Beijing

The first day in Beijing we had a lot of free time. I went to the Pearl Market and bought a gift for Cole and chapstick, which was my favorite find of the day. Later we went to dinner, and after all of the Chinese food, ended up getting Pizza Hut. It was good and actually a break from the meals where we would have no idea what we were getting. I felt kind of guilty being in China and eating American food, but being on an SAS trip, we were eating at really great restaurants the rest of the time... I also saw Jill and Justin that night, which was a surprise because they were on the SAS Beijing trip. It was fun and we just talked and journaled in Jill's room.

 

The next morning we started out going to Tiananmen Square. It was kind of surreal. I've been studying China since August now and seeing the area that was the most important during the past fifty years was really cool. It's 100 square acres, but it doesn't look like it. Especially since I know MU is 90 acres (thanks to basketball videos). It doesn't look like we could fit our whole campus in, but since the Square is completely open, I'm not surprised my view of it is off. We tried to get our guide to mention the demonstration/ massacre while we were there and he told us he would tell us in the bus. But he didn't and when we brought it up he changed the subject. We went through the Forbidden City next. It reminded me of Mulan and was really pretty, but that was about it. Everything has been destroyed or removed from the rooms so there is a lot of empty space there.

 

Our next "stop" was a trishaw ride through the Hutong Area. The area used to hold the royal families and since then has held well-off families. The houses themselves are very small and old, but the area is really expensive because of the location to the Forbidden City. We had lunch at a local home, which was really good, and learned how to make dumplings. The best part about the house was that they had a cricket. I never saw it but someone told me that it was in a cage... Mulan again!

 

ln the afternoon we went to the Bird's Nest. We were able to go inside of it (the only SASers who got to at all because of some connection our tour guide had) which was pretty incredible. It looks a lot bigger on TV when they show the inside. The outside looks a lot bigger in person because of the size of the steel beams that hold it up. The inside though has been converted into a winter park. There was sled-riding on one side, an ice skating rink in the middle and a show going on on the stage. There was a lot of other stuff happening inside but I can't remember it now. Our guide told us that the same type of thing is happening in the Water Cube- it's going to be a giant water park for kids. It seems like a really odd use of space for the Olympic stadiums but I guess there isn't much else you can do with it. A side note- I think that I climbed up more stairs in the Birds Nest than I did on the Great Wall. I will have to look in my journal, but I think the ones at the Nest were like 260 and the ones at the Great Wall ended at like 230. But the Great Wall was a lot of incline up and not steps. Just something I didn't expect.  (Most of my time on the Great Wall was spent going down towards the toboggan)

 

For dinner we had Peking Duck. It was good, I'm glad I tried it, but it wasn't my favorite meal in China.

 

The last day of my trip we went to the Great Wall! We went to one of the most touristy parts of the wall which included a cable car up and a toboggan down. Even with that it was an interesting trip up to the wall. There was first this huge hill (think Chesnut hill doubled and you get the hight and steepness) that we had to walk up lined with vendors. They were trying to sell us stuff as we were walking up, which was kind of incredible because no one was going to carry that all the way to the end. And then we got on a cable car. My trust in Chinese engineering has increased dramatically since I am still alive after this cable car and all the skywalks in Shanghai.

 

Walking around the Great Wall was incredible but my mind does not comprehend how it was built. And even with all of the explanations I was given about it, I still don't believe that they could carry those boulders up there. There's only one explanation: aliens.

 

Kidding... kind of.

 

Tobogganing down was probably one of the top three experiences of my life. Whoever thought that up is a genius. The track took about 10 minutes, I think, and was amazingly fun. It would have been a tiny bit better if I didn't have to keep on stopping for the people in front of me but overall I couldn't have asked for a better way to get down the wall. We were on these little plastic things that had wheels on the bottom and then we pushed forward on a bar that was by our feet to be able to go. I wish I had been able to get a longer video but it would have been impossible to tape and move at the same time. It reminded me of the place at the Poconos, I think it was the water park, where we took the ski lift up and then took those little sleds down where we had to pedal. But this one was much much better =)

Xi'an

Day One: I left for my trip about 9:30 in the morning. The flight was really long (I think it was like 4 hours) and I sat there and read The Street Lawyer by John Grisham, which was boring since I've already read it. I am reading Under the Dome by Stephen King but the book is hardcover and like 1,000 pages long, so I didn't have space in my backpack for it. (Oh, and I packed everything I needed for 6 days in my backpack and a small purse. It was an incredible feat!)

The first thing we did was go to an art museum where we had a tour and then had a calligraphy lesson. I'm extremely horrible at calligraphy. I don't have the right hand movements for it or something. But I do know how to write the signs for forever, happiness and I love you. When we were done we got a chance to buy artwork if we wanted and I bought a really pretty painting with a mountain and a small village at the base. It doesn't match my room since it's orange, but I don't plan on hanging up all my artwork until I have a house anyways.

