12.6.09

We ported in Hilo this morning on the Big Island. We had our 100^th voyage picture off the aft of the ship on Decks 7, 6, and 5. We were able to disembark right after we were done with the picture. Katie, Jennifer and I decided to explore Hilo a little bit. We soon found out that there is nothing in Hilo. We walked about 30 minutes and came upon a civic center of some sort. They were having a Christmas crafts fair, but everything was kind of pricey. It was neat to see some Hawaiian crafts, though. We left and walked probably another 45 minutes until we were in “downtown” Hilo. Downtown Hilo consists of about 5 blocks of the most random and sketchy assortment of stores ever. To make everything worse, everything was closed because it was Sunday. Great. We did find a small sports bar and walked in just in time to see the Titans lose. Great.

We managed to entertain ourselves for a little while and then decided to grab lunch at a local Mexican restaurant. It wasn’t very good Mexican, but when we haven’t had it in 4 months just about anything will work. Afterward, we called a cab and went to Wal-Mart. Yeah, I know – Wal-Mart in Hawaii, but there was nothing else to do. I bought an external hard drive. Wal-Mart was in a little shopping center with Ross Dress for Less, TJMaxx and a Borders! I was so excited for a Borders. I was in dire need of a good bookstore. Katie and Jennifer wanted to go to the beach, but it looked like it was about to rain. I stayed at Boarders and they went ahead. It was absolutely fabulous to be able to sit and read. There are so many books out that I have never even heard of. It is crazy to think about the things we missed. Who knew that Britney Spears got married? I haven’t even heard of half the movies in the theaters.

After about and hour or so they came back and picked me up and headed back to the ship for the day. We really didn’t get that much accomplished, but there was NOTHING to do. I feel like this port is a complete waste. Can’t we leave early and just head to San Diego already? That would be ok with me. The rest of the night consisted of food, cards and the movie Matilda.

12.5.09

Katie and I got up this morning with the intention to go to the Swap Meet at Aloha Stadium. We left the ship, found the bus stop and boarded bus #19, which is the one the security guard at the ship told us to take. There were two other SAS kids on there as well. We kept driving and driving and an hour later, we were barely half way there. Then the next thing we knew we were at Hickam Air Force Base. As we were going in, a police officer came on board and asked us for our military ID. Clearly, we didn’t have a military ID. Katie, the other 2 SAS guys and I were kicked off the public bus and told to wait at the bus stop for it to come back out of the base. 45 minutes later, the bus still had not come back. By this time, we are all frustrated because it has taken almost 2 hours to get somewhere that should have taken 30 minutes. I finally just called a cab. Of course, right after we called the cab, the bus came out. Turns out that bus 19 didn’t even go to where we wanted to go, rather we had to transfer buses and it was going to take another 20ish minutes. The bus driver tried to convince us to take the bus, but we were all over it and decided to wait for the cab. It was probably the most frustrating thing ever.

When the cab finally got there, we told them where we wanted to go. Our cab driver then informed us that the Swap Meet was closed because Hawaii plays Wisconson today. So we had just gone though all of that for nothing. So we got out of the cab with the guys at Pearl Harbor. We decided to just grab yet ANOTHER bus to go back to Waikiki. That was another hour on a bus. We eventually got to the beach and it was great to just lay out and listen to the waves. Katie and I laid out for about an hour and then went to get some lunch.

We went to lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. It was hard to find a table because there were a ton of people were there watching the Florida v. Alabama game. Who would have thought that there would be so many Florida fans in Hawaii. We ate and watched the game. It was fantastic to be able to watch football again. We both celebrated when Alabama won. When they showed Tebow crying on the TV the whole place erupted into a mixture of cheers and laughter. It was pretty much awesome. The thing about Tebow is that I really want to hate him, but he is a good football player and he is an even better person off the field, but I am still happy to see him lose.

After lunch, Katie and I went back to the beach and laid out for a little while longer. When we couldn’t take anymore of the sun, we wondered around the town. We went into a couple little shops and such. We called Mackenzie to see if she wanted to share a cab back to the ship, but she was getting a psychic reading so we just grabbed a cab and headed back to the ship. We still had an hour before on ship time and there were some shops around the port. We killed some time and finally got onboard.

I had completely forgotten that the CSI program’s Etiquette Dinner was that night. I ran and got ready and met everyone up on Deck 5. Barb was our host and gave a short presentation before the meal to get the basics down for the dinner. It was a very informative dinner. There were a lot of small things that I never knew. I sat with Mackenzie, Kareem and 3 other people. We ended up reminiscing about Morocco and the dangers of being on Bus 3 (my bus). It was a great dinner.

After dinner, I went directly to classroom 2 to help Mario set up for CSI graduation. 17 people completed the program, which is guess it is good, since Mario and I kind of created it at the beginning of the voyage. We had lights and pizza and cookies. Like we needed anymore food after the special occasion dinning. Dean Nick and Dean Byron gave a short speech and then Mario presented us with our certificates. We all each got a little SAS pin as well. We all sat and chatted for a bit and then I headed off to the cabin. I played a quick game of pish posh and then hit the hay.

12.4.09

Imagine laying cozy in bed, minus the minor earthquake going on in the cabin, and then being woken up at 0545 by some Hawaiian music playing over the ship intercom. I understand that they were trying to wake us gently, but still not the best wake up call ever. Rita then came over the intercom and said “Welcome to Hawaii” and that we needed to be ready to go through immigration at any time because the immigration officers were coming onboard at 0600.

I crawled to the end of the bed and grabbed my phone off the charger and low and behold I had normal cell service!! Woo hoo!! I laid in bed and called Mom, Dad, Sarah, Ebonee, Brian, Jenny and pretty much everyone else. It was pretty fantastic to be able to lay in bed and talk on a cell phone.

