Buying beer from a vending machine

Forgot to mention, 1st night in Tokyo I found a beer vending machine ....

A few Pics

The guy the first day who wanted our picture

And Finally Japan!

I feel like it has taken forever to post! Sorry for the wait but we've been on the go! I'll add pics later but here is what we did in Japan!

The night before we got to Yokohama was the biggest swells we have had, and the ship was rocking super hard.  No one slept because the rocking was throwing stuff around in our room and the drawers on everything were opening and slamming shut.  

Day 1: 

After a rough nights sleep, no sleep rather, we were up at 6am to watch the sunrise and watch the ship come into port in Yokohama.  We got into the actual port around 9 am I think, but we didn't get off the ship until noon'ish.  After the tsunami in Japan, cruise liners stopped coming to Japan for a time and Semester at Sea was the first "cruise liner" to come back after the tsunami so we are honored every time we return and a band was at the Yokohama port to welcome us in along with many spectators.  I was with my friend Laura from Germany, and her Sister-in-law's sister (Fattiah) lives in Tokyo and let us stay with her so we took a train right away from Yokohama to Tokyo (about 30 min). When we got into Tokyo we were supposed to find a pay phone and call Fattiah so we were searching around and we asked a couple on the sidewalk where to find a public phone, and the guy looked at the number and just let us use his! That would probably never happen in the US, at least in a big city... 

So Fattiah was on her way to get us and Laura and I were waiting at a corner in Ebicu, and a group of men walked by eye balling us (pretty much everybody in Japan stared at us because we are blonde and Laura is 6ft) and one of them said "Hi" and we said "hi" ensuing a lot of laughter from the group, then the guy turned back to us and asked "I take your picture?" So we agreed but made him get in the picture (I have a picture will post).  This happened 3 times on the course of the trip! While we were coming into port we had been joking about doing peace signs in the pictures as the Japanese are notorious for the peace sign pictures, and sure enough the guy did the peace sign in our picture! 

Fattiah came to get us and we went back to her apartment and then went out to "Harajuku" which is a part of town that is a shopping central and on Sunday's is known for the teenage girls getting dressed up in CRAZY outfits.  Lucky for us it was Sunday, so we got to see some crazy outfits and LOTS of people.  

That night we went to dinner at a restaurant Quentin Tarantino modeled a scene after in Kill Bill and we ate some fantastic Japanese food! 

Day 2: 

The second day was a little more hectic because we were trying to meet up with my roommate Christine at the train station and she was held up and didn't show up at the agreed time.  Keep in mind no one has a phone, there is no texting, no calling, and in general it is hard and next to impossible to find free wifi in Japan so when you miss the meeting time it's really hard to re-connect.  

We waited for an hour at the train station (she got there about 20 min after we left) and we went to find wifi (unsuccessfully) but we did go to the worlds highest grossing Starbucks at the Shibuya crossing (famous for the free-for-all crossing of people when the lights change). We eventually had to go back to Fattiah's apt to use the internet.  Luckily Fattiah has a guest phone she let us use that Christine was eventually able to call us and meet up with us about 7 hours later than planned.  

But during the in between time, Laura and I wandered around Tokyo, attempted to eat at a Sushi place.  I say attempted because no one spoke English and we had no idea how to order, but we pointed to pictures, ate something.... and left ha! When we finally met up with Christine we went out for dinner in the night life district Roppungi, which Fattiah lived close to, and we were going to sing Karaoke or go to a bar but it was Monday and was a little slow.

To be continued....

More Hawaii

More pics

Pictures from Hawaii

Mangrove Trees in Hilo

On the ship again....

Back on the ship, studying studying studying....

We cross the International Dateline tonight so we are skipping January 21st! So tomorrow will be January 22nd.

I'm planning adventures for Japan with my roommate Christine from New Jersey and my friend Laura from Germany. I think our plan is to go from Yokohama where we port to Tokyo (24 min train) and stay the night with one of Laura's family members and then eventually take a train to Kyoto and then end up in Kobe.

Hoping to do some Karaoke and eat a lot of sushi in Japan!

Hawaii!

Back on the ship and slightly rested, have more homework than I would like... but Hawaii was fantastic!

My first day i went with two girls, Elizabeth from CO and Laura from Germany and we walked from the port of Hilo into town (about 1 mile) heading for Rainbow Falls ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Falls_(Hawaii) ) and we met up with another group also walking to the falls so we trekked together, stopped shortly at the Hilo Farmers Market and asked around where to get good local food for lunch.

We ended up walking about another 3 miles before we finally found the recommended dinky little local place near the falls. Food was AWESOME! I ate some weird green goop looking stuff that apparently is Spinach and Chicken, highly recommended.

