Honduras
Honduras was a last minute addition to our voyage. At first we were supposed to go to Cuba. Then the United States decided that they wanted to reverse on all the progress that had been made in U.S-Cuban relationships. So Semester at Sea switched Cuba with Guatemala. Most people were upset about this change but I was alright with it because I’ve always been interested in Guatemala and many of the kids I work with are from that country. Then about two week before we were set to arrive it was announced that Guatemala was going to be replaced with Honduras because Guatemala was deemed too dangerous. THEN (because this saga is not over yet) a week before Honduras it was announced that we would not be allowed to leave the island of Roatan and explore mainland Honduras because of safety issues. Roatan is an island off the coast of Honduras that is essentially designed just for tourists so culture was not something I expected from our last port (and it wasn’t really something I got either) I just want to say that I find it odd that Semester at Sea had to remove Cuba, a relatively safe nation, from our itinerary because of politics and have us dock in a country that is currently having some serious and violent issues. But enough of that; now: HONDURAS! My first day and night in Honduras was spent on a beach. Nothing educational at all but most students from SAS were there and it was a great place to be after all the stress of finals. We swam, drank and ate and it was a good time but I had to go home early so I could wake up early the next day to play with Dolphins!
I woke up at 7 to board the van waiting and we went to a resort on the island that had a dolphin center. We took a little boat to the area where the dolphins were and split into small groups. The dolphin I was with was named Micky and he was only 2 years old. His trainer let us pet him and Micky showed us all his tricks. After we had our time with the dolphins we got to take pictures with them and then headed back to the boat to visit a little shop. It was a really nice way to end our last day in a port ever. It was rainy and dreary and I think that definitely paralleled the mood of most people as we signed into the ship one last time before arriving back in the United States.
Costa Rica.
We arrived in Costa Rica early on December 4th. It was the first country where I had absolutely nothing planned and it stressed me out a little. I got breakfast and found Jordan who didn’t have any concrete plans for the day either. Turns out her and a group had gotten together to rent a house on the beach for our two days in Costa Rica. They invited me to come with them and my day quickly turned from stressful to amazing. We got to the house and were greeted by Maribel, the woman who took care of the house with her husband Arturo. The house was unbelievable. It had a full kitchen with six rooms, an in-ground pool, barbeque hut, and parrot cage all topped off with an amazing view of the beach, which was right outside the back gate. We dropped our stuff off and started making plans for the day. The first stop was a local grocery shop to get food for the next two days. (the food only lasted that night though) Arturo took us to the bank and then the grocery store where we ripped the shopping list into 5 parts and worked in groups to find what we needed for lunch and dinner. We filled two grocery carts to the brim and caused a ruckus at the check out counter. We had to get a pick up truck to take our stuff back to the house. We got back and myself, Sunny, Jordan and Mery had arranged for a car to come get us to take us to zip lining. Zip Lining through the forests of Costa Rica was one of the most memorable experiences I have had. The company we were zip lining with was sustainable and environmentally friendly. Most of Costa Rica is. Costa Rica is the only South American/Central American country without an army and they put a lot of money and effort into preservation of natural resources and the environment. After zip lining we went back to the house and started cooking dinner. I learned how to cook platanos and tostones which was awesome and we spent the whole night eating, dancing, swimming and having a great time in our second to last port.
The next day we woke up early got in a little more swimming and headed out for the markets. I bought a lot of Christmas gifts and ate some delicious ice-cream and then headed back to the ship. I don’t think I had enough time to fully experience Costa Rica but the short time I did have there definitely made me want to go back for another visit.
Thanksgiving in Hawaii.
