Enough with the pictures and on to the juicy stuff…
Japan was AMAZING. I knew I was going to like it, but I didn’t know I was going to like it this much! And the food is soo good! One of the things I was most looking forward to was sushi in Japan-what an experience!
Rina (an inter-port student, can’t remember if I explained about her or not) was our “tour guide” all through Japan and, let me tell you, I walked more than I ever have in my life, muscles I never knew I had were aching, and sleep wasn’t a term we were much familiar with, but it was all WELL worth it!
[[sidenote]] ( ß b/c I do indeed love them) We were told by 5 separate people at the end of our trip that we looked beat, tired, exhausted etc. how delightful, I’m sure we looked pleasing to the eye.
YOKOHAMA (second biggest city in Japan)
This is where the boat docked and just as my dad warned me, as he loves to do, it was very industrial and rural at the port we pulled into. Though the Building we docked at was gorgeous. Very modern and fairly new I think. But like 10min from the port it’s gorgeous!
We arrived at the port/docked at 9:30, which was originally supposed to be 8:00 but due to weather from the 2 days before this, we were arriving late into Yokohama. Note on that: the waves were GIANT. We were eating dinner on deck 5 (the dining hall is in the back of the boat) and it has huge windows that face the back of the boat so we clearly saw the apparently 16 foot waves (which at this point I wouldn’t doubt were bigger). We have 7 decks total and these waves were spraying up onto deck 5! It was so rocky and unfortunately for my stomach all students had to take our Global Studies exam that night at 7. I had to take the test in the Union, which is at the front of the boat where the rocking is the worst. So, needless to say on about question 45 of 50 I pretty much bubbled in whatever sounded decent and scrambled to turn in my test and book it to my room as I was feeling very sea sick. HOPEFULLY that’s the last of it, but who knows.
So, after we all got though customs and immigration, me, Lis, Kelcie, and Steph all headed into Yokohama. We headed to the post office first because that’s basically one of two places we are able to use American debit cards to receive money. This was the very first place I realized I was in a completely different culture. Usually the people at the post office are rushed and most of the time rude. Here the people are extremely polite (and this isn’t just at the post office, its EVERYWHERE). When you walk up to the counter you are bowed to and they wear gloves (for health reasons) and do the best they can to meet your needs. As our GS teacher said, I’ve never met an entire population who is so willing to give 100% into everything they do including their jobs and they always do it so politely and willing. It’s incredible to witness.
After the post office, which by the way was engulfed by SASsholes (as we call ourselves), we headed to what my mom recommended to me. Good ol’ 7-11. It gets great reviews by anyone who goes there for their sushi. It’s so funny to walk in there and see the food they have-slurpies were nowhere in sight. Though, they have an array of sushi, noodles, those crazy boxed lunches, and other different snacks that you’d never find in America. Anyways I got my sushi and it definitely wasn’t anything I’d rave about, but it was good-very salty- and who really cares, it was REAL Japanese sushi and I was consuming it in JAPAN!
After we got our food we explored and found a “mall” we went to. It was around the street Bashamichi, famous in Yokohama I think (google it-ironic as I’m heading to China). It’s not like an American mall it’s all outdoor and it’s a street lined with stores that mainly sell touristy stuff but there’s also 7-11 ish stores and other things as well. We explored there until around the time we were supposed to meet up with Rina at this gigantic farris wheel I was forced to later get onto.
Before we met Rina we shopped around a more American like mall called World Portis Center (I think?) it had shops like we do but nothing I’ve ever heard of except big names like Nike. The clothes they had were very cute and for the most part not the expensive sticker shock I was told to expect, in fact nothing was.
We finally met Rina who was already at the Ferris wheel with other SAS kids. So we bought our tickets and got on the Ferris wheel. As we were reaching the top, the sun was setting so we got our cameras out and got some great shots. Then, something unbelievable and rare happened. We spotted Mt. Fuji between 2 sky scrapers as the sun was setting behind it. Mt. Fuji is pretty rarely seen clearly at all and especially because we were in Japan when the weather wasn’t exactly the warmest. So to have seen that, was absolutely amazing! (Hopefully you can make it out in the picture I posted; I have no idea what size they are on my blog).
