Thanksgiving in Hawaii!

            Happy Thanksgiving!!!! It sure didn’t feel like Thanksgiving at all today but it wasn’t a bad day either! The day before we had docked in Honolulu to refuel and restock, so I got to call everyone. It’s a good thing I did as I didn’t end up having time to call while on my trip. So, we headed up Maona Kea, the tallest mountain in the world (when you measure from its base, which is on the seafloor). We stopped partway up to eat lunch and acclimate to the higher elevation. The stop had this really cool flower that takes ten years to grow, will bloom during the tenth year and then die and restart the process again. This wasn’t a blooming year, but we still got to see the strange flower. It looked like thin aloe leaves that were silvery. Now, we actually had a very large group of people on this trip, but we were split into 12 so that we could fit into these elongated vans. This is because it is required to have 4-wheel drive as you ascend the volcano because a very large stretch of the drive is incredibly bumpy terrain. The State does this to limit the amount and type of traffic going up the volcano. Eventually, we made it to the top. We had passed clouds and could now look over a large part of the Big Island. Many of the volcano eruptions (look like hills) were very red and some had some other coloring (like green and brown). Our guide told us that this climate is very similar to that of Mars and so there are many tests done here. Also, they chose the top of Maona Kea because there are clear skies and no wind so that their calculations won’t be affected. We got to walk a bit to go to the peak, passing some snow (snow in Hawaii!!!?!) and taking measured breathes to get to the top. There was an offering pile of wood and other assorted things that the Hawaiian people bring to Pele (goddess of fire). Then, we got to tour Keck I observatory! That’s my maternal grandparent’s last name and it’s not that common - how cool is that?! I always knew they were here but I never thought I would ever actually go inside one of them. It was really quite amazing. They have a laser they shoot into the sky every single night (that’s right, 365 nights a year) and it has better resolution than Hubble. They have liquid nitrogen cooling the inside of the domes to prevent condensation from accumulating on the very large mirrors. It costs $2/sec to turn them on and move them! And they operate them every night, from the minute the sun sets till morning light! Pretty expensive! Oh, and the researchers can only work up there 3 days a week to avoid the negative effects of the thinner air. Thus, there is lodging part way up the volcano for them to stay at while researching. It was pretty cool.

            After we saw the volcano, we started heading down and went through a cloud that had drifted over the roadway. It was like going through a thick fog machine. I had seen this ridiculous bumper sticker in the store saying, “Beware of invisible cows”. Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, there are cows grazing on the sides of the road and I guess sometimes they walk onto the road in the middle of the cloud and then it looks like they are invisible. Pretty funny. Anyways, we then headed to a lava cave. I happened to have the geology professor in my group so he explained how lava caves are formed. When the lava is flowing (which it can go up to 40mph!), sometimes the top layer can cool and harden and then the hotter part flowing beneath can sink into the ground. This ends up creating a pocket that becomes a cave. Thus, there are few to no stalagmites or stalactites within and you can see the ridges in the lava from where it was flowing, kind of like a fossil. That was pretty cool. Finally, we went to rainbow falls which was gorgeous and had two parts of a river converge into a waterfall. There were also some enormous banyan trees right next to the river. It was pretty cool.

           

Yokohama

            Today I walked around Yokohama. Much like Shanghai, I didn’t have a full day to walk around and it was mostly city with some parks. We found the Chinatown district to see if we could find any better priced things and ended up finding a Hello Kitty store – yes Hello Kitty is pervasive in Japan seeing as that is where it originated. Anyway, they had everything under the sun (including underwear!) that had Hello Kitty on it – pretty funny. Across from this store was one where you could pay for these little minnows to eat the dead skin from your feet. We decided to try it (I would never have done this had I been on my own) and it was one of the strangest sensations I’ve ever felt. Imagine a bubble machine blowing on your feet from all directions and your feet are being massaged at the same time. The only thing is that really little fish are nipping the dead skin right off and eating it – CRAZY! It was definitely weird. We stopped in a café for a bit and then went to a K pop (Korean pop music) store because one of my friends really likes their music. Then we headed back to the ship for lunch (so as to save money) and stayed on the ship. I found out later there was a roller coaster that went under the water in another part of the city and kind of wished I could have gone but all in all I had a good day.

I am now at sea and will be in the throws of the Pacific for the next 18 days (minus Thanksgiving when I’ll be in Hawaii). There won’t be many posts for the next 2 weeks, fyi.

TOKYO!!!!!!!

            So today I went with some friends to go to Tokyo! I was so excited to go and we were hoping to go to the district where people dress up really crazy (like anime characters). We asked which one it was and what trains we should take to get to Tokyo. We really only ended up having one transfer and it didn’t cost too much money to get to Tokyo and back ($15 roundtrip). So the lady who told us where to go told us where the anime district is (not the same as the dress up one but still really cool) and so we went around that area. There were so many buildings dedicated only to anime – like 8 floors of just that! Multiple of them! There were some girls dressed in maid outfits advertising their shop and there were just random images of anime everywhere. Some of the images were explicit, which I wasn’t expecting, but for the most part they were ok. It’s too bad that the Japanese people also don’t really know English (only what they learn in school but it’s not conversational) so we still couldn’t talk to anyone. After wandering around enjoying the ridiculous sights (anime advertising a car wash, lightsaber chopsticks! – would have bought them but they were crazy expensive – over $20 – just like everything else in Japan is super expensive, KISS pandas, jedi cloak, etc), we decided to go to the Tokyo stop. It turned out to be the business district, but it had a cool underground mall so we walked around that for a while. We had to get back early so we left and got back ok. I had wanted to do some karaoke, but apparently you pay for private rooms here, its not just open bar like in the States. Guess that’s because they are way more serious about it here. Anyways, it was an awesome day. Oh, it’s rude to eat in public (unless of course it’s a restaurant in which case it is no longer ‘public’) so we couldn’t eat on the train heading back, even though we were very hungry. It’s interesting to see what other people consider rude, because we would never think about twice about eating on the run at all.

