Japan: Kobe Beef, Fuji Mt., and The City That Never Sleeps

After two days on the ship we got to our next port of call, Kobe, Japan. Kobe is known for its beef which is grass-fed, free-range, massaged daily, and fed exclusively beer its whole life. Not a bad life if you ask me. It was interesting that Japanese customs were by far the most intense we'd experienced so far in letting us into the country. After an all morning event of trying to get off the boat we were finally able to walk around. The first thing we did was go explore the city. Kobe is quite small but has a number of big office buildings and markets. It had a small town feeling and we saw a lot of family restaurants and we were thankful for the clean streets. We sampled the interesting items they had for sale at 7/11, all the while searching for an ATM that worked with American cards. Japan was by far the hardest place on our trip for an American to take out money. None of the ATM's would take our cards because Japan isn't reliant on our financial system to make the country run; the downside to developed nations. Although that was an inconvenience we soon found the freedom of Japan. Japan has a plethora of curbside vending machines, THAT SELL BEER!! Not only that but you can get a liter can of beer and drink it on the street. Sweeeeeettttt. After a couple of Kirins and a tour of the city we went back to the ship to get ready for the night.
I went out with a few friends to sample the Kobe beef that is so popular here. I was a little disturbed when I heard how they raise the cows to get the meat to taste so good. But once I learned that they were fed beer their whole lives I got jealous and decided to grub the little drunken bastards. Just kidding. The steaks were delicious; so tender you could cut the meat with chopsticks, no lie. Afterwards we headed out to the bars. A local bar was offering a special to SAS students which was $20 to get in and then all you could drink was free. As you can imagine the place was packed and hopping. I checked it out for a bit and then went out to a Reggae Bar where most of the ship crew was partying. Most of the food and beverage crew on the ship are Jamaicans, so every time they come to Japan they stop at this reggae bar in Kobe and let loose. Since they knew I was into reggae they told me about this place. When I got in Mez (dude who works the juice bar on the ship) was rockin the mic and the place was all rasta'd out. Japanese people love foreign cultures and do a great job providing authentic pieces of world culture. The DJ was actually playing records instead of using a computer to play songs like most clubs nowadays. I had a great time at the reggae bar hanging out with the crew and good friends and headed back to the ship late to get some sleep before heading out to Mt. Fuji.

I took a pic of the appetizers but forgot
the Kobe Beef. Oh well, Schrooms and some kind of squid...

Everyone's friendly here

In front of the Reggae Bar, Kobe

Mez Rocking the Mic

Teachers and life-long learners know how to party too.
Mike, Margarite, Erika, and me

The crew members dont mess around. They represent Jamaica
when they get into port.

Jonell and me
In the morning I hooked up with a group of people trying to get out to climb Mt. Fuji which was a few hours north of us on a bullet train. We navigated the crowded subways of Kobe and finally got to the bullet train station. The bullet trains are also called JR trains or the Shinkansen. The train quickly got us to our destination at a small town just outside of the Fuji area. We got some noodles and spent the night in a hostel.

The next morning we took an hour and a half bus ride up to a small lake town north of Mt. Fuji. When we arrived, the mountain was covered in clouds and the locals said we may not be able to see it because of the poor weather. We quickly found our hostel, which was awesome. I would reccomend K's House to anyone staying in Japan. The hostel is located in a bunch of spots throughout the country and has better services than most hotels in the states. We used some of the house bikes to roam around town. Later we ate some Foto noodles which were pretty delish, and checked out the batting cages and arcades. Japan has an obsession with baseball, and some of the local kids could smack a mean 120 km/hour fastball, I had a hard time with just a 90 km/hour ball. But we hung out with the locals, and wreaked havoc at the arcade before heading back to the hostel.

Japan 7/11

The next morning my buddy Graham and I got up at sunrise to try to get a glimpse of the famed mountain. Graham brought his fishing pole and hung out on the lake while I practiced my meditation skills and watched the rising sun come out and illuminate the perfectly cone-shaped mountain. Their were a few Japanese people out walking their dogs and appreciating the natural beauty around their town.

Later that day the rest of our group headed out to Tokyo, while Jeff and I stayed behind because we didn't want to pay bus fare and we read a wikitravel article on hitchhiking in Japan. The article said that it was easy to do for those travelers trying to stretch a buck. We gave it our best shot, but got discouraged with the language barrier and everyone telling us that we were crazy. The one guy that ended up giving us a ride to the bus stop said that we were the first hitchhikers he had ever picked up.

We finally made it to Tokyo and got to navigate through the biggest city in the world. The place is huge and has so many bright lights and colors everywhere that you think you could go nuts. For how big the city is and how many people live their, it actually seems like it has more order than some small towns in the states. You can walk around for hours and never be bored, the city never sleeps and their is always something interesting to look at. We stayed in a K's house again.

Cool Building in Tokyo

The next day we went to the Tokyo dome where the Tokyo Giants baseball team plays. It is a beautiful sports center featuring a huge roller coaster that sweeps in and out of the mall. I got my friend Jeff to conquer his fear of heights and ate at California Pizza Kitchen, hey I was a little homesick. Next we trekked through the subway system to get to a district called Shinjuku, which is known as the skyscraper district. We were trying to hunt down a record store that specializes in out of print reggae records. We finally tracked it down and had a blast listening to records with the knowledgeable Japanese vinyl fans there. I could have stayed there all day, but eventually we had to go back to intercept the boat in Yokohama before it sailed away. We rushed back to the ship and barely made it in time. Out of all the countries we visited so far Japan was the hardest to leave. Our next stretch on the ship covered almost the entire Pacific Ocean, with a brief stop in Hawaii for Thanksgiving, and I felt like our trip was coming to an end. A sad time but also a great time to sit a reflect on all the wonderful experiences had, and hang out with friends that I may not see for a while.

-Chris