Japan

Arriving to Yokohama, Japan was certainly bittersweet. Japan would end
up one of my favorite ports, but alas, it would be the last foreign
port on my journey around the world. Our boat ported in Yokohama. We
decided to spend half a day exploring the city before moving onto
Tokyo. Carrying our large backpacks we disembarked the MV Explorer and
went through a very stringent immigration checkpoint, which included
digital fingerprinting and having our picture taken. Casey, Stephen,
Cat, Missy, Andrew and I ventured out into Yokohama, which was a very
calm and clean city. We wandered into a complex that had Starbucks,
Cold Stone Creamery, various bakeries and some retail shops where we
grabbed a snack. It was evident from the beginning that Japan would
not be a cheap port. We had plans to go to the Landmark Tower, but on
the way there we encountered a small theme park and couldn't pass up a
ride on the roller coaster. After that, we continued our walk to the
tower. Once we found it, we headed to the 69th floor in the fastest
ascending elevator in the world! Once inside the observatory, we saw
beautiful views of Yokohama and even caught a glimpse of Mt. Fuji.

Next Stephen, Casey, Cat and I bought our train tickets to Tokyo,
which was only a 25-minute train ride from Yokohama. We found our way
to the Yokohama subway station. It was all very overwhelming—the
packed station, the array of different veins in the underground
structure leading every which way, the bustling crowds, the language
barrier. It didn't help that all the subway maps were written in
Japanese. Finally, we figured out which line we needed to be on,
bought our tickets, and went upstairs for a delicious pizza lunch. I
really loved grabbing pizza at every opportunity throughout the
voyage. After lunch, we found our platform after some asking around
and jumped on the train to Tokyo! Our first views of Tokyo were very
exciting. There were lots of big buildings and shops and restaurants
on every corner. The weather and look of Tokyo reminded me of Portland
with the trees changing color and the grey skies.

Our first mission in Tokyo was finding our hotel so we could drop our
bags off. We arrived at Tokyo station and couldn't figure out which
subway line we needed to get onto that would take us to our hotel.
After asking a bunch of people who pointed us in different directions,
one man caught our drift and personally walked us to the correct
subway station, showed us how to buy our tickets, and put us onto our
subway line. I was surprised at how kind this man was, but soon found
out that many of the Japanese people were ready and willing to help us
find our way around.

We found the correct subway station to get off the train at for our
hotel in the Akasaka neighborhood in Central Tokyo. Once we were out
of the station we again looked at the passersby and put our best
"helpless lost tourist" faces until a woman with perfect English
stopped to ask if we were lost. She quickly directed us to our hotel,
which was only a 5-minute walk from where we stood outside the subway
station. We had plenty of restauruants around us and we were very
central. Once we arrived at our hotel, it was already mid afternoon.
We looked around our surrounding area and then decided to start
getting ready for our first night in Tokyo! Most SAS kids were going
to be in Tokyo the first night, but none of our phones worked in
Japan, so we all decided we would meet up at a club called Camelot in
Shibuya. Casey, Stephen, and I got ready early and went our for a
delicious sushi dinner. I had to breathe out of my mouth the entire
time because of the overwhelming smell of fresh seafood, but my
vegetarian rolls were delicious. Our waiter was an adorable older
Japanese man who, using limited English and enthusiastic hand
gestures taught us a few Japanese phrases. It was a great first
dinner. By the time we were back outside, the already crisp Fall air
had become quite a bit cooler, and I was happy to have a jacket with
me. In so many of the countries, jackets and sweaters were left
untouched, save China… where the more bundled the better was the
underlying theme.

We hopped onto the subway to find our way to the Shibuya station,
where we would get off. We were pretty unsure where the club was from
there, so we found a group of Japanese students who showed us where to
go. We apparently chose the right night to go to Camelot because it
was "ladies night" which meant free admission for all of the girls!
Pretty soon all of our friends began showing up and everyone danced
all night. It was so much fun! We even made new Japanese friends to
dance with! The subway was closed by the time we left, so we took a
cab back to our hotel where we got about an hour of sleep, but not
before a delicious "midnight" snack of some McDonald's. This would be
the first of many Japanese McDonald's meals.

