News from the Boat_Hawaii

Aloha, everybody!

(Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

[Didn't think I'd make it, did you? Yeah. Neither did I.]

So… it seems like everybody on the ship just kind of forgot about Hawai’i. I can’t even count the times that, when we were heading for Japan, I heard the words, “This is our last port.” Like Mauritius, Hawaii was just a place where we could recoup, hang out on the beach and not worry about any of that pesky culture business.

Well screw those people. Hawai’i was one of the ports I was most excited to go to, and it was hands down the port I enjoyed the most. Not necessarily my favorite port, but definitely the one I was saddest to leave. It definitely helped that it was warm and sunny, and that the first thing I saw when we got off the ship was a rainbow, but I can barely even begin to describe how much I loved Hawaii.

I probably wrote this on several postcards, but to me, Hawaii feels like it got stuck in the 60s and never moved on. There are roadside drive-ins that sell deep-fried everything, muscle cars that howl by, convenience stores that sell literally everything, and then of course the surfing. And not snazzy short board extravaganza, although I’m sure that’s around too, but good old-fashioned ten-foot long boards that I can barely carry, let alone paddle on. There’s a sleepy who-cares vibe that just permeates everything, surrounded by absolutely gorgeous people, landscape, and wildlife. Even Pearl Harbor, which is in itself pretty gruesome, is fairly easy to take in just because there’s nothing to see. There’s a rusting chimney in the water, and a long, long list of names of people who died, and the horrifying knowledge that somewhere below you, there are bodies that have been imprisoned in a sunken battle ship for almost 70 years. The USS Arizona still leaks oil, actually, and the few veterans that are still alive consider the oil to be the tears of their comrades that are still caught below.

[On a less romantic note, that’s two quart of oil being leaked into the ocean *per day*, and while that may not sound like a whole lot, that’s many, many gallons of water that are being polluted. I’m sorry for the whole soap-box thing, but I don’t think stopping oil from leaking into the very water we depend on to survive is desecrating somebody’s tomb, it’s just plain common sense. I really don’t want to be disrespectful, but I just can’t get over the fact that this is a sunken ship leaking oil into the ocean and people don’t think it should stop.]

But overall, the parts of the memorial that I saw were very subtly done. Nobody was beating you over the head with the fact that people died here, and nobody was holding tirades against the Japanese. It was more of an overall “war is horrible” thing, and we all know how much that appeals to me. But it was still a bit rough, and I was very happy when I managed to hit the beach with a board and just relax for a little bit. Not that, you know, going surfing twice in one day is all that relaxing, but man it was fun. Mind you, the board was pretty much twice my size, and after a while my arms started hurting so badly that I wanted to cry, but there’s just something about sitting on a board in the sunshine with palm trees in the distance that makes me be okay with the world.

So that was O’ahu. A little touristy but surprisingly modern, and with lots of Japanese tourists. Unfortunately we had to miss Santa coming in on a surfboard because we were heading off to Hilo on the Big Island, Hawaii. All I saw of that was the ride to and from the airport. Instead Dan, Chelita, Utsav, Kevin and I hopped into a rental car (that we weren’t supposed to rent) and drove up to the Akaka Falls, 300 feet high, in the middle of lush, gigantic ferns and trees. It was surprising to me how an active volcano could be so *green,* but there are definitely palm trees and grassy hills and plants everywhere.

But you can only look at plants for so long, so we made our way to Kona, where people on the ship had said to go. It was pretty dead. There were a couple of stores and fast food restaurants, and then the ocean, but this was definitely not a happening place. So we asked a store clerk what there was to do, and he shrugs and says, “Jump off the end of the world.” Awkward silence as we all think to ourselves, *Can it really be THAT bad?* and then he laughs and says, “It’s a cliff. The End of the World. You can go jump off a cliff.” Well, after that, we kinda had to do it just for the bragging rights. So he gives us directions, we follow them for a while, and end up at… a turtle beach. You know those sea turtles that you get on post cards of clear blue water and tropical fish? Yeah. Those are actually there, not three feet away from you, completely unfazed by the staring tourists. So. Awesome.

