Kobe - Time to Try Something New

Watashi wa Nihon ni korarete totemo ureshii desu.
Roughly translated – “I am so happy to be in Japan!”

My time in Japan has come to an end and I could not have asked for anything better. The weather was wonderful every day; we didn’t get rained on once. It was cold but as long as you dressed appropriately it was fine. I saw and experienced everything that I wanted to and can honestly say that I have seen the ins and outs of Japanese culture, daily life, and tourist destinations…all in 4 days.

The picture I have included is a group of us riding a cable car up to the top of Mount Rokko. As we were about to board a group of Japanese men who were taking a picture asked us to jump in the picture with them. I gave someone my camera cause we all wanted pictures with the locals too! From left to right it goes Natalie, Japanese man 1, Alyssa (Zoomba teacher), Abby, Amy, Japanese man 2 & 3, and then me on the end! The guys were really cool and very nice…they were sightseeing as well.

Shout-out time! JT – heck yeah we have the same hoodie! Great minds think alike!! Green is my sea’s color for the Sea Olympics so I got green for that reason lol. Esther – Hahaha I thought you guys would like the “Big Booty” comment, glad I could entertain! Shaun White is awesome! Can’t wait to see what he does. And thanks for missing me haha…miss you guys too! Dad and Mom – That is awesome about the volcano! Guess we both had really great luck with seeing mountains/volcanoes! As far as Kobe beef…we looked for it at one point but couldn’t find any good places to get it. I wasn’t too disappointed though because I did a pretty good job budgeting in Japan so it was nice not having to pay for it. Chris – yeah I really like Tao’s milk tea but I had to try the Japanese kind while I was here. Guess the Americanized version is more to my liking haha. Bro that is SAWEET about South Africa…God has amazing things in store for you brotha…you have a once in a lifetime opportunity and I am ecstatic for you!! Love you brother and praying for you continually!! Can’t wait to come home and eat some good ole fashioned American food with ya! B.T. – Girl you totally should have come to Hawaii!! You would have had such a good time with us!!!!! Yeah I bet you are glad to be done with all the greenery and Christmas decorations, you and Morgan are brave souls lol. Hahaha all I can say is “I told you so” about Dear John…and I don’t see myself reading that one…sorry sis. 3 tests! Yikes!! Hate it when that happens! Yeah I did OU’s version of VR last year so I’ve been there! Yeah I have no doubt you would wear the right foot gear…you are definitely an experienced traveler. Haha no I don’t have a Valentine. Didn’t even realize it was that time yet honestly. Wehunt – Dude congrats!! Hoooorrrraaaayyyyyy!!!!!! You’re a father!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And don’t you worry! I will be crashing your house ASAP when I get back to come say high to the little man! Miss all you guys and can’t wait to see the 3 of you!! Sara – yeah money belts are a life saver and a great investment when traveling abroad! There is nothing to worry about as far as losing important stuff or getting pick-pocketed. Haha you are playing powder puff? That’s tight but I also kinda feel bad for you because my sister is on the other team and last time she played as a sophomore she dominated the other team!! Good luck with Quartz, I’m sure you will do great. Yeah you mentioned choreographing the dance…good luck with that! That is the most popular assembly (or it was when I was there) so no pressure haha. No promises on the safe part but I will do my best!

I mentioned briefly at the end of my Yokohama blog that it took a day to sail from Yokohama to Kobe. The way this works is that all the SAS students have the option of traveling independently from Yokohama to Kobe or sailing with the ship. I chose to sail with the ship instead of paying for a hotel and train ride. Japan was a country where I chose not to spend as much because 1) it is super expensive and 2) I am spending my money in other countries where I want to travel more. Out of 606 students less than 150 sailed with the ship from Yokohama to Kobe. Including faculty and life-long learners we had around 200 people. Okay it was so nice traveling on the ship for that day. We all got to sleep in, then all day everyone was just chilling around the ship. They had movies playing all day in the union on the big projector and various movies playing continually on the tv’s in our rooms. We all just chilled in our pajamas and sweats and watched movies and played cards. Okay but the best part was dinner. With fewer people on the ship they scheduled a fancy sit-down dinner for all of us. We all ate on the 5th deck dining room and received a 5 course meal. We got to choose between fried calamari or fruit, then we all got soup and a salad, our choice of 3 entrees, and cherries jubilee for desert. By far the best food I have had on the ship yet!! It was actually good meat, the salad was fresh and crisp (I don’t even like salad but I cleaned my late, I know you all don’t believe me but it’s true), and the desert was outstanding!! But…the best part…no dress code!! That’s right, we ate a five course meal in sweats. Sooooooo awesome!! So in whole, a nice relaxed day to just recuperate and eat some delicious food before spending 2 more days in Kobe.

Okay small story for all you SMU alumni that are reading this. I was talking to one of my friends (I’m not gunna say her name cause this story is pretty embarrassing and she would kill me lol) and she told me a story about a little trip she took to SMU a little while ago. Her brother goes to SMU and she was visiting him one weekend. One night they were out, (use your imagination) and she said that she really had to go pee. So she decided to go pee on the SMU pony statue. Haha small world huh? What are the odds that I would meet a girl that has done that?!?! I told her that like me mom’s whole side of the family went to SMU and we had a good laugh! So thought you all might enjoy that…whether you approve or not lol.

