Japan

In thirty-six minutes we’ll be sailing away from our last international port (those are such bittersweet words to type).

I’m completely enchanted with Japan, and also adamantly set on returning—four days just wasn’t enough (I know I feel that way with every country, but I really do mean it when it comes to Japan).

The fun thing was that each day in Japan I got to spend in a different city.

Day one: Yokohama—lovely and quiet and lined with trees lit up with all kinds of autumn hues. We took the bus to the Sankeien Gardens, where we viewed a tea ceremony and hiked to a pagoda and threw euros from Spain into a wishing-well. We finished the night off with sushi and people watching (my favorite) and When Harry Met Sally (also my favorite, and quite possibly the best chick-flick ever written).

Day two: Tokyo—Brittany and I decided to take the train to Tokyo for the day, and were completely out of our minds when we went without a single map or brochure or destination in mind. We wandered far and wide, and conveniently stumbled upon the Harajuku district and Takeshita Street, where we window shopped and admired the prettily dressed people (in, of course, our baggy sweatshirt and jeans—we haven’t been able to do laundry for over three weeks. But then who am I kidding? My entire Semester at Sea wardrobe could be washed and hanging in our closet and my outfit still wouldn’t hold a candle to the immaculately put together women of Tokyo) and ate the most scrumptious dip-died noodles ever.

Day three: Hiroshima—We drove ten hours total for our visit, but I have no regrets in choosing to spend my day that way. Anyone remotely close to having the means should go and see and grieve and learn (or at least read John Hersey’s booked, eloquently titled Hiroshima). The atomic age is one I would wish on a million stars to be able to erase, and the museum that was erected to remember August 6, 1945 is breathtaking in that it chooses to skip blame in order to seek something greater—this in itself brings to my heart a great hope.

Day four: Kyoto—My Anthropology of Reproduction professor took a group of us to Arashiyama’s Monkey Park for some good, solid Japanese macaque observation. The macaques are the most hilarious things you’ve ever seen, with their bright red faces and even redder butts (it was indecent of me, I know, but I couldn’t resist snapping a few pictures of the their buttocks). After our observation time was finished, Marissa and I stayed behind to explore the gorgeous, little town of Arashiyama. We had lunch and peeked in the town’s quaint little shops and enjoyed some sweet potato ice cream before navigating three different train lines back to the boat in Kobe for on-ship time.

And just like that we begin our ten-day trek to Hawaii.

The MV Explorer is lovely, and I’ve met people on the MV Explorer that are even lovelier. But ten straight days sailing on a boat of this size is enough to give anyone cabin fever. On top of that fact, we are going to have eight class days during this stretch, and sad as it sounds, that’s unprecedented for us on this voyage, so Allie and I might just be loosing some hair (reality will be a very, very cruel thing come January).

But not to worry—we’re going to do our very best to quell the fever with plenty of movie-nights and Uno games.

Love. Anna