No Plan Japan
The funny thing about Japan was that buzz around the ship before we got off. Everyone was asking the same question, “What are you doing in Japan?” And everyone’s answer was the same, I have no idea! Every one of us is becoming poor college students and being that Japan is so expensive we were all wondering how we were going to do it. Like China, the ship goes to two ports in Japan and you had the option of staying on the ship between or going inland, I chose to go inland this time.
I was exhausted the morning of Japan and the people I was traveling with had 3 hours dock time because they were 8 minutes late getting on the ship in Shanghai so I decided to sleep in a bit. I slept through all the morning announcements and woke up to learn we had an even weirder customs process than China. We had to wake up and go to the Faculty lounge, we were then told to walk through the room and there was a camera videoing us as we walked, oh, and we had to hold our passport while doing it. So you pick your passport up at one end, walk across and hand it back in at the other. The man who was taping was wearing a serious Japanese military uniform and I was kind of confused by the whole thing. Next we had to walk off the ship, all 700 of us and go into the port customs building to clear. This took forever and it was too early. I didn’t realize how long it would take so I didn’t brush my teeth. My breath was KICKING and I am sure everyone around me knew that as well.
Once I woke up I realized that Japanese phone carriers don’t support blackberries, no phone for a week.
Also, there were 2 Japanese students who traveled on the ship with us from China to Japan. I asked them what “Domo irrigato Mr. Roboto,” and they looked at me like I had 5 heads. BUT, irrigato means “Thank you” and domo irrigato means “Thank you very much.” Quite the useful saying I figured out.
Once you got up to the customs man they took your fingerprints, photo and then asked you questions. This was my question:
“Are you carrying any cigarettes?”
“No.”
“Thank you, go ahead.”
WHAT? Good thing they didn’t look in my bag and find my hand grenades, but all that matters is that I was cigarette free. Completely confused I went back to the boat and got ready for the day.
Day 1 – Kobe, Osaka
The ship was right near the train station which was convenient so we all bought our rail tickets and made our way to the center of Kobe, where the ship was docked. It was a city but nothing too overwhelming. The guys I was with heard about a Jack Daniel’s Bar in Kobe so that was our mission. I Googled it, nonexistent… next. We were hungry so we tried to find some sushi, believe it or not it was impossible to find. We found a restaurant that could hold all 12 of us and we sat down. We asked the man for a menu and he pointed to a sign that said something in Japanese and we said, “OK! Twelve of those and 12 beers.” We had no idea what we ordered and what they brought out was not what I was expecting. Out came 45,643 egg puffs with some mush inside and an octopus tentacle, gross. I took the tentacle out and ate the egg puff which wasn’t that bad but that was not going to be my lunch. We all ate a couple, paid and left. Next stop… food.
We tried another place and the waiter knew a bit of English, he knew enough to get me some edamame so I was excited. After a food tour of local restaurants in Kobe we hit up McDonalds and got on the subway bound for Osaka.
Osaka was another pretty big city and we had huge backpacks on so we wanted to find our hostel first. NO ONE spoke English or knew what I was talking about. We finally found someone to take us; this was the beginning of me learning how hospitable Japanese people are. The taxi driver, which by the way starts out at $7 just getting in, took us to the area, parked his car and walked us to the hostel. The place was really nice, there were 6 of us and it was like a mini apartment. When I opened the door the first thing I saw was 6 pairs of sandals you were supposed to wear when inside the room, so cute. We put our stuff down and head out in search of dinner.
We stopped at 7-11 first, which in Japan is called “7 & iHoldings,” whatever that means, because it’s the only place to take money out with U.S. banks. We found a little restaurant that had menus with pictures, score! They also said they were having a drink special, get ready for this. For $15 you get all you can drink for 90 minutes, where do they come up with this stuff? Ok, start the clock!
After dinner we went back to change for the night. I was SUPER excited because I bought an awesome dress at a little boutique during the day; it was so Gossip Girl I could barely hold in my excitement. There were a lot of people staying in the same hostel and I have this habit of always saying “come to my place before!” A room made for 6 was now holding about 25. Everyone and their mom were going to “Club Pure,” going to purely be a SASsafrass party. The cabs didn’t really know where we were trying to go but I said irrigato a few times and they dropped us off as close as they could. We must have looked pretty lost because this African American man on a bike came up to us to help. He spoke perfect English and I asked him where he was from, he said New Orleans. I told him my dad lived in Kenner, Louisiana at one point and he said he knew it. We reminisced about Rally Burger and the insanity of Bourbon St. as he led the way to Club Pure. At one point he pulled out a flier for the club that he opened in Japan, Bubba’s. Of course it would be called Bubba’s, we were not going there.