Hawaii. There really isn’t much to say that isn’t obvious. I’d never been to Hawaii before this Thanksgiving and we were only given a few hours docked outside Honolulu (where we weren’t allowed to leave the ship) the day before Thanksgiving and then about 9 hours in Hilo on Thanksgiving. It was the first time most of us had phone service so the ship was flooded with people walking with their phones glued to their ears. I spent my time in Hilo in a pretty uneventful way; I called my family, did work on the computer with actual internet and sat in a little coffee shop for hours. I did make a stop at a little diner called Ken’s Pancake House where I got, surprise, surprise: pancakes. and they were delicious. It was cloudy and rainy most of the day but it didn’t really matter because although I was in Hawaii, 1,000 of miles from my home and a place I’d never been, it still felt like home. I was surprised how happy I was to be in America for those few hours and how familiar it all felt after having been to so many strange and foreign lands. It made me a little more excited to get home and see all my family and friends. Only 13 more days to go!
Japan.
Japan. I have never been to a place where there are more beautiful and fashionable people in one concentrated place. Gwen Stefani had it right. Like many of our Asian ports, I had no idea what to expect from Japan. I knew that the anime club at my middle school was something that creeped me out to no end, so why would I like the country where it all came from? You might think it’s stereotypical of me to associate Japan with anime but trust me it’s not. Anime is everywhere in Japan; in the ads, in every convenient store and all over the T.V. Businessmen in suites riding the subway are all carrying anime comics in their hands with their briefcase in the other. But it doesn’t seem so weird here; it actually seems to fit in. There are bookstores everywhere and I was fooled a few times into think I could find a book that didn’t involve capturing mystical creatures or harnessing the powers of nature by snarky ninja masters with spiky hair. They even have special anime for a…ahem more mature audience.
When we were in Hong Kong we had bought a Japan Rail Pass. This meant that we could get on any Japan Rail line we wanted at any time with our pass including the metro system in Tokyo. We decided to take a bullet train to Hiroshima the first day. It took us a while to get everything organized. Japan was one of the first countries where almost no one spoke English. Even travel agents struggled. But boy did they try. People in Japan felt horrible when they couldn’t help, they’d make sympathetic sounds and try and find someone who could help. They would go completely out of their way to help us. More than once a person would completely stop what they were doing to walk us blocks and blocks to direct us to where we were going because they couldn’t explain it with words. It was incredible how kind and helpful the Japanese people were, especially since most of us had heard otherwise. The bullet train was pretty cool. You don’t really notice how fast you’re going until you look out the window and realize everything is just a blur. We made it to Hiroshima in the late afternoon and we headed straight for the atomic bomb dome. The atomic bomb dome is a building that has been kept in the same devastated condition that it was left in on August 6th 1945 when the atomic bomb was dropped. It was scary to think that the entire city we stood in had looked like this building, even worse in some places where nothing was left at all. When you walk around the Bomb Dome there are shrines and different memorials dedicated to the victims of the Atomic bomb. At the end of the memorial park there is the Atomic Bomb Museum. We went through the museum and it took a few hours. It was so devastating to see how many innocent lives were affected by the bomb. They had body parts and clothing of victims in cases. I thought the museum was fairly unbiased though, especially when compared to the Vietnam War Museum in Saigon. The museum acknowledged Japanese atrocities of war as well as talking about the affects the atomic bomb had on the city of Hiroshima.
We stayed at the museum until it closed and afterwards we went to find food. We found a nice little restaurant and got some delicious Japanese food. At a lot of the restaurants in Japan tables have little buttons on the table that you press when you want service. We stayed at that restaurant a while after we’d finished our meal and played a dice game called “right, left center” where we bet with ten cent yen. OH! Another amazing thing about Japan? The bathrooms. The toilets are all heated. Yes heated, and they all have a bidet and drying service built in. Even the public restrooms. It’s amazing. After dinner we headed back to the train station and took the bullet train back to Kobe. The next day we departed Kobe once again for Kyoto. Kyoto was beautiful. The highlight of our time there was a temple that was built by an old samurai and had previously been a safe house for samurais. There were hundreds of gold statues in the main part of the temple all surrounding a giant statue of Kannon. There were candles that people were lighting and people were praying in front of the shrine. One Buddhist monk was in the middle of a ceremony, which we got to see and hear while we were there. After we’d walked through the shrine we went out into the courtyards and they were so beautiful. Part of the entrance way was a shockingly bright orange, which I thought was a unique color for a building.
Kyoto to Osaka to Tokyo.
