Japan

Day 1, November 11^th 2011: Kobe-Hiroshima

First I taught I was not going to write about Japan, because of all events that happened, but I think you deserve at least a short blog.

I’ve been to the future, and it’s name is Japan. We were told that our final port of call in Asia would be ultra hip, ultra fast, and ultra modern. They weren’t lying. I mean, they have vending machines for hot food, buttons to indicate which kind of room you want to check into in hotels and hostels, and toilets with seat warmers and aromatherapy scents. And this is throughout the entire country, not in just the urban areas. So, Japan! Yeah! We were the first voyage to go since the earthquake/nuclear/tsunami disaster, so we weren’t entirely sure to expect. Sure enough, we were docked in Kobe and Yokohama, two cities very far from the problems encountered up north.

We arrived in the morning and everyone supposed to go through immigration to get a passport. When I came to the immigration, they sent me back saying that I don’t have Japanese visa, even though in embassy in Belgrade they told me that I don’t need it. However, I was the very last one to leave the ship when they provided me landing card, whatever. Me and Joe desperately wanted to go to Hiroshima and the only way to do it and to come back tomorrow before 8pm was renting a car which we are not allowed to do according to SAS rules. The journey started with three Japanese people who showed us the place to rent a car. The guy in the company checked our driver licenses and we left.

Lovely GPS was in Japanese of course, so we couldn’t figure out how to find high way to Hiroshima. We stopped at a hotel where they somehow helped us. We were happy and finally on the way to Hiroshima. It was already 2pm at that point. We didn’t have breakfast, not lunch, but we decided to drive without stops and to make it as quicker as possible.  We paid thousands tolls, 5 dollars, 10, 3 and so on. Finally, we got to the toll after 200km driving where we had to pay 80 dollars. We freaked out how expensive it was. However, we arrived in Hiroshima at 5:30pm, we found Peace Memorial Palace and it was closed of course. Stuck in the middle of Japan, we decided to stay overnight and to sleep in the car, go early in the morning to see the Palace and to go back to Kobe.

After exploring Hiroshima and eating typical Japanese food, we found some weird dark parking, so we could stay there overnight, since in Japan you have to pay every parking and there are everywhere, which means there are not free parking places. It was good though. I found out that Joe heard for Yugo which was the funniest thing ever. Who would ever hear for Yugo if you are not from Eastern Europe?:)

Day 2, November 12^th 2011: Horror movie

This is probably one of the worst days in my life. We woke up, went to the Peace Memorial Palace which was incredible. I had a chance to see how people lived before and after atomic bomb and how Japanese people are peaceful and nice. Everyone was really nice wherever we went. Nevertheless, after visiting we were ready for going back to Kobe. It should take us 4 hours, but it took way longer.

First problem was that Joe’s credit card didn’t work the whole day and I had only cash that we couldn’t change anywhere, since banks were closed because of the holiday. We stopped the car close to the train station hoping to find some exchange office, but we didn’t find any open. Finally, after 45 minutes, I found a guy who had 10000 yens, which was enough for us to get back to Kobe. We gave him American dollars, he gave us yens and we were ready to go. Since we were really stressed, we didn’t fill the tank, so in the middle of high way we almost stayed without gas. We left the high way as soon as we saw exit, but the closest gas station was 8km far away and our tank was empty. Great thing was that we were on the hill, so Joe set the car on neutral and were basically sliding down to the gas station. Believe or not. Finally, we filled the tank and took our ride to Kobe.

We passed the last toll and we enter the city of Kobe around 6pm. Waiting for the red light on the little hill, Joe’s foot slide from break to gas and we crashed the car in front of us. Unfortunately, that car crashed into another one and it was absolutely the most ridiculous situation ever. They called the police that took us to the station. I will try to make this short. Problem was that nobody spoke a word of English and apparently we were under arrested. We both freaked out, since I had to be back on the ship before 8pm. I supposed to sail on the ship between Kobe and Yokohama, comparing to Joe who signed to be off the ship. After two hours, they asked me to sign a statement in Japanese. Who normal would sign the language which doesn’t understand? Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. After so much pressure, one guy who barely spoke English translated me and I signed. It was already 8:30pm, but I hoped that I could make it before 11pm when ship departed.

