JAPAN!!!

Oh Japan. We arrived in Kobe Japan on Friday and didn’t really know what to do.  So Kayla and I just headed out only getting directions to the city center. We jumped on the monorail when we got off we walked around for a bit not really looking for anything in particular just simply walking with no purpose which can be really fun in a foreign city.  As we walked around we went in a few shops and noticed the prices on everything. People had told us that Japan was expensive but oh my goodness a key chain for $8!!! That is out of control. So right then I made my decision too bad everyone no gifts from this port even for me.  We were walking around and we knew we wanted to get stamps to send postcards and postcards haha. Makes sense.  We found a post office so we bought some stamps and continued on.  We found some postcards a little later. We knew we wanted to find this place called 100 YEN store.  It’s kind of like our dollar store.  We found the store so we decided to head in. It was on the 6th and 7th floor of a building.  We found a few odd and end things to buy. The Academic Deans wife on the ship knits and she told me if I got yarn and knitting needles she would teach me how to knit. So I found them at that store and bought some. I was so excited I couldn’t wait to tell her.  We continued our journey around and realized we were nowhere near where we wanted to be so we finally looked at our map. We saw a Ferris wheel and I mean we always have our kid in us so we decided to walk and find it.   We walked for about 45 minutes and finally found it.  There was a pier and a couple little rides.  We took a ride on a mini roller coaster and we went for a ride on the Ferris wheel which had an amazing view. We could see our ship off in the distance it was so nice because it was right next to the water and the harbor was just an awesome.  We sat there for about an hour and just talked through our whole trips all the funny things all the stupid things .It was so nice to just sit and reflect on everything we have done in the past 3 months!   After we talked and enjoyed the view we decided to walk back to the ship. It was a nice walk but we had no idea where we were going! It was a fun adventure we just kept walking toward the ship. Ask people who spoke no English and hoped they pointed in the right direction. But hey isn’t that the fun of it!  Finally we made it back to the ship for the night it was a good day all together. The next morning we were popped and Kobe was so expensive we decided to do one of the professors a favor who have their kids on board with them. We told them to go out and enjoy themselves and we would spend the day with the twins Olivia and Sienna who are 2 years old. We had a great day with them.   That night we were sailing out of Kobe and heading to Yokohama with one day In Transit.  That was a great day to get work done and spend some time with our friends since there aren’t many days left.  We arrived in Yokohama the following day. Kayla and I weren’t positive what we were going to do but we wanted to go to the Zoo. So we did. We asked how to get there and they explained take this train then this train the n that bus then walk then this then that. I said okay and said Kayla let’s go! So we navigated our way to the Zoo and it was very much worth it. The zoo was full of amazing animals from all over the world. They had all different parts to the zoo. We walked from looking at lions to looking at penguins and they even had seagulls (ya I know an exhibit of seagulls). We saw a giant Seal and Sea lion; we saw a polar bear and bush dogs.  It took us about 2 hours to get through the whole zoo. We had told Kate and Shawn that we would watch the girls at night to, to keep us from spending money.  It cost about 150 to get to Tokyo so we decided to have this port be once where we relaxed and spent little money.  After walking through the zoo we started our adventure back. When we got back we took a quick nap and then hung out with the girls for the night. We watched toy story 2 with them. They were both sick so we had a rough night putting them to bed. But nothing worse than putting my little buddy Patrick to bed when he was their age (miss you and love you Patrick Lu Lu). We woke up the next morning and a group of my other friends had asked me to go to a Soccer game to them. I said well I have never been to a professional soccer game why not my first one be in Japan has.  So at noon we headed out to go see a professional game. We paid 25 dollars for great great seats! It was such a rush going to this soccer game. Both teams’ fans were so into the game. But they didn’t mix. Red sat on one end and Blue sat on the other and they didn’t stop the whole game.  Right before the game started they opened up a HUGE flag over the crowd on our side it was so cool because we were under it helping wave it around. It was just giant. We stayed for 75 minutes of the game and it was the most active game I have ever been to. The red crowded jumped in complete unison just bobbed up and down with little jumps like they were toys. They were so proud and so into their game and never gave up hope. Shawn had joined us and came to the game. About 75 minutes into the game we decided to head back to the ship because we didn’t want to be late for on ship time and get dock time. When we got back the lines were huge because we had to go through customs. I made it through customs and had to wait in another line for them to check our bags.  They checked each bag very carefully because they knew we had a 10 day stretch coming up. Shawn and one of the girls key cards that you use to get on and off the ship and he thought the girls hadn’t been able to get off yet so he ran in and I took his bag. While I was standing in line one of the Life Long Learners named Jim that I have become very close with ( You all know me I am close with almost all the Staff, Faculty, and Lifelong Learners, oh ya and the crew!)  Him and his wife were told that they had to wait in the long line. But they don’t check the older people’s bags because they don’t have any restrictions except the normal drugs and stuff. So I felt bad and was mad so I went over and told him I would carry his bags on and bring them to his room for him and let them get on the ship because if you didn’t have a bag you could just cut the line and go on. So now I had Jim’s bag, Corrine his wife’s bag, Shawn’s bag, and my bags. I did it to be nice because I didn’t think it would be far. But it was my good deed for the day. Finally after an hour I made it on to the ship and just had to find everyone to give them their stuff. When I gave Jim his stuff he was more than thankful to me and confessed that I was the sweetest girl he knew and he loved me oh so much.

Well all together I learned that Japan is CRAZY expensive (like 8 dollars for a key chain) and that it is beautiful but it is all looks no touch haha. I like it but it wasn’t my favorite country. 
We have our longest and waviest stretch of the voyage that is lasting us 10 days! But then comes Hawaii!!

Like is said NEXT STOP!!   HAWAIIIII!