4/19 - 4/20: Honolulu, Hawaii

Day 1: After breakfast (where EVERYONE had their cell phones out…it was slightly overwhelming) we headed out in search of the mall and beach. Lucky for us this really nice guy driving the free shuttle picked us up and dropped us off at the mall. It wasn’t open yet so my friends and I bought some drinks and just hung out for a while. Then we spent a couple hours shopping – I found one of the three Harley shops in Honololu – and then ate a quick lunch before heading towards Waikiki beach. We spent a few hours on the beach, enjoying the amazingly warm water and then headed back to the ship to change for dinner. We met up with everyone at Senor Frogs for Rhina’s birthday dinner; the food, drinks and waiters were great. After dinner we made our way to one of the many ABC stores and bought our drinks for the night; Rhina got a Malibu lei. We found our way to the beach, drank and hung out until everyone was ready. Then we went off in search of an 18+ club so everyone could get in. Found the only club open and danced the night away. Around 3am we decided to call it a night and headed back to the ship.

Day 2: Woke up at a decent hour, ate breakfast and headed for the beach. Ate Taco Bell for lunch (because we’d all been craving it and they only have it in the US) and then left around 2 for the mall. We stopped at the international market first where I found a bunch of random wonderful things. Then on the way to the bus stop we had the most hilarious conversation with a bunch of very very drunk Navy guys from the Honolulu base…it was 3 in the afternoon and they were dunzo and highly entertaining. Victoria and I got to the mall and quickly got what we needed before quickly heading for the ship; it was after 5 and on-ship time was 6. We got back in time.

I need to go back to Hawaii but I’d like to go to the less populated islands next time; Honolulu’s beauty is dulled by the din of the city. I didn’t do much besides eat, drink and enjoy the beach but the little time I had there was wonderful. Next up (and last), Guatemala.

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.

4/6 ? 4/7: Kobe, Japan

Day 1: A long morning. We woke up early for breakfast but we had to wait to get off the ship because Japan’s customs is really strict. So after breakfast, the diplomatic briefing and the temperature checks, we had to wait around for each hall to be called to go through customs. Our hall didn’t get called until almost 11am and then we had to wait for our passport to be scanned and our photo and finger IDs to be entered into the system. Once that was done we took off to the center of the city by metro. We walked around and through the central plaza for a while and found somewhere to eat. The woman working didn’t speak much English so we basically ordered by pointing at pictures; it worked in our favor because it was all delicious. After lunch we took off looking for the tattoo studio we had heard about. It didn’t take us long and after talking to the owner for a while, Rhina decided she wanted to get it done; I wasn’t willing to pay the exorbitant prices they had so I told her I’d wait until Hawaii. The girl was really quick and Rhina’s anchor was done in less than 30 minutes; it came out cute. After that I had to go back to the ship for a welcome reception I had signed up for. Got back and met a few Japanese university students, saw some performances, did origami, gave them a tour of the ship and that was that. Then dinner and out we went to enjoy the night life.

Well you can imagine the night life on a Monday night but we made it work. We all bought drinks and just sat in a park to drink. I tried ginger flavored Smirnoff and something called Strong beer which tasted nothing like beer; it was 8% alcohol, lemony and delicious. We made friends with 2 new SaS kids – Shannon and Jordan -- that were hanging out in the same park as us. We got harassed by someone who wanted our booze. Then we ended up finding a karaoke bar that was decently priced and spent over an hour screaming songs at each other in a tiny room. The drinks I had did me in and I was gone after 3 of them but I kept drinking; mistake number one. During karaoke I managed to chip a tooth (just a small chip) when my friend Graham shoved the mic in my face and I wasn’t looking. After karaoke we went to McDonalds because what better drunk food is there? I apparently started crying because I felt bad that I was so drunk and making a bad impression on Shannon and Jordan and in general. I think after McD’s is when Shannon and Jordan took off and the rest of us headed back to the ship. Apparently I told a boy from the ship – that I didn’t know – that he was cute and we bonded over having girlfriends. I eventually got to my room and passed out.

