I've now decided to become a dancer for the Yokohama Bay Stars

Another scare for the parents, but I definitely enjoy Japanese baseball games. Save that for later let's start with Kobe. First of all I'd like to note how archaic the Japanese immigration was with a face to face meeting with all of us. This definitely cut into our time the first day by a long shot. My friend, Elle, and myself took the train to Sannomiya so I could pick up my Japan Rail Pass. This took another hour out of my day but I saved around $200 by getting it so it was definitely worth it! We then took the subway to Harborland which was recommended by our interport students, which was fun, but we felt a little old for that amusement park. We did ride the overpriced ferris wheel to see all of Kobe which was really pretty, but that was about all we did there. We then found the Mintagawa shrine which was literally tucked underneath a freeway. This is the most interesting part of Japan, that a lot of the monuments are right next to their skyscrapers and are integrated into their regular life so easily. It was very cute shrine still though and had the first cherry blossoms that we experienced there. After that we went back to the ship for dinner and met up with our friends to get all dressed up and go dancing which was very fun.

Claudia and I woke up fairly early to catch a train to Tokyo. When we were at the subway station trying to get to Shin-Kobe we were helped by some college aged girls to find our next station. The interesting part is that they literally walked us to our station and made sure we got the correct tickets before going on their way. This is not the only time this happened. Most of the Japanese people I met spoke impeccable English and were so willing to help us almost anywhere we went. We then took the bullet train to Tokyo for a couple hours and decided to then find a place to stay, what a novel idea! We finally found a hotel in a fun district so we got it even though it was a step higher than our usual hostel stays. The place was the cheapest hotel in the district but still very nice, called “The B”. It was nice to just sit down for a little bit because we had been searching and all we found were expensive malls way beyond our price range. We had to also get some internet to book our hostel for the next night to save money and also get in contact with Toshie to meet up with her in Kyoto. After that we found a sushi bar for dinner to try some legit Japanese sushi for the first time. They actually put a little wasabi in the rolls which made them a little bit more spicy than I am used to, but still amazing. Mom will be glad to know I was very adventurous and tried some of the fish styles while there which was definitely really good. After sushi we found a duty free store that was more like a mall because it was actually 6 floors of all sorts of random items from groceries to shoes. This was actually good though because I needed to pick up a gift for my host family. After that we headed back to the hotel for a little to hang out and watch some news to get caught up, which we are definitely behind on everything for! After that we just went out dancing again which was really fun.

We slept through breakfast at our hotel but made it in time to check out. After that we took the train to Takeshita-Dori which is a decently priced shopping district with all sorts of crazy Japanese clothing. This would be right next to one of the important points of Tokyo I wanted to hit, HARAJUKU st. For those of you that do not know I am mildly obsessed with No Doubt and Gwen Stefani, thus Harajuku St. with the crazy Japanese style, which is almost like a baby doll dress. We in fact saw an older woman dressed up like it too which was rare considering most of the older women dressed in suits of some sort. We didn't buy anything but did end up going to a club that opened during the day as a buffet. The food was really and good and it was reasonably priced, but it was just so cool that they had a DJ booth at the same time playing hip hop music and crazy lights going on, very funny. We then found our hostel, Anne Hostel Asakusabashi, which was in the traditional Japanese style of mats on the floor. From what I have heard it is built after the ryokans but is a cheaper version of them. I then took the long train ride to Kyoto to meet up with TOSHIE!!!!!! For those that do not know Toshie was one of my suitemates last semester who graduated after the fall and now works in her home town in Japan. We decided to meet in the middle at Kyoto for dinner because she has a crazy work schedule now with training for her new big person job. Traveling there was pretty neat because I actually met her there by myself which is the first time I have ever traveled by myself which was a really big feat for me. I took the bullet train and arrived a little early so I walked to Gion which is where there are a bunch of geisha shows and beautiful cherry blossoms. I actually saw a woman on the subway back to the Kyoto station taking off the make-up from all of the geisha regalia which was really neat. After that I met up with Toshie for a quick sandwich and I was just so excited to see someone from home that I was besides myself. Unfortunately we almost missed the last train back to Tokyo that night so we had to run across most of the Kyoto station just to make it with a minute to spare. I was very sad to wave goodbye to her but it just felt very comforting to see someone familiar in a non-familiar place. That night I just went back to my hostel ASAP because they shut the doors at midnight and I didn't want to get locked out. IT was a very long day but definitely comforting.

