Okay, so back track 5 days and let’s go to Japan. This is honestly one of the coolest, most amazing countries on the planet. I swear, I would move there in a heartbeat.
There and South Africa. We got into Japan on the 14th and I left the boat to go on my one night, two-day home stay. I was really nervous because a) I don’t speak Japanese (now much more than before, that’s for sure), b) I didn’t know if they spoke English (it turns out very little), and c) I was going alone, not with another Semester at Sea student, like most of the home stay programs had been. We got off the boat and went to meet our families. My okasa, or mother, Akiko, was super cute and had brought 3 of her friends with her to meet me! Unfortunately her kids are already in college and her husband works in Tokyo (we were in Kobe), so it would have been just the two of us otherwise. We left port and drove to Nishinomiya, her hometown, which is tucked between Osaka and Kobe. We met with three other families from the home stay organization, called the Hippo Club (still not sure why), and went to a Japanese noodle restaurant.
Luckily the other two families had little kids! My friend Amanda’s family had one little girl named Yuki, and my friend Molly’s family had little Yu, who was 3, and Suito, who was 4, both boys. After a lunch of traditional Japanese noodles, called udon, we went to visit a Shinto shrine. We walked through large orange gates, through winding paths, and approached the steps of the shrine, but before we could go in we had to wash our hands and face to cleanse ourselves.
After that we each took a coin, made a prayer and rang the bell at the entrance to the shrine. As is the deal with most Japanese shrines, there were beautiful gardens with coy ponds, turtles, egrets and lots of beautiful greenery. We spent an hour walking around the ponds, feeding the fish, and enjoying the brisk winds of fall.
(P.S. Is Yu not the most adorable boy ever?) This was the second time during the entire voyage we had seen leaves change color, which made me a little homesick for the beautiful autumns at UVA! After the shrine we spent a leisurely afternoon at a food market, where we enjoyed some interesting Japanese desserts. Apparently the Japanese are BIG fans of bean paste…um, ew. If you ever go, be careful – what appears to be chocolate, not always is; that’s just my little warning. 
After doing some great shopping at the 100 yen store (I got this really sweet pair of glasses that have now become my "Asian Accessory" – I literally wear them ALL the time) we perused the ginormous grocery store while our moms shopped for dinner. When we got back to Molly’s family’s house, it had turned into Molly, Molly’s mom, Akiko, Yu, Suito, and me. On the agenda for the night: homemade temaki sushi handrolls and takoyaki (octopus dumplings that sound foul but are amazing).
Our moms (seen above! my mom is on the left) created this amazing array of 8 different kinds of fish, including salmon, yellowtail, tuna, snapper, octopus, and crab. They laid out pieces of nori, or dried seaweed, a steaming bowl of sticky rice, big wads of wasabi, piles of ginger, and saucers of soy sauce. Molly and I grabbed our plates and chopsticks and had at it!
After multiple rounds of fresh and delicious sushi we had takoyaki. These dumplings are made in a special wrought iron pan with batter, onion, and diced octopus, and then are topped with a thicker, sweeter version of Worcestershire sauce, a bit of Japanese mayonnaise, flakes of nori and katsuobushi, some dried fish flakes or something. And honestly it sounds disgusting, but it was truly unbelievably awesome.
After dinner, Molly’s mom brewed us homemade green tea while we played hide and ghost seek with the kids.Unfortunately after a while my mom and I had to leave to go to the local Hippo Club meeting, where I was shown off like a hot commodity. Since the main purpose of this group is learning about other cultures and languages, I had to introduce myself in all the languages I speak – English, French, Spanish, and my newly learned introduction in Japanese. Going around the circle, people introduced themselves in Malaysian, Mandarin, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, and other random, random languages. Apparently all members of this club can hold an introductory conversation in 19 languages…no big deal. As the clock started to approach 9:30pm I felt myself become really old really fast. I was yawning up a storm and couldn’t wait to hit my tatami mat and go to sleep! Luckily Akiko realized that my brain was no longer functioning after holding conversations in 5 different languages (my tiny bit of Mandarin came into play), and we hopped in the car. As we approached her neighborhood she informed me we needed to stop at the grocery again…I took a short nap while she shopped for half an hour. After that we made about 5 more stops before we were FINALLY going home…or so I thought. As we pulled into her neighborhood around midnight she informed me we had just one more stop…and it was so worth it! We drove up to the top of her neighborhood, one of the highest in Nishinomiya, trespassed on private property and saw the coolest view ever! It was the entire span of Osaka, Kobe, and little Nishinomiya – the entire skyline of all three cities. That woke me up fast! It was gorgeous.
