Log 13

So we have finally found land after twelve endless days at sea. We have been here for two days and I have many stories. I know you all are eager to hear them, but bear with me while I start from a little farther back in time. The day before we got to japan, that would have been the 23rd, the seas had gotten the worst that we had seen yet. The swells were enormous and the winds were even worse. Conditions got so bad that the crew would not let us go out on the decks. We had to remain inside at all times. If we thought sitting in class with the slight sway of the ship was hard, we were corrected that day. The wind and movement of the ship would splash water up onto the windows and shake the powerpoint projection, which would get most of the class’s attention. Then, it was extra hard to concentrate, because the sway of the ship was practically throwing my professors left and right. Why none of the decided to sit down is beyond me.

I also took my first exam for my Global Studies class. That is the mandatory class that all 594 students cram into an auditorium to attend. And when I say cram, I mean that some people sit on the floor. When I entered my testing room, and started taking the test, I realized it wasn’t as hard as they made it out to be. At the end I gave myself a solid 96%. Well, apparently our professors had a well-tuned system put into place, because we got our score back within a few hours. So of course the minute I find out that they are posted, I had to look. I received a 94%. That means I got 3 out of 50 wrong. Which is pretty much what I expected, since there were about three that I was not really sure about.

I have also noticed that my body is always stiff. I tried stretching the one day, and I found that I am about as flexible as wood. Before getting on the ship, I could stretch my legs and, almost, touch my nose to my knee. Now just sitting down with my legs out is virtually overstretching. I’ve accepted the explanation to this as given to me by a fellow SASer. That is what we call ourselves. They said that because we are constantly maintaining our balance, our muscles have tightened up to accommodate. It is just annoying that I feel stiff all the time.

Now, let’s talk about the day I arrived in Japan at the port of Kobe. As well pulling into the bay, the first thing that caught my attention was all of the smoke stacks. In the US we don’t see this because of the clean air act. But in Japan there were about six that I could see in one sitting that were operating. As we make our way closer to the dock, a little fire boat pulls alongside us. Then it starts spouting water. Now this was pretty cool to watch all on its own. But then, the water starting to change colors. This went on for a little while. The kids on board really liked it. Then after the water show, when the ship was right in front of the dock, the Japanese waiting at the dock released a whole bunch of balloons into the air. Now as a traveler I thought this was kind of cool. But as a marine biology, all I could think about was how those balloons would affect the environment when they fall back to the ground. But I can fight with myself about that later. After the balloon release, they proceeded to have a band play to welcome us. They played a total of four songs. One was “A Whole New World” from Aladdin, another was a song I could hum to you if I was able to somehow project my voice halfway around the world. And the other two I didn’t seem to know. Needless to say, the Japanese out ranking any other country I have been to when it comes to welcoming people into their country. However, I heard that Vietnam has their own show, so we will have to wait and see.

So now we are docked in Japan and everyone has to go through customs. This is always an outrageously long process because of our numbers. We have a system, but sometimes that doesn’t work as well as we hope. First, the lifelong learners, dependent children staff and faculty are called to go to the gangway. The gangway is the bridge that you walk over to get from the ship to the dock. Then after that, usually the field classes and trips go if they have the early times to leave. Then they start calling us by seas. Today Bering sea was called last with Yellow sea. This took forever. In total probably about 4 hours. And since I was at the end that is exactly how long it took me. Other that went first, after they got through customs, were able to leave for independent travel right away. But you couldn’t do that until you got through customs. No it is much easier to go in and out. You just show your ship ID and passport and you can come and go freely between the ship and Japan.

After I finally made it through customs, my friend Jady and I wondered around Kobe. We used public monorails to get around. We first went to a zoo. This was a very small zoo, which concerned me greatly, because I really hate to see animals in small enclosures when they deserve the wide open spaces of the wide. But I figure I would probably never get the chance to see a giant panda every again. So we went and we walked around. We saw flamingos, red pandas, otters, the giant panda, some bird species, sea lions, and elephants. There was more there, but it was stuff that I could see in the Lehigh Valley, and it also started to snow, so we wanted to move to an indoor activity.

This is when we went to the Yokoo Tadanori contemporary art museum. Having learned about Japanese art in my Intro to Visual Arts class on the ship, I found it very exciting to see this artists work. I took some pictures and will be happy to talk about them with you when I get home, but they will be posted on my site. Anyway, he mainly had three different styles/topics. One was women, usually nude, the second is diverging paths, and the third nature/underwater. I got pictures of all except the nude women. I thought the others looked way cooler with his designs and brush work. There was also another them throughout this exhibit and I am not sure if this is a theme of his or of the establishment but there were ice cream cones everywhere. There was a full room of just ice cream cone lights. There was one in the elevator, which was not what I expected to see when the doors opened. There was one tucked away in a corner on the archive floor, and others in a sculpture. I have no idea why the ice cream cones were everywhere, but hey, when in Japan, right? Now, when I had first arrived in the center of Kobe I did in fact buy an ice cream cone. Which only made me more curious why they were riddling this exhibition. The ice cream was better than the US, and so was the cone.

After this we headed back to the main center of Kobe, and walked around for a little while. Finally feeling defeated, we went back to the ship. By this time, I was so exhausted, and hungry. I didn’t really eat anything in port because things are expensive here. So I had a burger and fries from the grille on the ship. I tried to type this Log yesterday, but I was so tired I feel asleep before I could even start it.

Then, that brings us to today. I had a field class today with my Visual Arts class. We visited a Buddhist temple and participated in a 20-minute meditation. Then, we took and tour of the temple with Kawakami son. This was followed with some tea and sweets. Then we moved on to lunch. That was an interesting experience. Everything tasted soft and “slimy” for lack of a better term. The tea served here, I liked much better than that at the temple. After lunch we went to another temple which had the famous rock garden. We examined this and took some pictures and then wandered around the area. Something interesting that I should point out to you is that in these temples, we were not allowed to wear shoes, but the temple was open to the outside air and scenery. So there we are 30 Americans, walking around in 30-degree weather in our socks. And Yes, it did end up snowing during this time. It made for an interesting experience.

And that brings me to now. Which means you are caught up. I will have more to say later when I go to Osaka.