Hawaii

It was weird in a good way to be back in the United States. Everything felt a little strange like seeing store names that I recognized, using American dollars, everyone speaking English, and everything seemed so expensive! I think it was good that we stopped there for 2 days to sort of ease us back into American life.

The main event while I was there was skydiving! I had planned this in December and was so excited to finally do it. The first day, the winds weren’t blowing the right direction so I had to reschedule it for the next morning. When I finally got to go, I had pretty much prepared myself and was actually quite calm riding in the plane up to 14,000 feet. The plane was quite tiny and barely fit 12 people squished together. I had a harness that attached to another person who was basically responsible for everything, so I didn’t have to worry too much about anything. As I got to the edge of the plane, it finally hit me but I only had about 5 seconds to think about it before I was free falling at 120 miles an hour for an entire minute! It was the most exhilarating thing I have ever done and the scenery couldn’t have been better. I could see the entire north shore of Oahu and it was really beautiful. After free falling, the parachute was pulled and we got to float down for about 5 minutes just enjoying the view. I purchased a video and pictures, which are pretty hilarious/embarrassing. It was only 2 days ago, but it really feels like a dream. The rest of the time I spent on the beach in Waikiki and purchasing normal foods at the grocery store, which was very exciting.

Guatemala is next and I can’t believe it is the last port. I will be doing a Spanish immersion home stay for the entire 3 days we are there and I am excited to brush up on my Spanish. I’ll be home 2 weeks from today, see you soon!

Japan

I enjoyed Japan very, very much. The ship docked in Kobe and 3 of my friends and I went straight to the train station to get to Kyoto. It was difficult at first to figure out the trains but once we got the hang of it, it was a piece of cake. We got to Kyoto and checked into our ryokan, a Japanese style inn. This is the traditional type of Japanese room where you eat and sleep on the floor. In the day time, the room is set up with a table and used as a living room. Then before bed, they rearrange it into beds on the floor for sleeping. We were lucky enough to be in Japan during the very short period every year when the cherry blossoms are in bloom. Kyoto was absolutely beautiful because the streets were lined with white and pink cherry blossom trees. We spent most of our two days there walking around and enjoying the scenery. We went to a temple that was surrounded by mountains and we got to walk all around with a wonderful view of the city at sunset. The next day we went to a place called “Philosopher’s walk,” which is basically this very long street covered in cherry blossoms that you can walk down for hours. There were lots of little shops and many Japanese people picnicking along the way. I also got to try cherry blossom ice cream, which was quite delicious. Then we went to a food market, where they had lots of different things from sushi to candy to fruit and everything was unbelievably fresh. I had some of the best strawberries I’ve had in a long time there. We spent lots of time there trying the foods and seeing some crazy things that I would never consider eating. Next we went to a life size Zen rock garden and walked around the park with some more beautiful scenery. That night we decided to do karaoke, which is a very popular thing to do in Japan. We rented a room to ourselves, which is the norm, and spent two hours singing lots of our favorite songs and we had a great time.

