Friday, November 27, 2009

Kanichiwa, Japan!


Kanichiwa. Watashi no namae wa Kelsey desu. Ohio kara kimashita. Hajimemashite!

(Translation: Hello. My name is Kelsey. I’m from Ohio. Nice to meet you!)

Japan, our last foreign country, was such a great experience. I think I’ve said this about every country… but it is SOO true for each one! I’ve been overly blessed to have such wonderful times in each country. Japan has a very rich traditional culture and westernized contemporary culture. From tea ceremonies, geishas, pagodas, and hot spring baths to fancy bidets, high fashion, jet trains, and flashy lit up signs, Japan knows how to be awesome. And in addition, it was AUTUMN there! So the leaves were changing colors and it was SOOO beautiful!

I woke up early on Friday morning and looked out my porthole…
and there was MOUNT FUJI! This was such an amazing sight! No big deal… just Mount Fuji through my cabin window off the coast of Japan… ha! By the time the rest of SAS was awake Mt. Fuji had fallen too far off in the distance to see anymore… so I was VERY lucky. As we ate breakfast and pulled into Yokohama’s port terminal, we were greeted with traditional Japanese Taiko drummers. What a wonderful greeting for our first sights of Japan! Our clearing process was a bit different and more complex this time though.
We were each required to individually go through a long process of immigration and customs in the port terminal. This delayed us a bit and we weren’t totally cleared until about 11:30 am… then it was time to explore!

A little background first: the ship stopped twice in Japan, first in Yokohama and second in Kobe.
My friends and I decided to backpack around Japan the first 3 days and then meet the ship in Kobe. Our original plan was to visit Mt. Fuji the first day, Tokyo the second, and Kyoto the third… however, something we’ve quickly learned about traveling is that you MUST be flexible and always willing to change plans. The bus to Fuji was going to take much longer than our travel books said and we probably wouldn’t get there until after dark, which was actually only 5:30 pm. So we switched our days around and made it so we could still do everything.
Day 1 Tokyo, Day 2 Fuji, Day 3 Kyoto… Anyway…

Our first steps in Yokohama caught us SOO off-guard. IT WAS SO QUIET!!! This couldn’t be an Asian country!? But it was!
Japan is completely different from China, Vietnam, and India. People don’t honk their horns (I may have heard a horn 3 times over the entire 5 days… compared to hearing a horn 3 times in about 20 seconds in other Asian countries!), they talk very quietly if at all in public places, they dress VERY fashionably, and they have this calm peaceful aura to them. Having been in China just 3 days earlier, we were blown away by the differences viewed already. We made it to the Yokohama Train Station and WHOA…. Their train/subway/bus systems are incredibly complex! Especially to foreigners who don’t know any Japanese, can’t read their characters, have no idea how their systems even work, and can’t figure out how to work the ticket machines. The train systems were probably one of our biggest challenges. It sounds silly, but think about it… coming from a small town where subways don’t even exist for at least 150 miles away and who has only ever been guided through them, trying to figure it out is hard enough. Then you add on that it’s all in Japanese characters that are nothing like English. Then add on that it’s in Japan, which has more lines and colors on the map than possibly anywhere else in the world. BUT… we worked through it and figured it out! We boarded the train (or we at least prayed it was the right train) to Tokyo! About 45 min later we arrived! YAY! Not only did we accomplish the grueling system, but we were in TOKYO!

We walked through the Ginza, which is a popular strip in Tokyo. It was filled with high-end shops, restaurants, galleries, and LOTS of fashion. The fashion part is actually kind of funny… since we set out that day thinking we were going to Fuji, we were by far not dressed appropriately for Tokyo. We got lunch at Café Excelsior and continued walking the streets of the Ginza. Everything is pretty expensive so we got the feel of Tokyo by walking around and observing. We checked out a local market and some beautiful pottery stores. As soon as it was dark the bright lights on all the outdoor signs came on. Neon all around!
Tokyo is quite a city! If you’re looking for a place to shop and by fashionable clothes, this is your place to go.

