4/8 - 4/9: Tokyo/ Yokohama, Japan

Day 1: We woke up early and headed to the metro station to get to the main Yokohama train station. There we took a train to the main Tokyo station. After getting there we walked around for a couple of hours looking for the Imperial Palace to no avail; it seems that the royal gardens don’t ever actually lead to the palace. After giving up on that we headed in the direction of the Tokyo Tower. We took a break in Hibiya Park, laying in the grass and enjoying the beautiful weather. On the rest of our walk we couldn’t find a restaurant we liked so we stopped at a convenience store instead and grabbed random pre-made sushi and foods; we ate it outside on the sidewalk. After lunch we finally found Tokyo Tower and went up to the half point; you can see all of Tokyo! After we left the tower – which I stupidly decided would be fun to race down the 20 or so flights of stairs – we thought we would go check out the wholesale market which we had found on the map. Lucky for us, the wholesale market turned out to be a fish market. So we decided that we were all tired of walking around so we headed back to the main station and to Yokohama. We got back to the ship in time for dinner and spent the night watching movies and such.

Day 2: I had to wake up really early for a SaS trip to Mt. Fuji. Once we got on the bus at 7am we took off; it was going to be a 2 hour drive so everyone was hoping to sleep. NOT! Our tour guide was the world’s most talkative person; I don’t think she ever so much as stopped for air during the entire trip. Our first stop was at the tourist center at the very bottom of the mountain; we took a few pictures, bought a few things and headed up to the Level 5 station. There we had 30 minutes to take a few pictures, play with the snow and buy a few things before getting back on the bus. The mountain itself is still covered in snow which is why we could only get up to Level 5; the others are still snow bound. After that quick stop we headed out to Hakone, which is a town about 2 hours from the mountain. There we took a cable car ride to the top of another mountain with a different view of Mt. Fuji from its summit and then a boat ride around the lake at its base. After the boat ride we were back on the bus to head back to the ship. It was a beautiful day but we literally spent over half of it on the bus so it was a little exhausting.

Japan is on my top 3 list for favorite places so far; the climate reminds me of New England, the people are nice and helpful and even the cities are clean and feel safe. The only downfall is everything is expensive in comparison to all other countries. Now we’re off to Hawaii; a 10-day trek across the Pacific that we’ve been told is very long and very rough. You’d imagine after not having had class for more than 2 days in a row for over a month how 10 days in a row is going to feel. There are only 27 days left before we’re back but it’s the hardest part of the trip, academically.  Wish me luck. I’ll see you all soon. All my love.