After two nights in Kyoto, it was time to move on to Tokyo. We just barely made the bullet train and made it to Tokyo in about 2 hours. The train ride was pretty cool considering we were going about 300 mph and it barely felt like we were moving at all. It was dizzying to look out the window though and see everything flying by so fast. We also passed Mt. Fuji on the way, which had lots of snow on the top and was quite a sight. Tokyo was pretty much the opposite of what we left in Kyoto. It is a huge city as I’m sure you know, with lots of skyscrapers, lights and people everywhere. We spent our two days there visiting many of the different districts that are famous for an array of things. The first night we went to see a baseball game at the Tokyo Dome. Baseball is a huge deal in Japan so it was fun to experience the crazy fans. They really make it feel like you’re at an American baseball game and we got hot dogs and beer to get the full experience.  The next day we woke up bright and early around 4:30 am to go see the world famous Tsajiki fish market. They claim that the freshest and best sushi comes from this market. Every morning all of the fishermen bring all their freshly caught fish to the market where the sushi chefs come to bargain for the fish they will use that day in their restaurants. It was quite an experience to see hundreds of live fish getting killed right in front of our eyes and prepared for purchase. There were also some really large fish that had to be cut with really large knives (probably 5 feet long) as well as electric saws. The thing to do after the market is to go eat some fresh sushi right outside and so that’s what we did at 6 in the morning. After a little nap, we made our way to the Harajuku district, which is famous for the crazy Japanese fashion trends. We spent some time walking around and seeing some very interesting outfits and hairstyles. Next, we went to the Akihabara district, which is famous for its electronics and is actually called “Electric Town.” “The area houses thousands of shops selling every technological gadget you can imagine, from computers to gaming consoles and vacuums to DVDs, at reasonable prices. This area is also known as the "Gamer's Mecca" and has in recent times become strongly identified with anime/manga (cartoon) subculture, with the legions of otaku geeks traipsing down on weekends known as Akiba-kei” (Wikipedia). The next stop was the Shinjuku district where we got to go up to the 45th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building and got a spectacular view of Tokyo at nighttime with all of the buildings lit up and fireworks to top it off. The last day, we went to the Shibuya district, famous for its fashionable shopping district. We didn’t have much time but we did some last minute shopping and saw some more crazy styles of clothing as well as. I also saw the biggest intersection I have ever seen called the “5 way scramble crossing.” We literally had to race back to Yokohama to be on time for the ship, so we unfortunately didn’t get to see that city at all.

Japan felt like being in an Asian version of the United States but more technologically advanced and the nicest people in the world. I was always amused by how almost everything we did, we used some sort of technology to do it. I was also constantly amazed by how unbelievably nice the Japanese people were. They were always willing to help us even when they couldn’t understand us. In one instance, two people turned around in the opposite direction they were going and walked us about three blocks to show us the place we were looking for. Another time, we were just standing on the corner looking confused and some women came up and asked if we needed some help finding something. These acts of kindness were things that don’t normally happen in the United States and it was really refreshing to see genuinely nice people everywhere, especially after dealing with the Chinese people. Looking back on my trip, if I was going to live in any of the countries I’ve been to for a period of time, it would probably be Japan or South Africa.

We have been on the ship for nine days now since Japan and I will be back in the USA tomorrow! Of course I’m talking about Hawaii and we will only be there for two days but it’s kind of a tease for when I actually come home in 18 days.

Hong Kong/Beijing/Shanghai, China

Hong Kong

As soon as we pulled into the port in Hong Kong, I felt like I was in New York City. The amount of skyscrapers there is pretty amazing. The view from our ship was probably one of the best views in the city because we could see Hong Kong Island from across this water. I only spent one day there but I felt like that was enough to get the gist of what the city was like. It was basically tall building after tall building with lots of high fashion stores (which were also highly expensive) and many upscale hotels and restaurants. I spent the day just walking around the city, which was pretty much all there was to do with the little amount of time we had. Every night at 8 pm in Hong Kong they have a light show in which all of the buildings along the waterfront participate. We got to watch it right from the ship and it wasn’t as cool as I thought it would be but just all the city lights being light up was a pretty cool sight and made for some great pictures. After that we went out for some Cantonese food, which was pretty good once we found things that looked appetizing on the menu. They offered many different types of animals/animal parts like frogs, turtles, chicken or duck feet, goose livers, brains and much more. We just happened to be there on the night of the Rugby finals, which is equivalent to the Super Bowl or World Series. We went out to a famous street called Lan Kwai Fong and it was packed with all of the rugby fans from all over the world celebrating and having a good time. People were dressed up like it was Halloween and doing funny stuff, which made it that much more entertaining.

Beijing

The next morning, I departed for my 4 day trip in Beijing with a group of 50 people from SAS. Most of the students did a trip to Beijing but ours was different because we did an exchange with the University of International Business and Economics. The flight to Beijing was 3 hours and by the time we got to the hotel it was dinner time. The weather was a nice change because for the past month it has been about 100 degrees everywhere we went, so the cold (about 50 degrees) was very refreshing. We went out to a nice Chinese restaurant and had lots of different foods including Peking duck, which is a famous dish there. The food was all pretty good but also very fried and greasy. Then we went to the university to meet with the students in their Union. Even though I was in China, being on a college campus really made me feel at home because it just felt normal, which was a nice feeling.  Many students showed up to meet with us and made us feel very welcome. All of them spoke pretty good English and they were asking many questions about America and what we like to do. They were pretty much just like any other college student, except maybe more focused on school and not at all on partying.