Saturday started at a nice and early 4:30 am. That may not be so early for all of you, but come on, I’m a college student! We see this time at the ENDS of our nights! We wanted to see Tokyo’s fish market- it is one of the largest in the world. So we followed the directions we had been given and arrived at Tokyo Station an hour later… but then found out that it was at a different station that required several different trains and subways to get to… See, one of the things that we were “warned” about is that the Japanese is so incredibly nice and helpful. The thing is, they will direct you whether they actually know or not… and turns out that we happened to get directions from one of them that didn’t quite know. Haha. But hey, it’s okay! We’re in Japan and no matter what problems you come across you’re still in a foreign country experiencing pieces of that culture!

So after traveling a bit further and 2 ½ hours later, we finally made it to the fish market! Haha. As we were walking out of the subway we could actually smell the fish, no joke!
The fish market itself was a very cool thing to experience. One-person shipping trucks were constantly zooming around delivering stock to their stand. Stand after stand after stand had sea creatures that you wouldn’t even know existed. It was almost like they took an entire section of the ocean, drained it, and plopped it here in Tokyo!

We found our way back to Toyko Station, grabbed breakfast, and hopped on our bus to Mt. Fuji! The trip was supposed to take 2 hours… but it took just a tiny bit longer… actually about 5 hours. So again we had to rearrange our plans. We were mostly worried about getting back to Tokyo in time to catch our overnight bus to Kyoto. If it took 5 hours again we would miss the bus. So we changed our ticket time and location and then had only a short amount of time at Mt. Fuji, but hey, some is better than none!

We walked through a small quaint mountain town to one of the five lakes around Fuji. Oh, what a beautiful site with a line of mountains behind it!
Then we rode a cable ropeway up a side of a mountain for the most beautiful view of Mt. Fuji. Oh, it was SO beautiful! Snow capped the top, a lake at the bottom, multiple colors of changing leaves, and rows of mountains on its right side. We caught it right at the perfect time: sunset! The sun set behind the rows of mountains and illuminated the snowy Mt. Fuji. Ah, the site just is still so vivid in my mind!

Sadly it was already time to leave. Our bus back only took 3 hrs compared to 5 and we made it with time to spare! We explored a different part of Tokyo that was similar to the Ginza: shops, restaurants, fashion, and lights! Then we arrived at our overnight sleeper bus.

The sleeper bus was quite an interesting experience… I’m SO glad it happened - haha. The 5 of us were on the bottom of the two floors in a room with 3 others. It looked like a normal double-decker bus but the seats reclined further. One of our new neighbors walked in: he’s your classic cartoon guy- plops the chair back right into Lizzy’s lap and is out within 2 minutes. He’s snoring LOUDLY, wakes up and talks to himself, and makes a cow-chomping noise. Haha. Then our last 2 neighbors arrived and sat behind us. This cute 30-something Japanese couple was taking advantage of being behind everyone and out of site… but not out of hearing!
So you got 5 American college girls, a cow-chomping snorer, and frisky lovers all snuggly close on a bus for the next 8 hours. Haha. Seriously though, it gave us so many laughs that it was by far a great experience.

We pulled into Kyoto Station at 6 am on Sunday morning. Kyoto is a large city with many traditions still occurring. We first walked to a
Buddhist Temple that is the largest wooden temple in the world. Although I am a Christian, I think there are philosophies within the Buddhist religion that are great for people to live by. We then walked through the more traditional part of town. We saw another temple and walked through its gardens and viewed its worship areas. Then we saw a beautiful pagoda along old city cobblestone streets. We looked through some of the shops and then had our first geisha spotting! There are about 100 geishas left in Kyoto and 1,000 in Japan. These evening entertainers provide a nice meal and tea, music, and other Japanese traditions for men (but as the travel books told us, they are not prostitutes). They were beautiful in their kimonos, white-painted faces, and fancy hair and makeup. But I must say, I don’t know how they walk in those sandals and while taking such tiny steps! Next we saw a large stone Buddha. It was built as a memorial to all those lost in the world war… it was a reminder of peace even through losing loved ones. Behind it we climbed a mountain with many many gravestone markers. I must say, the temple and mountain were completely calming… birds were chirping in the trees, music focused on chants, water trickled… the fact that it was worship in nature had a very relaxing and peaceful effect. We spent the rest of our time in Kyoto walking through old streets, viewing a few more temples, and walking through a gorgeous park. We even saw a just-married couple walking out of a temple! It had started raining in the afternoon and so in the evening we sought shelter (and maybe some food) in a McDonalds. Even though it’s American-based, it still has different food options, like the Shaka Shaka Chicken I ate. We walked through the new Kyoto and then made our way back to the train station.