Anyway. Back in the car we go and this time, we actually make it to the End of the World. The cliff is in a field of black volcanic rocks with a pretty distinct post-apocalyptic feel to it, and beyond them there is nothing but ocean. So yeah, it kinda feels like the end of the world. The cliff itself is only about 30-40 feet high, and there were another group of people that had already jumped that offered emotional support, but my friend Dan who went first was still pretty terrified. So, naturally, I jumped in before I could get any more nervous than I already was. In fact, I went so fast that our appointed video and photography people completely missed it. I sort of landed badly and bruised my thigh, and between that and the adrenaline, I was pretty much done, but Dan got very into it. He even went a third time when a group of tourists showed up on a boat and told him to jump again because they’d missed it the first two times around.

It wasn’t until afterwards that we realized that The End of the World is allegedly one of the top ten most dangerous cliffs in the world, and that all the random flower bouquets on the rocks were for people who died…

For the record: I’m fine. My leg looked pretty horrible for a couple of days, but it didn’t really hurt. And I jumped off the end of the world. Beat that.

After that much excitement, it was an early bedtime for us – all the better, because the next day turned out to be a giant rush. We had about three hours of solid driving ahead of us to get back to Hilo, we wanted to hang out at a beach, we wanted to go see the lava river, and we had to have it all done before 6 o’clock. Even earlier, in fact, because Alexa still had to write some postcards and nobody wanted to risk being late getting back to the ship at the very last port. So we booked it to a black sand beach and hung out there for a while, and then we went off to see lava. Hawaiian traffic being what it is, we ended up not making it there until 3.30 or so, so we only stayed for a couple of minutes, but it was definitely worth it. That entire stretch of land literally looks like Hell. Crusted over in black lava, with smoke rising up in the distance, and when you get too close, you can still feel the heat… We didn’t see any new lava, but we saw hardened sections that had only formed in the two weeks since Thanksgiving. And the surprisingly numerous number of houses that people still live in. You can’t ever say that human beings aren’t resourceful.

We somehow made it back to the ship on time, although I think some small part of each of us wishes we hadn’t. Hawaii was just hands-down amazing. I don’t know if I could live there permanently just because it *is* pretty dead, but man, did I love it. Nothing to really worry about, no reason to be stressed out, just cruising along the island with people that I like and the music blaring…

I had a good time.

Lots of love from 31˚ 33.9N/120˚ 30.2W
Alexa

Pictures are here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=263376&id=834707681&l=8cbcacd404

News from the Boat_Japan

The first cultural experience we had in Japan was a temperature check. Japan likes to protect itself from diseases, so every person entering the country has to get checked for a fever (by walking past something that looks like a police radar to measure your speed). If your temperature’s too high, that’s just too bad. No entry for you.

I guess that’s Japan for you. A little formal, a lot cautious, but very polite all the time, even when they’re telling you you might not be able to get off the ship.

Luckily I did not qualify as being sick, even though I was feeling pretty horrible, and so was able to go on my very expensive SAS trip to Hiroshima by bullet train. The Shinkansen itself is an experience: clean, orderly, with numbered seats, and it’s moving so fast it kinda feels like you’re not moving at all. It’s a bit like an airplane, in that sense. And it looks like a space shuttle. No joke.

Hiroshima, though, was… not what I expected. I’ve always connected it with chaos and destruction in my mind, but the atom bomb flattened the entire city, so it’s not like you see any of the remaining damage. Aside from one building, the city is brand new. You’d never be able to tell that such a tragedy occurred here if it wasn’t for the occasional statue or the museum. The museum, though, really gets you. Hiroshima calls for the end of all wars, everywhere, and the museum doesn’t pull any punches. Little children’s diary entries, lunchboxes, hair, fingernails… you name it, it’s in the exhibit, and it’s going to make you nauseous. It gives a little historical background, too. And here’s a scary thought for my German readers: The US wasn’t sure what country to bomb at first. The only reason they didn’t choose Germany was because Germany was already going down. Otherwise, ‘Hiroshima’ could have just as easily been ‘Berlin’ or ‘Dresden’ or ‘Hamburg’…

On a side note: One of my professors was on the trip, and he’d just learned that I was German pretty much the day before. So when I was talking to our guide, he came up and asked me what I thought about the museum.