The next day was filled with sightseeing. First we stopped at the Grand Theatre, which Wikipedia does a better job of describing than me. “Colloquially described as The Egg, the Grand Theatre is an opera house in Beijing, People's Republic of China. The Centre is an ellipsoid dome of titanium and glass surrounded by an artificial lake.” It was pretty impressive but we just walked by it and moved on to the next stop. We went to Tiananmen Square and it felt weird to be in a place I had learned about in school over the years where a massacre occurred. It was very obvious that our tour guide didn’t really want to talk about it in that regard and from what I gather from other people, most of the Chinese people didn’t even seem to know much about it. The communist government censors a lot of what the people learn in school and the Tiananmen Square massacre is definitely on the taboo list. Throughout the trip, I noticed more and more how our tour guide wouldn’t really answer our questions about certain things that might have been embarrassing or bad about Chinese culture. Someone asked him why many of the males seemed to keep their pinky fingernails longer than all of the other ones and he was flustered by the question and told us he just forgot to cut them and then said he used it to scratch his head. People noticed the men doing this in Vietnam and Thailand as well and learned that it was a sign of being in the upper class and having long nails proved you didn’t have to do manual labor because they would break otherwise. We assumed this was also the reason in China but he obviously didn’t want to admit that. Another thing everyone noticed was that all of the children from about ages 1-5 had the back of their pants cut open and their butts were showing. This was obviously very weird to see and made me curious about why that was. When we asked him about this, he basically just tried to say he didn’t know and change the subject. We realized later that having the kids pants open made it easy to let them squat in a trash can or the side of the road to go to the bathroom (I’ll keep my opinions on that to myself). This was one of the signs of Communism that I blatantly experienced. It was apparent that the people were afraid to talk about taboo subjects because they are told by the government they aren’t allowed to. Some of the tour guides actually admitted that they knew about the Tiananmen Square massacre but that he wasn’t allowed to talk about it or he could be arrested. We also visited Mao Zedong’s tomb, which is in Tiananmen Square, who “is officially held in high regard in China where he is known as a great revolutionary, political strategist, and military mastermind who defeated Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in the Chinese Civil War, and then through his policies transformed the country into a major world power” (Wikipedia). It was a very formal procedure to get let in to see the tomb. We had to go through an x-ray machine, couldn’t bring any cameras inside, and then stood in a line that was being watched over by government officials. Everyone was completely silent as we walked through the building and were rushed out quickly by the security. It was very commonplace to see government officials walking around everywhere we went. We were told by SAS to watch what you say, especially about politics, because the government is watching and you can get in trouble for that. They censor the internet and every media source for things that the government thinks is inappropriate or would make the Chinese people think badly of their country. It was obvious in the newspaper when every article was something good about China or something bad about another country. The people are pretty ignorant of what is going on in their own country because everything is so regulated. Across the street from Tiananmen Square is the Forbidden City, which was built over 15 years for the Emperor during the Ming Dynasty starting in 1406. It then served as the emperor’s home for over 5 centuries. I would say it was quite a gigantic and impressive palace/home. The name refers to the fact that no one could enter or leave the city without the emperor’s permission. There were many, many buildings that all looked very similar but were beautifully painted with lots of vibrant colors. Then we went to a park that I forgot the name of but we walked up a lot of stairs to the top, where there was an unbelievable view of Beijing. Next, we went to the Temple of Heaven, which was built by the same emperor as the Forbidden City. It was very pretty and also had a nice view of Beijing but by this point I was a little “templed out.”  We then went to one of the famous markets in Beijing called the Pearl Market. This is basically an indoor market with hundreds of vendors that are all pretty much selling the same thing. They pretty much have everything you could ever want from fake Nike shoes to pearls. Of course it is all up for bargaining and these markets are basically tourist traps where they multiply their prices by 50. It was fun but annoying after a while to hassle with them because they are literally mean to you by the end. Once they realize that you aren’t going to pay a ridiculous amount, they start pinching, pushing and hitting you with calculators. I definitely got the hang of it and ended up getting some great bargains over the next few days at the different markets. Later that night we went to see a Chinese acrobatic show, which was one of my favorite parts of the trip. I saw some of the most unbelievable things I have ever seen humans do. It was a mixture of gymnastics, balancing, strength, contortion, and concentration. It is hard to explain but I’ll just give one example. Two groups of three men stood on top of each other to make 3 story towers and then a fourth one got on top and did a back flip from one human tower to the other. It was unbelievable! There were many more things like this that literally made my jaw drop. After that we got a little break from Chinese food and went to a Korean BBQ restaurant, which I really enjoyed and want to eat when I get back home.