Once I emerged from my cabin with breakfast in mind, it was funny to see EVERYONE on their cell phone. I grabbed breakfast with Dr. Aimme and then headed up to immigration. It was weird being able to talk to them and my customs officer asked me if I wanted a stamp and I said yes and I was sent on my way. I met up with Kelsey and waved to her parents who were waiting at the bottom of the gangway. Once the ship was cleared, Katie and I met up with Kelsey and her parents. WE exchanged hugs and then were on our way to Pearl Harbor.

We walked around Honolulu for a while and got a little confused as to where we actually catch the bus to get to Pearl Harbor. We did stumble upon a little produce stand and they bought bananas and some other fresh produce. After asking directions a couple of times, we made it to the bus stop. We got our tickets and chatted on the way.

It is pretty weird being here. People speak English and they drive on the correct side of the road and we have spotted every chain restaurant you can imagine. The extremely weird part was getting US currency back as change. Pennies and dimes all look really foreign.

When we got to Pearl Harbor, we checked our bags because they have a strict no bag policy for security reasons. It was really interesting to see. There is also the USS Missouri and the Bowfin Memorial. It is beautiful there and it is hard to believe that such a terrible attack happened in such a pristine place. We got our tickets, which had the time when we were allowed to go in. We had about 30 minutes to kill so we looked around. We saw the types of torpedoes they used and the anti-aircraft guns. Once our time came about, we went and got in line. We were ushered into a theater and watched a 20 minute movie about what led up to the attack, what happened during the attack and afterward. It was really informative and really well done. I didn’t realize that they had so much footage from the attack.

After the film, we boarded a ferryboat and were taken out the Arizona Memorial. The memorial is really simple and really beautiful. The memorial is over the hull of the USS Arizona. There are parts of the ship that are still out of the water. The USS Arizona was struck by an armor piercing bomb and it penetrated into the heart of the ship. When it exploded, it also exploded the ship’s ammo locker. The ship really exploded from the inside out. It sunk in 9 minutes, entombing 900 men within her. This is a memorial to them. The ship is also still leaking oil and you can see the sheen of the oil on top of the water. I really don’t know how to explain it. It was also really interesting to be there especially because we have just sailed from Japan. There were a lot of Japanese tourists there and I really just wonder if they feel the same way when they visit Pearl Harbor as Americans do when they visit Hiroshima. I didn’t make it to Hiroshima, and after today I really wish I had.

When we got back from the memorial, we went to the museum and I got to meet two Pearl Harbor survivors. They were probably the cutest old men ever. My favorite was Al. He was hysterical. He had made up a fact sheet about himself with a picture and everything. When I asked if I could have one, he said yes, but he wanted to make sure that he had signed it. Then he proceeded to explain how he presigns all of them because he knows how popular he is. So cute.

We took the bus to go to Waikiki and meet Drew and Paulo. Drew’s Dad got him a hotel room at the Sheraton. It took forever to catch the bus and then even longer to get into Waikiki. Once we got off the bus, we just kind of wondered around since we had no idea where the Sheraton was. Turns out that there are 2 or 3 on Oahu. During our wondering, we found a little market and we were able to use our bargaining skills again. Who would have thought? We were starving and we found a restaurant called Da Big Kahuna. It was exactly what we were looking for. I had probably one of the best cheeseburgers and we got to catch up on our sports. Our waitress was also really nice, although she was a little odd. When we told her we were from Semester At Sea, she asked us if we had to go to the bathroom off the side of the boat. I feel like if that were true the program would not nearly be as popular, but it is just a thought.

After lunch, we found a Sheraton, but it was the wrong one and got directions to the right one. We called Drew when we got there. We put our stuff in his room and then changed into our swimsuits and hit the beach. As we were walking around the beach, we ran into Dr. Aimee so that was a nice surprise. Katie and I decided to try out Paddle Boarding. Well actually Katie really wanted to try it and convinced me to do it.

We got our boards and after a VERY brief how to from the guy who ran the rental place, we went out into the water. It was a little weird because rather than the beach having a sandy bottom, it was full of rocks. We kneeled on our boards and paddled out a ways. Katie was brave and stood first. It took me a little while longer get the hang of it. I have no balance. This point was proven when I wasn’t even standing up and I somehow flipped over. Yes, I know that takes talent. I did eventually stand up, even if I did just fall over a couple seconds later. I eventually did get the hang of it. It was a little bit weird when you look down and you see rocks under the water. That really makes you not want to fall. I eventually just sat on the board and paddled around. It was very calming and relaxing. I must say that the best part was Katie paddled up to me while standing and was telling me about what awesome balance she has and then she flipped off the board. Best moment ever.

When our hour was up, we met back up with Drew and Paulo and we headed out to dinner. We were a little sidetracked because we kept running into SAS people on the beach. We also ran into Becky and Ashley on the beach and they joined us for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. I don’t think I have ever eaten so much food, but it was so good! After dinner, we just hung out in the hotel room and watched MTV and ESPN. It is crazy watching the trailers for new movies. I have never heard of half of them and I realize that I have no idea about what is going on in the world, except that Tiger Woods had some sort of affair with his wife and that the US will play England in the first round of the World Cup.

Becky, Ashley, Katie and I ended up getting a taxi back to the ship and crashing for the night.

I am really excited, but I’m not for Hawaii. It is going to be weird not having to communicate in hand signals and not have to mentally try to figure out exchange rates. Hawaii has its own unique culture that is very different than the mainland US. I haven’t fully comprehended that I am going to be in the US tomorrow. I will have my cell phone back. I can drink the water and have a salad without worrying about some weird parasite or getting sick. I don’t have to have the additional 2 inches on my waist that my lovely passport pouch/money belt adds when I wear it. I don’t have to worry about offending someone because of the way I dress. I will actually have to start carrying my driver’s license around again. I will get IDed when I buy an alcoholic beverage. The whole thing is just going to be weird.

