David's Travel Blog: Japan Blog

Day 1:

A quick 2 days at sea from China landed us in Kobe, Japan at 8am. Customs was a little weird in that we all had to get our temperatures taken by an infrared camera before we got off the ship. We have traveled farther and farther north from the equator, so the weather was expected to be a bit cold and rainy, but it looked like it was shaping up to be a nice day. There were 7 of us traveling together the first day in Japan: Me, Will, Katie, Steven, Miles, Lizzy, and Emily. Once off the ship in the morning, we hopped on the famous metro/train system to a Sake factory across the city in Kobe. Some of the first things I noticed here is how quiet everyone is! Everyone keeps to themselves and hardly talks at all on the trains or even out and about in the city. This was a huge contrast to China. Also, very street in Japan is packed with vending machines selling mainly beverages but also many other things. The awesome thing about these vending machines is that they also sell hot coffee in cans. These cans turned out to be great hand warmers on cold rainy days. We made many stops at these vending machines throughout our travels. At the Sake factory, we learned the process of rice cleaning and Sake production and did a factory tour. Though I usually don't care for sake, the samples at the end were pretty tasty. After the sake factory tour, we were hungry for lunch so we made our way to the closest restaurant. The language barrier in Japan made itself well known at this lunch restaurant because you had to order lunch by pressing buttons with the meal written above it, with no pictures. We basically all just punched a button with a corresponding price we felt like paying. We got lucky for the most part but some of us ended up with interesting lunches like raw eggs. After this lunch, we took the train back to the ship where we would pack up and head to Osaka.

The trains here must come at least every 5 minutes; because that is the longest we ever waited for a train. We each bought week long train passes which made things easy because that way we did not need to buy a ticket each ride. The ride to Osaka was only 20 minutes with a couple transfers and our hotel (you could call it that) was only a few blocks from the station. Our first night here in Osaka, Japan, we stayed in the famous Japanese style capsule hotels. These epitomize space efficiency for a hotel. Each floor is a row of stacked capsules about 20 deep and 2 high. They are actually very comfortable and are very cheap (about $15) compared to other accommodations in Japan. We happened to be in ne of the best locations in Osaka for restaurants and liveliness, so our night consisted of bouncing from restaurant to vending machine to restaurant trying out fried octopus, edomame, Japanese beers, and some other local cuisine. We ended off the night bowling at a bowling alley close to our hotel.

Day 2:

I thought I had escaped Fraternity style public showers when I moved out of Sigma Chi a few months ago but I was wrong. The showers at this capsule hostel were a traditional bath house style with a bunch of shower heads that surround a large Jacuzzi bath. You shower sitting down on a chair and rinse off in the jaczzi bath before and after your shower. At least I had a shower at our hotel though, because the girls were required to walk 5 blocks for the nearest women's shower. We decided to grab breakfast at a quik mart and McDonalds since we were in a hurry to make it to the Osaka Aquarium and Hiroshima by bullet train all in that day. The quik marts here are called "Family Mart" and all the different products they sell here are very entertaining. I kept getting distracted looking at all the cool packaging and products since it is so much different than from the US. A few train stops away put us at the largest aquarium in the world, the Osaka Aquarium. This was by far the coolest aquarium (or even zoo) I have ever been to in my life. The many tanks held a variety of animals from dolphins, seals, otters, manta rays, and even a WHALE SHARK!! We stared at the graceful whale shark for what seemed like an hour, in awe of the fact that they were able to hold such a large creature in captivity. The gift shop at the aquarium was almost as cool as the aquarium itself (kidding, kind of) because it had literally any possible shape or form of the animals inside. From whale shark iPhone covers to whale shark silverware, they had it there.

Following the Aquarium, we took the bullet train to Hiroshima to see the memorial museum and park. The ride there on the bullet train was a very cool experience. These bullet trains fly at extremely high speeds but ride perfectly smoothly. They are very aerodynamic and futuristic looking. It was a two hour ride to Hiroshima by train but I was amused by the train the whole time so it only seemed like 20 minutes. The Hiroshima museum was incredible. Learning about the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and the devastation it created was very interesting and heavy. The museum had many pieces on display that demonstrated the power of the bomb. Some of the most incredible pieces to me were the watches that were all frozen in time, having been broken right when the bomb went off. I learned way more in a few hours here than I did in any of my Asian studies classes from high school or college.

We got to Japan just at the right time, Cherry blossom time. The cherry blossoms only blossom once a year and for only 10 days, and we happened to hit it spot on. All of Japan was covered in these beautiful pink and white cherry blossoms, which made the Hiroshima Memorial Park exceptionally beautiful. After walking around the memorial park for awhile, we hopped back on the bullet train and made our way to Kyoto for the night.

We got to Kyoto by night time, so it was a bit difficult sifting through Japanese character maps to walk our way to the hotel for the night but we eventually got there. In Kyoto, we had a traditional style Japanese hotel/sleeping arrangement. It was a large room with bamboo floors and we all slept on mats together in one room. This could have been the best night of sleep I have had on the trip. I might have to start sleeping on the floor when I get home. Before we went to bed, Will and I walked the sleepy streets of Kyoto stopping at every place that displayed a red lantern, meaning small restaurant. We had a fun time guessing at what we were ordering from the Japanese characters, and always seemed to end up with something delicious.