After we’d visited as much of the city as we could see on our day bus pass we headed to find Internet so we could book a hotel for the night. The boat was leaving Kobe for Yokohama and you could only stay on the ship during that time if you’d signed up for it. We hadn’t signed up so we wouldn’t be allowed on the ship after 8:00 so we needed to find a place. We soon found that every hostel and hotel in Kobe was booked up. We searched frantically until the last minute where we finally found a hotel in a small suburban part of Osaka, about a 45 minutes away from Kobe. Before we headed out on our trek for our one night in Osaka we had to get Kobe Beef while we were in Kobe. We found a hibachi style restaurant that specialized in Kobe Beef. Kobe beef is a special kind of delicacy in Japan made from cows that are massaged, brushed and fed special grains and beef before they are slaughtered, so this supposedly makes the meat taste better. I don’t really care what they were doing, but this steak was definitely one of the best meals I’ve ever had. We got a full five course meal and the steak was prepared right in front of us and we were given four different ways to eat it; with wasabi, with garlic chips, with salt and with soy sauce.
After a quick stop at a bakery we made our long journey on the commuter rail to Osaka. We finally made it to the hotel a little after midnight where we’d only been able to book two rooms for seven people. It ended up being really comfortable and we only needed a place to stay for the night before we made our way to Tokyo where we already had our accommodations all planned out. We woke up early the next morning and made our way to Tokyo on a bullet train. On our way we saw Mount Fuji from outside our windows. It was strange to see something so iconic and talked about in person. I kept wondering if it was the real Mount Fuji or just something somebody had set up for the tourists passing by, but of course it was the real thing.
We maneuvered our way through the Tokyo subway system and found our Hostel which was called Mr. K’s. It was a really nice and clean hostel with friendly and helpful staff and amazingly cheap for Japan. Because we soon found that Japan is incredibly overpriced and expensive. We settled in and then headed out for dinner and then to Shibuya Crossing the iconic busy street in Tokyo. It looks a bit like Times Square except a little more hectic. The lights and sounds are all overwhelming. Near the restaurant we ate at we found a little casino type place where old Japanese men and women sat dazed in front of machines where they put tiny silver balls into a machine and every now and then they’d turn a nob. It was crazy and loud and lights were flashing everywhere but all the people inside were like zombies. The game we found out was called Pachinko and soon after we entered and walked around we were asked to leave. Nightlife in Tokyo is surprisingly tame. Granted we went out on a Sunday, but most clubs, restaurants and bars closed at midnight or a little after. We ended up going to a cool hole-in-the wall bar and then to a Family Mart to get dumplings.
Bikes and Harajuku.
The next day we meant to wake up at 4am to go to the fish market…but then we didn’t. So we got up and walked to a local bike renting station and got bikes for the entire day for only 200 yen. Our first stop was a round table sushi place which consisted of a chef in the middle of the tiny room and a conveyer belt surrounding him where he would put his creations on and you just grab whatever you want and pay after based on the amount of plates you have in front of you. Riding bikes around Tokyo was crazy. There are sections specifically for bikes on the sidewalks but no one seems to pay attention to that. We swerved in and out of huge groups of people as we made our way around the city nearly crashing into a few unsuspecting civilians. Our first stop was the famed Tokyo gate. The gate was beautiful and it had a giant paper lantern at least 10 times as big as me. Behind the gate were little stands and shops that sold everything from chopsticks to platform shoes and kid’s toys. There is an interesting mix of old and new culture in Japan. You can have a girl where high knee socks and mini skirt and high heels right next to a woman wearing a traditional kimono and platform sandals.
