that we have seen, seems like a vacation.  My final papers, presentations, and tests are soon coming to an end.  Only two and a half weeks until I’m home for good.  Can’t wait to see you all!  Hang in there and I’ll talk to everybody soon.