The unique thing is that even though the majority of us are US citizens, the MV EXPLORER is not registered in the US, we are not officially going through customs and we are simply guests of the US. Even people who live in Hawaii can’t even take their bags off so they don’t have to fly with everything back to Hawaii. We have to go through security that is equal if not more tight than airport security. We can’t bring water or food off the ship. They basically told us that if we try to sneak anything on or off the ship we will go to jail. WELCOME HOME! Geez.

So plans in Hawaii include Pearl Harbor and the beach. I might throw in a Volcano or two, but that is all up in the air. We basically only have a day and a half and I really just want to relax and spend time with people. After this voyage, I probably won’t be able to see all these people for a while so I want to spend time with them. Mackenzie is going skydiving tomorrow. Kelsey and I are going to Pearl Harbor with her parents and then I am meeting Katie, Drew, and Paulo in Waikiki. Then in Hilo, I am doing a 5K for the $100 Solution. 300 people on the ship are participating, which is over half. That is awesome! So Hawaii here we come.

12.3.09

Since the auction, there hasn’t been too much excitement on the ship. We land in Honolulu tomorrow so that is pretty exciting. We had a play on the ship. They performed Dog Sees God. It is about the cast of Peanuts and they are all grown up and in high school. The cast did a fabulous job. Monica was hilarious as Charlie Brown’s sister (I want to go from a caterpillar to a platypus.) Benno was in it as Schroder or aka Beethoven. His character his gay, which Benno is. I was shocked because the guy playing Charlie Brown made out with Benno. That is so awesome. The play has terrible language and full of drugs and sex and controversy, but a great message. It was a bold choice and it turned out really well. Also, Benno found out that he was cast as Angel in the San Francisco’s production of Rent. He is going to be fabulous. Although, I never heard Beeno sing, but I imagine that he is pretty good.

That night I had my first special occasion dinning experience with my family. It was great. The Orris’ had a “Keep the Orris’ Hip List.” I am going to make them some CDs. I went directly from dinner to the play.

We had our last official day of class, besides our final. We gave a presentation in service learning to Dr. Burn, the new VP of ISE, explaining why we think service learning should be on every voyage of SAS. I think we convinced her pretty well. She said she was skeptical until about ½ way through. After she left, Dr. Strenecky and Dr. B gave these speeches about how much this class has meant to them and how great we have been. By the end of it, pretty much everyone was in tears. Well, at least everyone around me (Mackenzie)

Today was also our Global Studies final! It wasn’t as confusing as the mid-term. I say that, but I will probably do worse. That is usually how it goes. I am just glad that I am done with global FOREVER!

We had our logistical and cultural preports. They had such potential to be fun, but they were just really boring. The just droned on and on. I am still excited to see land tomorrow. And I will have my cellphone back. That will be weird. We had a huge game of pish-posh up on 7^th deck to celebrate being done with global and for being in Hawaii tomorrow.

11.28.09 The 2nd One

Yesterday was 11.28.09 and today is 11.28.09 as well. We crossed the international dateline. It is pretty cool to live the same day twice. On the 1^st 11/28 it was a normal day of class. That night there was pub trivia in the piano lounge. I ended up on a team with Claire, Ed, and Byron with help from Jay and Kelsey. I stole Uncle Chip’s name from the Olympics a couple years ago and we were team Fairly Awesome. The first categories were movie sequels, wacky laws, video games and movie quotes. Wacky laws were stupid. You couldn’t even guess what state. Apparently, its illegal to bring a live skunk into the state of Tennessee. Who knew? Considering I was on a team with all adults, I thought we faired pretty well in the video game category. Next we had to identify men from their pictures. We got 8 out of the 10. Then I was thankful to be on the team with adults because I wouldn’t have known any of them. The last category was list 10. We had to list the Midwest states, the school of the UC system and the largest beer drinking countries per capita. In the end team Fairly Awesome was fairly awesome by placing 4^th out of 29.

Today (11/28 part 2) was a reading day as well as auction day. Katie and I got up and worked out and then I met up for a group project. We took a sneak peak at the things in the silent auction. There is some really good stuff: The flags flown on the ship from all the countries, a signed map by Captain Jeremy, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, Czech Republic and Mozabique homestays, a bunch of houses in Colorado, Hershey park tickets, massages, a Louisville Sluger bat engraved with “Semester at Sea 100^th Voyage” (donated by the Strenecky’s), artwork, sporting event tickets and about a million other things. After doing some homework and eating dinner. I went to an explorer sminar and then to the live auction. I had thought about bidding on a couple of things, but I knew I was in trouble when the first item went for $1000. The list is as follows:

- Steer the Ship (!0 Minutes) $1,000

- Colorado Week Stay at Summit Mtn. $630

- Breakfast in bed from the Deans $125

- 4 Anaheim Angels Tickets $200

- Beach House in NC for 1 Week $1700

o This item was auctioned off twice

- Blast the Ships Horn in San Diego $700

- Christmas in Manhattan Apartment

Above Central Park $1200

- Character in Prof. Farkas’ Novel $550

- Blue Ridge Mountain Stay 1 week $325

- 2 Stagecoach Festival Tickets $485

- Minnesota Fishing Trip $350

- 5-Course dinner with the Orris family $750

- 6 Days in Paris Homestay $1900

- Chance to be the Captain $50

- Extended weekend in Bailey, CO $275

- Derby Tickets and stay with the Streneckys $725

- Condo in Northstar, CO – 10 People $2150

- Duke Basketball Package $900

- Week stay at rustic CO cabin $2200

- Private Balcony dinning with Dean Eddie

And violin by Prof. Skokan $425

- Extended weekend homestay in Puerto Rico $475

- Two Backstage passes to SNL $2600

GRAND TOTAL FOR LIVE AUCTION $21,590

And all of that was just from the live auction. In the end, we raised over $33,000. All of that from the ship community! We raised the most money of any voyage to date, which is pretty cool. I couldn’t believe some of the money that was being thrown around, but a lot of these are really good deals. The only thing I ended up with was our Arabian Sea banner from the Sea Olympics for $10. Katie bought Batter Blasters, which is apparently pancake batter in a can. I had never heard of it before, but she was really excited about it. Mackenzie got the Lacadive Sea banner and a personalized children’s song for $110. It was by the award winning Kalidescope group and they usually charge $3200 for that. The auction was really exciting. It makes me want to go to more auctions. After the excitement of the auction, we ended the night with pish-posh.

