Sake, Steak and Sumo's

What a storm! We just lived through 25-35 foot swells for the past two ish days! After sailing in the open sea’s for roughly ten days straight we finally arrived to Yokohama. Right as we arrived, we had no time at all to see the city; we went straight to the metro and made our way into Tokyo to make it in time for the Sumo World Championship. Talk about a language barrier from hell. The only words I knew where Konichiwa (hello) shumi masen (excuse me) aregato (thank you) and that got us nowhere! Figuring out the metro when no one knows English was quite the challenge but once we got the hang of it, we navigated Tokyo like we owned the place. Food was absolutely amazing everywhere we went to eat, although everything we ate was nowhere near being authentic! After arriving at a new restaurant every meal we figure it’s all Japanese but no, its Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai food, and the everyday street food that all of us Americans are so accustomed to!

The sumo championship was amazing; we saw the last six fights and stayed for the award ceremony, which seemed to have lasted for ages! For someone who just won the super bowl of his sport, this man maintained composure and showed no excitement at all. He was given roughly 20-25 trophies which some weren’t even trophies! He was handed statues of cow’s, corona beer pictures, pots and pans…pretty much the usual household utensils. The fight was inconveniently located, as we had to go from one end of Tokyo to the other side in less than 30 minutes to make it on time for the final match. There were six of us running down the narrow halls of the Tokyo metro making the united stated look like shit. We were being culturally insensitive as we pushed people out of the way and screamed franticly! I’m sure some of these Japanese citizens didn’t think very highly of us after their brief encounter with SAS kids. We went out for dinner searching for sushi and ended up eating Chinese food in japan, pretty much pre-gamed for what was to come. Great food, although we ate like a traditional family with the spinning glass at the center of the table. Food was absolutely delicious, loved the people I was with and the times we had. We woke up the next morning and split up into groups, some went shopping in Shibuya, which has the busiest crosswalk in the world and also the shopping attractions. 

After the fight we had to go all the way back where we came from, and that was far! It was super cold and all of us wanted coffee and hot chocolate and guess what!? A vending machine that vends Hot Coffee and Hot Chocolate in a CAN that is HOT and ready to drink all for just a dollar. The hot chocolate I had bought was absolutely astounding! Through out the rest of my time in Japan, little did I know that one can of hot chocolate was one of a kind and I would never see it again L.

After we got back to our hotel we all decided to go out and check out the Tokyo nightlife, and yes it was a whole lot better than Hilo. To tell you the truth I can’t really remember much of it. I asked my friends while walking back to the hotel if they were ready to start Semester at Sea and how they like San Diego. Of course the next morning I come to find out I made a complete ass of my self!

Lisa, Julia, Phil and I decided we wanted to rent bikes and ride around the imperial palace. Our second day in Tokyo was very exciting; we rented bicycles for 5 dollars and rode around the emperor’s palace. The scenery was quite nice, it was a cool, clear day and plenty of things to see along the biking route.. Riding bikes was one thing, riding bikes while trying not to hit a cluster of people was a whole different ball game! After biking for most of the day we decided to go out again once more at night and that also did not end well for me, those stories will be for another day for sure!

Our time in Tokyo was amazing; it was time to head to Kobe! We hopped on the Shinkansen (high speed bullet train) and it was a very fun 3 ½ hour ride. Along the way we got a great view of Mt. Fuji and tons of snow, and I mean TONS! After arriving in Kobe we checked into our hotel and began to unwind. Dinner was very interesting, we went to a steakhouse called steak land, it was a Chinese restaurant that served Kobe steaks, our chef’s was Italian and his name was Febreeze! The steak on the other had was absolutely amazing, no chewing required! The next day I decided to solo Kobe by my self, I went back to the ship to drop off my bags at the ship and on the way back I found my self in front of a sake museum. Of course I didn’t come to japan to just walk around so I went in! There were plenty of Lifelong learners in the museum that were taste testing the sake so I decided to join in. They had all sorts of flavors; plum, orange, peach, you name it and they had it! After having quite a bit I started walking towards the hotel and met some SAS kids. They said they tried to climb Mt. Rokku and said it was impossible.

Of course me not being in my right mind had to go and say “nothing is impossible”! I took the train to the mountain and just glared at it for a good 5 minutes and then just started to climb, I mean literally scale! Through trees and shrubs, jagged rocks and steep cliffs, little did I know there was an actual trail roughly 500 ft to the right of me. As I summited the mountain after 3 or so hours, I somewhat sobered up and took in the views. You could literally see both Kyoto and Kobe from the very top. I went into a gift shop and decided to buy some chocolate fondue for my friends for when I return to the hotel. On the way down is when shit went south, Literally! I was walking down the actual path, which was quite steep, I twisted my ankle and just had the best time making it down the mountain. I made it back to the hotel and I was the last one to show up. I soaked my feet in the hot tub for roughly an hour and called it a night. In my opinion I thought it was a pretty successful day. Didn’t have to deal with anyone else but me!

The next day I had a field lab with my field lab with my psychology class in Kyoto where we went to meditate with a Zen Priest. I have to say it was amazing! We meditated for roughly 20 minutes and in that time most of the class fell asleep which is what we were aiming for. During mediation, one tries to find inner peace by clearing ones thoughts and attempting to relax the body.  For the longest time I thought there was no way I can sit there for that long with out moving, or not thinking about anything but it ended up being very easy. We ended with a traditional tea ceremony with the priest along with a short Q&A about his daily life, which was quite interesting.

Anyways, that’s Japan for me guys!

Stay Tuned for China!

-Raj Patel