Joe called his consulate and they helped him a lot. I didn’t have anyone to call. How nice is that? So, they took us to the rental company where they asked us for 1600 dollars, even we paid insurance. We didn’t know what to do, since we didn’t have money and we didn’t want to pay. Sooooooo, we finally agreed to pay some money and to let us go. In the police car, we arrived on the ship at 10pm. I missed many parts of the story, but it was extremely stressful situation. We ended up safe on the ship.

Day 3, November 13^th 2011: Ship

I spent this day on the ship, sailing from Kobe to Yokohama.

Day 4, November 14^th 2011: Tokyo           

The fourth day in Japan, me and Chelsey spent in Tokyo. This was very funny day that I will never forget. We took a metro to Tokyo and around 10am we were at the train station ready to see one of the biggest cities in the world. We explored probably parts of the city where tourist don’t go, but I realized how I don’t care anymore about all these commercial buildings and monuments and that I would rather see everyday life in the country. We met some cool guys from the states who study there and many locals who were so nice that I felt sometimes really uncomfortable.

We went to the entrance of Harajuku which is very popular area in Tokyo. The district is centered on “Takeshita Street,” which I find hilarious. That being said, everybody has such swagger. Seriously, everyone is so fly, even if they’re wearing knee-high feather boots and a neon yellow tutu with a spandex top and ridiculous eye makeup. I’m more than a little jealous of the Japanese; I felt really unstylish while I was in Harajuku.

When we finished up exploring Harajuku, we set off to get some food. At the end of the day, we ended up in Subway. That was really sad, but we didn’t have money for anything better than that. After an hour there, we left and it was raining. Nja. But we said that nothing is going to destroy the fact that we are in Tokyo, hey hey. Once we started exploring the area, one guy offered us an umbrella. Chelsey accepted it, but then three more guys were around us. One was British and others were Japanese. They asked us if we love the Beatles and we both were like “Sure we do”. So, they offered us to go with them to the bar with the Beatles tribute band. We did it of course. After two hours, we were ready to go back to Yokohama and catch the last metro. It was so good night. It maybe doesn’t sound really cool, but it is. Many of you will have a chance to see videos and pictures from that night and you will realize why was so cool. We got back to the ship after 1am and I was ready for rollercoaster tomorrow in Yokohama.

Day 5, November 15^th 2011: Yokohama

Last day was reserved for Yokohama. We had a breakfast on the ship and just after 9am we were already exploring the city. Me and Michelle went to the rollercoaster park and it was really cool J Everyone knows how much I love rollercoaster and being back to the childhood. Since Michelle a lot of Japanese money, she left and went to some shopping mall to buy something, and me and Chelsey went to Art Museum and explored historical part of the city.

We decided to come back to the ship a little bit earlier because lovely and very welcome Japanese people wanted to write our names in Japanese and to let us wearing national Japanese clothes. When we arrived there were too many people, but we got a chance to try beautiful and colorful dresses. It was nice. I generally love Japan, except the accident that I had. However, it was our mistake. Now it was time for long 9 days until Hawaii.

So, a few observations about Japan, in a nutshell:

They love nature, their religions are relatively secular in outlook, manners are extremely important, toilets are awesome, the railway system is better than the one in America, it’s expensive, everything is really cute and/or old, the night life is not particularly impressive, there are many…adult entertainment shops, the language is really pleasant (especially when compared to what we just experienced in China), and taxi fares are nonnegotiable.

Upon leaving Japan, we entered the Pacific Ocean. We time traveled and lived the same day twice. No, the MV Explorer didn’t turn into the DeLorean; we just crossed the International Date Line. In the lives of the members of the Fall 2011 Voyage of Semester at Sea, we had two November 19^th, 2011’s. When I first realized this would be the case, I thought it would just be a funny chance at living the same day twice in different ways. It actually ended up being fairly confusing; all the posters advertising particular events and meetings said “1^st November 19^th” and “2^nd November 19^th,” and we didn’t have class the second November  19^th, both of which added to the confusion. However, it was fun at the end.