11.27.09

I got up early this morning and worked out and then went to work with Mario. We are working on MEGA Career Week. I got to talk to Mom and Dad and everyone. That was nice. I called home because it was Thanksgiving there.

I went to class and afterward I chilled out on deck 6 with Mackenzie for a bit. We ended up eating on the 7^th deck because dinner was so gross. I went to the global studies review and then a motivation explorer seminar. It was weird. We had to cut stars out that were in a chain. It was kind of frustrating. My team was definitely not the best, but we had the best quality and we improved with every round. So I guess that is a plus.

It was a pretty boring day out at sea.

11.26.09

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Today was one of the most unorthodox Thanksgivings ever, but it was the least stressful! I didn’t have to worry about bouncing from house to house.

I had class and it really didn’t feel much like Thanksgiving. We reflected in class about what we were thankful for. We had a big Thanksgiving dinner on the ship. I ate with my ship family so that was a little bit comforting. It was nice to have dinner with an actual family. The chef did a great job. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, mac and cheese, stuffing and all sorts of other yummy stuff, but it still wasn’t as good as home. When we went around the table asking what we all missed the most about home, I thought it was funny that everyone said football.

After dinner, I went to an explorer seminar with Mario and then everyone piled in the room to watch The Holiday. We ended up more or less reminiscing and laughing rather than watching the movie.

11.25.09

The first day back on the ship was a normal class day. We did have a lifeboat (muster station) drill. It was definitely the most fun drill ever. Bryan and James had some inappropriate mustering going on. They were late on the drill and everyone was getting antsy because we were all getting hungry. It was also pretty entertaining to see all the hats people had. There were panda hats, communist hats, rice hats, and hats on top of hats. It was great.

It was a little stressful because we had to hurry and get to your Voyage of Discovery. The meeting went well and afterward I headed up to workout with Katie. My elliptical got high jacked so I just ran outside and borrowed Kristin’s jump rope. That was about all I did.

Japan is the only country that we have visited that I would actually consider living in (okay maybe South Africa too). Kyoto in a weird way felt like Nashville. The whole country had this whole just laid-back, but still fast paced feel about it. That makes no sense, but I really have no way to describe it. There are tons of people, but you hardly see anyone. Everyone is also really quiet. I think that would be the only part that would really bother me. That would be the American coming out in me. We, as a people, really dislike silence and we think we need to fill it. It is just down right eerie how quiet they are on the trains. The other downside of Japan would be how expensive it is, but assuming that hopefully I would have at least a somewhat decent paying job.

I really would like to come back to Japan. I really want to come back to see Hiroshima, Tokyo Disneyland, the Cherry Blossom Festival, and some sumo would be nice too. Japan overall I really enjoyed and I think that it was a really nice last port. It was relaxing and nice not to do any really big SAS trips. Katie and I had a blast just handing out in Kyoto and Kobe.

11.24.09

I got up this morning and Katie and I headed out into Kobe. We stopped at the hospitality desk and picked up some maps and we were on our way. We first headed to find the shopping streets. We got a little lost and asked a man where it was. The man said something to us in Japanese and then walked away with our map. His wife then took my arm and escorted me to follow her husband. The husband then turned around and in broken English said we go together. So we followed this man and his wife. They were so cute. They tried to make conversation with us. When we got to the shopping area everything was closed. Through hand gestures we learned everything opened at 10. It was 0915. So we had an hour to kill. We found a café and bought some internet. We sat outside and killed time.

At 10, we headed back that way. Stuff still wasn’t open. It was weird because we found all sorts of stores for real shopping. There were no stores for souvenir type stuff. It was pretty ridiculous because all we could find were show stores.

At some point we ended up in China and India, but not Japan. Weird. We got some awesome chicken on a stick, but didn’t find much else there. So we got on the subway and headed to Nara. Nara is another section of Kobe, where there are sake breweries.

We arrived in the sleepy little town of Nara and there was NOONE anywhere. We did see one woman who was walking her schnauzer and I got so excited and I ended up running over and petting the dog. The little woman thought it was hilarious and she couldn’t stop giggling. I thought I had terrified her. She was adorable. We continued walking and ended up walking right past the brewery we wanted to go to. After stopping at a gas station for directions, we made it to the brewery only to find out that it is closed on Tuesdays. Of course it is. Apparently, the Japanese are not fans of sake on Tuesdays. The security guard there did give us a name of a brewery that was open. We found it after a quick walk and I think we somehow managed to get in the back way into the museum. Everything was in Japanese so we really didn’t understand much, but it was cool to see it. We got to try some sake and it wasn’t nearly as strong as I thought it was going to be. One of the main reasons we went to the brewery was to buy sake sets. The first place didn’t have much so we went on to another place called Skauken. We found some with breweries name on it. They were pretty cool. After walking around some more, we admitted defeat we headed back to Kobe.

Once back in Kobe, it was almost on ship time so we headed back to the ship. We stopped at the little souvenir shop because it was one of the only places that you could find the touristy stuff. We spent some yen and the exchanged the rest and boarded the ship.

Once on the ship, we just hung out and relaxed. I was dead tired so the night consisted mainly of watching House. It is kind of sad to be leaving out last port. We watched the farewell band from our cabin and waved goodbye. And so we left our last foreign port.

