Off the Wall

We are officially 24 hours from Vietnam.  China was awesome, and Hong Kong was my favorite port so far.  We stayed the first night in Shanghai and went to the clubs that night with my friend who speaks Mandarin.  During the day, we had tried street food including octopus tentacles on a stick and a delicious bread item resembling a thick tortilla.  Each cost only 2 yuan (6.8 yuan = $1 US) The next day, we flew to Beijing to start our six-day tour.

On our first full day, we got to see the Forbidden City and Tianamen Square (I don't think that's spelled correctly).  the Forbidden City was created by the emperor of China as a place for royalty that no common people were allowed to enter.  It is surrounded on all four sides by a flat, 30 foot stone wall.  The emperor made sure no trees were planted around the border in order to discourage sneaking into the city.

That evening, we hiked up to the Great Wall and spent the night sleeping on it.  We all felt very cold and uncomfortable throughout the night, but the experience was definitely worth it.  We awoke early the next morning to see the sunrise.  Later that afternoon, after hiking for several miles, we ziplined off the wall.

The next day we took a rickshaw ride through the Hutong area of Beijing.  This area included many poorer neighborhoods in the city.  Afterwards, we went to the Summer Palace, a place the emperor would send his wife in the summer so he could spend some quality time with his concubines.

On the last day we saw the Temple of Heaven.  The morning after, we flew to Hong Kong.  What an amazing city.  It contains the building Batman jumped off in a scene in the Dark Knight.  The city is mesh of culture and structure.  Surrounded on one side by mountains, and the other by ocean, it is truly unique.  Interspersed between the skyscrapers are small markets run by the lower-income members of the city.  Looking at it from a distance, you would never guess that these small markets and shops existed between the towering buildings.

I've still got some planning to do for Vietnam, look for an update in about a week.

China lies ahead

   Japan was crazy.  The first night, we took a train from Yokohama to Tokyo.  We got our first authentic Japanese meal, and headed to an ice bar that night.  Our group included me, Abbie, Amira, and Haley.  Nils and Martin, also in our group explored Tokyo while we were in the bar.  In the ice bar, we played a drinking game with some locals.  Ich, ni, sun, shi, go, roku.  That's how to count to six in Japanese.  Afterwards, we attempted to get on the overnight bus to Osaka.  We stood in line for what we thought was the right bus but no one understood our reservations.  We went from bus to bus trying to get on.  Eventually we figured the bus must have left without us.  I ran. I ran to the first bus and tried for one last time to get help.  He directed us to the bus ticket counter and we had to buy new tickets for the midnight bus for 5000 yen (around 50 dollars).  In Osaka that morning, we walked to Kaiyukan, the Osaka aquarium, and saw two whale sharks.  It was an almost spiritual experience. The enormity and grace of those animals are amazing.
        We made it to Koyasan, a mountain town covered in Buddhist monasteries.  It was a beautiful ride up the mountains on the train, then up a cable car to the top.  We came up with a haiku on the way up:

Breathe the mountain air
Japan’s darkness awaits us
Soon to the temple

   We got to the Eko-in monastery, took off our shoes for slippers, and dropped off our things.  We then took a tour of the Oku-no-in cemetery, the largest in Japan and home to many buried samurais and monks.  The creator of the cemetery, Kobo Daishi, is fabled to still be meditating at the end of the cemetery in a temple that no one is allowed into.  The next day we stopped at some shops and I picked up a bandana that says 'Koyasan' in Japanese.  We then traveled to Kyoto, found our friend Donald, and discovered that the hotel we planned to stay in was full.  We made our way to 9h, a capsule hotel, completely white with spacious capsules.  A capsule hotel is basically a series of small rectangular spaces stacked on top of each other.  Each contains a bed.  There's just enough space to lie down for the night.  The next night in Kobe, me, Haley, Martin, and Mason went to a reggae bar, Jam Dung.  On the way in, we saw several of the professors, hammered, making their way out I was talking to a man who I assumed worked there as he was promoting the club, and I asked him how long he worked there.  He told me he was Mezraim, one of the crew members from the ship.  A lot of the crew were there dancing to reggae.  It was a riot.

We'll be in Shanghai in less 24 hours.

Ship Rumors

Well, 1 day left until we arrive in Japan.  I won't believe it until I see at least one of the over 6,000 islands that make up the country.

We're hitting a bit of rough weather currently, and the ship's rocking pretty hard.  A lot of rumors have been going around saying that this was going to be a really bad storm, but it hasn't been.  Two nights ago at dinner, after a group of us agreed that the rumors were getting ridiculous, and we decided to start our own rumor.  Me and four others at the table would tell people that the storm was going to be so bad that the Coast Guard was going to link up with the ship and check all of the crew's drills, secure the lifeboats, and make sure the rest of the ship was secure.  Rumors spread on this ship like wildfire.  Needless to say, the rumor spread fast and I overheard another student the next day asking a faculty member if he was going to be able to meet the Coast Guard.

Across the Prime Meridian

We officially crossed the Prime Meridian today.  We've been gaining more and more hours of sleep, which has been nice, but we officially lose a day now that we've crossed.  We will have no February 2nd.  I won't miss it too much.

I've started planning my trip to Japan and created an itinerary for my group.  We arrive February 9th.  The schedule goes as follows:

Day 1: Travel to Tokyo from Yokohama, take an overnight bus to Osaka.
Day 2: See the aquarium in Osaka, visit a fish market, then go south to Koyasan.  Spend the night in a Buddhist monastery on Mt. Koya.
Day 3: Spend the day exploring Koyasan, visiting the monasteries as well as Japan's largest cemetery, where many Japanese monks have been buried.  At night, take the train to Kyoto.
Day 4: Spend the day and night in Kyoto, see some Geishas, get some sushi and sake. Overnight in Kyoto.
Day 5: In the morning, travel to Kobe and explore the city before the ship leaves at 8pm.

Be sure to email me at ejhorstman@semesteratsea.net.