I don’t think I got to bed until about 2:30am that morning…not my plan, but whatever. We got back to Akiko’s house where her son was watching her little cocker spaniel Leo, almost as cute as Phoebe, but not quite. Sadly her speaks less English than she does, so that conversation was a no-go. Instead I knocked out some reading in my tiny little bamboo room on my actually really comfortable tatami sleeping mat arrangement.
And to give you an idea of how great of a mom Akiko really was…she let me sleep till our late morning tea ceremony and lunch. When I got up my friend Amanda’s family, with little Yuki, came over with some of Akiko’s friends for a traditional Japanese tea ceremony and a delicious lunch of homemade okonomiyaki, a Japanese dish native to the Kansai (Osaka) region. I didn’t wake up and put on normal clothes though, oh no. I wore a bright red kimono with white designs and a yellow obi – it was awesome! They taught me how to make tea, the proper ceremonial methods for drinking it, thanking the host, etc. Mine didn’t taste too great though…oh well.
We then had some rice balls and pastries for dessert. I definitely ate too much! The end of the lunch brought the exchanging of gifts, apparently a big deal in Japanese culture. I gave Akiko tea from the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia, and some great soaps from Cambodia. For her son and daughter, I got them Semester at Sea t-shirts, and for her husband, a SAS hat. In return I got some weird handkerchief and a translucent folder with trees on it haha…it was very strange, but sweet. Akiko then drove me from her house back to the ship, where we said our goodbyes and I met my friends for the next leg of my Japanese journey.Victoria, Nora, Alki, Cara, Julien and I caught a train from the nearby Kobe station to Osaka around 5pm. I’m quite certain our hotel was in the ghetto. But luckily three other boys from the ship, Batu, Jerry, and Juan were all staying in the same place with Batu’s Japanese friend Tomoko, who was from Osaka. She was great to have! Oh, and here’s a picture of our sardine can of a bamboo room that Victoria, Cara and I shared…comfy!
So we stopped by the corner convenience store on the way to downtown Osaka, picked up some Strong Sevens, and hopped on the metro. When we arrived it looked like Times Square. The amount and brilliance of the lights was out of control…someone could seriously have a seizure.
Since there were about 14 of us at this point, we split up for dinner with plans to meet up again before Karaoke – perhaps my favorite activity of all time. Our original group of six picked out a small sushi restaurant and parked ourselves for a while, enjoying great tempura, sashimi, miso soup and sushi rolls. Finally the time came for karaoke, which was AWESOME! In these karaoke halls you rent out a room with multiple big, flat-screen TVs and the option of singing any song known to mankind. Amongst our choices, Love is a Battlefield, Hit Me With Your Best Shot (classics), some Mariah Carey, Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc. You get the gist. Essentially it was my jam. I love any excuse to sing!
Afterwards we followed Tomoko to some of her favorite spots in Osaka, which is actually a great city at night. Of course we stopped at Japanese McDonalds on the way home, which has come to be a common experience in all of these countries…and yes, the menus are changed! Exciting news, I know. For instance, in Japan they have some weird Ebi Filet-O, an alternate version of the Filet-O-Fish…clever. In India, they serve no beef products, as would be expected. And in South Africa corn is a staple to the McDonald’s menu. Oh, AND McDonalds is open 24 hours a day and delivers in ALL ASIAN COUNTRIES.
Why we don’t have this in the US is beyond me. So that was all super fun, but I swear sleeping in that tiny bamboo cell felt not only claustrophobic, but somewhat like a sauna as well. Fab.We woke up the next morning, the three of us in our room is very awkward positions, left the hotel and grabbed a train to Kyoto. Once there we took another train straight to Tokyo and got in around early evening. I went to my hotel, where I was meeting Kierstin, Laura Flynn, Jen, Jess, and Christine at our room. We have sharing one double bed amongst six girls down to a science, that’s for sure! Once the girls showed up we went out to find some dinner. And what did we find? Good old TGI Friday’s. At this point I had eaten too much sushi to warrant any more for at least 24 hours and nachos, chicken wings and a Caesar salad were sounding quite amazing. And let me tell you something, they were. I have never been happier in my life to see that TGI Friday’s waiter in his striped outfit and flare.
