JAPAN - DAY 1 ( I know it's a little late! )

So quick note before the rest of my blogs -
All these posts have been written VERY, VERY quickly, and I have not had a chance to go back and edit. You will soon realize that on a trip like Semester At Sea and when you're traveling the WORLD, it's hard to care about grammar, spelling, etc when there are sooo many experiences and travels to document...so many thoughts going on in my mind, my fingers can't even type as fast as my mind is traveling...So please don't judge :) Just enjoy!

JAPAN – DAY 1

So the excitement of visiting another country had been increasing for way too long! We finally arrived in Yokohama, Japan on Tuesday Feb 9. It took a few hours to clear customs, and I was praying that my fever would be gone by then, as they took my temperature before I was able to depart! Luckily everything worked out well! As we stepped into Yokohama, we were greeted by about twenty Japanese drummers, who were welcoming us to their country! In the terminal, we had the opportunity to put on kimonos and have our names written in Japanese as well! And those were the first and last “free” bonuses we received in Japan!



At about 11am, Shunta, a friend of a friend’s met us at the terminal. He is from Tokyo, and was actually was a foreign exchange student at Boston University (the school were my friend Alyssa studies at), a few years back. He took us to the subway station (a place where I spent most of my days!) and took us over to Shabuya! Shabuya is like a district of Tokyo. I would most likely compare it to the Manhattan of NYC! It reminded me of a Japanese Times Square times 10!
Shabuya and Japan in general is incredibly clean and organized. Although there are more than eight million people living in this city (and no public trash cans), the Japanese do a wonderful job of keeping their city clean. The public transportation is so well organized and easy to follow.




The second day after my Cultural Tokyo trip with Semester at Sea, I was planning on meeting my friends at the hotel. I had to travel on my own after the trip to the Sheraton…that was definitely an experience! I was scared/stressed/excited/liberated all at the same time! It took me about 2 hours to travel a total of 10 miles by the subway. I asked about ten people along the way, took a couple wrong subways, got off at a few wrong stops, but somehow I finally ended up at the Sheraton in one piece! The Japanese are very, very helpful people. If they don’t know how to help you, they make sure they find someone who can, and direct you along the right path. Although I knew just a few words in Japanese (arigato (thank you), konichiwa (hello), swimasei (exuse me)) and many Japanese knew just a little English, it was amazing how I could still communicate and figure out what to order, where to go, and more just by using my hands and drawing pictures! Although my Japanese may not have gotten too much better, I have become an expert in universal sign language!
So back to Shabuya – This city was not only bustling with people, but the fashion in Shabuya is totally unpredictable. I felt like I was walking through a Lady Gaga music video. We all felt so underdressed while walking past the fashionable Japanese! Not even a single person was wearing jeans, let along a sweatshirt and backpack!
We ran into a group of school boys who were in their uniforms…they didn’t know much English, but we really wanted a picture with them, so we took out our cameras and they were so excited! They couldn’t believe that us foreigners wanted a picture with them. They pointed to one of my friends and said, “Mariah Carey”, and we said yeah, yeah! They whipped out all of their cameras as well, and we had a little photo shoot with the Japanese highschoolers for about fifteen minutes!




The next major task was finding a bank/currency exchange. This process SHOULD have taken 30 minutes tops, but of course that didn’t happen, and instead we spent three hours trying to find a place to exchange money! It would have been helpful knowing the word for bank, but instead we tried every other method of explaining bank/money exchange to everyone!
We went into a Japanese H&M, and the usual sizes that would fit me, wouldn’t even make it over my hips…I felt a little better when I learned the same was true for all of my American friends! Not surprisingly, we didn’t end up leaving with any new outfits..
We spent the rest of the afternoon roaming around Shabuya and checking out the huge malls..the biggest of which is called 109 degrees ( a separate one for men and women) Man the fashion in Tokyo and Shabuya is out of this WORLD! The styles are very funky and unique. I noticed a lot of leggings, boots, looser clothing, and big accessories - including jewelry and bags! And people there wear sooo much make up! Wow..this was an entirely different culture (so different from anything I have ever seen in India or the states)
So after we met back up with Shunta, we took a little while deciding on where to go to eat...This was definitely a challenge since the Japanese are not very vege friendly type of people...We went into this place where you order dinner through a vending machine! It was soooo neat until we found out that there was nothing vegetarian. Then we went to a restaurant which was incredibly overpriced for anyone's budget (Japan is probably the most expensive country I have visited thus far!) Finally, we found a nice, authentic Japanese restaurant with HOMEMADE tofu! I was extremely excited in the beginning, but quite honestly, I wasn't ThAT impressed with the Japanese food. First of all, I couldn't use those damn chopsticks to save my life. I was sooo hungry, and I couldn't get the food into my mouth as fast as I had hoped to! Moreover, I don't know if I'm generalizing, but the Japanese definitely need to take a trip over to India to learn about some spices and sauces to add to their dishes, because that was probably the most bland food I had ever had! I mean it obviously tasted very healthy and fresh, but it could have used some masala and spice for sure! But...as I frequently had to remind myself, when you're in Japan, do as the Japanese do! So, I put a smile back on my face and ate the flavorless tofu and noodles with the chopsticks which never seemed to want to stay in my hands!




Anyways, it was an amazing day! I had some great experiences, and I can't believe that it just the first of many! Oh my gosh, I almost forgot to mention, the amazing invention of the Japanese has to be the heated toilets!!!!! I swear, when I'm a rich doctor, I am going to by all my friends and family this Toto Toilet from Japan. It is warm, soft, padded, and just feels AMAZING on the tush...
great bonus to the day! I was exhausted by the end of this day for sure!