So I have to keep this a little shorter than usual since school stuff is really crazy right now, but I just wanted to give a little update on the past 2 ports.
After my Great Wall adventure we headed to Japan. The night before we got there was the night before my birthday and all of my friends came to dinner and we had the giant ice cream cake from my family (which goes onto my ship board account that is linked to my credit card, which I thought was pretty funny! But thanks!) and a giant cookie tray that my friend’s Nell and Julia got for me. People made me cards and sang the happy birthday song like 12 times and it was just fun to have everyone together. The next day when we got to Japan on my actual 21st, it took us a really long time to get off of the boat and start our day because Japanese customs is a really long process. Once we finally did some of us got separated and there was some confusion and we ended up wandering aimlessly around Kobe and I was kind of frustrated because that’s how I spent most of my birthday. We finally got on an evening train to Kyoto, and once we got there are found a nice Ryokan (traditional Japanese house with rooms for rent) we could finally start our real time in Japan. We went out to a great sushi restaurant where the dishes came on a conveyor belt and you ordered specific items on a computer at your table and they came out by request on the “bullet train”. It was hilarious and fun and the fish was so fresh! We found a nearby karaoke bar to end the night with some terrible singing and strong Saki. It was a pretty low key 21st birthday, but once we were back at the Ryokan they had given us all one giant room with bamboo floors and matching Japanese robes to sleep in. After about an hour long photo shoot/wrestling match (the boys really liked their new outfits) we all fell asleep.
We spent the second day exploring Kyoto, seeing the Golden Temple (not the restaurant, but trust me all I wanted was Chinese food after this stop) and an area of Kyoto full of small monuments that was on top of a hill overlooking all of Kyoto. We were so lucky because it was the height of cherry blossom season, which only lasts for about two weeks each year. Everything looking like it was covered in fresh snow but it was beautiful and warm out. People were all dressed up in traditional Japanese outfits for a cherry blossom festival going on later that night. After grabbing some really quick food we made it onto a bullet train headed for Tokyo. The train was just as fast and as nice as I expected it to be, and I sat next to some really nice Japanese students that I talked to the whole time. We got really lucky, because paying for hotels in the Tokyo area are an average of about $100 per night, but our friends Brian had volunteered at a church right outside Tokyo and they had offered the 9 of us a place to stay for the three nights we were there. The pastor and his family were so warm and welcoming and the church had a huge game room and a puppy (bet you can’t guess what my favorite part of our stay there was)!
We got a really late start on a few of the other days, but we spent a lot of time wandering around really cool areas and just taking in the beautiful sights and people of Japan. By the time we left, I was even comfortable with the train system, which at times was so crowded that you couldn’t even blink without disturbing someone! Everywhere we went we felt completely underdressed, we were such ugly Americans. We went to Shibuya, where thousands of people cross the biggest intersection in Tokyo every time the lights change. We walked around Shinjuku which had great bars and restaurants and amazing shopping. My favorite place was Hairijuku, where some of the girls were dressed up in crazy costumes and the street was full of neon lights and music. It was a really cool area. On our last night there Lisa and I went to the top of Tokyo Tower and saw an amazing view of the skyline all lit up at night. Japan really is an amazing place, although I still can’t figure out how they manage to keep it so clean when it’s impossible to find a trash can anywhere in the entire country!
After Japan we had a much needed 9 day stretch at sea for us to recover from the past month. Between Thailand and Japan we only had 2 days between each port, so we were all pretty dead. It was also a really fun time on the boat because our group of friends did a lot together. Some of our Christian friends came with us to the Passover seder we had on the boat, and then my friend’s Ashley and Tim created a really funny Easter egg hunt around the boat. We did a lot to keep ourselves distracted from the insane amount of work we had during this stretch, and it made me realize how much I’ll actually miss the time when we’re not in port! Still, after 9 days I was so excited when we made it to Hawaii, and the Dean woke us up over the intercom by blasting “Living in America” at 6am when we came into port.
Hawaii is absolutely gorgeous. The beaches are wonderful and it’s all surrounded by mountains and fun shops and restaurants. Myself and three friends have been planning to go skydiving in Hawaii for weeks, so we were really disappointed on the first morning when we made our way to the airfield and were told it was too windy to jump by the time we got there, but we could come back at dawn the next day and jump. We signed up for a jump the next day and then went to meet our friends on the beach. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing games on the beach and using our cell phones to call people non-stop since we finally weren’t getting charged for international calls! It felt really good to have English speaking cab drivers, and cabs with doors for that matter, and to recognize stores and other American symbols. I didn’t realize how much I’d miss the states until I was back there! We had dinner the first night at a kitschy place called “Duke’s” and I ordered my first legal drink in the states!
The next morning we got picked up at 5:50am and headed back out to the airfield. We watched the sun come up over the beach and the mountains, and Nell, Shayna, Lauren and I calmed each other’s nerves while we waited for our turn to jump. It was a perfect day to jump out of an airplane at 14,000 feet, and that’s just what we did. It was an amazing feeling and the view couldn’t have been better. The pictures I have of my jump are hilarious! It was a great bonding experience for us and it was so cool! We met our friends at the beach again, and we spent a lot of the day walking around the shops and getting a last taste of America before it was back on the boat.
These next 4 days are pretty hectic with finals before we get to Guatemala, but I’m lucky because I don’t really have anything do after that, so I just need to get through this week. I can’t believe the trip I winding down, but we still have one more port so I’m trying not to think about it!
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