The Quietness of the Ancient, the Modern, and the Eternal

I sit in my cabin tonight, taking a few moments that I have free to write my next blog. Today is a B day (we have A days and B days on the ship), and all of my meetings are scheduled on this day. So it has been work, work, work since this morning. The Ambassadors Ball (the gala at the end of the voyage) is two weeks away, and I pray that my decorations will make it on in Honolulu. The Ambassadors (Intercultural, Ball, and Goodwill) are busy working on their projects as well as the massive amount of schoolwork and studying they need to accomplish before Hawai’i. Stress levels have certainly gone up, and Kenton (my cabin steward) works late into the night, as students are not vacating their rooms during the day to let him clean. Tonight we are having an Open Mic Night, and I will miss it yet again due to Alcohol Service. I’ve been told that though the number of students drinking on Deck 7 has increased, the mood is substantially subdued.

Thanksgiving Day and our day in Honolulu is three days away. So If I do not get to speak to you on Thursday, have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with your family and friends. The ship has been moving incredibly slowly. Generally, the ship is moving at 24 knots. At this time we are moving at 14 knots, if feels like we’re just floating in the water. We are incredibly close to Hawai’i but since students are required to have a certain number of days sailing, the ship has shut down an engine and is moving slower. It’s also incredibly expensive to dock in Honolulu. Alas, we will only have one day in Honolulu.

Luckily, Japan was only a few days ago, and it still sits fresh in my mind. It was Brooke C.’s favorite port, and I imagine, it would be my dad’s. It was easily the cleanest, calmest, and quietest country we have been to on this voyage. When Brooke C. and I were returning from Tokyo we ran into Cindy and Amy H. Brooke C. declared that Japan was the cleanest country and pressed Cindy and Amy H. if they had even seen a piece of trash. Cindy said that she had seen one piece of trash on the street. Brooke C. stated that it was not in fact a piece of trash, but rather a person dressed up like trash for Halloween. Brooke really, really liked Japan.

Japan has an incredible essence. There is a sense of calm in the air, and the soil and earth feel old. Yet, it is bustling and modern, with bullet trains, industry, and the latest fashions. But the calmness permeates through this reality as well. The trains are silent, inside and out. There are no horns honking. As I crossed the street in Kobe, it was silent; this huge city was silent. At the “Tokyo Time Square”, with its gigantic TV billboard screens, multiple intersections, and eerie crossing of hundreds of people from all sides it was again: silent. This silence, in both it calmness and its strength wound its way through my time in Japan.

The disembarkation in Kobe was a process. When we left Shanghai, we were told that disembarkation in Kobe was going to be just short of a nightmare. Every single person on the ship had to have their temperatures taken before we could disembark, and this would begin at 8:00am. We sent out notes saying that the LLCs would knock on their residents’ doors at 7:45am and physically give them their temperature. I knocked on my doors and handed them out. If I could not see the resident because they were in the bathroom, I would have them holler at me.

When my sea was called we marched up to the Faculty/Staff Lounge and walked in one door, passed what looked like a video camera, and then out the door. What we found out later was that it was an infrared camera, and that was how they took our temperatures. “How very Japanese,” a student said. After waiting about an hour, the Voice came over the PA system: “Will the LLCs proceed to the terminal.” I headed out to the terminal to pass out passports. Entry into Japan consisted of inspection of the passport, picture taking, and having the fingerprints of the index fingers taken. The process unfortunately lasted until 1pm.

I went through the process and headed to meet Cindy and Brooke for our adventure for the day. Fr. Michele, a friend of Cindy’s was going to take us on a picnic up in the mountains, at a temple. Fr. Michele is a small, elderly man (I think in his 80s) who has had a Catholic ministry in Japan for 40 years. He mainly works with sailors who port in Kobe. We piled into his Toyota Prius, and drove through Kobe up into the mountains. It was the first time we could really see autumn. The mountains were bright red, orange, yellow, and green. It was extraordinary to see the changing leaves, and it reminded me of fall in New England. The sun sets early now, and even though it was only 2pm, the sun was already being its decent.

We soon escaped the city, and settled into the tranquil countryside. Traditional homes with hatched roofs still dotted the hills. We turned onto a side street (roads are very small in Japan, even with their tiny cars), and pulled alongside a Buddhist temple. The grounds were immaculate, and the pagodas were simple wooden structures but impressive in size. We sat in a little alcove, to nosh. Fr. Michele had brought a lovely feast. I cut baguettes, and we spread cheese, jam, and pate on the slices. Fr. Michele also brought a dark bread that had figs and walnuts baked in. Cindy cut up persimmons and oranges. We sipped on Japanese beer. We laughed, and chatted, and thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon. It’s amazing what good food and good company can do. We finished the feast with some cake, jam, and jasmine tea.

After our meal, we walked around the temple area, first heading to the red pagoda. It was framed by trees whose leaves were now red and yellow. It was the definition of picturesque. We then wandered around the trees and bamboo; gazed at the serenity of the nearby pond; and admired in wonder at the shrines built into rocks. The day was calming, peaceful, and quite possibly the best day I’ve had in any port. As we left the temple, I went to the large bell and rang it. It reverberated, and I could feel a new sense of peace wash over me. We piled back into Fr. Michele’s little care (but not before he gave us gifts!) and headed back to the ship. We took a quick detour to visit the Catholic church where Fr. Michele ministers, and it reflected the Japanese culture with its clean lines and minimalist aesthetic.

Brooke and I met up with Nikki and Becca for dinner. My resident Kedren joined us as we headed out for cheap sushi. We passed an Indian restaurant, and had to pull Nikki away. We enjoyed a quick dinner as well as the quiet of the city. Kobe is a vibrant city with many people, but the streets were silent, not a horn blowing, not a loud conversation. The city was silent.

