There is nothing like a heated toilet seat in 30 degree weather

Port #3: Yokohama Day 2

February 10, 2010

 

        This was an early morning for me.  Running off of 2 ½ hours of sleep, I somehow woke up and made it to the field trip with other Semester at Sea’ers.  I was excited to see that Lydia, the other girl from Cal Lu, was also on this trip.  We sat together on the long bus ride.   First we went to Mt. Fuji.  The weather was awful that day: cold and cloudy unlike the day before which was surprisingly hot and sunny (even though the weather forecast predicted rain.)  So we were all pretty upset that we wouldn’t be able to see Mt. Fuji.  But as our bus got closer, the clouds started blowing away and we were able to snap some pretty good photos from the bus.  We stopped at a ‘Mt. Fuji museum’ which was at the basin of mt. fuji.  As we got out of the bus and walked to the building, we saw a great view of Mt. Fuji.  Good thing we all went camera crazy and took our photos then, because five minutes later, the entire mountain was covered with clouds for the entire rest of the day. 

        Our bus drove up the mountain as far as we could go, 250 meters up.  From this lookout point, we could see…..absolutely nothing.  If we looked up towards Mt. Fuji, you couldn’t see it.  If you tried to look out at the land below, there was nothing.  Everywhere you looked was misty. I made the mistake of leaving the bus without my sweatshirt.  With snow on the ground and the sight of my breath, I was freezing.  So I quickly took a picture with Lydia in front of a Mt. Fuji sign and ran back into the bus.  It took awhile before I got warm again.  But, little did I know, that that weather was the least of my worries. 

        We then went from Mt. Fuji to Hakone.  Hakone is a nice place to go to with natural hot springs…..in the summer.  It is winter. And this place was pretty much abandoned except for us.  I don’t blame them, it was so cold!  To get there we took a boat across a lake from our bus.  Then we had the option of shopping at the stores of going up a ropeway to a Shinto Shrine.  Most of us took the ropeway up the mountain 4,000 meters to this shrine.  Normally I am sure that the view is gorgeous, but not even half way up the ropeway we lost all sight because we were in a cloud.  On top of the mountain was freezing! We walked half a mile to get to this shrine.  By the time we reached the shrine, my hair was drenched from the wetness of the air.  It looked like all of us had just taken a shower.  Poor Lydia, her glasses froze.  They had ice formed on them.  I was worried they would shatter or something.  But we made it to and from the shrine safely.  I seriously felt like I was in one of those eerie movies.  Because fifty Semester at Sea students were told to take a gondola up a mountain and then get out and walk around.  Yet we didn’t know where we were walking to, and we couldn’t see more than 15 feet a head of us.  We thought that somebody had set us up and we were going to die. But it turned out ok and I survived the freezing freezing weather with just a sweatshirt on. (Ha, of course. The day before when it was hot, I had with me gloves and a scarf.  But today…when I needed it the most, I didn’t pack them.)

             I came home from that trip exhausted.  Lydia and I tried cuddling and sleeping on the bus, but it wasn’t very good sleep.  But instead of resting, I had to take full advantage of our last few hours in the port of Yokohama so I arranged to go out with some friends for dinner near our ship.  I met two new guys, a girl named Donna (my age, weird) and then my two other friends.  We walked around near the port and found an underground market with restaurants.  We actually split up because three wanted sushi and three of us wanted other Japanese food.  I got a fried rice dish with shrimp in a sweet but spicy sauce and a bowl of Odon noodles.  It was pretty good.  All this seafood which I’m not used to eating has been upsetting my stomach.  But it is all very tasty.  So from there the two guys and I went to a café to get internet.  I didn’t have much time at all, but I was able to check my facebook and upload a few pictures.  (hopefully tomorrow, my last day in Japan, I can find free internet access again and upload some pictures onto the blog!)

        We returned that night and then set sail for Kobe, Japan.  It was weird being one of the few people who decided to stay on the ship and travel to Kobe rather than do independent travel.  But it was also really nice! It was extremely quiet…kind of too quiet.  But that day when we were in transit with the ship the other students and I watched movies in the Union on the big screen. I saw Batman, Sex and the City, the Proposal, and Iron Man.  And that night since there were so few people, we had a special “sit down” dinner planned.  I was every impressed!  It seemed like a real cruise ship!  The tables were nicely decorated, the waiters were nicely dressed, and we actually had a 5 course meal with good food.  Something I have only dreamed about happening on the ship.  So I took full advantage of this meal and ate everything, literally!  I sat at a table with two of my guy friends, and I ate almost twice as much as both of them.  I got two appetizers: the fruit cocktail and fried calamari. Then broccoli soup and the caesar salad. For the main dish I ordered pork (which was extremely bold of me after having pork every other day on this ship and it tasting awful) but this pork was delicious.  And for dessert, cherries jubilee. So tasty. 

        Now we will be in Kobe, Japan for two days: Feb 12^th and 13^th. I will post a blog and hopefully pictures if I find free internet.  J