11.23.09

We pulled into Kobe around 0715. Katie and I met up for breakfast at 7. A little before 8 the ship was cleared. We disembarked and went to the train station bound for Kyoto. We got on the right train line, but on the local – not the express. We changed trains and things went much quicker.

We go into Kyoto around 0915. When we got there, we left to head to the Nijo Castle. ON the way we ran into a huge temple or shrine, where there was some sort of service going on. The service took a backseat to the fattest pigeons I have ever seen. A man was selling feed so Katie and I bought some. Little did we know that as soon as we bought the stuff these huge pigeons came flying at our face. At one point I had 4 on my arm and another just chilling on my purse. It was rather terrifying and we didn’t realize that we were probably catching some weird bird diseases. But Japan had thought about it and there was hand sanitizer stations. These pigeons were not normal. They would fly right at your face! And there were a ton of them! They were everywhere and would just come at you. After escaping from them, we went and observed the service. It was really beautiful and then everyone started chanting. Katie and I felt a little envasive so we went on our way to the castle.

We still epically failed at Japanese food and stopped at McDonald’s for a snack. We eventually made it to the castle and it was beautiful. But on the way there we found some wifi in the middle of the street. As long as we stood still and held our jaw just right we were able to use skype on Katie’s iPhone. I called Mom and Dad and Katie called Steve. Back to the castle. The structure was absolutely gorgeous. It was a series of wooden houses. It boasts to be the largest wooden structure in the world. It had these floors called Nightengale floors, which is were the floors are designed to squeak so no one could sneak in at night. Pretty clever if you as me.

As we were walking through the garden we got caught up in a school group. This is where I made an interesting observation. All the men in Japan carry a man purse (“It’s called a satchel. Indian Jones carries one”). They also have these adorable cell phone charms. I could see tweens carrying them in the states, but here everyone has them even businessmen. I find it pretty hilarious.

We walked through the gardens, which had some beautiful trees. They were changing colors because the fall was just getting there. The leaves were deep red and bright yellow. There was also a huge coy pond filled with some of the largest fish I have ever seen. We exited the gardens into a little section of shop tents and food. Katie and I finally got some Japanese food. We had a bowl of noodles and rice balls in a sweet soy sauce. The rice balls had the texture of marshmallows so I didn’t much care for those, but the noodles were good. Trying to eat a bowl of noodles with chopsticks is an experience. After looking around at the locals, turns out it is perfectly fine to slurp the noodles and basically drink out of the bowl. After I figured that out, things went much more smoothly.

We then continued our walking tour of Kyoto. We walked along a canal and found our way into this hip little ally. It was pretty cool to see. Our main end goal was the Philosopher’s Walk. We stopped in this store that had floor to ceiling of stuff. The owner spoke really good English so we chatted with him and he told us how to get there. He warned us that it was a really long walk. We still went and wound up walking through Kyoto University’s campus. It was really cool because there was some sort of festival going on. We saw a group of people that looked like a dance class. We wanted to chat, but we never got the chance.

We eventually made it to the walk and it was beautiful. It was sprinkled with shrines, shops, restaurants and temples. It was along a canal and since it was fall, the trees were all changing colors. It was gorgeous, but my feet were killing me.

When the trail ended, we made our way to the train station to head back to Kobe. We got in about an hour later. As we were walking back to the ship we ran into Minh, Rachel, and Andy who were going bowling. We decided to turn back around and go out with them.

We grabbed food at McDonald’s, which was on the ground floor of a 10 story bowling alley. Katie got the shaka shaka chicken. It is basically a fried chicken patty in a bag and you pour the spices in a shake. So kind of like shake and bake Japanese McDonald’s style. We got our shoes out a shoe type vending machine where we pushed a button with our size and out popped our shoes.

We got our lane assignment and we ended up being on the same floor as some sort of sports team. They had some of the most bizarre bowling behavior. They would run and throw the ball half way down the land and then proceed to run half way down the land after the ball. Then they would turn around and scream. It was really entertaining to watch. We ended up making a bet for beer in Hawaii. Andy and Minh barely won the first game. I had a score of 115. We went double or nothing on the second game and still lost. The bowling alley gave us some vouchers for a free play on a crane game and 20 tokens for the games. None of us won anything, but it kept us entertained for a while. We also played a game of Mario Kart. When you chose a character they take a picture of you and put it in the characters face. It was pretty awesome. I ended up getting 3^rd place, but it was a close race.

Afterward, Katie, Rachel and I walked back to the ship while Andy and Minh headed to a party. When we got to the gangway there was a girl there who had cut her foot and there was blood everywhere. It was pretty gross. I crashed as soon as I was in my room. I was exhausted from all the walking that day.

11.22.09

11.21.09

We woke up SUPER early this morning (at 615) to go to breakfast before heading to Mount Fuji. We got on the bus and we were greeted by our adorable tour guide, Oka. We had 2 hours before we reached Mt. Fuji, so she gave us the history of the mountain. It really wasn’t all that exciting until she busted out some visual aids. She kept pulling things out of her bag like she as Mary Poppins. She had cutouts of the mountain and a poster of the elevation and even huge color photos of the emperor and the imperial family. She was just so cute! There was a car accident on the interstate. Go figure the only country that actually obeys traffic laws and it was the only country that we ever got held up because of an accident. Katie and I ended up passing out.

When we woke up, we arrived at the Mt. Fuji’s Visitor Center. It was basically an info center and gift shop. While we were outside taking pictures in front of Mt. Fuji, a group of Japanese ladies asked us to take their pictures. They were so cute. After we left, we headed up to the 5^th station on Mt. Fuji, which is the highest point we can get to because it is winter and about half way up the mountain. There were a bunch of shops and restaurants so we peeked into a few of them. We ran into our Japanese friends, who also high fived Mackenzie in the bathroom. They tried to teach me the Japanese word for opossum, but I don’t remember what it was. They were still just as adorable. We walked along the shops and also found a shrine with a overlook. I am really glad that there was snow even though it made it a little bit hard to walk. The snow was breath taking.