Day 2: And the next morning I was reminded of why I don’t drink often or a lot because I was either still drunk (after only having 5 drinks) or I had the world’s worst hang-over. Needless to say I skipped out on any adventuring and spent the morning sleeping it off. I woke up in time for lunch, showered and went out hoping to at least see the Himeji castle before I left but I couldn’t find a bank to exchange money in and I didn’t have enough to cover the metro fair (which was $20 roundtrip) so I ended up just walking around a little and then coming back to the ship to wallow in Grey’s Anatomy and the stupidity of my decisions. Once again I swear off drinking for a while. I don’t understand how most of the kids on this ship get drunk every day that we’re at port; I couldn’t do it nor would I want to. Ugh.

What I’ve learned:
*Drinking things in Japan that say ‘strong’ in excess equals bad; and apparently I’m now a light-weight. Thank goodness for great friends.
*Japanese people all have impeccable fashion sense; everyone looks like they walked off the pages of a magazine including older women and the young men. 
*Their Haagen Das ice cream parlors have green tea flavored ice cream.
*All the girls here wear knee socks, leg warmers or leggings and crazy cool high heels.
*There’s an entire section of the plaza mall area dedicated to cards and gamer stuff; it made me giggle.

Now we’re off to Yokohama, Japan where my friends and I are going to Tokyo for a day and then I have a trip to Mt. Fuji. And there will be no drinking happening at either. Love and miss you all.

4/1 - 4/2: Shanghai, China

Day 1: Woke up early and waited around for Chinese immigration to clear the ship. I did a SaS trip to a local kindergarten and spent the entire 2 hours being entertained by the cutest little kids ever; we also stopped at a community center and had green tea while we learned a little about how each community runs. We went back to the ship for lunch and I spent the afternoon doing art homework and watching Grey’s Anatomy. Then I got dressed and went down to help out with the formal open ship Semester at Sea had for all the Chinese dignitaries who donate money to the program; I gave a few ship tours and enjoyed a fancy dinner and ceremony that took most of the night. I didn’t feel like going out so I stayed in and watched some more Grey’s Anatomy.

Day 2: Woke up early and went to breakfast. Then Shelly, Cara, Graham and I went out to explore Shanghai. After finding a bank and realizing the market that we wanted to go to was far, we took a taxi to the street where most of the activity in the city is. We walked around and found the market mall; I bought a pair of red fake Converses and a cool painting. Then we had lunch at McDonalds because my friends wanted American food. After lunch we had a taxi take us to the Bund which is an underground tunnel that connects the new and old city but you had to pay and couldn’t just walk across so we decided not to. Instead we walked outside and found a sweet underground market with loads of souvenirs and nifty things. Spent an hour or so there and headed back to the ship.

Things I’ve learned:
*Language barriers suck; maps with Chinese characters and English written on them are lifesavers.
*Hong Kong really is nothing like China; no one here speaks English but almost everyone in HK did. And the people in Honk Kong were much nicer to us.
*China really does have a problem with air pollution; you can’t even tell the sun has risen because the smog is so thick on some days.
*Shanghai is a 2-hour drive from tip to tip; it’s a huge city broken up into new and old halves.
*The buildings in new Shanghai are really cool; I got some great pictures of the night skyline.
*When you and the taxi driver don’t speak the same language, you can both end up really confused; at one point we had to ask 3 different drivers to take us to one spot (which I pointed to on the map) and even then they took us to the wrong place.

Now we’re almost to Japan. We make 2 ports for 2 days each with 1 day in between; Kobe and Yokohama. My friends and I are trying to get tattoos while there and I have a trip to Mt. Fuji on the last day so I’m really, really excited. I think I’m down to 32 days or so left until I’m back in Maine so I’m getting really anxious for that too. Hopefully the rest of the trip goes by as good and quickly. Love and miss you all.