At 6 am, Casey and I woke up and went to the Tsukiji Fish Market,
which was only open from 5 – 8 am. We walked around looking at all of
the fresh catches and watched the fishermen bring in their fish from
the port. It was very interesting to see all the types of fish people
bought. The market didn't even smell bad because everything was so
fresh. All of the Japanese people carried around small straw baskets
that they would take their purchases home in. We then went to
Starbucks for a yummy breakfast and back to bed when we got to the
hotel. It was nice to use the internet at the hotel, and Stephen had
brought his computer so I took the chance to get in touch with friends
and family via Facebook and Skype when I woke up.

Once we were a little more rested, we prepared for our day of
exploration. We went back to Shibuya and walked up and down the busy
streets and went in and out of small shops and malls. Then, we found
our way to Yoyogi Park. This may have been my favorite part of Tokyo.
The park was filled with all different types of people – old to young,
children playing, people practicing dances and plays, dancers,
families strolling around – it was so much fun to watch everyone's
activities. Here, we met some guys from the US who were shooting a TV
show all around the world that is a play on different countries'
stereotypes. It is called 2x and will be on TV in 2012. We watched
guys dressed up as Godzilla and the power rangers do many stunts. They
even took a picture with us, so who knows, maybe we will be movie
stars in 2012!

After the park, we headed back to the hotel because we had planned on
meeting Missy and Andrew at our hotel that afternoon. We got ready for
the night. We decided to eat at the Italian restaurant that was inside
our hotel and sat down for what was a really great dinner. I had
tomato-gorgonzola gnocchi, YUM! Then, we headed to the Tokyo Ice Bar!
Many SAS kids made reservations in advance, so there were about 10 of
us all together at our time and about 10 more of our friends who came
in about an hour after us. Upon our arrival to the bar, we were suited
up with warm capes with hoods and pockets to keep us warm. I was
wearing sandals, so I was able to get some boots as well! They were
full on hiking boots that I'm pretty sure would fit an NBA star. The
outfits were so hilarious. Once we were suited up, we entered the bar
that was fully made out of ice, from the chairs to the bar to the
glasses. Fun techno music played throughout our time there. We were
allowed one free drink with our admission, so I ordered the "polaris"
which was a very pretty turquoise color. We had so much fun taking
pictures and dancing around in the bar, but then it began to get very,
very cold!!! After an hour, we were asked to leave because the next
group (more of our friends) had arrived. We all went to a diner to
wait for the other group to be finished so that we could all go out
together.

When they were finished, we met up once again and decided that the
best thing for such a big group (about 30 of us in total) was to do
karaoke!!! Right down the street we found Big Echo and rented out a
room for an hour. The room consisted of a U shaped red couch, a table,
and a flat screen TV at the front of the room. We were given huge
songbooks to pick songs out of as well as 2 microphones. We sang
everything from Spice Girls to Jimmy Buffett to Taylor Swift. It was a
blast! I had so much fun listening to people sing. When our time was
up, we went to an apartment that one of the groups were staying in and
hung out there for a bit before going to another bar down the street
in Roponggi. It was very small and hot in there and it was getting
late, so we headed back to the hotel.

The next morning we had to check out, so we packed up all of our
things and headed to the Imperial Palace in the Ginza area. First, we
walked around the gardens of the palace, which were huge and also had
many great views of the city and Tokyo Tower. I couldn't figure out
why, after 45 minutes of walking, we had found no signs of the Palace.
We joked about what if we accidentally weren't at the palace. Then,
after stopping a tour guide, we realized that was precisely what had
happened, and we were in the Imperial Gardens, not the actual palace.
It wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be…we couldn't get very
close because it was heavily guarded, but we did get a few good
pictures.