We got back on the bus, where we tore into our last box lunches. Oh how I am not going to miss those boxed lunches. They haven’t improved any since the beginning of the voyage. Our next stop was Hakone. This is where we had the lovely pleasure of riding in a cable bar to the top of Mt. Hakone. I was not too excited about that. MacGarret and I just hung out in the middle of the cable car. It wasn’t as bad as the one on Table Mountain, but it wasn’t great either.

Before we got on the cable bar. We saw these large mechanical animals, like pandas or dogs. They were pretty much the funniest thing ever. We made it to the top of the mountain in 8 minutes. I know it was 8 minutes because Oka told us about 20 times. We happened to get to the top of the mountain right when a cloud got there as well. Our view was about as good as it was when we were on Radhost in the Czech Republic. It was basically the inside of a cloud and you couldn’t see more than 10 feet in front of you. We were able to entertain ourselves with a photo booth and hot chocolate. The ride down wasn’t as bad.

When we got down we had 20 minutes of free time so we went into the little shops then met up at the lake. I thought we were going to be really lucky and take a swan boat to the other side of the lake, but it wasn’t so. While we were waiting to get on the ferry, Mackenzie decided to pick up some “LEAves.” It was a pretty interesting conversation about the plural pronunciation of “leaf.” Mackenzie also wound up with a stick that she was carrying around and called her sling shot. She was just cracking me up because she was so distracted by the botanical life in Hakone. Who knew it would be that interesting.

Once on the boat, we had a great view of Fuji and Hakone. Of course as soon as we got down from the cable car, the cloud moved and the view would have been incredible. We took the ferry to the other side of the lake. We back on the bus and headed back to the ship. We ran into more traffic on the way back, which was bad because on ship time was 9 and it was already 715 and we wanted to grab dinner off the ship. When we got into the port, we ran off the ship in search of Japanese food. We epically failed and ended up at a place called Jonathan’s. We had 3 plates of egg rolls and 2 plates of calamari. Yep, epically fail at Japanese food.

We made it back on the ship with about 45 minutes to spare. We dropped our stuff and ended up meeting up on the 7^th deck for ice cream. We played some pish posh and headed to bed.

11.20.09
When we pulled into Yokohama this morning, I went up to Deck 7 and watched the drum performance going on to welcome us. It was pretty cool. I grabbed breakfast with Katie, Dr. Aimee, her husband Mark, Dr. Skokan and the interport lecturer. It was a pretty entertaining breakfast.
Once we got completely docked we all met up in Tymetz square and headed out. Clearing the ship was different this time. We all went through customs individually and we had to get into the port and stand in a single file line, with no talking, which seems to be a huge challenge for some people. We each met with an individual immigration agent. We handed over our passport, had our photo and fingerprints taken. Then we moved onto customs. We handed in paperwork and had our bags x-rayed. We regrouped, went to the info desk, grabbed a map and headed to Tokyo. The railway system is ridiculous. There are about 5 different lines and then there are buses, and subways and about 8 other forms of transportation. We made it to Tokyo after 2 transfers only to realize that we were not in the part of Tokyo we wanted to be in. Our goal ending place was the Harajuku district that has been made famous by Gwen Stefani. After another train or subway ride, I am still not sure which one we were on, we made it.
Once we got there, we really had no plans so we just wondered. We had a guidebook and they mentioned something about an Oriental Bazaar that looked interesting so we headed in that direction. We were all starving and we wanted to find some food, but it turns out that the hibachi style food is not popular in Japan – go figure. We were lured into a restaurant that was advertising pizza and beer. It was kind of like a Japanese Cici’s pizza. It was 1000 yen or about $10 for a drink, and unlimited pizza, pasta, fried potatoes (but not French fries), and for some reason curry with rice. There were not really any set types of pizza. It seemed like the cook was just throwing together whatever he could find in the kitchen. We tried a little of everything. There was a corn and mayonnaise, weird but good. Shrimp and mayo, beef and onion, which was good, and there was another one that was supposed to some sort of beef, but it tasted like seafood. Gross. That was really the only really bad one that I tried. Kelsey and Mackenzie tried this one kind with green powder and a marshmellow. I definitely stayed away from that one. Kelsey tried it and said it was disgusting. I’m not surprised.
Once we had our fill of pizza, we wondered out We thought we were going the wrong direction, but we ended up stumbling upon the Oriental Bazaar. It was a really cool shop. They have pretty much everything you could want from Japan. We shopped around a little bit. After we had our purchases, we got directions from some woman in the bazaar and headed to Harajuku. Turns out that it is basically a street, not really a district, but it was still really cool. As we wondered along the ally, we looked into the little shops. We kept seeing all these thrift stores so eventually decided to go in one. Inside, it was basically a nice goodwill. It was full of all the clothes that you wish you could find at Goodwill at home. Then we were hit with a shock. Instead of paying about $1 for a t-shirt you paid $60! Who knew that our thrown out clothing would be so popular in Japan. Katie bought a vintage Batman shirt for her brother. At another store, we found a ton of cheap t-shirts. I somehow managed to find a sweatshirt that said “Grand Ole Opry. Nashville, Tenn.” On it. That was weird.
We wondered down another alley in search of the 100 yen store, which is basically the dollar store. As we were walking, we were mesmerized by the neon lights and the outfits of the local teens. They all have these adorable thigh-high boots that if anyone in the US wore they would look like a prostitue, but somehow they can get away with it. Actually, I don’t know how they wear some of the clothing they wear and not look like skanks. Even their school uniform skirts, which are WAY cuter than any uniform in the US, are short. They also never have a hair out of place and perfect curls. I was started to get really jealous, but then I realized that most of them were wearing wigs. They also had some weird accessories, like an eye patch or small hats that look like they belong to an American Girl doll.
Anyway, Katie, Kelsey and Mackenzie got crepes and that was right by the 100 yen store. It wasn’t as exciting as everyone made it out to be. After exploring the 4 floors of the store, we went around to the random alleyways and stores. Katie and I ended up with some adorable heels for $30. After some more venturing, we some how came upon the Togo Shrine. It was named for a famous Japanese general who won a huge naval battle. It was interesting, but I felt a little awkward because I didn’t know what the protocol for behavior was.  There were people bowing and clapping. After poking around some more, we went back to the main drag. It was getting dark and we decided to head back to Yokohama. When we looked at the map, we saw that we just needed to get to Shibuya and then we could take a train direct to Yokohama. It took a while to figure out how to get to Shibuya, but we got there eventually. Once in Shibuya, it was even more difficult to find the train we needed because there was NOTHING in English. And it’s not like you can try to sound out Japanese. Turns out that train that we needed had two different names, which made things even more confusing and who would have thought that the Tokyo line would go to Yokohama. The whole process took about 90 minutes.
When we got back to Yokohama we headed for the ship. We ran into a big group of people and made plans to meet up at 2000 and go out. We grabbed dinner on the ship and then got ready.
We met up with the group of about 25 and headed to Chinatown. Yes, I realize that we just came from China, but Chinatown has the karaoke bar that was recommended to us. It took a while to find the place, but it turned out to be more expensive than anyone wanted. So one part of the group left for Yokohama station and the rest went to look for a local bar. We went with the group to find the local bar and found another karaoke bar that was a little cheaper. Paulo, Katie, Kelsey, Drew, Cav and I decided to stay there. It was a lot of fun, but Paulo can actually sing so that sucked for the rest of us. He sounds just like John Legend. We sang a lot of cliché songs, but it was still a lot of fun. There were a ton a businessmen there. Apparently, it is the thing to do after work. We stayed for an hour and then headed back to the ship. Katie and I had to get up early the next morning for a trip.

