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.