After all of our sightseeing was over, we decided to head to the train
station where we jumped onto a bullet train headed for Kyoto. The
train took about 3 hours and was so much fun – that thing really moved
quickly! We sat back and ordered lunch aboard the train and each took
a little nap. Before we knew it, we were in Kyoto. When we arrived, it
was dark and rainy—very Portland-esque. We walked to our hotel,
checked in, and went to dinner inside the hotel. Another group was
staying in our hotel, including some of the girls I had grown closest
to on the ship. We met up with them and just hung out in the hotel
that night. It was nice to have a relaxing night and stay dry and warm!

The next morning, we got up early, went to breakfast, and began our
tour of Kyoto. One of the girls had a travel book that took you on a 5
kilometer walking tour, so we followed that around to many temples,
famous streets, parks, and to see Geishas. I loved Kyoto. It was what
I imagined Japan to be like – traditional and beautiful. Also, the
leaves were in the midst of changing colors for fall, which was very
beautiful. We had so much fun wandering throughout the old town and
seeing all of the great sights.

We walked from our hotel to Gojo-zaka where we visited a temple before
climbing Chawan-zaka, or Teapot Lane, which was literally filled with
teapot shops. At the top of the hill we came to Kiyomizu-dera with its
unmistakable pagoda rising against the skyline. We paid an extra 300
Yen to descend into Tainai-meguri another entrance with spectacular
views and extended sightseeing. After we left we walked down the hill
to Sannen-zaka a cute street lined with old wooden houses, traditional
shops and restaurants. Here we ate pizza at a cute restaurant
overlooking a beautiful Japanese zen garden.

We continued to shop our way along the route, but eventually we split
up into shoppers and non-shoppers. Eventually we arrived at Ishibei-
koji, which the walking tour said was perhaps the most beautiful
street in Kyoto. The cobbled alley had traditional Japanese
restaurants and inns on either side. The intermixed geishas didn't
hurt the feeling of being in traditional Japan. Next we walked almost
directly across the street to Kodai-ji, walking up a large flight of
stairs. While we were up on the hill we also visited Ryozen Kannon, a
memorial the worl'd's unknown perished soldiers of WWII. Unfortunately
the memorial was closing right when we arrived but we did pop in to
take a picture of the large Buddha statue behind the memorial before
we left.

A few minutes later we found ourselves in the middle of Maruyama-koen
park, home to Kyoto's most famous cherry tree, which wasn't in bloom
in late-November. As we were cold and hungry, we didn't stay at the
park for too long. Then we walked downhill into the grounds of Yasaka-
jinja, another huge plaza with many ornately decorated pagodas and
other traditional Japanese buildings. We went back to hotel to pick up
our bags and then got on train for Kobe

That evening, we got onto yet another train bound for Kobe, where our
ship was ported. Kobe was a great city – it was like a smaller Tokyo!
We got back in the late evening, got ready and went to a bar called
Second Chance that was giving SAS kids all you can drink for $20. It
was ridiculous. The bar was tiny and so many kids were there, but it
was still really fun.

The next morning I was determined to go see one of the beautiful
castles that were located near Kobe. Two of my girlfriends from the
boat agreed to champion the last day in port and maximize our Japanese
experience. Lauren, Annie and I headed out on the train from the boat
(The train station was attached to the port terminal where our boat
was docked). The train line weaved around the edge of mainland Japan
where we passed many bridges that connected to the other Japanese
islands. When we got to the Himeji stop we got off and had lunch at a
French bistro where I had corn chowder and a delicious pastry. From
the restaurant we walked about half a mile to the castle. The castle
was built in 1346 and was a combination of beautiful stone and
woodwork. The castle was still in great shape and much of the detail
work is intact.

Everyone was sad to leave Japan because it was our last foreign port,
but I'm glad that I was able to see so much of the culturally rich
nation.

Stephanie@Sea