Our next stop was The Autumn Festival. The Autumn Festival consisted mostly of food tents, which was totally fine with me. There were a bunch of Hello, Kitty food tents which sold bananas covered in chocolate and multi-colored frostings and rainbow sprinkles. Then there were these pancakes that were filled with a cream and they were delicious. People were walking down the street with mini-shrines on sticks with images of gods and nature. While we were maneuvering our way through the food tents we started to feel some rain drops. Those few raindrops soon turned into a full downpour. We took refuge on a stoop outside someone’s home behind the food tents. The rain seemed like it would never let up. Suddenly the door we were leaning on opened and we all almost toppled right into an impeccably decorated living room. An older woman smiled at us and handed us all umbrellas. We thanked her and told her we’d bring them back after we walked to our bikes but she just laughed and told us the umbrellas were a gift and we could keep them. We thanked her over and over and made our way to where our bikes were locked up. We climbed on our bikes and sloshed through the puddles and the rain whipped against our faces until we finally made it to the subway station where we would board the train to Harajuku to do some shopping. By the time we got to Harajuku it was dark out. We got out of the subway station and saw a giant GAP store but other than that we saw no stores. I thought Gwen Stefani had told me blasphemous lies. We walked a little further down the street and then saw lights flashing from a side road. We turned the corner and were greeted by lights and music and a rainbow of colors splashed all over the street. The clothes were adorable and decently priced (for Japan.) There were also these GIANT crepes that were filled with a whole slice of cheesecake, ice cream, whipped frosting and chocolate sauce. Obviously I had to buy one. After we’d had our fill of shopping we got some food at a restaurant that played MTV Japan and saw some hilariously melo-dramatic Japanese music videos. We went back to the hostel and hung out with the other guests there and went to bed somewhat early because we decided to finally wake up early for the fish market. After some struggle we were out of our beds by 4:30 and out the door by 5 am and on the subway headed to the fish markets. The market was smelly and chaotic. Apparently Japan is the number one consumer of seafood and judging by the size of this market I believe it. There were a few sushi restaurants in the market that sold the freshest sushi you could ever eat but it was 5 in the morning and I wasn’t really in the mood to shove tuna rolls in my face. Sara and I went back to the hostel to get a few more hours of sleep before we went back to Shibuya and Harajuku to settle some unfinished shopping business. After visiting the 6 level Forever 21 in Tokyo center we made our way to Yokohama where the ship was docked. In the port there were two stations that a tourist company had set up for free where you could get your name written in Japanese Kanji characters and a Polaroid picture in a kimono. I did both before handing in my passport and boarding the ship for nine full days at sea (including November 19th twice for when we crossed the international dateline.)
Hong Kong.
We arrived in Hong Kong with a mission. Myself, Sunny, Jordan, Ali, Sara, Linda and Nick left the ship as soon as it was cleared and headed into the crazy metropolis that is Hong Kong to find the ticket service office to buy our rail pass for Japan. In order to get out of the port you have to go through one of the most ridiculous malls I’ve ever been in. The whole bottom floor is filled with high-end fashion stores. The typical elite stores are all there: Burberry, Gucci, Fendi, Dolce and Gabana…except one thing is different: It’s all for babies. How many two year olds do you know that walk around in Gucci shoes and Burberry coats? I personally know none but apparently there are gangs of them roaming the streets of Hong Kong. We made our way out of the mall and onto the streets of Hong Kong and began our journey to find the ticket offices. We walked for half an hour before we realized that we’d walked half way across Kowloon Island and that the office we needed was in the same building we had originally started at. We decided to just eat where we were and get our tickets on the way back. We went to a delicious dim sum restaurant and it was our first experience in a country where absolutely no one speaks English, which made ordering quite the adventure. After food and a walk around the city we headed back to the ship to see the light show that the city puts on. We got dressed up and headed to the seventh deck and waited for the light show to start. Hong Kong is absolutely beautiful at night. The buildings are all lit up and flashing and boats have beautiful colored lights and lasers. The light show is supposedly timed to music but we couldn’t hear it so we just saw a bunch of random lights flashing but it was cool none-the-less. We went out for dinner afterwards and then took the ferry from Kowloon Island to Hong Kong Island and went to the club district. It was completely packed with people from all over the world and everyone was so fashionable. Walking around Hong Kong you forget you’re in China and in way you aren’t. They don’t deal with the same censorship issues Mainland China imposes and they have their own government system. We ended the night after some dancing and headed back to the ship to get ready for our flight to Beijing the next day.
