JAPANNNN

HELLO FROM THE PACIFIC OCEAN!!!

Well it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for, ED IS ON HIS WAY BACK TO BOSTON, and stopping in Hawaii, MARK YOUR CALENDERS I get into San Diego December 13 and will be in Boston on December 15!

Anyways on to Japan, It was UNREAL… Not my favorite port, but still a great time! The first day we got to Kobe, home of Kobe beef, which costs an arm and a leg to order, $60 bucks for a small steak, but apparently well worth it. I headed down to Hiroshima, famous for where the US dropped the A-BOMB on Japan, it was wicked sad and powerful to grasp, but worth seeing especially since I’m going be at Pearl Harbor next week and to understand the destruction of Nuclear weapons first hand. The city has one building still standing from when the bomb was dropped to serve as a memorial site and so that no one can forget what had happened there, then you go into a museum that has artifacts, a documentary, and a step by step depiction of the days leading up to, that day, and then days following the Atomic bomb being dropped in Hiroshima. That night a group of us headed out for conveyor belt sushi, a few drinks, and then Karaoke! FUN FACT: Karaoke is sung in private rooms per group not in a giant crowd as the States do it. We had some trouble using the Karaoke machine as it was all in Japanese and in effect we ended up being able to sing only two songs both on repeat, “Don’t stop Believing” (a crowd pleaser) and “Bad Romance” (the only other English song we knew). Then we got half our money back for our troubles and called it a night…

The next day I woke up and headed to Kyoto for sightseeing with my friends, that was cool, we interrupted a Japanese wedding (not intentionally) by taking pictures of the scenery right where they we taking their photos and then walked more around the city. All the cities tend to blend together after a while, Japan doesn’t have distinct differences, between the cities other than the center regions. We walked around the river walk in Kyoto before we headed back to Kobe, that was a cool area because you got to see a lot of the locals down there playing sports, walking dogs, running (a big thing among all Japanese), or playing music. It was a nice peaceful day of just exploring then we sailed to Yokohama.

We get to Yokohama and hit the trains to go to Tokyo, crazy city, people dress in whatever they want so style is really in the eye of the beholder, We spent most of our time in the Shibuya and Hirajuka which is where most of the young people hangout. We continued explored all day saw the Imperial Palace, then went to TGI FRIDAYS for lunch because American food seemed like a great idea and then met up with our friends at the hotel, that night we went out for our friend Josh’s birthday and ended up at McDonalds at the end of the night, seems to be a common theme for me in Asia, McDonalds, as soon as I get to the states I am never going to a McDonalds for years. The next day we all got up and explored more of Shibuya, which is one of the many districts within Tokyo, we went up to the top of an office building and viewed the impeccable skyline of Tokyo, unlike many of the other views I have seen, Tokyo is completely surrounded by buildings, very little parks and greenery were seen from the view we were at, the farthest ends of the city were that of the mountains, and that was impeccable to see. After that we did some shopping, before catching our train to Yokohama. The trains might I add was a process in itself. Unlike China there was less English around to help us get around, and the trains was one of the hardest places for us, the maps only had prices next to the stations labeled in Japanese, thankfully the people were so friendly and willing to help that they got us to where we needed to be.

Traveling in the Pacific has been rough so far, last night no one slept due to the rockiness of the ship, all our stuff fell everywhere, my roommate got hit in the face with stuff that fell off our TV and desk, I got sea sick, my classes got cancelled in our Union because it was too rocky to be there its been pretty bad…
Well now its eight days to Hawaii, SPRING BREAK PART II, I can’t wait to just relax at the beach, attempt to surf, jumping off waterfalls, and seeing Pearl Harbor. This is the life can’t believe its coming to an end, but that means I’m that much closer to be back in Boston!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Ed