Blog 6

The Country of Japan! (part 1)

Wowee! What a week I've had. Two nights before we got off the ship, all the students had a Global Studies test, which was just about what I expected… I expect to see about a B or more realistically a C on that; but hey… that's how first tests go. The next day was Asia day; we had an entire day dedicated to the arts, history, and culture of various Asian countries. So all day, there were open classroom programs that included learning languages, painting, informational seminars, dances, traditional dressing, etc. It was very cool to experience, and everyone was very excited to get to the next day where we would be in Japan! I spent the evening packing and preparing for my 4 night trip. The plan was to hang out my buddies from southern California; Tim, Jimmy, and Jeff. I went to sleep around midnight but kept waking up because I was so excited! I decided to give up on sleeping around 5 and went up to roam the boat. I did some video taping on various decks and then took a nap by the window in the deserted union. I woke back up after about an hour to find the outside waters being with another ship or two. I went to the back deck and before I knew it, the sun was peeking out from a horizon that shown a mountainous silhouette and what looked like various Christmas lights scattered about the dark land formation. At this point, it was me and about 3 or 4 others on the back taking pictures. Japan literally means the land of the rising sun, and indeed it was. It was an extraordinary sight. If you haven't heard the Lupe Fiasco song – "Paris, Tokyo", I'm living it.

I was running off about five hours of sleep but still was amped with energy. Around 10 AM, the boat began to be unloaded and we were called by sea, which is what deck you're on. I live on deck 2 and am in the Aegean Sea. I didn't get off until about noon, and my buddies were waiting for me when I got off. Most of the students were just standing on the deck waiting to get off into the city of Yokohoma, , forced to star at the beautiful cityscape but couldn't quite reach; it was like a cruel joke. Once I finally got off, we spent the afternoon navigating the train system which I still have no idea how to do, but Jimmy was an expert on, somehow. We did a lot of walking and got lost multiple times before we finally reached The BakPak Tokyo Hostel and settled in. Before then we ate at a restaurant in a shopping district and that was when we really realized we had no communication skills and were out of luck if any confrontation was experienced. We took turns passing the menu around the table and pointing to the pictures while the waitress made gestures of recognition and then it was all good… That is until she brought out one plate of food and sat it in front of me and never returned to the table. We had a good laugh, found a way to use more pointing and finger counting to get more food for the rest of the fellas. I was the most proficient with my chopsticks but I became highly impressed with the friends progress. As we got up to leave, the two girls at the counter looked at each other pre-meditatively, said "one, two sree… sank you!", and then fell into uncontrollable laughter as we clapped.

That night, we went to a go to a place called Ropongi, which we were told was the Tokyo hot spot for clubs and bars. I was out for 2 things that night – sushi, and karaoke. We were told by the girl at the front desk of the hostel that Japanese people eat dinner around 9 or 10 and then go out and party till 5 in the morning. The subway stopped at 12AM and didn't start till 5AM, so we were pretty much obligated to do it this way. I'm not complaining, I like to party all night long! unlike my father. So we go out and find some sushi and thank Christ when we find a waitress that speaks English! The first thing that I noticed is PORTION size.

I spent this entire trip consumptionally unsatisfied. They only sold 750 ml of hard alcohol, as opposed to handles in America, and every meal we had was just a 4 piece McNugget and rice…. or 5 pieces of sushi for 15 bucks. Dah! I spent most of money on food. Anyway we found sushi and had a great meal and I had a Sopporo. That's Asian beer for all you who aren't frequents in sushi restaurants. After dinner, we met up with Jeff's cousin, Sam who is also on SAS too. Sam, was with a kid named Mac from California, and Yudai, a Japanese student who goes to school in Texas. Yudai was very convenient to have around. He showed us a Karoake joint, that we found some SASers at. The way that it works is you get your own room with the group that you brought. I was having a great time but wanted to meet more Japanese people, so I spent the remainder of the evening just busting in on Japanese people doing Karoake. But it was 40 American dollars for all you can drink and sing until 5 AM… SOLD! We lost Tim and somewhere that night and we got back around 6AM very relieved to find him warm in his bed.

The next day we woke up and went to Shibuya, this is like the Japanese Times square. You know when you see the movies when Tokyo is just lit up with neon lights, huge screens with Japanese pop videos, and crosswalks where it's just an Asian free-for-all. This place was, just like other big cities in the world, was full of the most prestigious stores and brands worldwide. Everywhere you would look, it would be Louie Vutton, Nike, Gucci, Coach, Gap, etc; and of course there was a Starbucks and a McDonalds on every corner.

They even had the 100 yen menu! Yes… Yes… I went to Japan and went to McDonalds, but I only got an afternoon ice cream. That day was a big confusion of subway systems and people, and shops. It would have been my kind of place if I was rollin' in the dough, otherwise… eh… Still a very cool experience though. What we mostly did, was walk around and flash the stereotypical Asian peace sign with both hands and take pictures. We also looked for hot Japanese girls to take pictures with, a lot of them were wearing school girl outfits, but were pretty scared of interaction with us. Either because we were white(besides Arab-looking Jimmy), or didn't speak Japanese, or were a full foot taller; we were intimidating.

That is gonna have to some up Blog 6 since I've written a novel, much more to come.