Japan Day 3 (Part 2)

 I was bummed to be going back but also kind of excited to rest.  BUT THEN...Hannah and Courtney were heading out as I was coming in so I decided to join them.  I was so excited to hear that they were planning on going to the baseball game that night because I had really wanted to go.  

   My first order of business was to take full advantage of the huge hill I had just climbed up on the way to the port.  :0)

Next we went back to the street fair by the stadium for some photo ops and checking out the booths.  

That's my "I just spotted a cotton candy booth" face.

It seemed to be kind of like an Earth Day event I had gone to in DC a few years ago.  There was lots of information about recycling, safe water, tree planting, etc.  And there were some beautiful plants for sale.  I so wish I could have bought some, but they are not allowed on the ship.  Our favorite booth was the super science hippo one.  Or that's at least what we called it having no ability to read any of the posters that were up.  I think it mainly had to do with water sanitation.  Anyway, I looked at some dodgy critters under a microscope which made me nostalgic for biology lab.  I also had fun talking to a guy who loved science and travel.  Hannah and Courtney had to convince me that we would have a hard time being soul mates since we didn't really speak the same language.  Sigh.  :0P

   There was a science/craft project at the booth as well which somehow involved milk cartons and a story about water sanitation.  We weren't going to make one, but the people working the booth (including my would be soul mate) were so excited to show us how to make them, that we were roped in.  It was really fun trying and failing and then trying and succeeding to make our own.  Especially because the volunteers were giving us the directions in Japanese and we were asking them questions in English.  haha  I have discovered that even when you know the other person can't understand you, you still jabber away for some reason.  

  We finally finished our masterpieces and the volunteers took some photos of us and then explained in bits of English what the sanitation story was.  I filled in the gaps with my own parts of the story when I showed my roomie back on the ship.  (My parts mostly had to do with aliens and space salt.)  We also got to keep our own little super science hippos because of our enthusiasm.  So much fun to hang out with other science nerds!

   

Japan! (Day 3 Part 1)

   Transit day between Kobe and Yokohama was a strange sort of day.  There were so few people on the ship because most students had decided to travel independently to the next port.  Andrea and I had our sleepover and spend the day trying not to fall over as we were doing our homework.  (Rough seas.)  Since it was the anniversary of the Titanic sinking we watched a bit of the movie (probably the worst thing to do if we wanted to honor the victims) and took pictures of us on the deck in Titanic movie style (ok that is the worst thing we could have done.)  Not much else to say about that.

   I woke up in Yokohama having no idea what I was going to do that day.  I had been signed up for a home stay but I guess some of the families backed out so a few of us got bumped from the trip.  Everyone else I knew was on their own field programs.  Luckily, I met up with Andrea at breakfast and she had found someone who was also looking for a travel buddy for the day.  

   We got ready and then headed out with no idea where we were going (as all good adventures start.)  I got a map from a tourist office and we decided to head one direction to end up at a park.  Along the way we found a different park with some beautiful cherry blossom viewing.  There was also a mini-garden show going on which was cool to browse.  

    Having done the park thing, we turned back from the shore to head into the city.  We found a doll museum and I knew my mom would never forgive me if I had skipped that.  :0)  It was pretty cool.  There were dolls there from all different times in history all over the world.  I saw several dolls that my grandmas, mom, or I had growing up.  

I thought this one was a little scary actually.

NOT a Samantha doll as I had thought.  It's a Jennifer doll.  

Another rather creepy looking doll.

A Shirley Temple Doll!  (Queue "When I grow up.")

(Above) A friendship doll ceremony.  (Below) Friendship dolls.  Best idea ever!  :0)

Oh and I found some yummy maple candy.

    Our next goal was to find a mall.  We never quite made it to the big mall, but we did find a small one.  Things were pretty much way to expensive, but it was still fun looking around.  There were some beautiful fabrics and designs that would be totally worth all that money if I had had that much to spare.  We found a dollar store (really a $1.20 for us) and I picked up some snacks and, randomly, an eyelash curler.  I had always wanted one despite the fact that they kind of freaked me out and I was in Japan so.....(BTW I tried to use it tonight and I blinked while it was clamped and that led to ouch.  Maybe I'm not quite old enough to use one yet.)  

    At that point we were both pretty darn hungry.  I was being enthusiastic (difficult) because I absolutely wanted to have sushi and all the places we could find were western food.  Bleh.  Finally we found a grocery store in the basement which had an excellent sushi choice.  And don't worry, I made sure not to eat any endangered species.  :0)

    We took our lunch to the park outside of the baseball stadium to eat since it is considered obscene to eat in public here.  I was even hesitant to eat in the park, but lots of other people were eating lunch there, so I figured it was ok.  The sushi was SO good!  And the setting was beautiful!  There were huge tulip gardens all over the park and big trees sheltering the area.  We weren't the only ones enjoying the sights.  There was a street fair going on to celebrate the blooming of the tulips and cherry blossoms.  It was really cool but we didn't have time to really explore since the person I was with wasn't feeling well.

  

Japan! (Day 1)

   I usually try to look on the bright side, but my first day in Japan can't really be described as anything but horrible.   It was one of those days where things just weren't going to go right.  I guess that happens even when on an epic voyage of fun.

   The problem started when I had to disembark the ship two hours before my field program and then wait around completely bored.  I'm not sure exactly why, but I think it had something to do with people expecting customs to take way longer than it did.  The customs line was a little long, but it only took about twenty minutes.

   Part way through the process, I got that dreaded ripply feeling in my legs which meant an impending weakness/convulsion episode.  I managed to get through the line and to the place where I would meet my group in the port building before I started the full blown shaking.  I think it was particularly bad because I tried so hard to not shake during the customs process.  I was flopping around on the floor, as I tend to do now and then, and the worst part was that I think half the ship saw me.  I couldn't get back on the ship to go lay down because of some customs rule so I had to stay right where everyone was gathering.  Someone was nice enough to get me some sugar filled drink and a few people sat by me to keep me company which was nice.  I am proud that I did a fairly good job of making sure people didn't freak out.  I know the shaking looks way worse than it feels and it does not feel so good.  The sugary drink worked and after an hour and a half I started to be able to relax the twitching in my muscles.  As usual for a shaky time episode, I was completely exhausted after it was over.  I wanted to curl up and sleep, but I had field program I had to go on for a class.  

   Maybe the field program wasn't that bad and I was just in a bad mood.  Maybe.  But I remember it as driving two and a half hours to walk around an inaccessible zen garden that was more gravel than garden.  Not to mention that there was no opportunity to get money or food so I was starving.  Some parts of the place that the field program was was actually pretty, but we didn't spend time in those places.  Instead we all crowded into tiny buildings and were supposed to sit and look at piles of gravel and contemplate art or something.  I was SO not in the mood!  

  Anyway, here are some pictures of the pretty parts we were rushed through.

The only fun part of the trip was stopping at a cherry blossom festival for five minutes on the way back.  Hurried is better than nothing.  The blossoms really were very pretty.  I was glad to get an up close view of them.  

Then it was rushing back to the bus and a long, hungry, and tired drive back to the ship.  The unfortunate endeavor had taken all flipping day.

Luckily, back on the ship, my friends were there to cheer me up.  (After I ate) We broke out  my collection of funny pictures and laughed until I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.  

I was glad to put that day behind me.