The third day was one I had been looking forward to since before Semester at Sea began. We finally went to the Great Wall and it was definitely one of the highlights of my entire 2.5 month trip so far. I felt like it was the pinnacle of the trip that is now coming to an end very quickly. We climbed up a LOT of stairs to the top and I was quite winded by the time we got there. It was a crazy feeling to be standing on one of the seven wonders of the world. We spent a lot of time taking tons of pictures and just walking along the wall. The view was incredible and it was so cool to see the wall continue very far away on other mountains. Then we got to take a toboggan down the entire way on a slide, which was so much fun! The rest of the day we just had lunch and went to another market for some more bargaining action. That night the University students had dinner with us at our hotel and so we got to spend some more time interacting with them, which was interesting. I connected with one girl pretty well and she got my e-mail and I hope to keep in touch with her.

The last day in Beijing we visited the Summer Palace, which is right on the water with a wonderful view. “The natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges to form a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthetic value.” (Wiki) After spending some time there, we got on a boat that took us across the water and gave us the best view of the palace up on top of the hill. Next was another exciting part of the trip, which was going to see the 2008 Olympic venues. We got to see the “Bird’s Nest,” which was very impressive both inside and out. It was a cool feeling to be there so soon after the Olympic Games when a lot of history was made. We also saw the “Water Cube,” which really lived up to its name and some of the other venues that were used. It was apparent that Beijing did a lot of work to clean up the city and build these massive stadiums as well as hotels just for the Games. The sad part is that it doesn’t seem like they have any use for the buildings now and the area was pretty deserted except for tourists. We then went to yet another market before we headed for the airport to fly to Shanghai. The next day I went to the Shanghai Zoo for my Anthropology class and got to see some pandas and lots of other animals. It was cool because the zoo was pretty dead and so you didn’t have to fight for time to see the animals. I just remember when we went to see the baby panda at the San Diego Zoo and had about 30 seconds to look at it before we were pushed out. After the zoo, I got to see Shanghai a little bit and it was a much louder and bigger city than Beijing was.

I enjoyed seeing China as a country but I was kind of disappointed in the people there because they just weren’t very nice. They were very aggressive and always pushing you and trying to get ahead of you in line, which just seemed rude because I’m not used to that in the U.S. Many people would just stand and stare at you for no apparent reason and didn’t seem to care at all. At the zoo, many Chinese people were throwing things at the animals and taunting them, which made me kind of angry. On another note, their hygiene was quite different than ours it seemed. A lot of people smoked cigarettes and would hawk and spit all over the place even when they weren’t smoking. At dinner, everyone just picks food off of the main plate with their chopsticks as it goes around the lazy Susan and they really don’t use their plates at all. The bathrooms are a whole other story because they don’t use toilets, but holes in the ground and no toilet paper. That took some getting used to but it just felt dirty and not very pleasant every time.  Most people besides the students didn’t want to have anything to do with us and had no interest in helping us try to get around. The taxis would just pass us by because they didn’t want to deal with us. I’m guessing that them not liking us has to do with our history with them and the major differences in governments, values and lifestyles. It was an interesting experience but the people kind of turned me off from their country. I thought it was pretty amazing how different Hong Kong and mainland China were even though they are both part of the People’s Republic of China. Hong Kong runs under a completely different system of course but it was like two different worlds. I am now excited to go to Japan where the people are supposed to be exceedingly nice and helpful and of course for the sushi!