Day 1 in Kobe was a cultural experience for me. I attended an all day trip to Nara with Semester at Sea. I wasn’t originally scheduled on the ship but my buddy didn’t want to go and sold me his ticket for 75% off the original price. So I had a jam-packed day for super cheap. Nara used to be the capital of Japan way back in the day and is FULL of history. We hop scotched around the city and visited numerous Buddhist temples and Shinto Shrines. The biggest Buddhist temple we built was centered around a 49 foot tall Buddha made entirely of gold. It was crazy big. In the building with the Buddha there was this pillar holding up the building that had a hole in the base of it. Legend has it that if you can squeeze through the hole you “get a free ride to Paradise.” I’m not Buddhist and I don’t believe that at all but to me it was a challenge…can I make it through the hole or not?? And we are talking a small hole…like maybe 1.5 ft by 1.5 ft (I have pictures). So my friend Jeff was like “I’m doing it” so I was like “Alright I’ll do it too.” Jeff made it through successfully and I was able to conquer it as well!! Boom Baby!! And yes I have pictures to prove that I made it through for all you doubters back home. So that was probably the biggest/most cultural Buddhist place we visited. Oh and we got to see a group of Buddhist monks walking around in their traditional garb which was pretty cool. The highlight of Nara is the famous Nara deer park. When I say deer park that is literally what I mean…a park full of deer. The park contains numerous Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines but the main attraction is the hundreds of tame deer that call the park home. There are over 1200 deer currently in the park, and they just walk around and live in the middle of this tourist destination. There are places where you can buy crackers to feed the deer but you have to be careful cause the deer are smart. They hang around the cracker ladies and as soon as someone walks up they swarm the person. I have a hilarious video of one of our life-long learners trying to feed the deer and they are nipping at her clothes and jostling for position to get the crackers. So funny!! Then as you walk through the park there are just deer standing in the middle of path and sleeping on the sides…they are even deer up on the steps under shrines and stuff. It was a very unique place and I have never experienced anything like this at all. By the end of the day the temperature had dropped to I would say around 30 degrees Fahrenheit and some people on our trip were not happy at all. Kind of like the mountain adventure I told you guys about last time, people started complaining and I am just like “What are you all talking about? You’re in stinking Japan, people would kill to be here and experience this!” Ahhhh people just frustrate me sometimes haha. Oh well! Their loss and my gain!

After returning to Kobe from my Nara adventure I met up with Mem and Lettie who had been on a separate SAS trip and we headed into Kobe in search of a traditional Japanese dinner. Random Info - Taking the subway in Japan is a cake-walk. It is formatted just like most European subways and even if you can’t read any of the Japanese characters, all the stops have a corresponding color and number. Some people I traveled with throughout Japan couldn’t understand how I knew where I was going and I was like, you just have to get the hang of it and I showed them little short-cuts for getting around foreign cities. Anyways so we headed off to find dinner and found this underground strip mall area that had like 20 some odd restaurants. The first restaurant we tried didn’t have picture menus (which are very common in Japan) so we had to awkwardly leave because we couldn’t communicate what we wanted to order. Very awkward but also kinda comical looking back on it haha. We were more careful in choosing another restaurant to try. We made sure they had picture menus and were able to simply point and order. The Japanese people are amazingly friendly and very easy to interact with. As long as you say “Aragato” (thank-you) and smile, they understand that you are trying and will help you as best they can. It was a very traditional Japanese meal; I ordered some sort of chicken dish that came with sticky rice, some sort of thin salad, a type of seaweed soup (which was actually delicious, I ate all of mine and Lettie’s), a cup of green tea, and something closely resembling potato salad. The chicken was absolutely fantastic and I can honestly say that I ate/drank everything I just mentioned except for some random onions and sprouts I was given. Lettie ordered the exact same thing as me and then Mem ordered some sort of battered shrimp that she said was really good. After dinner we chose to explore around the city and see what we could find. We ended up stopping at a Baskin Robbins later in the evening cause Mem REALLY wanted ice cream. It tasted just like American ice cream so I wasn’t too impressed but it was still a fun experience! After wandering around some more we took the subway back to the ship and called it a night before starting early the next morning for our last day in Japan!!

Before I tell you about my last day in Japan I wanna tell you some more about the various foods I tried because some of it was stuff that I would never try at home; and I told you about the food I tried in Yokohama so here is what I tried in Kobe. I already mentioned my Japanese dinner where I ate seaweed soup and LOVED it! Ok I tried a chocolate Japanese doughnut, it was interesting and I liked it but nothing compared to an American doughnut. This one none of you all will believe. Vending machines are everywhere in Japan and they aren’t like vending machines in the States. You can get your traditional cold drink but they also server hot beverages like coffee and hot chocolate that come in cans and are super warm! There are these type of coffees called Café Au Late…I kept hearing people talk about them and Jeff finally convinced me to get one in Nara. Okay it was awesome! I ended up buying another one the next day because they were so good! I tried Coca-Cola brand hot chocolate cause I thought it was interesting and it was really good. Okay Chris…I tried Sushi just for you bro! I went into it with an open mind and I can honestly say I didn’t care for it. Maybe it just wasn’t a good type but whatever I had was not a good one. But I did it just for you brotha! Then Austin and Adam got these egg based dishes with like squid and shrimp and vegetables and spices on top that were very similar to pizzas. Austin didn’t eat all of his so I cleaned his plate for him and whatever I ate was SO bomb!! WE were told by one of the Japanese girls on the ship to “Eat first and ask questions later.” Best advice I was given in Japan. It was a time for trying new things and I don’t regret any of it, even the stuff I didn’t like.