After the Ferris wheel, we were starving and Rina took us to what turned out to be actual downtown Yokohama-very pretty! This is where we then partook in the infamous conveyer belt sushi. I took lots of pictures and a video. The different sushi is put on different colored plates which represent different pricings of the sushi. They are put on the conveyer belt and sent around to whoever wants it. I had tuna, crab, eel, octopus, salmon, and mackerel, among others! It was DELICIOUS! I also tried real miso soup which tasted just like the kind back home but more fresh.
After dinner we headed to the train station area. By the train station there was a mall just like an American mall for the most part except the bottom floor. In every department store/mall the bottom floor or what would be like the basement in most American malls there is a “fresh food market” which would be comparable to the biggest Whole Foods in Colorado. It’s amazing how everything is displayed and what variety of foods they have and you can sample almost any of it. I tried dried blueberries, seaweed, and sticky rice which was covered in this sweet sauce-very..interesting. We also found out cantaloupe is quite pricy there, it was 4,500.00 yen which is like 45ish USD. For ONE cantaloupe, what?!
This is also where we found mochi. Mochi is their ice-cream dessert. It’s an ice cream ball and its covered in this stuff that has the texture of fondant like on wedding cakes but it’s more like taffy once you bite into is though it’s made from sticky rice but it looks nothing like rice, it’s very smooth like fondant. Anyways, it was quite good! It comes in different flavors I got vanilla and Kelcie got Strawberry and Steph just got Hagendaz Green Tea ice cream- not a big fan.
After the underground super market, I guess is the way to put it, we walked around on the street. We ran into what we had been talking about almost all day “octopus balls” (Takotaki) ((google it!)) which are balls of dough cooked with octopus and maybe veggies or a few other things. The way these are cooked is crazy, I have it all on camera! I’ve also seen it on travel channel a few times so to see it in person and try it was incredible. They were very good! Though, they guy selling them was from Turkey-so that was different.
After our delicious snack, we walked more and Rina showed us something we ended up LOVING! It’s called a Manga Café. It’s like 4 or 5 stories and on the first floor we paid and it also has a HUGE library of comic books and anime and that stuff. The second floor had what would look like cubicles in a work place. But each cubical has a booth and a TV and computer and ps2. There’s also a floor of food and snacks and ice cream and drinks. There were 1 or 2 other floors I didn’t see but I’m sure they were neat. So the whole point is you pay to come read or get on the internet and its dirt cheap, you can even pay to spend the night there. They have bathrooms and a small shower too (not in each booth but one that anyone can use). It’s like 1,500yen to spend the night (15USD) and we paid 200yen (if you haven’t caught on to the conversion rate yet, you’re too slow for me) for an hour. So obviously we used our precious time to consume as much American soda, ice cream, and facebook browsing as possible.
After this we went to a Don Quixote (yes, they named the fun filled store after a man who fights windmills). And, yes, Rina did ask what Don Quixote is after we started laughing when she told us that’s what it is called. And once we told her what it is in America she looked very confused and didn’t really have any response-I don’t think she really understood, and frankly I don’t blame her, cause I don’t see any similarity either. So what is this place… it’s, I believe, 6 floors of stuff. Any item you could ever think of buying is in this place. It’s PACKED full of stuff. It’s like walmart but better, more of a variety of stuff, and instead of one big floor they have 6 medium size floors. It’s insane!
After the sensory overload, as I kept calling it, we decided to get to bed cause we had an early day ahead of us the following day.
Wow this post is long and it’s only Yokohama.
The next post might have to be presented bullet style.
Sorry it’s so long!
I still have to talk about Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe! Bare with me, I’m busy but I’m trying to fit it all in because I’ll be in Shanghai, China not tomorrow but the next day (2/16, most likely the 15th for you).
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