Japan

My time in Japan is over, we left last night. Our stretch of several ports in quick succession is done, it seemed to fly by. Now there are nine days at sea, until we get to Hawaii. Japan was incredible, everything I did was fun. Other places have been good, but Japan was great. When we arrived, we had to go through Japanese Customs and Immigration, the most intense arrival process so far. Everyone must be photographed, fingerprinted, and have their temperature taken before being allowed into the country. By the time all of that was done, I did not have enough time to see Kobe before my trip left. So I called home, looked around the port area, and then went on the trip to Hiroshima. We took the bullet train to Hiroshima, which took barely over an hour to go three hundred kilometers. Its about the same feeling as being on a plane, you’re going incredibly fast, but can hardly tell. Most of the track is in tunnels, but when you are outside, everything blurs by. Hiroshima itself is an interesting experience. There’s the obvious history, it being one of only two places in the entire world to ever have been the victim of a nuclear bombing. Yet, the museum is much different than others war museums and memorials that I have seen on this trip. The Hiroshima museum does not attempt to put blame on anyone. It is not set up to make the United States look bad. Most of the museum contains artifacts from the blast: watches all stopped at 8:15, torn and burnt clothing, melted and fused household goods. The museum is surrounded by a park, full of memorials. The most famous part is the “A-bomb dome” a shell of a building that was one of the few to remain standing. Now its skeleton remains, a reminder of the horrors of war. It is surrounded by cherry trees, and the peace park, making Hiroshima one of the most important voices for world peace.
My second day in Japan I visited Kyoto, the ancient capital. After about an hour bus ride, we arrived at Nijo Castle. It was built by the first Shogun, who unified Japan during its feudal period. Nijo Castle was the seat of power for several hundred years, until the last Shogun restored power to the emperor, and the castle became a secondary home for the royal court. Japanese castles are not like European castles. There is an outer stone wall, but it is only about twenty feet high. The building are made of wood, and not fortified at all. There was once a five story tower, but it was struck by lightning and burned down in the 1700s. Much of the castle grounds are gardens and ponds. It is clearly built to be comfortable, not merely to protect the ruler. I was in Japan during the peak of cherry blossom season, and every place I went in Kyoto was stunning. The trees here, and the second stop, were especially beautiful. That second stop was the Golden Pavilion, a Shinto shrine. The pavilion sits on a pond, and is surrounded by more gardens. The other buildings within the complex have Zen gardens. One building is known for its six hundred year old bonsai tree, which has been sculpted into the shape of a sailing ship. The pond contains two islands, turtle island, and crane island. There were live turtles in the pond, and as I was standing there, a crane flew across the water and landed on crane island. We then saw another pond, a sacred spring, and a traditional tea house, before leaving this shrine. For lunch we got box lunches from the ship, and went to a public park to eat them. It was full of food vendors, so I also got some fried chicken on a stick, something that can be found anywhere in the world. There was another temple complex on a hill next to the park, it was not a scheduled stop, but I went up to it anyways. I was told that parts of “The Last Samurai” were filmed here, but I did not recognize any buildings. After there, we went to a Shinto temple. Our guide showed the way that people ritually wash their hands, and then the Shinto prayer that they do. This area also had a cherry blossom garden. Our last stop in Kyoto was at a Buddhist temple. I had seen plenty of Buddhist temples in Thailand, but it was interesting to see the differences between the two. The Japanese temple again incorporated lots of nature, trees, and gardens. There was also less emphasis on the Buddha, and more on various small rituals. It is very common to use prayer flags, notes, or small wooden plaques to attempt to get your wishes granted.