While there we met two American baseball players (Mom, tell Tucker to read this part because I know he doesn’t) who had been playing on teams in Taiwan for the past 10 months. One had played previously for the Rockies and Padres and decided that he needed a change of pace, wanted to travel, and came to play in Asia. He said that he had been having a great time…the sport seems to be growing out of control in this area. Stadiums are popping up like Starbucks – all over the joint. Sunday nights are typically slow in Tokyo, but the Rapponggi district was full of Semester at Sea students and other tourists, so there was a good deal open.
Honestly though, I’ve never felt more hassled in my life to enter clubs. Kierstin and I started pretending that we only spoke French to escape these people and what happens? They find the one person on their staff that speaks French as well…so no dice there. It has become a general fallback method, however.The next morning we got up and went out to explore Tokyo. We had an AMAZING lunch of fresh sushi, prepared right in front of us, and headed to the Harajuku district.
If any of you are Gwen Stefani fans, you know what I’m talking about. I have never seen weirder clothes or hairstyles in one concentrated place in my life. Whoa. But the area was very trendy and there was some great shopping. I can now dress as a full Asian – that is quite exciting. After a good afternoon in Harajuku we came back, and my friends headed to The Who concert. Not something I was totally interested in, and I was glad that I had spent the afternoon in Harajuku rather than in line for three hours getting tickets…Anyway, while they went to the concert I met up with my guy friends from Stanford and we grabbed dinner at a real Mongolian barbeque. It was so delicious.
They bring you all kinds of chicken, steak, random beef cuts, vegetables, noodles, etc. to cook on the grill set up in the middle of your table. I even ate cow tongue. YUM! That’s my adventurous food choice (along with octopus) for Japan. Afterwards we headed to the Absolut Ice Bar Tokyo, probably one of the coolest (pun intended) bars I have ever been to. Before you walk in they make you put on this giant silver parka with a fur hood and attached gloves. Once inside you understand why. IT IS FREEZING! Everything, and I mean everything, is made out of ice – the floor, ceiling, walls, chairs, tables, the bar itself, even the cups. Take a look at this picture, and you will understand.
I also just loved the parkas, I sort of wanted to steal one. The bar is so cold that you can only stay in for 45 minutes, and that’s definitely a good thing because I was starting to freeze my patootie off.
So we left, made our to Rapponggi district, and found tons of Semester at Sea kids crowding the streets. Okay, and I’ll put it this way – Tokyo’s nightlife is unreal. It cannot even be described it is so fun! The whole city is like New York on steroids.The afternoon we had to make our way back to the ship, which took a little bit longer than the expected half an hour. 3 hours later Jess, Christine and I arrived in Yokohama, our port, and boarded the ship. Driving through Yokohama was way cute though; it looked like a little Bethesda, Maryland or something. Lots of people just walking around enjoying the beautiful fall day.
So this blog took me a little time to get out, but I figured I had time. It’s actually more fun this way because I get to relive every moment of being in each country way after it’s actually over. I can’t believe we are going to be done in 3 weeks. I’m not ready. I don’t want to go home yet, I’m no where near being ready for that. And family – don’t get me wrong, I miss you tons, I do, but I don’t want to leave my friends, the ship, this awesome family that I’ve made while being away. Each and every experience has been amazing and has taught me something not only about each place I have visited, but also about who I am. I totally believe in this whole “changed” aspect of study abroad with Semester at Sea. This has changed how I view the world, how I live my life day-to-day, and what I plan to do when I graduate. I just feel obligated to help in any way that I can. Whether than be the Peace Corps, Operation Hunger, or something else, I’m not sure yet, but I’m eager to find out.Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Enjoy being together with your family and friends. Mom, Dad, Frank, Amy, Jeremy, Tucker, I wish I could be there with you all! Cheers a glass at dinner for me :) I might be somewhere along the beach in Waikiki…
1 comment:
Hi Sarah:
Great piece. After my trips to Japan, I can fully appreciate your experinces there. I urged L.F. to try okonomiyaki - I happen to think it's great too. Glad you had the home experience. that is a rare treat in thier culture. And, yes, I have also broekn down and gone for the McD's antidote to excessive raw fish products. :) But it at least sounds like everything they put on your plate had stopped moving.
Hope you enjoyed Honolulu.
Katherine is excited about meeting up with all of you in C.R. Have a great time!
Love,
Dr H
PS: Hope you are feeling a bit less sad about the loss of your friend.
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