Well. An American, a German, and a Japanese person all discussing World War 2. That was a little awkward.

But anyway. I didn’t really learn anything new. Except that atom bombs melt your fingernails from your hands and that war is terrible, always and under all circumstances. There is no excuse for slaughtering other people. There just isn’t.

That night, Jenn, Alex, Damien and I headed on to Kyoto where we spent the night in a capsule hotel. That’s pretty much a spaceship on the ground, with sleeping pods instead of rooms and shampoo and conditioner in single-use packets. They were originally designed for business men who worked late and had to go back to work early, so going home didn’t make any sense. It was very snazzy, though. They give you everything, even pajamas, and the women have a separate floor, bathroom, lounge and elevator all to themselves. Oh, and lights that turn off and on slowly so waking up isn’t so bad for the system. The only downside was that none of us could figure out the alarm, so we all overslept.

In the morning, we realized that we were only about a thirty-minute walk from the Imperial Palace, so we went and checked that out. It was pretty cool, definitely nice architecture and design, and there was a traditional dance thing going on in the courtyard. Plus, the leaves were all crazy vibrant colors and the air was just that right sort of crisp, cold without being painful. My first real autumn in over three years… I felt right at home. But then the whole of Japan reminded me of Germany, in a way. Maybe it was because Japanese people are fairly introverted and quiet, and aren’t falling all over themselves to interact with strangers like the rest of the world. I don’t know. It just all felt a little familiar.

We checked out the castle before we took off for Tokyo. Between the castle and the palace, the castle definitely wins. It has floors that creak so you can tell when intruders are trying to sneak in. How badass is that? But then we had to take off to catch the Shinkansen and somehow made it, after several hours of trying to decipher symbols and cryptic directions, to our traditional Japanese bed&breakfast. It didn’t have rice paper walls, but beds and a small sitting area all on the floor and a tea set just waiting for us. It was like a Japanese apartment, basically. I would have totally moved in.

So far, so good, right? And that’s when it started to get strange. Jenn wanted to see a Maid Café, a café where the waitresses are all dolled up in French Maid outfits. I figured there’d be one or two, but no, there were dozens. (Cafes, not waitresses.) Granted, most of them were closed because it was ten in the morning on a Sunday, but we did find one. First of all, Jenn and I were the only girls in there for a solid hour. (Then, one other girl showed up with her boyfriend. Hell of a date.) We got charged just for sitting down, and the prices were ridiculous. Alex ordered a special where you got a pancake, a waffle, a drink and a picture with one of the waitresses (taking pictures independently was a huge no-go) for $25. Well, as it turns out, there was some miscommunication there. The special was a pancake OR a waffle and a picture with one of the waitresses for $25. Poor guy still hasn’t lived down the fact that he bought a $25 piece of cake. So, a little overpriced, but okay, ladies in short outfits, I can understand why people would go. Except that the entire room is made up to look like a little girl’s room, with stuffed animals and magic spells that you cast over your food. And then a very random, sort of bad song-and-dance that everybody else found absolutely hilarious. I’m all for being culturally open, but I still have no idea what to think about that, and I spent a solid hour and a half alternately feeling like I should be in a French Maid outfit or feeling like I shouldn’t be there at all.

After that, most of us were ready for some average mediocrity, but Jenn wanted to see more strange things, so we went out to Harajuku station to see girls and guys in crazy outfits. Not that we really found any. Instead we went to a Shinto shrine where we read some pretty great things on the wooden plaques that people write their wishes on. “Good health,” I can get behind, same for “A loving relationship,” but “a good correlation between October sky and my software firm”? At least it’s honest, I guess.
We walked around the shopping mall for a while but didn’t actually buy anything because it was all insanely expensive. But it was nice to know that everything is fashionable *somewhere.*

Of course, that still wasn’t enough insanity for us, so as a belated birthday extravaganza, Jenn and I went to DisneySea. That’s like Disneyland, only in weird. The rides are a bit faster and a bit scarier, like the storm flight simulator where you die at the end. I probably spent way too much money and walked until my legs started cramping, but don’t anybody dare tell me that wasn’t Japanese culture – we were the only white people in the park.