The last day in Japan was spent traveling totally independently. I left the ship at 8 a.m. with Alyssa, Amy, Natalie, and Abby and we headed towards Mount Rokko. After a subway ride, transferring to another subway, and then a bus, we arrived at the base of the Mount Rokko cable car station. It was a 10 minute ride straight up the mountain on this cable car and it was full of Japanese tourists and their families who were headed up the mountain for the day. At the top of Mount Rokko we enjoyed a scenic view of Kobe, Osaka, and the port area. It was georgeous!! We hiked around the mountain for a couple hours and explored on our own. Natalie and I hiked down into this miniature gorge type thing just cause and had some fun hiking off the beaten path. The other girls didn’t want to get dirty. We headed back down the mountain around noon and trekked back into the center of Kobe to find somewhere to grab some lunch. Abby really wanted McDonalds so we decided to try the Japanese version of McDonalds. I didn’t want to spend that much so I stuck with the 100 yen menu (about $1.10 US) and just got a basic hamburger just to compare it to an American burger. Definitely doesn’t touch a home-grilled backyard burger with cheese! Oh and the best part was the music playing in McDonalds…as we walked in they were playing Lady Antebellum…in English! Country Music in McDonalds in Japan! Hahaha classic…good to know they have good taste in music! After lunch we walked around and who did we run into?!? Adam, Austin, James, Abby, Theresa, and Nicci! They were shopping in the huge mall that we happened to be walking through. The girls were looking for boots and Adam and Austin were hungry so we separated and went to go eat with the boys. Even though we had already eaten we sat down the Adam and Austin and I am glad we did cause I got to finish off their meals for them…that’s right I’m a mooch…but hey, I’m on a budget lol. After lunch we walked around Kobe a little more and headed to the port area to walk around before betting back on the ship before On-Ship Time. None of us wanted to risk dock-time so we made sure we were back to the ship with time to spare. In the terminal there was a money-changer so we were all able to trade in our extra Yen for American Dollars which was very convenient so that we didn’t have to go to the airport or anything to change our money. And that was the end of my last day in Japan!

I mentioned some overall opinions I had about Japan in my previous Japan blog so I won’t be repetitive for those of you that read both. Leaving Japan I feel like I have seen everything that I needed too. I had priorities going into Japan and I made sure that I saw/accomplished those things. Mt. Fuji was the highlight of my Japanese adventure and something I am so glad I decided to do. I hung out with a different group of people every day in Japan and made numerous new friends. I traveled with professors and life-long learners who provided different viewpoints in certain areas that added to the experience in irreplaceable ways. I cannot begin to describe all I have learned in 5 short days. The out of classroom experiences in these countries are filled with knowledge that I couldn’t get from a textbook or classroom lecture. I will greatly miss the people in Japan and I highly recommend travelling to Japan.

I have constantly been talking about nature and seeing God’s hand evident in so many ways throughout my travels. In his book, My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers talks about using your imagination to fully experience nature. The problem is that we rarely use our imagination in the way God intended it to be used, something he refers to as a “starved imagination.” He writes “In every wind that blows, in every night and day of the year, in every sign in the sky, in every blossoming and in every withering of the earth, there is a real coming of God to us if we will simply use our starved imagination to realize it.” Wow….think about what he said for just a second. It is so easy to see God at work but how often do we simply go through life without taking time to realize it? Think about just a simple tree and imagine God creating that individual tree, from a seed, from another tree, from a seed, from another tree…etc. It is crazy!! Something as simply as a tree shows God’s grand design if you will just take your time to think about it! The trick is to deliberately turn our imaginations to God…is that so hard? Not at all!! Then why don’t we do it more?!? Chambers was on to something…by doing this we are recognizing what God has done and experiencing his creation in a new and humbling way. In Isaiah 40:26 it says “Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things.” Pretty powerful stuff huh?

As you are reading this we are sailing from Kobe, Japan to Shanghai, China. The coolest part…we are only at sea for two days!! Two days and then we will be in China?!?! That is crazy!! It’s like the exact opposite of school back home…instead of 5 days of class and 2 days of freedom, we had 5 days of freedom in Japan…then 2 days of class (1 A day and 1 B day)…then we get 8 days of freedom in China!! Ahhhhhhh that is so awesome!! Okay so as far as my upcoming blogs, I am taking a 6 day/5 night trip in China through SAS so I will actually be spending all 8 days in China. Due to this I will not have a break in the middle to blog because I will not be taking my computer on my trip with me (need to take more important things). So…I won’t be posting for a little while and then I will try and post ASAP once back on the ship. I will definitely be splitting the blog up because blogging about 8 days in China will take awhile lol…so just a heads up for you guys on the time frame.

As always I have thoroughly enjoyed hearing from you all and reading you comments. You all make me smile and laugh every time! It’s a nice taste of back home and great getting an update on all you guys!! Thank you all so much for your prayers, they are constantly felt and greatly appreciated! I am blessed to have you all in my lives; you guys are so stinkin awesome!! Hope you all enjoyed the reading. Love you guys!!

T

Yokohama/Tokyo/Mt. Fuji!

Ko-nee-chi-wa! (probably spelled that wrong haha)

So how are you guys?!?! I hope you all are doing great!! So we just left our first port in Japan, Yokohama. We are currently sailing for one day to Kobe, Japan which is in Southern Japan and very close to Osaka. Okay Japan was way cool!! Gorgeous harbor and very unique cities. I will tell you all about it…just as soon as I respond to your-all’s comments first!

Oh I guess I should explain the picture too huh? This is me in front of Mt. Fuji! I know there is a big cloud moving in at the left side of the frame so the picture isn’t just great but this one has me with it. I have a ton of other pics that are much better with just the actual mountain that you all can see this summer when I get home.

Sara – Haha sis you good! I know how you like to stress for no reason, it’s no biggie! $6,000 for Swine Week…bahaha been there! Don’t worry, it will all work itself out. I’m sure you are doing better in Bio than you think, if I remember correctly this sounds a lot like last semester and you ended with an A. Just keep your priorities straight and it will all be good. That’s exciting about your Quartz audition…and yes I will definitely be praying! And you haven’t seen Top Gun?!?!!?!? What?!?!!? Yeah you need to fix that STAT!! Chris – Dude Edmond has been nuts with the snow this year. That is crazy!! I am so jealous of your Boston trip…you will have so much fun!! (Just not as much fun as we had in New York haha) And hey I actually looked for some sushi yesterday but none was fresh so I am waiting till Kobe. I’m gunna do it just to prove you wrong brotha lol. And yes I am already starting to go food crazy! Remember after Nicaragua how we all went nuts in the Atlanta airport cause we had eaten the same thing for a week? Okay multiple that by 3 and that is my current situation on the ship haha. Dude you will be one of the first people I call when I hit Edmond so we can go get some grub!! Alex – Bristow…hmmmm…been there!!! That sucks man, on the ship my teachers are like the coolest people ever and they don’t treat us like students. I actually was with a teacher all day yesterday and we talked frequently. No man I am not getting to watch LOST so don’t ruin anything for me…I will be watching it on DVD in the fall. Dude summer will come soon enough. When I get back I am bringing a summer’s worth of fun with me and it is gunna be Epic!!!!!! Uncle John – yeah we have been hearing rumors of the pro lockout and no-cap year. That would make for some interesting situations with a lot of teams/players. Thank you so much for the Jim Elliot quote. That is awesome and will be on my mind for the remainder of the trip! Mackenzi – I’m assuming this is Mackenzi Hargrove? What up girl?!? I didn’t know you were looking into studying abroad?!?! That is so awesome! You definitely need to look into Semester at Sea…it is the best experience EVER! You would love it girl!! And thank you so much for your prayers, they are very much appreciated!! Dad and Mom – that is so awesome about the zipline, although I am skeptical that mom enjoyed flying through the air haha. That is so tight about the volcano rumbling! Maybe it will erupt!! How sick would that be?!?!

So Japan!! First of all Japan is SO modern. Like it is one big city touching one big city, complete with subways, above ground train rails, and bullet trains. Honestly except for the signs in Japanese, you could totally forget where you were and feel like you were in LA or New York. Layouts are extremely similar to any other big city which is cool but at the same time nothing really sticks out as unique to Japan; although Japan was amazingly clean. I noticed as we were driving that there was no trash on the street whatsoever, so I asked my tour guide about it. Her response was very surprising! She said that Japanese people have a common understanding that everyone cleans up after themselves. There aren’t even trashcans except in the really big touristy spots. She explained that all the people simply carry around some sort of plastic bag and they put their trash in it as it accumulates throughout the day. Then they throw it away at home at the end of the day. This was one extremely respectable characteristic of the Japanese people; in addition, the Japanese people were incredible! They always smile and nod at you as you walk by and despite a language barrier you feel like you are still having a conversation with the person because they always smile at you and have very positive body language towards us. Some spoke very broken English but again it wasn’t really a problem because if you have ever travelled you know how to get around the city despite the language barrier.

Okay so the most amusing part for me was watching the other SAS students in port. I mean we had been to Hawaii but that was still America and no one had any troubles. Now that we were in a foreign country it was very entertaining to watch people in a foreign environment. The kids who had never travelled before stuck out like a sore thumb. You had your kids who were decked out in heels, skirts, and blouses (yeah I said heels) that didn’t understand how much walking they would be doing. Like on my tour (which I will tell you about in a sec) there was a girl in heels and by the second stop she was struggling hard-core. Then you had your kids who had travelled before, they were the ones in comfortable walking shoes, jeans, and shirts with a hoodie or light coat just in case. (Japan tends to be rainy in random spurts throughout the day) Oh and watching people put on a money belt for the first time is hilarious, this one girl thought that you wore in over your shoulder like a single backpack strap. I was trying to explain to her how to like tuck it in to your waistband like a fanny pack under your pants and she was like “Well then you have to dig in your pants for your money” and I was like “Yeah that’s the point cause then no one can pick pocket you.” Just another group of things that I owe to my parents for teaching me early on! Thanks MOM and DAD!!!

Okay so day 1 in Yokohama. The ship arrived at port around 9:30 (we were late due to the storm detour we took) and we had a little welcome reception at the dock for us! I was actually awake and was able to watch as we pulled in at the last second. There was a traditional Japanese drum-line on the roof of the terminal which played for like an hour or so and they were so good!! It was a pleasant surprise to start our day. For the next 3.5 hours we went through the extremely slow process of going through Customs and Immigration. The Japanese officials were very thorough. They even screened us medically and if anyone was feverish they were not allowed on the boat. I haven’t heard of anyone that was stuck on the boat yet but that doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen. So after finally clearing customs/immigration it was actually time for my tour to start. I signed up for a Modern Tokyo City Tour. We boarded our bus with our tour guide and set off for Tokyo. It was about a 45 minute bus ride into Tokyo from the Yokohama which isn’t that far at all! Our first stop on the tour was an Imperial Garden in the center of the city. It was the spitting image of Central Park in the sense that it was this random garden in the middle of skyscrapers and the hustle and bustle of city life. The garden used to be a resort for the Emperors of Japan and there were some very cool looking statues and structures throughout various parts of the park, and apparently Clinton met with the Prime Minister of Japan several years ago on some famous wooden bridge in the park. It is supposedly a really famous picture but I had never heard of it, which honestly isn’t that surprising, I tend to tune people out when I hear them mention the name Clinton haha. The coolest part of the park for me was these two stations that were built for the sole purpose of allowing the ancient emperors to duck hunt in the park. I thought that was pretty cool to see an ancient method of something that I do regularly in the present. After the park we went to the Toyota Showroom. Okay that was way cooler than I thought it would be! They had basically every model of Toyota and Lexus on the market right now on display. It was like a high tech state fair showroom. And I say high tech because there was a test track thing that looped through the building and another one outside. We weren’t allowed to do this however due to time constraints.

The showroom was a building built into the side of a shopping complex and of course there was a McDonalds and Starbucks right outside next to the bus. Again you saw all the little American kids run into get their mochas, lattes, big-macs, and chicken nuggets. My friend Christina and I were like “Shoot we want Japanese food.” I mean c’mon, you are in Japan for crying out loud!! I’m sure the burgers and coffee were good (and I’m not saying I wouldn’t have enjoyed it) but you can get that at home!! How often are you in Japan?!?! So we decided to go into this little Japanese shop and pick some random things off the shelf to try. She got some kind of rice/pork roll wrapped in seaweed and I got a type of rice cake thing that I’m pretty sure was cooked in some kind of chicken broth or something at one point. She ate half of mine and I ate half of hers so that we could try different things. Okay both were really good. I actually liked the seaweed wrapped one better than the regular one (now that’s a sentence I thought I would never say). While I am talking about food I guess I will just go ahead and tell you what other Japanese things I ate. I had some sort of bread/pastry thing that was definitely cherry something. The best way to describe it was like a croissant/doughnut with about half the sugar. That was bomb!! Then I had these little wafer things covered in some sort of caramel milk coating, I mean I had to try something simple and snacky. A type of drink I tried was this milk tea drink that was chilled. I didn’t hate it and I guess I would drink it again if it was the only thing available but it was really the only thing I have tried so far that I didn’t really like. But I mean it’s all about trying stuff so I didn’t mind! Then for dinner one night I had this Japanese marinated Chicken that was very good…I also tried some Avacado Sashimi that I thought was going to be sushi but turned into just being a lumpy form of guacamole. Oh and these like ginger gummy candies and they were very interesting to say the least. Because of my tours and what I did in Yokohama I didn’t have too much time to eat meals so I was just trying to grab as much as I could along the way. But in Kobe I will have more free time and will get to eat more traditional food and hopefully sushi…just for you Chris ;).

Okay so the rest of my Tokyo tour. After the Toyota building we headed to the electronics district!! This place was mind-blowing!! They had everything. Dad I saw a camera lens you would have peed your pants if you had seen. It was $9000 US dollars and massive!! So for a mental image…think of a city block…20+ story building…all floors just decked out with everything electronics. Mike all I could think of was you walking around and finding the best parts to make the best computer ever. You would have loved it man! From high tech refrigerators, to home theater systems, to state of the art massage chairs (which we got in trouble for sitting in and taking pictures), this place had everything. We were also told by our tour guide that this is where the CIA comes to buy the pieces to their listening devices and transponders. Really really cool to think about huh?!?! Oh and while I was walking around, a guy totally tried to pick-pocket me. He did the whole, “bump into me on accident” routine. I totally felt his hand in my back pocket for a split second. Too bad for him that nothing was there but my big booty!! Money belt…boom!! So after the electronic capital of the planet, we headed to our last stop of the evening, Tokyo Tower!! I can’t remember exactly how high it was but it is the highest building in Tokyo, but ironically not the tallest tower in Japan. Anyways we got to ride up to the observation decks which were around 175 meters up. Some people were freaking out cause the elevator was glass and they did not like the fact that they could see out lol. On the observation deck there was this section of the floor that was glass so you could stand on it and just look straight down to the pavement below. It was intense!! Only about half the kids were brave enough to stand on the glass but it wasn’t scary at all. There was like 8 of us on it at one point and nothing happened. The coolest part of the tower was the views of Tokyo at night! Altho a lot of the pictures aren’t the best because of the windows in the way, but it was still awesome!! After Tokyo Tower our tour of Tokyo was finished for the night. The bus took us back to the ship in Yokohama and from there, Sarah, Natalie, Abby, and I decided to venture into the heart of Yokohama for the night and try our luck at finding an internet café. It was like 9:30 when we left the port area which was fine because the subways run in Yokohama until after midnight. We rode the subway a couple stops into the heart of the city and were able to find an internet café that Sarah had researched beforehand. The subways in Yokohama were amazingly simple, nothing compared to Barcelona or Russia. They made the Japanese Subway seem like it was in English, but it was fun riding the subway super late at night. Just another side of city life that not everyone get to enjoy…those are the experiences that I really enjoy. Internet Cafes in Japan are a really big deal and are a subculture of their own. All the computers are their own personal cubicles and it is common for people to spend the night in the café. We poked around for an hour taking advantage of amazingly cheap internet compared to the ship. I caught up on my OU email which didn’t take long and then caught up on the sports world news. I saw the video of Shaun White winning gold at Winter X a week or so ago and that run was SICK!! 95.whatever on run 1…who does that?!?!?! And that one hit on one of the middle tricks was so huge…ahhhhh it was really nice to get to watch that cause I was bummed I missed it. Oh and I also saw his wipeout video and that just makes winning that much more impressive after a fall like that in practice. He is a man among boys when it comes to snowboarding. USA all the way baby!! I also did some research about possible Brazil trips because I don’t really have anything planned and I wanted to use the good internet search engines to find out what I could possibly do. So after working on the internet for a little less than an hour we walked around Yokohama for a bit and then caught the subway back to the port area. We walked around the city some more and then decided to call it a night cause 3 of us had 7 a.m. trips the next morning that we had to wake up for. And that was what we did day 1 in Japan!!

Day 2 in Yokohama was just as crazy as the second! As I mentioned above, I left the dock at 7 a.m. for my trip to Mt. Fuji and Hakone. The bus ride was 2 hours Northeast of Yokohama in the opposite direction as Tokyo. So many people signed up for this tour that we had two charter buses. The majority of my bus (like everyone but 3 of us) slept most of the way there. When we got to Mt. Fuji, it was absolutely amazing! The tour guide had told us that the majority of the time you can’t see the mountain because it is always so cloudy or overcast, but it was clear except for one little cloud at the top which actually made for some really cool pictures!! I was sitting right behind the dean of students on our bus and she was telling us that this was her 3rd time to do this exact same SAS trip and the only time she had ever seen Mt. Fuji except being on it in a cloud. We got so lucky and it was awesome! Mt. Fuji was breathtaking to look at!! I have seen my fair share of mountains before but Mt. Fuji was one of kind for sure. It is a volcanic mountain so it literally stands off by itself which is a big part of its grandeur. The top chunk of the mountain was covered in snow and it was literally like looking at a postcard the whole time. We made a stop at the visitor’s center upon arrival and everyone was hurrying to take pictures of the mountain while we could still see it. There was a nice little second story balcony for picture taking and everyone went straight there (everyone except those with tiny bladders). After about 5 minutes of picture taking the clouds moved in and covered up the mountain almost instantly. We really did get lucky getting to see as much of it as we did because it was covered up within about 20 seconds once the clouds rolled in. Don’t worry dad, I got plenty of quality pics while I had the chance. After poking around the visitor center for awhile we headed into the national park and started our ride up the mountain. Like I said it was cloudy so the views at the various stations were hindered but we didn’t care cause we all realized how lucky we had been. The temperature got significantly colder with every station we went up the mountain and I felt sorry for my friend Cara because all she had on was a really thin T-Shirt. She said she had a hoddie in the bus, but for some reason she didn’t have it on and she was not happy at the 4th station (the highest point we are allowed to go in the winter season).

After driving around the various stations in Mt. Fuji National Park, we headed down the mountain and set off for Hakone. Hakone is a region of Japan near the Japanese Alps that is a more rural area of Tokyo. Although rural in Tokyo is definitely not what I would consider rural but whatever. In Hakone there are 5 big naturally formed lakes that dot the region and the big attraction for the Japanese are the hot springs that are abundant in the region. We didn’t get to see any of the hot springs in Hakone because it wasn’t part of our tour but our guide told us all about them. She also explained that a lot of the bigger corporations and extremely wealthy individuals had vacation houses in Hakone. Similar to American beach or mountain houses as far as vacation houses go. In Hakone our first stop was one of the lakes which we got to take a boat ride across. The lake was incredibly gorgeous and all the low level clouds just added to the incredible landscape around the lake and surrounding hill country. The boat ride took us to the opposite side of the lake where we transferred to a cable car (really big gondola) that took us up the highest mountain in the Japanese Alps. Okay I have ridden in ski gondolas before that seat like 6-8 people. Yeah we crammed over 100 in this gondola!! Actually it made for a really cool pic, but anyways, it was crazy with so many of us in this one cable car. And some people we had to convince to do it cause they were scared of heights. The cable ride was 7 minutes, although it got really awesome about halfway up. We started going into the clouds and all of the sudden visibility just dropped. We were literally in the clouds. I have never been in weather like this before and it was so intense, although the people that we had talked into riding with us were not happy that they couldn’t see the ground, let alone 5 feet in any direction. All the sudden we arrived at the station at the top, I say all of the sudden because we didn’t even see the station but rather felt the cable car enter the station. We all clambered out of the car and realized that the “scenic views” were not gunna happen. I mean it was just white cloud all around us! About half the group started having a little pitty-party in the station and saying that “this was the worst idea ever, we can’t even see anything.” I was like “shoot let’s go explore!” So the brave people went outside and started walking around. There were marked paths but the trick was remembering when to take a left or right because if you forgot you were screwed. We counted off the visibility so that we could tell you guys back home. My friend Natalie stood in one spot and I started pacing off the yards and she yelled when she couldn’t see me at all anymore. Guess how far it was…23 yards!! I am not exaggerating at all…at 23 yards you couldn’t see anything…just a white wall!! So we kept walking down various paths kinda just moving as a group when we happened to come across a Shinto Shrine. It was cool cause it all the sudden appeared out of the cloud, seriously like a movie. Really dense cloud/fog and things start materializing out of it. We took some pics (again really cool with the fog/cloud cover) and then started to make our way back to the cable car station. By this time all the girls’ hair was soaking wet. It looked like Natalie, Abby, and Cara had all just stepped right out of the shower. I had a hat on so just the sides of my hair were wet. As we were hiking back we noticed that the cloud had gotten thicker, so we decided to pace it off again to see what the visibility was now. Ok guess what it had dropped to…14 yards!!!!!!!! 14!?!?!?! That is like nothing! Ahhhhh it was soooooooo cool!! We made it back to the cable car station and rode back down the mountain to meet up with the rest of the group who didn’t stay at the top cause they were “unhappy and grouchy.” Well they missed out and we had a great time!! After a couple more minutes of walking around the little town we boarded the buses and headed back to Yokohama. We had worked our way farther north throughout the day so the ride home took 2.5 hours. After walking/hiking/picture taking all day most of the students crashed again on the way home. My ADD wouldn’t let this happen though so I enjoyed the scenery and had a nice conversation with my Politics professor about Moab, Utah and all the cool stuff to do. He and his wife live in Moab and he was very impressed that I had heard of Moab, let alone been there. Like I told Alex, my professors on this trip are so cool and treat us like equals so it is so easy/natural to talk to them. We got back to Yokohama around 5:30ish and some of us decided to head into town to grab some Japanese food for dinner. I tried the chicken and avocado sashimi (described above in the food section). The girls I was with decided to do some shopping before heading back to the ship and I didn’t really want to shop so I headed back to the ship to take a run before we had to be back on the ship to leave. The terminal that our ship was docked on was huge and the roof was a scenic boardwalk type area with random grass patches and a lot of wood planking which a lot of the locals used as a running track. I haven’t gotten to run in like 5 weeks because of the blizzard that hit Edmond before I left and then there is nowhere to run on the ship, and I wanted to run in Japan!! I just ran on the roof of the terminal in laps and had an amazing view of the harbor at night. One of the best runs I have ever taken! It was awesome cause the city was all lit up and it was a clear night (which again was really rare for Japan). After I ran a couple miles I returned downstairs to get on the ship and got back on for the night. And that concluded day 2 in Yokohama!

After seeing Mt. Fuji and experiencing something so magnificent, it gives a whole new meaning when scripture talks about mountains bowing down and rejoicing to Christ. It is humbling to see such a unique and breathtaking piece of God’s creation in such a setting. God’s creation is so incredible and I was blessed to experience it. Then being all alone on the top of the mountain in Hakone, (another example of such isolation, just like the cave in Hilo) but at the same time knowing that God is always with me and nothing can separate me from Him. He is with me always and there is no greater feeling in the world than having Him on my side.

I hope you all are doing well and I miss each and every one of you! You are in my prayers and I greatly appreciate your prayers as I go through this adventure.

In His holy and majestic name!

T

Super Bowl on a Monday

Whatsup everybody?!?!?!

As you are reading this we are currently 13 hours ahead of you all back in Oklahoma. Yeah I said ahead…like in the future…weird huh?!?! (If this doesn’t make sense read my last blog about the International Date Line and it will all make sense)

The picture above is one from my first night in Hilo. This is the group of 10 of us that hung out all night and hitchhiked. Freaking awesome group of people to chill with! On the back from left to right you have Kaylee, Grace, Me, and Scott. Middle row from left to right is Rorrie, Courtney, Cosset, Eric, and Emily. Then all alone in front is Sarah. Like I said we all hung out all night and if you wanna read about it check out my Hilo blog and I went through the night in detail. Great night and great group of people!!