The Shrines of Ise

            Today we rode in a bus 3.5 hours to the Shrines of Ise, the center for Shintoism (native religion to Japan). This religion essentially believes that everything living has a spirit and they worship these spirits. It is also the religion that claims that the Emperor line is directly from Amateratsu, the sun goddess. This religion is very nature oriented and is unique because their sacred buildings are town down and rebuilt every 20 years, 56 consecutive times (yeah that’s a lot of rebuilding). This is because they only use natural materials, which naturally decay after a while. So, they have two plots for every place where there is a shrine, and they will construct a copy of the current on the open spot and switch them all over at once and then deconstruct the old. Also, you can’t go inside of the holiest place, as only the Emperor can to move the sacred relic (a mirror to represent the Sun God – because when you look into it, it reflects your face in the sunlight). These shrines have evolved from the ancient Japanese granaries, which were the only elevated buildings in the ancient landscape to protect the grain from rats and rain, while the dwellings were subterranean. Really, it is cool that I learned about this religion and buildings in my architecture class and now I’m here seeing it. We couldn’t take pictures of the sacred part and you could only see parts of it anyways because of the way that it was set up, meant to only give you glimpses of the most sacred building. Either way, it was pretty awesome and the landscape was gorgeous as well. After we toured the two different complexes, we headed back.

JAPAN!!!!!

            We arrived in Kobe today and I had some time to spend before my trip left. I went with some friends to walk around and we found a small mall. We totally saw a girl dressed up like a doll and no one seemed to care. That is how it is here, everyone is very well dressed and if someone is unusually dressed (like as an anime character) no one bats an eye. Anyways, we had to get back in time so we just walked back. We headed for a theatre performance. To get there, we assumed we would be riding in a bus, as had been the case in all of the other ports. However, Japan has perfected the public transportation system and it is actually more expensive to travel by private transport. So, our guide navigated us through the train system, taking four different trains to our destination. That was quite amazing. Everything was pretty easy to follow, very helpful, speedy and on time. We got to the theatre and waited for the show to start.

            Bunraku theatre is a traditional puppet theatre, losing popularity as Kabuchi theatre takes its place in popularity. These are life-sized puppets (literally almost my size) operated by three people with ornate outfits, props and facial movements. The puppeteers wear all black to not distract from the puppet (because you totally see them on stage) and the scenery is very detailed. There is a narrator and a shamisen player (traditional Japanese lute that sounds like a banjo but itsn’t) who provide the music and all of the dialogue. Literally, the narrator says everything. Interestingly, they rotated narrators and shamisen players for each segment of the play. It was a four hour performance with fight scenes, head shaving (a puppet removed his hair), and suicide (forgot what it’s called but where you stab yourself in the stomach). The finale was a fight scene between a soon-to-be apprentice wielding a knife at the end of a staff and a master wielding an umbrella and a fan – that’s right, umbrella and fan won. Pretty funny. It was quite amazing to see them working together to create this production. Then we went back, transferring 4 times to get back to the ship. Wow, Japan is quite efficient. Oh, and rush hour traffic (i.e. when everyone is packed into the train cars) is 2030 – that’s right, 830 pm is when all the men in suits are heading home – what a long day.

Shanghai!

            I went with my friend Amelia to walk around and see what there was in Shanghai. We only had the morning and afternoon so we didn’t have too much time to travel too far, so we decided to walk to a shopping district. There were many shops here, most much more expensive than we anticipated. We basically had a low-key day just walking around and seeing the different stores. Shanghai has very interesting architecture, much like Hong Kong. I wish I had had more time to really see Shanghai, but I did have fun with my friend.

Last day in Beijing

Today was our last day in Beijing, so we went to the Temple of Heaven. As I mentioned before, it is on the same axis as the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. This is basically a large park with a temple in the middle, where the Emperor used to go 2x a year to pray for the harvest. Once they got rid of that tradition, they were left with a huge park. Now that China is stricter on people retiring at the retirement age to make room for the next generation, all of those retirees need something to do. So, they come here and exercise and play games with their friends. Basically, it is now an adult playground. They are very nimble and active and it was pretty cool to see them doing group dances of playing Chinese hacky sack. After we saw the Temple, we tried to get our own game going of hacky sack and did pretty terribly. I know I haven’t played any sports with my feet in a while so I was failing miserably, but I still had a good time. Then we went to the airport and flew to Shanghai. Our bus went to the wrong exit and took a long time coming to pick us up to bring us back to the ship, but we got back ok.