After we didn’t make it back to Yokohama until almost midnight, I sort of slept in the last day. I was still pretty miserable from all the walking the day before because every time I stopped walking my legs would cramp up, so I walked. Walked down the waterfront, through the Yokohama doll museum with a special exhibit about dolls that were sent from the US to Japan as gifts at the beginning of the 20th century, back up the waterfront, through one giant very expensive sort-of shopping mall, through another giant very expensive sort-of shopping mall, back down the waterfront, and then in the remaining two hours before on-ship time I sprinted to an internet café and back. Fun times.

But anyway. I enjoyed Japan, even though it was extremely exhausting. I’d definitely like to visit again when I have a bit more time.

Lots of love from 31˚ 33.2N/120˚ 32.6W.
Alexa

Pics are here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=258874&id=834707681&l=d9e2b23a0d

News from the Boat_China

I can totally pull of another two blog posts in the next 48 hours…

*

So. I’ve heard a lot of things about Hong Kong, but not necessarily a lot of good things. Honestly, I can’t say I hate it. It wasn’t thrilling, but I definitely don’t hate it. It’s like any big city. Kind of hurried, kind of bland, a lot of pretty buildings but not a whole lot else. Imagine downtown LA or downtown Frankfurt. It’s kinda cool, yeah, but when you really want to enjoy yourself, you go somewhere else.

We took an early morning tram up to Victoria Peak, where we had a very nice 360 view of… office buildings. There’s a Bank of America building, that was a little strange, but the coolest thing about the peak was definitely the fact that when you leaned over the railing, the draft sent your hair straight up. After some aimless meandering and a horribly failed attempt to find a restaurant that serves Chinese food, we ended up walking down Hollywood Road, looking at temples and through big piles of junk that street vendors will sell for a couple of dollars. The conversion rate did cause a bit of confusion, because after having $1 be around 20,000 Vietnamese Dong, going back to 1 to 8 was certainly hard to get used to. I definitely spent a lot more money than I thought I would just because I was thinking, “Oh, that’s only 140, that’s *nothing*. Heh. WRONG.

The nicest part about my one-day Hong Kong excursion was the Symphony of Lights. Imagine a city-wide laser show, complete with music and flashing skyscrapers. Strangely surreal, and definitely not something you’d expect from a city that’s all busy-business like Hong Kong. But honestly, the only thing I got out of my stay in Hong Kong was that China could not be as cold as everyone was prophesying.  At the end of the day, I was still walking around in shorts and a t-shirt, so Beijing couldn’t possibly be that bad. Right?

Right.

*

Imagine my shock when we landed in Beijing and the airport workers were wrapped up in thick winter coats, scarves and gloves. At first it didn’t seem all that bad, but by the time we had all climbed into our bicycle rickshaws on the way to our traditional Chinese dinner, we were really feeling it. But the dinner was delicious. It was in a one-room family home, with the grimiest kitchen you could possibly imagine, but the food was good. And without wanting to sound arrogant, watching everybody struggle to use chopsticks in an at least semi-dignified matter was absolutely hilarious. Still, it was cold enough that I was very happy to finally make it to our cozy hotel and only braved the weather long enough that night to buy several sets of gloves at the closest minimart.

I wish I could say the misery ended there, but no such luck. The Forbidden City the next morning was impressive, but hard to believe considering that people lived there WITHOUT HEATING. The whole experience was dampened a little by the fact that my camera decided to give out before 9 AM, but still very impressive. The buildings are all very similar looking, but the architecture is very colorful and I’m not gonna lie – if that was my emperor’s residence, I would have been seriously awed. From the Forbidden City we went straight on to Tiananmen Square. Aside from the enormous Mao picture and the propaganda video showing on gigantic screens, it looks just like any square anywhere – only in HUGE. Not much to see there, and considering that particular piece of history happened before I can remember, I probably wasn’t impressed as I should have been.

