Japan- Kobe, Hiroshima and Tokyo

The clearing process (immigration, customs etc…) to get into Japan was LONG. They used very high-tech equipment! MY temperature was taken to make sure I did not catch the bird flu (cousin!) in China and my pictures and fingerprints were also recorded. Everyone then had a formal interview with a customs officer! We finally got off the ship around 1300 hours and still needed to get our rail passes validated before we could catch the subway to the Shin-Kobe station to board the Hikari Shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo. The shinkansen traveled over 100 mph before reaching Tokyo where we boarded another line to Mihama station aka DISNEYLAND!!! After about 4.5 hours of travel we made it to Tokyo, Disneyland! I can’t describe how comforting and welcoming Disneyland was! Everything was very familiar, comforting and happy. We took the monorail to our extremely grande Sheraton Grande Bay Disneyland resort. They had the most advanced, high-tech, weird toilet that I have ever seen! The seat cover was heated! After taking full advantage of free internet, making some phone calls on skype and enjoying a delicious 350 Yen cheeseburger we settled in for night.

Saturday we spent ALL day at Disneyland. I learned so much about the Japanese culture people-watching at Disneyland! It is a very high-paced Disneyland with strollers, kids, lines and popcorn stands everywhere. POPCORN- almost every little kid had a bucket with a string on it around their neck filled with all different flavors of popcorn, my favorite was seeing curry popcorn- GROSS! The kids just munch on popcorn all day. I even saw little toddlers in strollers downing popcorn! Also, almost all the rides were in Japanese!! The Japanese are extremely organized! The park opened at 830am and the four of us got there at around 8am to find long lines at the entrance gate!!! Every fastpass was sold out by noon and some of the lines were over two hours long. There was also a park called DisneySea with a bunch of other random rides (kind of like a wanna-be California Adventure). After watching the parade and using our fast passes for Splash Mountain we went back to our hotel to pick up our backpacks before boarding the monorail to eat at our 350 yen cheeseburger café called Becker’s burgers! We boarded the subway to the main JR Shinkansen station to catch our 2003 Hikari Express back to Shin-Kobe. It was a long day but was definitely worth it!

In the morning we left at 924 am for our 1 hour and 45 minute train ride to Hiroshima, where we visited the Hiroshima Castle and Memorial Park. Memorial park was very moving and emotional. The atomic bomb exploded 600 meters above the now named A-bomb Dome. The Dome was declared a World Heritage site in 1996 and is an ever-lasting reminder of August 6, 1945. The Museum was very well organized and was not bias like the Vietnam war remnants museum. It was strange to see young Japanese school girls still in their school uniforms posing for funny pictures infront of the A-bomb dome flashing the peace sign- so unreal.

The train system here in Japan is amazingly convenient and on time! I wish we had more time in Japan because with the Railpass you can practically do an entire city in one to two days depending on how much you really want to see. Everyone is so kind and helpful. I sat next to this kind older lady home last night from Hiroshima to Shin-Kobe. We had an entire conversation in Japanese. She spoke to me like I knew what she was saying and I just nodded and smiled. It was hilarious and fun.

Today, while the rest of the group left for Kyoto, I decided to stay in Kobe to have a day to myself. I tried to find the zoo but got on the wrong subway! It was an adventure. I ended up walking a mall. Everything is very expensive here with the rising Yen and the falling dollar. I treated myself to a Starbucks where I am right now using free internet before heading back to the ship.

We leave tonight and are at sea for 8 days until Hawaii. I have A LOT of school work- 2 presentations and a final paper due before we reach Hawaii. I’m really really excited because I get to see my mom and aunt in OAHU!!! The past two ports there have been more and more parents meeting us when we arrive and lugging their son/daughters enormous suitcases off the ship.

Thank you for the letters!! It is hard to believe that there is less than a month left of this whirl-wind adventure.