Upon arriving back at the ship, I grabbed my backpack, a quick dinner, and then met everyone for our independent travel. Like in China, we could leave the ship as long as we met it again in Yokohama. Our goal was Koka, a tiny town with a very interesting history. It was the home of the Koga Ninja Clan during the feudal and Shogun eras. Their rivals, the Iga Ninja, are in another town a short distance south of Koka. We took the train to Kyoto, but accidentally got on the local line, so we stopped at every single stop along the way. It took longer, but gave us a really cool look at a wide range of Japan. In Kyoto we transferred to another train to Kusatsu, and then onto a tiny spur line to Koka. Each train got progressively smaller, slower, and less like the ultra modern trains that people expect in Japan. We finally arrived in Koka at almost eleven at night, and found it to be completely deserted. It was smaller than I imagined. The town consisted of two main streets, with less than a dozen traffic lights. We looked for a place to stay, and our options seemed to be the train station, or an empty field. Eventually we went into a convenience store, and using some drawings of beds, and pantomiming sleep, the store manager drew us a map to the one hotel in town. We found it around midnight, and the night shift women let us in and we got one single room for the three of us. It made the rooms on the ship look big, but it worked for the night. That night we discovered beer vending machines and Japanese game shows. We got up, explored the town a little bit, and then as we were eating breakfast on the street outside of our hotel, the other group of our friends walked out of the same place. They had gotten there earlier than we did, and must have been asleep before we even got to the town. We had a poor map from the website of the ninja museum, and after an hour or two of looking for it, we went to the train station and had them call the museum. It turned out to be about a ten minute drive, and they came to pick us up in a shuttle van and drive everyone out there.
The Ninja Village is a collection of small traditional houses, hidden away in the forest outside of town. The main thing to see is the ninja house, complete with trap doors, revolving walls, hidden passages, and several ways to escape. Next door to that is a museum full of clothing, armor, and weapons. There are tunnels that connect between some of the houses, and then to other parts of the village. One of the coolest things to do was to throw authentic style ninja stars, not the many-pointed ones that we see in movies. Real shuriken only have four points. The gift shop gave everyone a scroll saying that we were official ninja of the Koga Clan, and then we headed back to the train station to go to Tokyo. We had to take the small trains back to Kyoto, and then from there got on the bullet train to Tokyo. Even at the speed those trains can go, it took two and a half hours. The highlight was passing Mt. Fuji right around sunset. We transferred from the train station to the subway lines, and got to our hotel in the Roppongi district. The Tokyo subway system is one of the most massive and complex in the world, but each line is color coded, and it was fairly easy to get around the city.
The next morning, I woke up, and PJ wanted more sleep (great nights in Tokyo), so I headed out by myself. I went to central Tokyo, saw the Imperial Palace from outside, but did not go in. I ate my breakfast in a park across the street from it. I went back to Roppongi, and walked to the Tokyo Tower. I went up to its 250 meter observation deck for some awesome views of the city. There are just skyscrapers as far as you can see. It was weird to look down onto fifty story buildings, but the view was great. I went back to the hotel, and PJ was now ready to go out. Our first stop was Akhiabara, the electronics district. We went into a nine-story shop that was nothing but electronics and video games. The entire area is full of arcades, DVD stores, anime, and more neon than you can imagine. Then we went to Shibuya, where the world’s busiest intersection is. This district is called the Times Square of Tokyo. It’s very upscale and very modern. After dinner we went back to Roppongi and everyone met at our hotel to make plans for that evening. Some other of my friends were going to a high class bar in Shinjuku, the rich section of Tokyo, and I wanted to go meet them. I’ve never seen it, but the film “Lost in Translation” was filmed there. So a few of us ended up dressing nice, and went up to the 52nd floor of a skyscraper to see it. The view of Tokyo at night was an awesome backdrop for a high roller’s evening. (Don’t worry, I kept the bill low.)
On the last day, we took the train back to Yokohama to meet the ship. We put our stuff away, and then I went out to see the city. It’s a great city, probably the best port area. You can easily walk off of the ship and find things right in the area. It was nicer than Cape Town, but not as touristy, so I’d say that Yokohama is the best port city. The baseball stadium is about a five minute walk, but the game started too late in the day for me to get back to the ship on time. Lots of people went the previous day, and had a great time. I walked to the Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Japan, and it has the world’s fastest elevator. I didn’t pay to go up, since I went up the Tokyo Tower. Just outside of that building is the Nippon Maru, an old sailing ship. I don’t know its exact history, but during Japan’s modernization, it was the pride of the nation. The rest of Yokohama is beautiful, everything is very clean, and the city has more parks, squares, and green avenues than most places I’ve been. I was back on the ship in the afternoon, and then everyone had to get off again in the evening to go through immigration before we were cleared to leave. Much later in the evening we put out to sea. Sailing out past the brilliant lights and clean skyline of Yokohama was the perfect ending to a great time in Japan.