We spent the afternoon at a school/orphanage for street children where we played (that is, they kicked our asses at it) tug-of-war, badminton (apparently that’s big in China), basketball and painted a wall with them. The communication wasn’t always the easiest, but pointing at colors and then pieces of the wall works surprisingly well with kids. It was even awesome enough to make us forget how miserably cold it still was. The not-so-nice part was that this school was *poor*. Their school uniforms were donated army fatigues. Their bathrooms were five squat-toilets side by side, with no division in between. I asked our guide if there was anywhere to wash my hands so I could put my gloves back on, and she said, “They don’t have water today.” …oh, okay. Those are the kinds of places I wish I could just magically fix. Just point my fingers, whisper my magic spell, and *bazui* - clean water, new clothes, and heating for everyone.

After all that misery, I felt really kind of guilty when we arrived at our restaurant and I saw an electronics store next door and immediately thought, “Oh wow, I can get a new camera.” But then again, I really didn’t want to be on the Great Wall without a camera, so I sucked up the bad aftertaste and set out on the most uncoordinated adventure of my trip so far. I grabbed a friend and we headed in, figuring that in an electronics store, somebody would speak English. Right? Well, the woman we asked did not. Did anybody else in the store? Not according to her, no. So we pointed at some cameras, got to look at a few, and then everything went horribly, horribly awry. She asked me a question that I assume meant which color I wanted. I pointed to silver. She shook her head. I pointed to blue. She shook her head. I pointed to green. She nodded, went over to a computer, started typing up the price, and then all of a sudden she asked for my name. This is when my phishing-paranoid brain ground to a halt, and I asked her why. She looked at me blankly, then gave me a piece of paper. I wrote down, “Why do you need my name?” She started to copy down “Why do you need my name?” *as* my name. I shook my head. She asked me something. I shook my head. She wrote it down for me – in Chinese characters. I shook my head. She wrote down something else for me – in Chinese characters.

So. Defeated by the language barrier, we decided to go ask out guide if she would be willing to come back with us and translate. But, as it turns out, by the time I’d scarfed down enough dinner to feel brave enough to go back, our guide had disappeared. So I thought to myself, whatever, I can do this. I’ve done worse. (That’s a lie, by the way.) So I asked our trip leader if I could go buy a camera next door, and he looks at me and says, “Can you do it in 15 minutes?” Eh… yes? “Good, because that’s when we’re leaving.”

Hookay. Buying a camera in 15 minutes is totally doable. Right?

So. I sprint back next door, ask the first guy I find if he speaks English, and, miracle upon miracles, he says yes! He takes me over to the cameras, my first lady appears, he asks me which one I want, I tell him, he asks me which color I want, I say blue. He says something to the lady. She shakes her head. Frustrated, I ask, “Well, what colors do you have?” He asks the lady. She says something. He tells me they have green. …I guess I’ll be having the green one, then. Back to the computer, back to that whole name game. At this point, I was rushed enough to say to hell with it, if they’re gonna stalk me with the information I’m giving out, they’re welcome to, I’m only going to be in China for another three days. So I give her my name, she prints out a slip of paper and leads me over to the cashier, I hand over my debit card and get told, “no.” Okay, why? The attendant lady writes down for me “no.” I frown. The cashier says, “China.” I frown even more. The attendant writes down for me, “China.” Okay. So how about an ATM. There is one downstairs, what wonder, so I run down, take out money, run back upstairs – and there’s a lady in front of me. A lady who’s taking her sweet time digging out her ID, signing papers, chatting with the cashier. At this point, I had about another two minutes before I was supposed to be back at the restaurant, so I was starting to get really, really antsy. But it’s all good, here comes another cashier. Who goes to help the other one with the lady in front of me. At this point, my attendant lady is trying her hardest to move me to the front of the line, but I’m still checking my watch every thirty seconds, thinking about the millions of hours of docktime I’m going to get if this doesn’t happen *right now*. But there’s a third cashier. She also takes her sweet time getting my receipt ready, but at least she’s getting it ready. I’m already two minutes late, but at this point, my money’s gone, and I’m really not willing to walk away without cash OR camera, so I turn to my attendant who points into the store and WALKS AWAY. Panic. Total and utter panic. I head off into the general direction she indicated, back to the camera section, and show my receipt to a couple of people standing around a computer. They don’t know what I want. So I pace up and down until my attendant comes running up with a box. My camera. I could have kissed her. And then strangled her, because she started to unpack and put the damn thing together. I shake my head. She nods, starting to get a little frazzled too, and then tells me to wait. And runs off to get me A BAG. (And a free camera cover. That was kinda cool.) Anyway. I shake my head, grab the stuff, and sprint into the next building, up five flights of (long) stairs, tell Ozzie I’m back, and get told, “That’s good – because we’re leaving *right now.*” In retrospect, I feel really bad for rushing my lady so much because she did try her damndest, and I think she felt bad, but oh my God, I never want to have to do that again.