Upon arrival at pure we found out that if you get in before midnight you don’t have to pay for a cover. Have you heard of those stories when crowds push and people get trampled, it was about to happen. There were so many of us and the guys were all pushing forward for fun, dumb girls were saying “Oh my god! Stop pushing, you’re hurting me!” I had my hands straight up above my head just riding the wave, it was honestly really funny. We all got safely inside and I went up to the bar and bought the first round, or tried. I looked really cool saying “three Captain and Cokes please.” The man poured them, told me it was around $18 and I handed him the Visa. “We don’t take credit cards.” I could swear the DJ screeched the record and time stopped for a second, say that one more time sir!? I didn’t have much cash on me so my generous buying the first round maneuver turned into me just taking one for the team and ordering it, but not paying.
While I was standing there someone came up to me and pointed to the end of the bar, free tequila, okay! I danced the night away and saw some of my favorite SASers, it was a really good night, I think I went home somewhere around 4:30am.
Day 2 – Kyoto, Tokyo
We all woke up starving. We packed our backpacks and headed out for the train station. We found lunch on the way at this cool futuristic Japanese restaurant. Basically, you walk up to a vending machine, put in money and click the buttons for food you want. I clicked shrimp, edamame, white rice and miso soup. You then walk over to a table and the waitress brings it out to you, no interaction, no language barrier or confusion, just lunch.
We got to the train and bought our subway pass for Kyoto. We were told you have to go to Kyoto because its an older part of Japan with more Japanese culture and most importantly, cherry blossom trees. Once we got to Kyoto we had no idea where to go and had about 3 hours. We asked a man who was driving a van buy drawing what would look like a temple and cherry blossom tree, he knew exactly what we were saying. We asked if he could take us, he was not a taxi, and he said okay! Literally, 15 of us crammed into this little van that had no back seats just the driver and passenger and went to a Japanese temple.
I don’t really care for those sorts of things so as everyone wandered around the park I sat on a bench and read “Gold Coast,” by Nelson DeMille. It was a gorgeous day outside with perfect weather I could have sat there forever.
After some time in the park we had to get back to the train station to get to Tokyo.
The slow train to Tokyo takes 9 hours, but the super cool super new and advanced Bullet Train takes 2 hours. The tickets were around $130 but it was totally worth it. This train went SO FAST. We all got on and just as I was about to fall asleep I notice an interesting magazine in the holder on the back of the chair in front of me. I took it out to investigate, Japanese porn, of course. I literally laughed myself to sleep, I slept the entire way and we arrived in Tokyo just in time for dinner.
We had no idea where we were going to stay so we had to figure that out first. We were going to the Shibuya district of Tokyo, p.s. Tokyo is the largest city in the world. Tokyo was also the cleanest city I have ever seen but whenever I had garbage I could not for the life of me find garbage pales anywhere. We really wanted to stay in a “Capsule” hotel. Japan is known for these efficient hotels, it’s like sleeping in a space ship. You literally sleep in a capsule. We found one and then find out they don’t allow girls, cool.
Next plan, get a nice hotel room and cram as many people in it as possible to save money because Tokyo is SO expensive. We found this 5 star hotel who tried to sell us a room for $400 a night. We told them we were poor students and they gave it to us for $200. There were 6 people to a room and when we opened the door we saw 4 double beds, SCORE! It was only about $30 a night which is absolutely unheard of in Japan.
After unloading all our stuff we set out for dinner. I really wanted to find a rotating sushi bar because there is one in Towson and it is my absolute favorite place to eat. After some aimless roaming we found one and it was $1 a plate! I went to TOWN, the sushi was absolutely amazing, I think I might have eaten 7 plates.
After dinner we got the night started. We found a karaoke bar and the man told us it was $7 for the room for an hour and everyone gets a free beer with that. All 12 of us were stuffed into this room and I have honestly never had so many laughs or laughed so hard in my life. I requested Eminem “Kill You” and rapped the entire thing without looking at the screen; people were definitely impressed and maybe a little scared. I did the same for System of a Down “Chop Suey!” and Sum 41 “Fat Lip.” Of course there was some Michael Jackson thrown in the mix and everyone seemed to agree that my voice may be absolutely terrible but I am SO good at karaoke.
The workers gave us another hour because one was no where near enough and they were feeding us beers like it was going out of style. When the two hours was up we went down to pay our bill thinking it would be like $20 a person. The total was around $400, we started freaking out on them because they basically scammed us. We all decided we were going to throw in $10 and leave (about $150) because that is MORE than enough for karaoke. We threw the money down and walked out, one of my friends stayed behind (we didn’t realize it at the time) and the cops came in and tried to arrest him. He charged around $250 on his credit card and they let him go. We all paid him back, so in the end, karaoke won.