Day 3:

I woke up early the next morning around 6 o'clock to get a few Skype calls back home. After catching up with a few friends on the phone, Will and I decided to start our day because everyone else was still asleep. We decided the best way to travel around Kyoto was by bike so we stopped by a bike rental place and got some city cruisers for the day. The sun was shining all day and it made for an incredible day seeing various temples and parks, as well as winding along the bank of the river covered with cherry blossoms. There are well over a dozen temples in Kyoto and the cherry blossoms are in full force here. We biked for miles and miles and it turned in to the Tour de Kyoto. Fully exhausted from the sun and biking, we stopped by a vending machine to pick up an ice-cold Sapporo and relax before we returned the bikes. After we dropped off the bikes, we walked down a market street filled with vendors selling all types of foods, dried fruits, and desserts. We stuffed ourselves full without paying a single yen, all by trying samples. It felt like we were at Costco with all the samples. Full and tired, we made our way to the bullet train station to head up to Tokyo to meet up with Will's sister for the night. The bullet train to Tokyo was just a few hours with one transfer at the end to Shinjuku station. As we walked out of the station, I saw the Japan I had envisioned before I got here; flashing lights, huge LCD screens, tall buildings, and tons of people. We were able to find Will's sister, Hillary, pretty quick even though the station is huge, and then we walked a few blocks to her apartment to drop off our stuff. We told Hillary a bit about our first few days in Japan, then made our way out to the city to get some fresh fish for dinner. We found this really cool restaurant that has individual grills in front of you from which we cooked fresh crab, shrimp, and vegetables. We also had some famous Japanese tuna sushi. After dinner, we took the subway a few stations away to Shibuya, which boasts the biggest human crossing intersection and all sorts of cool cafes, bars, restaurants, karaoke venues, and cool nightlife. We roamed the streets for a couple hours stopping occasionally to people watch from a balcony or bar.

Day 4:

The 4:15 am alarm was hard to get up for, but Will and I really wanted to see the largest fish market and auction in the world, and this is the only time to do it. We left Hillary's apartment while the moon was still in full, hopped on the subway, and made our way 10 stations to the famous Tsukiji Fish Market. I have never seen so much seafood in my life. They had anything and everything from crabs, lobsters, octopus, halibut, and hundreds of pounds tuna. The place was packed with fishermen driving around trucks stacked high with tuna and other fish, and the halls were filled with tanks of live fish and fish on ice. Butchers were also fileting much of the fish and packing it all up in Styrofoam to be shipped off. We got kicked out a few times but kept sneaking back in just to see a little bit more. We grabbed breakfast quickly afterwards, then made our way back to Hillary's apartment to sleep for a bit longer before we explored Tokyo for the day.

Will and I had a few places we wanted to go check out in Tokyo while Hillary was at work, so we took the train a few stations to Yoyogi Park, which is a really cool park with temples, cherry blossoms, and lakes. We walked around here for awhile before heading an hour away on the train to Kamakura, a beach city with a famous Buddha statue and more temples. Kamakura was very quiet and rural compared to downtown Tokyo. Will and I walked around the quiet streets a couple miles until we made it to the famous, huge Bddha statue. We took a few pictures of the statue, then kept wandering our way towards the beach. We were surprised to see that there were people surfing the meager waves. The waves were barely even one foot, and it was very cold, windy and overcast, yet there were still 4 guys out on longboards surfing. We watched them for an hour before making the trek back to the train station to head back to downtown Tokyo. On the way back, we grabbed some snacks at a market, and Will won a few Japanese scratch lottery cards.

After a quick nap back at Hillary's, we showered up and got ready for dinner. The rain had started to come down really hard, so we stopped by the "100 yen" store (a 99 cent store equivalent) to pick up some umbrellas. For dinner, Hillary took us to a local, inexpensive, and delicious dumpling restaurant. The rain kept coming down hard, so we took a train a few stations to Rapoongi instead of walking. For the rest of the night, we walked around the famous nightlife of Rapoongi stopping occasionally for a drink at s restaurant to celebrate our last night in a foreign country on the trip. We walked around the streets for a few hours before heading back to Hillary's.

Day 5:

We woke up around 9 and the rain had not given up at all. Having been away from California for so long, Will and I were itching for some Mexican food. Hillary happened to know of a place a few train stations away that had supposedly good Mexican food, so we decided to head over there and give it a try. Katie and Lizzy met us there as well. We were pretty soaked from the rain by the time we got there, because we had to walk a bit from the train station. We all got chicken burritos, and they were delicious, but didn't hold a light to and true San Diegan Mexican burritos. After lunch, we hopped on the train back to Hillary's apartment to grab our bags, then made our way back towards the ship a few stops away. Back near the ship, we had to get rid of the last of our Yen, so we all bought various snacks and goodies from the grocery store. With just a few hours before the ship left, we said goodbye to Hillary, then for the last time, boarded the ship in a foreign country. We were officially US bound via the Pacific crossing, a 17 day journey to look forward to.

Pictures from Japan: