Konnichiwa!

Ok... wow, there's a lot for me to catch up on!!! I'm gonna try my best to go into as much detail as I possible can, but seriously, I've never done so many things in the span of 3 days in my entire life!!! Bear with me...

So the first day, the 9th, I stayed around Yokohama. Right when I got off the ship I had to find a travel agency, because I've been trying to book trains for China a little ahead of time, because we'll be there traveling next and it's the Chinese New Year so it'll be crazy busy, but the travel agent of course didn't speak any English whatsoever... go figure. Found an internet cafe after that to see if I could book the tickets online instead, but failure again!!! I really hope we'll be okay when we get there, because my group and I have already passed in papers saying we won't be back on the ship between Shanghai and Hong Kong. Just praying things will work out somehow... but anyways, later that afternoon we checked out China Town which was really cool, just picture any other China Town you've ever been to in major cities in the US, but bigger and better!!! Haha. Just endless stores and vendors and lots of traditional decorations and lights. After that I went back to the ship, met up with some more friends and headed back downtown to find a karaoke bar hahaha which we were succesfull in doing so... they are everywhere!!! It was out of control... such a fun night!!! There were 6 of us and we got to have our own private room, it was such an amazing way to spend our first night in Japan! Didn't get back to the ship 'til early in the morning, barely got any sleep, yada, yada, yada.

Second day woke up really early and headed right to Tokyo! Our mission was to find the fish market, which we did after hours of searching haha!! It was quite the adventure. There we got to have a traditional Japanese lunch with sushi, miso soup and green tea, amoung many other things. After that we took a riverboat to "old" Tokyo where we ran into a huge outdoor market and Buddhist shrine. That took us a couple hours to walk completely through then finally for what we all had been waiting for all day, we headed to Shibuya crossing which is at the heart of downtown Tokyo, like Times Square in NYC. Words can't even describe how crazy and how amazing this was! We did some more walking, window shopping, food tasting, pretty much what we did all day LOL. I'm gonna try to put a few pictures up in a couple days so I can show you guys. After a couple hours of exploring we went on yet another adventure to find our hotel. At this point we pretty much have figured out the Tokyo subway system, well sorta haha, which is the biggest subway system in the ENTIRE world. CRAZINESS is the only way to describe it... I've never seen so many people in my entire life in one place. A great example: the bus we took to get to Tokyo in the beginning of the day was an experience I'll never forget. Let's just say that I felt like a fly squished up againist a window, which is how crowded it was. There was a guy pretty much designated to cram and push people into the tain until there was absolutely no more room... So, the hotel we stayed at was actually one of those capsule inns, where you have your own cubicle space pretty much as your room. It was surprisingly comfortable! They also had these public hot baths where I soaked in before I went to bed... it was definitely needed. I have never been so sore in my entire life from walking around all day...

The people here are really funny and quite comical because it seems like most of them have never seen actual Americans before, so we got stopped a lot on the streets to get our pictures taken and talked too, but again, no English... haha. It was great! Every single Japanese person that we bothered to ask for directions and what not were super friendly though!!! They are all about helping and making sure that you're okay... they are great people. Random thought... but vending machines here are EVERYWHERE and you can even get HOT drinks out of them too... coolest thing ever! Also Japan is the cleanist place I've ever seen... it makes us Americans look bad!!! Oh and got to have my first encounter with squatting toliets... haha. This list goes on...

Right now I'm on Mount Koya, in this town called Koyasan. It has been a huge relief after being in Tokyo, because it's the complete opposite. Just picture this town, high up in the mountains, nothing but rolling, misty hills, thick forest and vegetation and not very many people. It's been a good change of pace... definitely the relaxation factor I've been needing. It is also by far the COOLEST place I've ever been to. Hawaii was beautiful, but this place, is just so different and oriental and mysterious. I've never seen anything like it ever before. We had to take a cable car up this mountain to get to this town where I'm at right now... pretty cool huh? It's been raining though ever since we've gotten here and it's cold, but the rain almost gives it a special touch. We're staying, believe it or not, at this Buddhist monastery with monks. At night it serves as an inn for travelers. We get to sleep in traditional rooms... mats on the floor, sliding screen doors, leave your slippers outside... hoping you can picture this! I'm so glad we decided to stay here, it's been a cultural experience for sure! We got to eat this dinner that was prepared for us by the monks which was incredible!!! Also very traditional... wore robes to it and sat indian style on the floor with trays in front of us, chop sticks, the whole 9 yards! Just really amazing overall. We wake up early tomorrow morning to attend a praying ceremony and fire ceremony with the monks and also get served breakfast. We'll be leaving after that and I will be heading to Hiroshima, which we found out we have time to do, so I'm really looking forward to that!!!

There's just so much I could ramble on about, but I'll leave it at this for now! I need to get some serious rest... Arigato!