We met a random local who goes to college at UH Hilo who was very typical Hawaii ("bro" "dude" "gnarly" ) and he just decided he would go to the falls with us. So off we went, with our new local friend, saw the falls, beautiful! Hiked through the forest of mangrove trees I believe around to the upper part of the falls where there is a small cliff to jump from and swimming. It was chilly, but I jumped off the 20 ft jump... exciting! Definitely tops the Stevensville Pool :D

We left the falls, walked back to town (much easier down hill) and hit up what I think is a Hawaiian version of DQ, and made a last minute Walmart run before we are out of the country!

We ended the night at Ken's pancake parlor and then hit the hay in the ship for the night to get up early and head out again.

Yesterday we went to the Farmers market early and ate fresh pineapple, starfruit, and papaya (so out of this world good) and then we walked through town, hit up some Hawaiian coffee (great) and ice cream (homemade!) mailed our post cards and headed to the black sand beach.

At Richardson's beach we hiked around on the volcanic rock for awhile, we saw too large sea turtles in some of the pools in the rocks, and then I went in the ocean and borrowed a friend's snorkeling gear and came within two feet of a GIANT sea turtle underwater, and we looked at each other. So cool. I love turtles!

Man... exciting two days. It's hard to go back to class, especially when I have an exceptionally large amount of reading to do. We are currently sitting in the Honolulu harbor because we filled up here (still not sure why we couldn't fill up in Hilo or why we couldn't just come to Honolulu) but there is a large storm system so we are staying in the harbor overnight to let the storm pass so we have better passage to Japan.

I will post pictures when I am in Japan, it eats up too much of my data to email them from the ship, but I will post several then!!

Thank you again for following, having the time of my life and it's only a week in!

L

Hawaii

Just got to Hilo, Hawaii! Not off the ship yet, but I am headed to Rainbow Falls, 4 mile beach, and somewhere to get homemade ice cream today and tomorrow heading to the Farmers Market and then I don't know what else!

Will add pictures when I get back!

Love you all, thanks for following.

Class is hard .... ;)

Rainbow starting in the ocean

Me and my friend Laura on the Deck

It's finally warm enough to sit on the deck!

The Ship!

Class schedule

Class!

The last two days I have been attending my first classes, which I now realize is weird to be in class on the weekends, but we are barely ever in class! We have a whopping 46 class days!  

I am going to try to post the schedule so hopefully you can look at it.  I can't check, no internet! 

I've been meeting people the last few days, it's kind of challenging to remember everyone's name but right now it is really nice that all 600 of us are on the same page not knowing anyone so everyone is friendly.

I'm also trying to send a picture of the ship from Wednesday when we got on, so hopefully you can see that as well! 

If anyone would like to please email me :) laura.frazee.sp13@semesteratsea.org  I don't have all my old contacts so it's easiest if you email me!   

Had another 25 hour day, it was spectacular :) Enjoy the snow for me in MT! :D 

Day two on the ship

1/10

It's orientation day, non stop listening in the "union" which sits about 300 of the 600+ students so they feed video to other TVs in the ship via satellite so all the students can watch.  We've had some pretty big waves.  It's getting really interesting getting used to the continuous movement. 

Classes start tomorrow, plus we have a 25 hour day today as we keep gaining hours. 

One of my roommates is Chinese and she brought some friends in to our room who are also Chinese and the had a lot of questions about Montana, so I started showing them pictures of home and then of cows which they loved.  They thought it was hilarious I showed animals and they liked it when I "dressed like a cowboy." Needless to say, I am pretty much certain I am one of the few from an ag background.   

Wish me luck at classes!

L

On the Ship!

 

Talk about culture and weather shock.  I went from pine trees to palm trees and now I'm living on a ship! Been a pretty eventful last few days.  Flying from Missoula to San Diego, I got stuck in Seattle on Monday night but luckily my cousin Ray saved the day and picked me up and let me crash at his place!  Thanks Ray and Margaret for the last minute hotel service!

Finally made it to San Diego Tuesday morning and met up with a friend from my Rocky Mountain College days and then was up bright an early to catch the 7am shuttle to Ensenada, Mexico to get on the ship.

*My friends and I ran into David Robinson in the hotel in San Diego, his son is on the ship with us.  He is GINORMOUS.

Seeing the ship was incredibly exciting.  Its huge and confusing, slowly figuring out where I am.  Getting used to the constant movement is also interesting, but I seem to not be getting sea sick, but tomorrow might be a different story, we are supposed to have 16ft swells!

I have a work study position for the Alumni Development Office, and our first job today was to help get the other students on the ship, so while doing so at the first entrance, Archbishop Desmond Tutu came in and gave me a hug!  I kid not, highlight of my day hands down.  He will be on the voyage at least until South Africa. 

Otherwise I have just been meeting and making friends and learning the ins and the outs of the ship. 

Thanks for following, I'll post pictures as soon as I can, internet is slowwwww. 

 

L 

Packing

packing is going really well.... clearly ha! 

T minus 4 days until I fly to San Diego! Cant wait.

L