We took a train to Kobe, which took about an hour. Then we went on our search for somewhere to stay. There are expensive options of hotels… or cheap options of hostels, capsules, love hotels (otherwise known as hourly hotels… but can still be used for cheapos like us for a sleeping quarters), internet cafes, and karaoke bars. Actually many SASers chose these cheaper options. We tried finding one before we got to Japan, but it was quite difficult considering we don’t have free internet on the ship and we couldn’t call until we were there. We walked and searched and walked and searched but many places were full already. We finally found the winner! A hotel had ONE room left with one double bed for 7500 yen ($75 bucks)! YAY! So the 5 of us squeezed into this tiny little room… 2 people slept on the bed and then the other 3 of us slept on the tiny 3-ft space between the bed and walls. Haha. However, the night wasn’t quite done yet.
Karaoke (pronounced as Kaw-lo-kee in Japanese) was founded in Japan about 40-50 years ago and then spread to other countries… so we HAD to do it! It’s different in Japan though. A Karaoke building has tons of small rooms that you rent out by the hour. In it is a wrap-around booth with a T.V. in front of it. So it isn’t public like ours, but instead is only for the group that you come with. So Aleks, Nat, and I spent an hour in the small room, found some songs we knew, and sang it up in the mics! Haha—it was such a fun time!

The next morning we headed out early to board the ship as it pulled in to Kobe. We were so happy when we saw it! We had just successfully backpacked around a foreign country! O
ur independent traveling skills have grown from the beginning of the semester and I now feel quite confident in backpacking mostly anywhere! After breakfast and repacking my bags, I headed for a very memorable experience: a Japanese homestay!

All of the host families and SASers gathered together in the terminal. The families each held up a personalized sign with their students name on it.
Across the room I spotted the cutest sign: “Welcome Ms. Kelsey Smith” being held by the cutest little smiling boy. My family was SOO wonderful: Hiroshi the father, Yuko the mother, and little 3 yr old So the son. Hiroshi spoke English very well and Yuko could understand and speak some of it. And little So was always jumping and smiling all over the place. The large group of families and students played a few ice-breaker games and then we headed out. We ate lunch at a place with udon noodles and toppings such as shrimp, chicken, octopus, and veggies, all of which I ate. Mm, it was good!
We then drove an hour to Osaka where they live. I was quickly learning why we had gotten paired up together. We both loved music! And they specifically have an interest in jazz music! It was too perfect! I really enjoyed just talking with them about the Japanese culture, music, art, and just life in general. They were so easy to talk to and so very nice. We then went to a gathering for the Osaka host families. The program it’s through is called HIPPO. It teaches up to 10 languages and offers homestays in Japan AND countries all over the world. It was a perfect match for SAS! So the gathering consisted of introductions, music, games, and stories of our adventures thus far. I even got to show my host family on a map where I live in the U.S. Hiroshi had studied SAS before I arrived and showed the exact route around the world we had taken!

After the program ended we broke back into our individual families. We drove to their home in Sakai, an area in Osaka. It was on a city street beside many other houses. The front appears small but it extends far back. Hiroshi, Yuko, and So live on the 2nd and 3rd floors, his mother lives on the first floor, and his sister’s family lives next door. They were constantly making sure I felt at home, having me sit, showing me pictures of the surrounding area, and letting me play with So. Hiroshi’s mother, sister, brother-in-law, and niece came in to meet me. Oh, they were such joyous people! They were so smiley and had the most wonderful laughs. They didn’t speak much English…which made for a very funny conversation. It went as follows:

Fam: [In broken English] “Where are you from?”
Me: “I’m from the U.S.”
Fam: “Oooooooh! [In Japanese] Where in the U.S.?”
Hiroshi: [Translating for me] “They want to know where in the U.S.”
Me: “Oh. I am from Ohio.”
Fam: --very confused looks—
Me: --confused that they’re confused… then I realized what was happening--- “Oh! I mean Ohio the state! Not Ohayo as in ‘Good morning’!”
All: “Oooooooh! Hahahahahaha!”

