Japan

For the very last time, here I am writing my blog late at night before getting into our next port. Hawaii’s up tomorrow—first Oahu for two days and then the Big Island for two more. It’s pretty hard to believe we’ll be back in the U.S. again after more than three months. Honestly, it’s a little depressing, but I am extremely excited about using my phone again at least! The last couple of hours everyone has been running around the ship getting people’s numbers because even though we’re like family with so many others on the ship now, we haven’t even exchanged numbers.

Just getting ready to be back in our home country has been a little bit strange. Today in pre-port Dean Nick asked, “if you have an emergency, what number do you call?” We all looked around for a few seconds before realizing that all you have to do is dial 911. Putting my wallet “back together” was odd for me, too. I had to return so many items that I had taken out of it for the duration of the trip: my license, my health insurance card, US bills other than one’s, and American change that I stuffed in an envelop in my drawer way back in August. There were also a number of items that I was finally able to remove from my wallet now that we’re back in the good old US of A: a copy of my passport, a list of exchange rates, a detailed sheet of emergency contact information, a picture of the ship (which I carried to show non-English-speaking cab drivers), and some anti-diarrheal pills which we were instructed to have on us at all times.

As much as I’ve been thinking about it lately, I’m not going to reflect on the entire voyage quite yet, because we still have this last port to go. Just know that it has been, and is definitely about to be, a pretty emotional time on the ship. This may be in part because the cabin fever we all have after nine days at sea (it’s a longgg way from Japan to Hawaii), but I don’t think there will be a single SASer that isn’t going to miss the MV Explorer come three weeks from now.

Anyway, let me tell you a bit about my time in Japan! Day one in Yokohama we show up to the most intense immigration we’ve seen yet. Though it was annoying to have to go through one-by-one to speak with a Japanese immigration officer who took our picture and got our fingerprints, we finally felt like we were in a modern nation that wouldn’t let just anyone waltz into their country.

As soon as my German SASer friend, Stefanie, and I made it through immigration Yuka was there to meet us! (For any of you who don’t know, Yuka is a Japanese woman who lived with my family for a year when she was an exchange student at my school back in 2001-2002. She’s a sweetheart and we’ve stayed in touch with her over the years.) Yuka had taken off of work so she could show us all of the Tokyo area.

The three of us saw this enormous bronze Budda statue in Kamakura; we went to the very old traditional section of Tokyo, called Ikebukuro, which had enormous temples and a lot of very traditional Japanese food; and then we did all of the modern parts of the city, like Harajuku, which were super lively and had amazing shopping. Unfortunately Japan seemed so expensive after India, Vietnam, and China that I couldn’t buy much, but I did make one purchase of extremely cool and colorful Vans sneakers. As far as I can tell Tokyo is the best place in the world to buy sweet sneakers.

When in Tokyo we stayed at Yuka’s parents house, because it is bigger than Yuka’s apartment which is right in the middle of the city. Even though the Murakami’s live in the “suburbs” it’s only a thirty minute train ride to the heart of Tokyo and there’s a train stop just a ten minute walk away. I loved the public transport in Japan; you really can get anywhere you want without a car. This probably explains the amazement of Yuka’s two friends when I said, “the only I.D. I have on me is my driver’s license.” The two quickly asked me if I drive much and were equally amazed when I said, “yes, pretty much everywhere.” The one young woman told me that she doesn’t have a license and the other said she has her driver’s license, but she’s never actually driven.

Staying at Yuka’s house was a great time though. We had delicious home cooked meals and got a bit of much needed down time. (Just now, fifteen long days after leaving China, I’m almost recovered from a nasty cold I picked up in Beijing.) It was also such a fun time exploring Yuka’s room which is filled of reminders of her stay with us—things like framed photos, Beanie Babies from Dad, a good-bye poster signed by her grade, the old 2002 MFS yearbook, and a photo album made by Mom with many pictures of Yuka with us VC’s, our extended family, and our best friends.

Like a vast majority of Japanese people, no one in Yuka’s family speaks much English. Even still, we had a wonderful time communicating visually and with some translation from Yuka. This ‘round-the-world trip has made me appreciate the amount of often funny communication that can take place without knowing any of the other party’s spoken language. On this trip I have also discovered that Asian television is equally, if not more, entertaining than American television even though we cannot understand a single word that is being said.

Unlike in the rest of Asia, in Japan it isn’t so novel to be a white person. We were certainly noticed, but for the first time since October we weren’t stared at. The Japanese seemed to like us fine, but we were no longer celebrities, which was both nice and unfortunate. There didn’t appear to be any lasting animosity from the Second World War, though I never made it down to Hiroshima or Nagasaki so it could be different elsewhere in the country. Still, on our second day in Japan I had the abrupt realization that Yuka, Stefanie, and I were a Japanese person, a German, and an American hanging out with each other less than seventy years after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the U.S. went to war against both Germany and Japan. It seems so extremely trite to say, but I really had a sudden overwhelming sense of pride and optimism for humanity because the three of us could be together as great friends.

After a sad goodbye with Yuka, Stefanie and I hopped on a night bus to travel to the city of Kobe to meet our ship. We had a fun couple of hours of night bus-partying with other SASers headed to Kobe, and I arrived at the ship just in time to go on the earthquakes field trip for my class. Though I wasn’t thrilled to be spending one of my five days in Japan learning about earthquakes, we saw some pretty interesting stuff. For those of you in my generation, you probably don’t know about the enormous earthquake that hit Kobe in January of 1995. It was definitely the largest earthquake to hit a major city in modern times killing about five thousand people. We saw a piece of preserved ground on the fault line where you can see how the earth literally moved up and over several feet. We also went to a museum about the ‘quake and visited a section of the port area which is preserved as it was after that momentous day. The photos and video footage from the earthquake and its aftermath were absolutely stunning—the visuals of the destruction gave me a better idea of just how many fatalities five thousand really is. All of the information made me think deeply about my 1920’s apartment in very tectonically active Southern California. I just might have to move back to the East Coast where I’ll be safe from both natural disasters and excessive vanity (…just kidding, I love you Cali kids).

On my very last day in a Japan I went up to Kyoto to see one of the most traditional, beautiful cities in the country. We spent the day wondering around the peaceful city discovering many old temples and palaces that were once home to important shoguns and samari. Kyoto is a must-see place for any visitors to Japan—again, it was one of places that I cannot put words to why exactly I loved it, but I had a fantastic leisurely day. It was an amazing end to my international travels. Watching the sunset from the seventh deck and listening to a band play at the waterfront, we pulled out of our last foreign harbor nine days ago and we haven’t seen land since.

Just three hours from now I should see “home,” or a piece of home that is over six thousand miles away from where I grew up, but it’s the United States all the same. As some of you may have already noticed, we will be in Hawaii on the 68th anniversary of “the day that will live in infamy.” Unfortunately I’m not getting to Pearl Harbor because I have so much else to do, I’ve already been there, and I know it’ll be inanely crowded, but it should be interesting to see how the local environment changes to remember that day.

I’ll write back eventually, but my next blog probably won’t be written until I’m curled up on my family room couch in South Jersey, next to my fat Yellow Labrador and my three younger siblings who are watching a holiday marathon of Scrubs.

Can’t wait to see and talk with you all!

Much love,
svc