Well, what better place to regain my Zen than at a Kung Fu school? It’s the school where they shot the new Karate Kid movie, apparently. Miserably cold, but we’ve established that. They put on a show, including breaking bamboo rods over their back and standing on top of boards with nails on top of a person on top of a board with nails on top of a person on top of a board with nails. We learned a couple of moves from the students and then just hung out and watched the school’s youngest doing their own lessons outside. Three and four-year-olds practicing high-kicks and stances – it’s pretty much the most adorable thing to ever walk the planet.

And then we got to the main part of the attraction: The Great Wall. Two hours drive out of Beijing, then a ten-minute walk and a ten minute gondola ride away, and… there it is. It stretched for miles in either direction. Sadly it doesn’t divide China from Mongolia anymore, but it was a clear enough day that we were hoping we saw it. It’s just mindblowing how long it is. You kinda see it disappear over a hillrise and think, “That’s a long wall…” and then you see it rise up again on the next hill, and the next, and the next. We were lucky enough to be pretty much the only people on the wall. Very lucky, actually. We ended up hearing several stories about how other sections of the wall were packed wall to wall with people. So it was great that we got the time to just hang out, goof off, take fake Kung Fu pictures and some with our touristy panda hats. And in the end, we got to toboggan down. It was terrifying, but so much fun. And while I was zipping down the hillside, all I could think was, “How am I getting academic credit for this?”

I was a little sad that we only ended up staying an hour and a half or so, but we had to start heading back. One more stop the next morning at the Temple of Heaven, and then we made our way to Shanghai. We only had one day there, which was a little sad, but we did see some interesting stuff. Despite getting a little screwed over (shanghaied… heh) by a taxi driver with a fast-running meter on the way, we were in fairly high spirits when we made it to Shanghai Barbie, the six-storey, bright pink Barbie store. Welcome to everything Barbie: Barbie clothes, Barbie café, Barbie bubble tea (it’s pretty gross), Design Your Own Barbie, and, of course, the three storey high exhibition of blonde Barbies wearing pink dresses – each one with a unique dress style and hairdo.

It was a little scary, come to think of it.

We shopped around for the rest of the afternoon, and made it back to the ship just in time to get to the very end of a humongous line while the new head of security unpacked every single bag coming onto the ship. I think we spent a good forty minutes just standing around in the cold. So that was a fun way to end it. But overall, I enjoyed it. The lack of English made life a little difficult, but then again, there’s no reason for them to speak English other than that it’s a convenience for us.

But overall, I enjoyed it. I didn’t even feel too queasy at the billions of flags and the whole communist propaganda thing. I will say that what ended up getting me was the internet. I didn’t have anybody following me around like some people did, but I’d forgotten about Facebook being blocked, and realizing that the one time I would consistently have internet access on this entire trip I wouldn’t be able to upload any pictures was a bit of a shock. And kind of annoying, to be honest. Then it started to get funny. We tried various tricks to make it on Facebook anyway, but only managed for a good fifteen minutes or so. Then I tried to look up Tiananmen Square on Wikipedia, and whatdayaknow? The page mysteriously won’t load. Oh Gee. I wonder why.

But I enjoyed China. It was great, it was ridiculous, it was insane. It was cold. But the people were friendly and helpful, the things I saw and did were amazing, and if nothing else, I got some interesting stories out of it.

Lots of love from 29˚ 26.8N/127˚ 0.2W.
Alexa

Pics are here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=257321&id=834707681&l=e998dfb538