It made for quite a good laugh! There were a few other times throughout my time in Japan that I had to clear up that I meant Ohio in the U.S., not as a Japanese morning greeting! Haha.

In the meanwhile Yuko was cooking dinner both at the stove and the dinner table. She was cooking Tako Yaki, which are food balls with octopus and some veggies inside. She had me try to flip the balls over with a toothpick, but it showed that I was not a pro like her! Dinner was DELICIOUS (Gochisosama!). Tako Yaki was quite good… who knew I’d like octopus so much?! We also had sushi & rice, squid tentacles, raw salmon and other fish. They spoiled me with dinner!

Such a beautiful moment occurred after dinner.
Considering how much they like music, they have an electric piano! So we went upstairs and showed each other our stuff! Yuko had piano books so I played a little out of those. And then I played the one song that I will always have memorized: “Turkey in the Straw” because of my grandpa Clendenen ☺ So I played it for them! Haha. And then it was their time to show off, and they were so good! Yuko played a few songs that were just gorgeous. And then they played a duet! Oh my goodness, I LOVED their duet! And not only did it sound good but when they messed up they would look at each other and laugh. So was playing with his truck and rolling it across the keys to add a few extra high notes haha. This musical connection meant soooo much to me. I haven’t gotten to really express myself through music the past 3 months… and that’s difficult when it’s normally so big in my life. So that evening not only did I get to express myself on the piano, but I also got to engage in conversation with two others that hold music so closely to their hearts. It was just so wonderful.

The next morning I woke up so happy… I had just slept in an incredibly comfortable bed, had gotten more hours of sleep than I had combined in Japan so far lol, was in JAPAN, and was going to spend the day with my new Japanese family. Breakfast was quite delicious: egg and seaweed spirals, rice patties with seaweed, and apples.

We headed out for the day to view some sites of Osaka. We first stopped at Nanshuji, a Zen Temple, that was incredibly beautiful. We walked through many gardens, a stone garden, listened to water trickle through a bamboo pole, and viewed the buildings They were each so calming and peace-inducing. We then went to the Tomb of Emperor Nintoku. It is a mountain cut like a keyhole with 3 motes around it. People are only able to view it from the outside. It is quite intriguing and quite scenic for a grave. We then went to Hochigai Shrine, a Shinto shrine. We saw little girls dressed up in kimonos awaiting a ceremony similar to our baptism. We then went into a teahouse restaurant. They gave us a tour of its facilities: the balcony overlooking the city and another keyhole-shaped mountain moted tomb, a traditional style room, a garden, and multiple views of a teahouse. We got to watch a lady prepare green tea, which is very precisely done. And then we ate some sweets! Mine was… ice cream! Haha. It had both green tea and vanilla ice cream, green tea jello, rice balls, sweet soybeans, and green tea whipped cream. After our sweets we went to lunch ☺ haha, I like this order of eating! Lunch was quite good as well… rice topped with chicken and egg. We then started our drive back to Kobe as it was soon time for me to board the ship. We drove by a castle and then stopped at a Sake Museum where we tried a few different flavors. It was very tasty. Once we were back at the port I had to say goodbye to my family. I was not ready to say goodbye and really hope I see them again someday… either in Japan or the U.S. From backpacking during the Autumn season to having a marvelous homestay—I had such a quality experience in Japan.

A jazz-ish band played along the terminal as the ship pulled out in the rain. I waved goodbye to my last foreign country (for awhile at least). Now we have 10 days ---WHOA--- before our last stop in Hawaii. The seas have been nicely rolling for the past few days. We have our last 8 days of classes and one final before Hawaii, which means many papers are due and studying needs done.
I hope I am able to catch some good reflection time as well… to fully take in my travels around the entire world…

I hope you are all doing very well. I hope you had a spectacular Thanksgiving, ate up some yummy food, and were reminded of the MANY reasons we have to give thanks.
I’ll write more later on my Thanksgiving happenings, but know that I am truly thankful for you.

As my Japanese family would say, CHEERS!
Sayonara! ☺

2 comments:

  1. Love you, Kels! I enjoy reading these so much- so glad you're having a great time!

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  2. Hi! kelsey!
    We're very happy to know you.
    And we're glad that you enjoyed Japan with us.
    We hope to see you again!
    Love you!
    Hiroshi & Yuko & So 

    ReplyDelete