I am really looking forward to Japan. It will be interesting to see how many people can squeeze into such a small space. I am a little bummed that I can’t get to Disney, but from what research I have done I think I am going to need a month in Japan to really get to see everything. Even though I am staying on the ship for one day, I will still be able to see a lot.
I am really looking forward to the food. I hope it is somewhat like home. Everyone on the ship is excited for sushi, but that is not really what I want. I really want to try Kobe beef, but it is SUPER expensive.
I am also really excited to see Tokyo and Harajuku and the crazy fashions that go along with it. I am pretty sure that Japan is a place I will be coming back to so this is just like a taste.

China was a country that really surprised me. I really didn’t think I would want to come back, but I actually really enjoyed it – Despite the fact that I froze my butt off. I saw the influence of the communist government, but not as much as I thought I would. It was all really subtle. Like how you can’t get on facebook or how the tour guides can’t talk about the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
The food was also different than Chinese food in the States. It was less fried, but more greasy. I must say that I mastered my chopstick skills. People are so happy in China, especially the elderly we saw at the Temple of Heaven. In the US, everyone has such a negative connotation with the word communism and assume that people are unhappy. But I found that most everyone was happy with their life and their government.
One thing that I really loved about China is how they pronounce words that end in the letter a. Like China or Panda. These words are pronounced “Chiner” and “Pander.” I think I would go back to China just so I could say that and people wouldn’t think I was crazy. All the people in China are just so nice.
I really would like to go back and spend more time in Hong Kong and Shanghai. One interesting thing is that the taxi drivers seemed to want nothing to do with us, which is a drastic change from the other ports we have been to. I don’t know if it was because we didn’t speak the language or what. In other ports, taxis, rickshaws, cyclos, tuk tuks or whatever are all hassling us.
Overall, I really enjoyed China and I really hope that I stay in contact with the university students that I met like Alice and Yolanda. I really liked how we were able to wonder around by ourselves, but yet still had some structure.

11.17.09
I slept in this morning and took it easy. I really didn’t want to get off the ship. One because it really wasn’t that much time to actually do anything. Two it was raining and three I am coming down with something so I thought it better to rest. So I just stayed in and edited pictures. Katie came by and we grabbed lunch and came back to the cabin and had a movie-fest. Mackenzie joined us as well and we watched The Proposal – now I finally understand what everyone was talking about when they said that the quilt that Granny made me looks like the baby making quilt from that movie, and we also watched Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. It was a pretty lazy day.
We set sail that night for Yokohama.

