Once again...I'm behind with the blog entries. For some reason, I haven't had a huge desire to write the last few days. We've just spent 4 days in Japan; our last truly foreign Port of Call and are now "headed home." I did enjoy Japan and had the opportunity to experience some cool things but I felt a little numb to all of it. At this point in the voyage, I just felt like it was another new city, another new place, what is the conversion rate here? what kind of money do they use? How does the transportation here work...and they're starting to blend together.

Here's a re-cap of our stay in Kobe, Japan. Day 1, we arrive at Port of Kobe and it was a huge process to get cleared off of the ship. Each passenger had to be cleared individually with a temperature scan, a face to face passport check, fingerprint and photo ID. With only 4 stations open, it took all morning to finally clear everyone. After lunch, LE and I went out in search of Sake Breweries!!! We got our Portliner tickets, made it to Sannomiya Station and then out to the Nada area which is like a suburb or Kobe. There was a map with a whole route of sake breweries kind of like going on a wine trail, and we managed to located 3 of them. 1 of these had free sake tasting and WOW was it good!!! I'd only had sake about 3 times at home but I do like it and this was really good. I got two bottes of Sake, which is Japanese Rice Wine, and it will be fun to order Sushi at home and have some sake with it.

My 2nd day in Kobe, I did a Japanese Home Visit. I slept in all morning and that was amazing!!! We met up for the homestay early afternoon and I was paired up with another student, Larissa. We spent the afternoon with the Sugahara's and had a nice time. I felt like an exchange student again smiling alot and trying to decipher the conversations while they entertained us and shared their home and culture. Mr. Sugahara picked us up in the Port Terminal and our first stop was the supermarket to pick up some last minute items for preparing dinner and the tea ceremony. I love supermarkets! After that, we drove to their house up on the hill above Kobe. we spent the afternoon making a simple Japanese Tea Ceremony, assisting with the preparation of a sushi dinner and making origami. It was very pleasant and they took great care to plan an afternoon full of showing us Japanese culture. I especially loved cooking with them, although I was a little nervous about homemade sushi. I think that cooking together is a great way to share culture and a natural way to bond with people. Cooking and baking was one of my favorite things to do with my host families in Switzerland. Does anyone remember how many apple pies and batches of chocolate chip cookies I made that year??? Or the traditional Swiss dinners we prepared after I came back home??? Anyways... the Do It Yourself Sushi we prepared was great! It wasn't fancy Philadelphia Rolls that I might order from Yamada on East Tremont back in the Bronx but it was definately just as good, maybe better! I tried just about everything and it was a great experience. I can check "Eat Sushi In Japan" off of my Bucket List. We also drank Sake out of very traditional flat wooden sake cups. The funny things was that after dinner was over, our host said that becuase he drank some sake at dinner, he just walked us to the bus station to get back to the ship. We were back by 8pm, just in time for me to check in for Port Duty. My last Port Duty of the voyage.

Our 3rd day in Japan, LE and I went up to Arima. Arima is a little town up in the mountains about a 40 min. bus ride from Kobe that is known for its natural hot springs. After wandering around the bus and railway station in Kobe trying to find the right way to actually get there, we found our bus, got tickets and made it to Arima. The town was adorable and reminded me of a little town up in the Swiss Alps but Japanese! There were narrow little streets, small shops and restaurants, shrines, temples, parks, and of course the hot springs. We found our way to one of the two Hot Springs Public Baths. Apparently, visiting a Japanese Public Bath is also a must-do for Japan. We walked in and immediately got yelled at for crossing the invisible line on the floor with our shoes on. We took our shoes off, put them in the locker and then proceeded to the desk to find out how enter etc.. (Luckily, I had picked up a brochure that explained in English what the proper prodedures for using a public bath are...more on that later) I paid my Yen, and an extra 200 Yen for a small towel then headed up to the locker room. Everything is separated by male/female. It was definately an experience! I had a much easier time than my friend did doing the whole public bathhouse thing. It wasn't so bad because it wasn't like I was ever going to see these Japanese ladies ever again. I know I would have had a harder time if there were other SAS people there. So I stripped down and headed in to the bathing area. First you completely shower and cleanse. They have individual washing areas. Then you pour a basin of water over yourself and then you are ok to enter the springs. It was HOT....42 C HOT! It felt very good though...I don't know how those women stayed in there so long. I had a good long soak, which was really nice to relax and clear my head up a bit. We did our hot springs soak at the Gin-no-sen bathhouse which is the Silver Spring kind and then walked around town a little bit before going to the second Kin-no-sen bathhouse which is the Gold Spring. It was the same procedure but a different kind of mineral hot spring. The water was rust colored and just as hot! A full day in Arima walking around and the cherry blossoms there were the most beautiful I'd seen between Kobe, Kyoto and Arima. I think it was becuase we were there at the very end of the Cherry Blossoms period and since Arima was up in a higher elevation, they were still in high bloom. After heading back to Kobe, we went in search of dinner. Once again, LE had gotten a reccomendation on a restaurant that we went looking for that proved pretty hard to find! It was also cold and pouring rain. We did finally find the restaurant Mikami, which was a cute little place tucked in a side street just outside the center of Kobe and had really good food that was pretty cheap by Japanese standars. We got these dinner sets that had a main dish, rice, and soba noodles.

Our final day, I went to Kyoto. This is where the crazy Geisha pictures are from. So, way earlier in the trip, during a conversation with Carrie, we were talking about how Memoirs of a Geisha is both of our favorite books. Somehow that turned in to an idea she'd heard about from a friend to get made up like Geisha in Japan. 2 days before we arrived in Japan, there is a note on my door that she had made reservations for 4 to be made up in to Geisha! There was basically no backing out! It was an experience...I will let the pictures speak for themselves! I look ridiculous but I did learn alot about Kimono! After washing off all of the make-up and leaving my Geisha self behind, LE and I met up with KP and Dan in Kyoto and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around a park in Kyoto which was really nice. We stopped in a bakery to pick up some stuff for lunch and had a picnic in the park, just enjoying the beautiful weather and spring air. It reminded me that I had kind of missed all the change of seasons. I went from winter in NY to the Bahamas to summer in the Southern Hemisphere and HOT...then back to early Spring in Asia. I like spring in NY and am excited for early summer when I get back. After lunch and walking around the park, we had to head back to Kobe to get be back on the ship nice and early.

Gangway duty was pretty exciting! We had our usual last minute drinkers pounding Sake in the terminal building and a nice line of people waiting to get on the ship before 9pm to avoid dock time. The crazy part is that we did leave 4 people in Japan. I am not at liberty to discuss the details but there were 2 lost passports and 1 medical issue. It was quite an ordeal and it did significantly complicate and delay our departure from Japan. I will say however that all involved are safe and healthy.

Leaving Kobe for me truly marked our voyage home as we start crossing the Pacific and coming back around the other side of the world. Next stop...Honolulu, Hawaii!!!