Shout Outs!!! (as called by Ms. Kayla Willis herself): Alex – dude you know you are gunna come to OU…it will be one of the best decisions of your life!!!! And yeah everyone at OU calls in “The Caf.” So you were right. Zumba is awesome!! Like I really think that I will miss it after the ship haha. I don’t think there are videos but if I get my hands on one then I will totally snag it to show you when I get back!! Thanx for your prayers brotha…can’t wait to get back and chill with you this summer!! Kayla – You always get a “Shout Out” if you comment, or if I have an experience where something relates to someone…so here is your Shout Out!! Zumba is so Tight!! And since the boat rocks, we have to keep our balance a lot better which works out our abbs and calves even more. I will pass on the skirt though…although me and my friend Austin totally get into it…duh!! It’s way more fun if you don’t care and just do it! No promises on cage diving tho…you never know what could happen lol. Uncle John – oh Uncle John. The score speaks for itself…although I do believe I predicted the outcome perfectly. For more Super Bowl talk just continue reading please. As far as “Smith Intensity” in card games goes, definitely keeping it intense! I mean my parents raised me that way so I gotta make momma proud and dominate!! Thank you for your prayers Uncle John!! They are greatly appreciated!! Love you guys!!

The other night we had our first Sea Party. I guess I should probably explain what a “sea” is first though huh? Basically all the students are split up into like 8 or 9 “seas” based on where we live on the ship. For example my section of the ship is the Mediterranean Sea. We have a Living Learning Coordinator assigned to each sea and mine is really cool! She has actually sailed on one of the summer voyages with SAS so she is also experienced with how everything works. So anyway we had our first social last night and decided to rent out the big union room (biggest room on ship) and watch a movie and get free cookies and popcorn. Sidenote - I don’t even like popcorn but it was something new so I ended up eating a whole bag haha. They actually picked the movie before I showed up and they picked a great one. Top Gun baby!!!!!!! Ahhhh such a good movie!! I sat by one of my friends and she had never seen it before and I was like “What?!?! Who hasn’t seen Top Gun?!?!?” At the end of the movie she was like “How have I never seen this?!? That was so good!!” Great movie and a great first Sea Party, just another group of people that is easy to socialize with and get to know!

Since the last time I wrote you all the sea have definitely gotten rougher. Apparently we detoured around another storm so that we wouldn’t get clobbered. I think it’s funny that our voyage theme is “sustainability” yet we have detoured hundreds of miles out of the way twice now, wasting who knows how much fuel, all so some city slickers don’t get rocked around. Ironic? I think so!! Hahahaha I really don’t care either way, it’s just funny that they are like “be sustainable” and everything we do has this central theme, all while in fact we are being “unsustainable.” Oh well the point is the seas are back to knocking us around again. Honestly I don’t even notice it anymore. It’s just second nature to walk around holding onto something and you don’t even notice it at night. They told us the other day that the waves were over 15 feet high and that is like what the little ones are. The really big ones that happen a couple times a minute are easily double that. Between Ensenada and Hawaii the waves were hitting us from the sides so we were rocking side to side, now we are going head on into them so it is more like turbulence on an airplane while constantly going up and down. So it’s definitely a different type of rocking. Honestly we have been amazingly lucky with the weather so far and there is no reason at all to complain. It is starting to get chilly now so there aren’t very many people in shorts anymore.

The other day for lunch they served French fries and you should have seen people devouring those fries. It literally was like pigs feasting!! After the same basic stuff over and over again it was an awesome surprise. They also served these like thicker hot dog style things that were delicious. Definitely the closest thing to American food we all had eaten in awhile and it was sooooooo good!! Ahhhhh French fries!!!!!

As far is school work goes everything is pretty routine at this point, a lot of reading and basic college homework/studying but nothing too too hard. We actually just took our first Global Studies test last night and I hope I did well. It was weird cause everyone on the ship had the same test to study for so the night before was pretty dead on the ship. I don’t really care for Global Studies cause it is way boring and I get too easily distracted. My other classes are AMAZING tho! Marine Biology is my favorite class because the material is the most interesting and I don’t mind doing the reading and stuff. My other favorite class is Sociology of Global Travel and my teacher might just be the coolest teacher in the world. Her name is Audrey and she is so TIGHT!! The class is very engaging and she will always like stop and chat if she sees us around the ship. She always says that she like chilling with the students because we offer differing perspectives and are more engaging. My American Politics teacher is cool too but I just get really bored in class. The teacher is tight though and interesting to talk to outside of class. I have never had teachers like these 3 before and it just adds to this once in a lifetime experience. Like I said I just took my first test and I don’t know how I did, but the cool thing is all the stuff I have learned. I never pull information out of a lecture like I am here. It’s just a totally different environment. Some stuff is small and totally random but it is genuinely interesting information.

This morning we got to watch the Super Bowl!! Yeah I said in the morning. Because we are 13 hours ahead of you all, like I said earlier, the game started at 8:30 in the morning for us. On a Monday!!!! How crazy is that?!?! I watched the Super Bowl on Monday morning!!! Haha one more thing to add to the list of weird things I have done. They streamed the game into the Union and since it took up so much bandwidth they didn’t let anyone else on the internet during the game. The Union was packed!! All the seats were full and there were people sitting on the floor and in the aisles. It was so awesome! And everyone was like “Yes football!” Very, very cool atmosphere. Oh and by the way…I picked the Saints by 14 in an earlier blog. Boom I was right!! Sorry Uncle John...better luck next year!

By the time you all are reading this I will be in Japan!! The whole ship is freaking stoked to finally get off the ship after 11 days sailing from Hawaii and it is Japan!! We are so close we can taste it!! Ahhhhhh it’s gunna be so awesome!!

Love you all and hope everything is going great!!

T