11.16.09
We woke up this morning and were greeted with a rainy day in Shanghai. Yuck. I met up with Kelsey, Christina, Rosario and Kate and we headed to find internet. We tried to find a cab and we asked a doorman and he said to just to take the bus. Christina all the sudden busts out into Mandarin – who knew? Turns out that her dad is from Hong Kong and she speaks Mandarin with her grandmother and she took Cantonese in high school. She made it a lot in easier in getting around. We could never really find the bus station, so Kelsey and Christina went into a little store and we stayed outside. We were just hanging out outside. We are watching this white car try to pull a u-turn in the middle of the street…who does that? Not only does a huge truck almost t-bone him, but then as he finishes his turn, this guy on a motorbike comes from the other side of the truck and then the white car hits the guy on the motorbike literally right in front of us. Kate screamed and we just couldn’t believe what had happened. It’s not like we could really do anything.
We had to flag a cab and that was a task and a half. When we finally flagged one down, this other guy tried to take it from us. They have no line etiquette or concept of personal space. All 5 of us piled into the cab and eventually made it to the You Gardens, which is normally a beautiful garden, but on a rainy day it really isn’t that exciting. We ran around trying to find the Starbucks. WE found it, but it didn’t have wireless. They said to try KFC. Well that didn’t work either. Kelsey and I broke off from the other group and explored every restaurant possible and asked everyone we could find and no one knew what we were talking about. We ran into 2 flight attendants and they tried to help, but they didn’t know where internet was either. They did help us figure out where we were, which was a plus because we had just been wondering aimlessly through what I only know how to describe as China Town in NYC.
We eventually gave up and went to McDonalds. I was craving a cheeseburger so bad. It was delicious. We then decided it was time to give up on internet and it was time to shop. We just wondered around and somehow ended up in a 5 story whole sale warehouse. It was really neat, but I wish we could have found someone that spoke English so they could explain to us what was going on.
We wondered some more and eventually found a lovely woman with a pearl shop. Kelsey and I ended up spending the next hour in her shop. After bargaining, we walked away with 6 strands of pearls and 4 silver and pearl necklaces for 520 yuan (~$76). So I think that is pretty good considering it is real silver and pearls (she lit them on fire to prove it). The woman gave us her business cards to give to our friends so she could get more business.
We said goodbye with much lighter wallets and in search of a duffle bag. I found a place and a very colorful bag, but it was WAY more expensive than I wanted. He originally said 320 and I offered 60. He laughed at me so we left. Next thing I know they are running down the street saying 60 was good. So I got a LeSport Sac bag for under $10. With all of our goals accomplished, we decided to head back to the ship even though we had some time to spare.
We ended up stopping in for some food at Pizza Hut. I loved it. All the waitresses had Christmas hats on and the place was playing Christmas music. That was a nice change of pace. Kelsey and I split and cheese pizza and it was glorious. Some more SASers came in and they told us that Dunkin Donuts had internet. Go figure.
We finished our pizza and headed to Dunkin Donuts. We caught a cab and eventually found it through lots of hand gestures, pointing and a map. When we got there and even though it was almost one in the morning at home I called Dad. It was really exciting because Grammy was in town and I got to talk to her on skype. The best part was that I was sitting next to window in the restaurant and while talking, I had a crowd of Chinese people watching my conversation video. It was rather entertaining. I also got to talk to mom.
We left Dunkin Donuts and headed back to the ship. We tried to walk, but got lost and got directions from a local student. The sheet with the ship address written in Chinese was wrong, so he wrote it correctly for us. He was super nice.
Cab drivers wanted nothing to do with us, but we somehow ended up in front of the Westin. So we had the valet there get us a cab. We got back to the ship and had to wait in line with a bunch of people in the rain. People in line, especially a particular life long learner, were getting pretty feisty. When we were finally able to get back on the ship we found out that because of bad weather we were staying Shanghai another night and on ship time was extended until noon tomorrow. Great.
I went back to my cabin and began organizing all of my stuff, which took a lot longer than I expected it to. We grabbed some dinner on the ship and hit the hay early.

11.15.09
I got really lucky that I brought an alarm clock because the hotel forgot to give us our wake up call this morning. We were all scrambling. We were all checked out and ready to go only 20 minutes behind schedule. So I think that is pretty good. Yolanda was PISSED at the hotel, but we made it fine.
The first stop was the Temple of Heaven. This was my favorite place that we visited. I could have stayed there all day. The temple was cool, but the awesome part was toward the end. We passed this group that was singing all sorts songs. They seemed to be church hymns of some kind. Kelsey and I stopped and listened. It was awesome. We approached them afterward to show how much we enjoyed the show. I think they got the point because they broke out in smiles.
We next encountered what Yolanda told us is where the elderly come to exercise on the weekends. We stopped and watched some elderly dance what we think was Russian, but they were too cute! They were all so happy. We also played this game where a tennis ball had ribbons coming off of it and then you caught it in this tennis racket looking thing. It was pretty fun, but then the guy tried to get us to buy one. We passed and kept walking. We saw them singing karaoke, playing dominos, Mulan checkers (we didn’t know what this game is called, but it is the game in the movie Mulan when she helps the old guys), playing their version of hackey sack, which is this weird thing with feathers coming out of the end, and just dancing. It was awesome walking through there. They were all just so welcoming toward us to join them. Kelsey grabbed Yao Fung and started dancing with her. They were in the middle of the courtyard where they had an amplification system set up and someone was singing. There were people everywhere just dancing. It was fabulous. Laila even found herself a dancing partner in this little adorable old Chinese man. The whole thing was so neat. I could have watched the people there all day. There were people dancing from all sorts of different cultures and different types of dancing. There was a couple waltzing, belly dancing, just swaying or just being silly. It was great and I am so glad that I got to see that side of China and the Chinese.
We then got dropped off for some shopping at the Pearl Market. That place is crazy and has everything you could ever imagine. It had 5 floors jammed packed with everything from clothes to kites to luggage to the newest electronics. Kelsey and I ran around and did some serious power shopping. We went on a mad dash to find an ATM. We eventually found one. Kelsey and I got some money out and it was game on.
Kelsey got a webcam for 50 yuan. We then tried to find CD cases. We eventually found some and we told the woman that we wanted 2 like the one she had out, which was black and had an antique map of China on it. After we bargained down the price to 75 for 2 we rounded up to 100 so Kelsey could get some headphones too. When she brought out the CD cases, they, of course, had Mickey Mouse on them…how fitting. We were just kind of hanging out at that woman’s stand and Kelsey happened to spot a flash drive with 240 gigs on it. After proving to us that they actually worked, we got into a bargaining war. She started out at 240 for one. I walked to stall next door and they had the same thing. So we got them trying to out bid each other. We ended up getting 2 of them for 90 yuan! (about $7 each). That is such a steal. We ended up just killing time and just seeing how cheap we could get people to go. I am quite proud at how my bargaining skills have improved.
We got back on the bus and headed to the airport for Shanghai. It was really sad to say goodbye to Yao Fung and Yolanda. Our flight was delayed about 30 minutes, but other than that it really wasn’t all that exciting.
It was raining when we got into Shanghai so that was a bummer, but the city seems really cool and it will be fun to explore tomorrow. We got back on the ship and crashed. We just hung out and everyone caught up on their trips. We all made plans to shop the next day and said goodnight.