So I am sitting here thinking really hard about what happened after karaoke and I cannot for the life of me remember. So anyway, around 3am the Manchester United game was playing so we went to this sports bar called “Rooney’s.” I was dead, I lasted about 45 minutes and then went back to the hotel. The next morning I wake up and find out that 2 of my guy friends passed out on the bar, beer in hand, and slept at Rooney’s. Now there is a joke that will live on forever, “Hey! Where you staying tonight!?,” “Oh, this place up the road called Rooney’s. You know it?” hahaha
Day 3 – Tokyo
I woke up today and was not feeling it. We packed up all our bags and went to breakfast. We went back to the rotating sushi bar for round two; afterwards I decided the only way I was going to make it into the night was if I took a serious power nap. The only thing was we didn’t have a room anymore; we were going to try to sleep somewhere a little cheaper, stupid idea. After an hour of looking all we could find was “Love Hotels” that you rented by the hour and the mattresses had liners on them, GROSS.
We head back to the original hotel and asked to stay another night, they gave us a room and we went to unpack again. My day consisted of a 4 hour nap.
At night we showered and made our way to the Tokyo Dome for a baseball game. The game was awesome; definitely something I wanted to see in Tokyo. The game was going on forever so we left a little early to go back to the room and change for the night.
Everyone was REALLY indecisive on this particular night so we had no idea what we wanted to do. We saw some SASers on the street and decided to go where they were going, a club. We told the bouncers we were poor college students so they didn’t make us pay the cover but when we walked in the door they said in order to get in you have to pay $10 and that got you 2 drinks, aka a cover.
The place was cool but the DJ was playing hardcore rap music that you couldn’t dance to. I had some good conversations but was getting bored quickly. My friend was really drunk so I decided to take her for a nice Margarita pizza at Rooney’s, the go to place. At Rooney’s she rambled to me about the most ridiculous things it was hysterical and fed her and took her home. I was on the computer sending an email to Alberto when all of the sudden something slimy fell on my feet, the drunk dropped her ice cream on me, the end of day 3.
Day 4 – Yokohoma
The phone rang in our room (the girl’s room) at around 7am. I could hear Lily talking on the phone and I head “Hey this is Robert, is Jaclyn there.” I went into panic mode; I thought it was my dad! I was thinking how on earth did he find me and holy $%^# what’s wrong? It turned out to be my friend Robert who we were traveling with and he asked if I could be packed in 30 min, meet him in the lobby and go back to the ship with him. I thought something was really wrong so I said of course, packed in about 2 min and went downstairs. When he got to the lobby I was kind of nervous and asked him what was wrong, he said “nothing.” Basically, he hadn’t slept night and was still going from the night before. Completely exhausted and out of money all he wanted to do was get back to the ship, thank you for the heart attack. So I told him I would take him, side note, I am the only person out of the group who can navigate trains and subways so they just follow every move I make and he figured if anyone could get him home, I could. We go to the train station and take the train to “Yokohoma.” I was hoping that we walk out of the station there and see the ship, I thought wrong.
We walked out of the station and I could not see any water. All we wanted was a Subway sandwich and our beds on the ship. We asked some locals if they knew where Subway was and they pointed to where we were, in the subway. So I made a hand gesture like I was eating a sandwich and they looked at me like I had 12 heads, why is this girl eating the subway station?
We ended up walking around for 2 miserable hours in the hot sun with backpacks on. I can’t even describe to you the feeling when I saw the beautiful MVeX docked in front of me. I dropped my stuff in my room at 11am and slept until 5pm.
At dinner we met with other people who were on the ship and decided to do some bowling. We took a cab to the bowling lanes and grabbed some vino to accompany a couple games. The bowling shoes in Japan were AWESOME. They were patent leather and black and white. When was the last time the U.S. updated their bowling shoes, never. I was against 2 of my guy friends and it turns out apparently I can bowl, because I won! I got a couple strikes to, I am ready to take my game back to the states. Thank you Ronald McDonald bowling league at Larkfield Lanes!
I was so exhausted from Japan in general that after bowling I crashed hard in my bed.
Day 5 – Yokohoma
No big plans for the day, just a little exploration of the city.
We walked around, did some shopping. I found the most AMAZING pair of Nike Dunks high-tops but since Japanese people are so small the largest size they had was an 8, when I told him my size the man said, “oh, very big!” Thanks man. So it was probably for the best because then I would have impulsively bought them. I did get a really cute dress on sale and this was also one size fits all, everything is ok except it’s a little tight on my massive butterfly stroke swim team for years back, but I make it work.
After wandering we found and internet café and did some necessary online maneuvers. After, we went back to the ship. Sianara Japan!
I really loved Japan. It falls at number two on my list behind South Africa. Plus, I love sushi!
We have 9 days in between Japan and Hawaii; we also cross the International Date Line on April 12th and therefore turn our clocks back a full 24 hours. We had two Easters and went from 15 hours ahead to 9 hours behind.
During the week I tried out for the talent show and made. I am doing a solo tomorrow night in front of the ship and I could not be more excited!
I cannot believe I am going to be back on U.S. soil in 4 days, insane.
This was a huge week of school work but I am almost through it, I get to see my family soon!
Miss everyone,
Love
Jaclyn