The next day emerged, and it was planned to be a great adventure, though it did not turn out to be I did not have any yen, and was borrowing, trying to find an ATM desperately. What I later learned is that I should have had some yen on my to begin with (if you are doing SAS there is a great service that allows you to have about $25 US in the local currency, it helps to have at least for the first day). Additionally, it might be a good idea to change money. All of which I did not do. So I borrowed money from Nikki. The two of us decided to head up to the public baths of Mt. Rokko. We had to take the subway to a train station (a woman in a beautiful kimono helped us), then to a bus, then to a funicular, then to another bus, that would take us to the cable car, that would finally make it to the top of the mountain. Then of course we would have to pay for the bath. We got as far as the cable car, and ran out of money. We had enough if we left there and headed back to the ship. Nikki was not happy. I finally was able to change money, and so we went and had Indian food to soothe Nikki’s soul. We departed Kobe that night: to much fanfare. A jazz band set up and played standards, and loads of people stood outside the terminal to wave goodbye. It was magic. And as we sailed away, you could still hear the shrill of the trumpet.

Earlier I wrote about the sail day between ports in Japan so I will jump ahead to the day we landed in Yokohama. Brooke and I had decided we were heading to Tokyo. So we alighted as quickly as possible from the ship and headed to the post office for stamps. The train station was located right across, so we purchased our tickets and grabbed the next train for Tokyo. The local train from Yokohama is a 55-minute ride to Tokyo. Like many cities in the US, there was little break from city life from Yokohama (i.e. no countryside). We arrived in Tokyo and grabbed the metro to the old city of Tokyo. Brooke and I grabbed a quick lunch of miso soup, shashimi and sushi. It was heavenly. What I enjoy about sushi in Japan is that they put the wasabi in the sushi, unlike in the US. Brooke liked that in Japan in restaurants they bring a “playpen” for your purse/bag, so that it doesn’t sit on the floor and get dirty. The Japanese are very clean.

We walked around Old Tokyo, Asakusa, first through the many stalls that housed trinkets, magnets, postcards, and the ubiquitous cell phone trinket. I have to also say that like our dollar stores in the US, the Japanese have their 100-yen stores, which is about $1. After a few small purchases, we headed towards the pagodas. We stopped to receive our fortunes. We slipped in a 100-yen coin in a slot, shook a metal canister until a stick popped out. On the stick was a character. You then look for the character on the outside of small drawers. When you find your character, you open the drawer and draw your fortune. If you have a negative fortune, you can tie the fortune on a metal wire and it negates it. Luckily mine was positive. I then washed my hands with some holy water, wafted incense into my face, and rubbed the Buddha’s head, shoulders, arms, and knees.

As we entered the pagoda we saw a mother and her young daughter dressed in gorgeous kimonos. We asked to take a picture and they graciously accepted. Apparently, at some (ages 3 and 9) it is lucky to go to temple, so many young children were dressed up in traditional clothes at temple. We wandered around a bit more, and then decided to go grab some dinner at the Wolfgang Puck express, where I had a panini and French-fries it was wonderful.

We then decided to look at high fashion. We walked around Issey Miyake, Prada, Cartier, Theory, Dior, Burberry, Chanel, etc. In another showing of Japanese politeness when we went to Cartier, they pulled out a $90k ring for us to look at. Incredible. After admiring the luxurious fabrics we went and had some tea and cake at French café (the Japanese have great French cafés and had the best desserts on this voyage so far). It was fun to just sit, relax, and chat. Outside of the incredible chocolate cake and the tea with hot milk (an aside, why is it we are the only country that serves coffee, tea, etc. with cold milk? Every country I have been to on three continents have served my drinks with steamed milk. This is my new issue and I will be fighting for justice on this point!) the great thing about this café was the toilet. When I sat down I realized that it had heated seats. I then saw that there were buttons for music, spray, bidet, blower, and flush. I waited for it to light up. It was another great experience, and again very Japanese. We walked around a bit, enjoy the Top Shop and H&M and then headed to the Tokyo Times Square: Shibuya. If you have seen “Lost in Translation” this is the area with the brontosaurus. Shibuya is this great center of stores and buildings. It is a circular intersection, and people and cars moved orderly, and again, with only the slightest of sound. Brooke and I enjoyed a glass of wine, before we made our way home. We joined the throngs of Japanese workers at 11pm (and an elderly man in traditional dress and a fox stole) on our ride back to Yokohama.

The terminal, which could double as a skate park, was not open, so Brooke and I met up with Cindy and Amy H. and found our way through the parking lot to the opening for us. I went to bed serene and a little tired from the long walks.

Not having a real plan for the next day, I ran into Garrett at breakfast and we decided to hang out in the park reading and writing post cards. Yokohama has a long stretch of park by the port that is again quiet and serene. Fountains populate the park in the shapes of serpents, frogs, and turtles. We sat down and read and wrote, and talked about life, love, and happiness. The wind picked up and shook the leaves from their branches and spun around us. It was a perfect fall day. It was one of those days you remember having one of those lifetime talks. It was sweet and heartbreaking at the same time. Time as always slipped away as we chatted. We hurried to have some tea and cake (Japan has many cake sets that come with a piece of cake and hot beverage). Garrett told me of a giant spider he saw in the park. I asked if it was furry like a tarantula, and he said it was black and sleek. To which I responded, “How very Japanese.” We headed back to the ship to start the process of getting people on the ship again. It was quick and easy.

All right, time to work the desk.