arigato gozaimasu, part 1

After leaving Hawaii, I was slightly worried. If every port was like Hawaii, I was going to have a good trip.

If every port is like Japan, then truly, this will be the most incredible experience of my life.

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I traveled with three girls from Semester at Sea. Myself, Dawn, Shelby, and Francesca. I had only really known Dawn before this adventure, and now the four of us are a team, with our own catchphrases and inside jokes. We worked together like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I actually just returned from our first mini-reunion as I write this.

Dawn had a friend in Tokyo, as they had gone to church together in Ohio growing up. We met Micheal on our first day in Tokyo - after a hilarious game of "Spot the White Guy" in Tokyo Station - he's an American who wishes he was Japanese, studying Japanese, aboard in Tokyo in his final year. To prove how quickly traveling builds friendship, by the time we said goodbye, the four of us called him "Mom". As his exams for the semester just finished, when we told him we were going to Kyoto and Kobe after Tokyo, he agreed to come along. Conversationally fluent in Japanese, his presence was greatly welcomed. He winced at our butchering of the language, corrected our faux-pases, and just generally educated us as to the benefits of living in Japan (there are many). Sarcastic ninety percent of the time (unfortunate, as he explained, because sarcasm is nonexistent in Japan), he was also always ready with a quick retort and eye roll at our excited antics. 

I painstakingly copied out Japanese kanji for 'thank you' in pencil crayon for a card for him last night. It's so strange to think that I am now friends with a guy from Ohio, who wants to live in Japan for the rest of his life, who I might never, ever see again.

Here is Team Tokyo's "boy band" album cover photo.

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I feel like it is pointless to attempt to describe every single thing we did over the past 6 days. I look through the 900ish photos I took, the scribbled notes in my journal, and realize that I will need a significant amount of time to process Japan. Unfortunately, I have two days.

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I have never felt comfortable in cities. They are often loud, noisy, unclean, and so unlike the small towns I was born and raised in, places where you can hear yourself think and see the stars at night.

Regardless, I loved Tokyo. It is a city that feels like an alternate world, lit by neon lights and vending machines. It's insanely clean, due to an odd lack of garbage cans. The subway is user-friendly, even when slightly tipsy after a night of karaoke. The back alleys we found ourselves wandering down inspired adventure rather than fright.

I feel as if the bright lights of Shibuya and Akihbara coloured my skin like a summer sun ray and I am only now basking in the after-glow.

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I am happy to share that I found my appetite in Japan. The money we spent on food I would spend a hundred times over without hesitation. I decided, on my first unfamiliar meal being put in front of me, that I would eat everything without question. This decision paid off. We could barely walk a block without Micheal saying, "You haven't lived if you haven't eaten ____. We have to stop." Thanks to him, we ate cheaply but well. My first ever sushi, fried octopus, red bean paste pastries, green tea ice cream, udeo, ramen, the list feels endless. My only issue was my lack of experience with chopsticks - every meal I felt like I had to have a refresher lesson, meaning I ate twice as slowly as everyone else.

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I saw temples in Kyoto five times older than my country. Their beauty is indescribable. I was slightly disappointed that my habit for reading informative plaques was slightly more difficult when the language was different, but that didn't stop me from learning.

We walked the paths of emperors, drank wish-granting water, bathed as they did thousands of years ago and still do (I have two categories of friends now- those I have seen naked, and those I have not), gazed at mist-toped mountains. 

Also, we fed monkeys.

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I feel like there is so much more. But I have class tomorrow, for which I have to read three acts of Hamlet and rehearse a scene.

More to come, hopefully. For now, sleep is welcome, although when I close my eyes, I will likely still see the luminous country that is Japan.