I had to wake up crazy early the next morning to catch the train to Yokohama for my home visit. The train was pretty packed because it was rush hour there, which is definitely an experience in itself. After riding trains all morning I was definitely relieved to see the ship even though I did get lost in the terminal trying to get to the gangway. I quickly got my gift together and went back out to the terminal to meet my host family. The woman who met us was called Miyako Hitomi and she got to hang out with  her sister-in-law Yamatcha along with some of their other friends. They were a fairly young family and Miyako's family didn't have any children, Yamatcha had one son named Yushi. She took us on several trains before we arrived at her suburb of Yokohama, called Zushi, which reminded me a little more of home and was beautiful with all of the cherry blossoms in bloom. She showed us the fish market with all sorts of different fish, most of them were basically whole which was kinda gross but I'm a wimp with fish anyways. We then went to Yamatcha's house for a traditional Japanese meal where we learned how to make sushi ourselves! Yamatcha was hilarious and kept on making silly jokes the whole time. I can't remember them all but if you want to hear some just email me and I'll send a couple good ones. After that we had a great dessert with strawberry tea, fruit and these neat sweet bean paste things. They also had one of the really nice heated seat toilets in their house, I realize this might not seem important to those of you at home but they had some crazy buttons on their toilets to do all sorts of crazy things like play music among other things. Yamatcha then offered us some of the antiques that her husband sold which were so nice and she also drew pictures of what she thought we would like which were hilarious in itself. Apparently I have very voluptuous lips in her mind's eye of me before she met me? Yamatcha then drove us, in her Mercedes so I definitely didn't want to touch anything, to the beach where we walked along the coats until we got to her friend's Antique store. There we had some green tea and more bean paste desserts that were actually wrapped in cherry blossom leaves. Her friends show us how to  weave place mats out of old kimonos on this neat machine and she let us all try it. We then had run out of time and had to head to the train station to get back to the ship. I met Claudia and we got tickets along with some other girls to go see the Yokohama Bay Stars versus the Tokyo Giants in a baseball game. This was so crazy with massive amounts of cheering, they actually have cheerleaders that performed a kick line at the routine. The pitchers were brought out on sports cars to the mound! My friends actually tackled around 5 Japanese children just to get a ball, very funny at the time.

I got to sleep in a little bit before Elle called to about heading to Tokyo again for some shopping to use up some yen. I took them back to Harajuku and Takeshita-Dori and we actually bought a couple cute things there for pretty cheap, at least cheaper than the States. I also took them back to the Hip hop cafe from but it was harder for Elle because she is a vegetarian so there weren't too many options. We then walked to the Meiji Jingu shrine which was absolutely huge. They were definitely the largest toriis I have every seen and the park you had to walk through was incredibly beautiful. The temples differ from the other ones I have been to because normally they are incredibly intricate whereas the Japanese ones are simple but still just as beautiful if not more. They had huge vats that used to be filled with sake decorated with different characters. There were different plants decorating the sides of the shrine that were very beautiful too. We had to watch our hands and mouth before entering and then we couldn't even take pictures of the shrine from straight on. It was definitely great to see that shrine though. We actually saw a little girl dressed in a full kimono which made her look so beautiful even though she was probably only about 7 or 8 years old. After that we took the trains sluggishly back to the ship and then go through more of the crazy immigration lines before we left. Yokohama actually had some beautiful skylines as we pulled away, almost as good as the huge cities in China but on a smaller scale. Now I must start recovering from Asia before I get to Hawaii. Also, we have a ton of work to do because this is one of the last chunks of ship time and school that we have. Hopefully I survive it because I'm really excited for what I have planned for Hawaii!!!!