After going to drop all our stuff off at the hotel we went to a dim sum dinner. It was one of the most amazing meals of my life. Because it's Chinese New Year we had a holiday meal which included 19 different types of dumplings. There were duck, pork, chicken, spicy chicken, pork and chicken mix, vegeatable, squid, water, mini chicken... I could go on for a lot more. I took a picture of each and every dumpling. The two coolest were the duck and the walnut, because the dumplings were shaped like what was in it. (Plus they tasted really good)

Day Two: The first thing we did was go to the Xi'an city walls. They were walls and were really cool but also just walls. What made them awesome was that it was Chinese New Year and there were these huge figures of flowers and people and animals all lit up on the walls. It was like Disney World.

We then drove to the Terra Cotta Warriors Museum area, but first stopped for lunch because the drive had been about two hours long. Lunch was in this really cold restaurant. Cold as in I could see my breath. The meal was fine, just random Chinese food. But they did give us lots and lots of hot tea, which I don't normally drink, but made the room seem a bit warmer.

The Warriors were incredible. They are all between 5'10" and 6'2" which is way taller than the average man was when they were made, but they were supposed to look terrifying to guard the tomb. And there are hundreds of them all in perfectly straight lines. There are lots of them without heads or arms or legs but we were told that they are trying to restore them. I think its cooler to see how they are hundreds of years later, but I understand wanting to restore everything.

I also got a guide book signed by the man who found the warriors. He's really old now (the warriors were found in the mid-70s) and it's funny because they could have pulled any random man off the street and set him up at that table and none of us would have been the wiser. Trust in the government I guess. I find his story a little sad though because even though they were on his land, he doesn't own the land that he uses, he had a type of loan for it from the government. So when he found them he just had to move off of his land and didn't get any of the benefits, monetary or otherwise, of finding them; the government got everything. (That's communism for you)

There was also a museum next to it which we only got a couple minutes in but when I get home remind me to show you all the picture of the puppets. Scariest puppets ever.

When we left the warriors we went to an orphanage. I felt very uncomfortable there just because we weren't told that we were going and didn't have anything planned for them. I felt like a tourist there because they put on a short program for us and we sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" in return. We were there for about 45 minutes and did absolutely nothing with the children, we were just there watching them and looking around their homes. I wish we had been able to play with them like we did at my other visit [in Cambodia].

Shanghai

We got into Shanghai pretty early in the morning but I wasn't cleared to leave the ship until about 11:30. The first thing we did was decide to go and walk around the Bund. It's an area that is really influenced by the French and has tons of pretty buildings and such. Walking around Shanghai was very different than walking into Yokohama. It's dirty and crowded and loud. I know that's what they tell you about, but I honestly didn't expect it to be so extreme.

After walking around we went tothe Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. It was the only way we knew to get across the river (we were sadly misinformed by some people) and was totally weird. I'm guessing that it would be comparable to an acid trip and everyone who went with me feels that same way. I have the whole thing on video (about 4 minutes) so if you want to see it find me when I get home. But the line sthat sticks in my head the most are "Paradise is Hell" and "Heaven is Hell". It was surreal, but it did get us across the river :) And it made me think of Disney!

We then went to the Oriental Pearl Tower, which if you've googled Shanghai is the building that will stick out to you. It's crazy looking. We got in line for this building and we were disappointed because the line went completely around the building. It took about half an hour and we were so annoyed because it was kind of cold outside. When we got in the doors we thought it would be a short line righ to the elevators. Wrong. There were at least 1,000 people in front of us in line. Complete insanity in there. And the Chinese are loud and pushy. Not in a bad way exactly, but in an annoying way, just because of the difference between there and the US. I don't know if anyone from Green Valley remembers this but when we were little, like kindergarten or first grade, in gym Mrs. Waltz had us take a hula hoop and put it over our head and rest it at our feet. She told us something about how it was our personal space bubble and we weren't supposed to violate it. Well, things are different in China and its completely common to push and cut in line to get ahead of someone else. The line overall took about two hours. The view from there was pretty good and everything was lit up so it was really pretty. The funniest part of the whole trip was when I went out onto one of those glass floors. Christine is terrified of heights and when I was out there she goes, "are you really trusting something that China made?" It was probably the funniest moment of the entire day. And it made me think twice about it =)

But next we went to the World Financial Center which has an observatory on the 100th and 104th floor and the view was so much cooler.  There was also a glass floor there but it was really different because it was like every other square was a glass one and it looked down onto the building. It may be a little different during the day but at night all we could see were lights. I also liked the WFC better because you could see the Oriental Pearl Tower. It is a lot prettier to look at than look out from.  If you go to Shanghai I would reccomend going to the WFC instead of the Oriental Pearl Tower. The WFC is cheaper even and its not as crowded. The line was about ten minutes and that was only because we had to walk through a couple of areas to get to it.

For dinner we had American food. It's funny because I said I wouldn't be one of those people but honestly, when you're in the country, the food is completely different anyways. And we had a horrible lunch anyways because we went into a place with no English menu and couldn't order correctly. As Justin said: "the hardest thing to find in Asia is rice". Completely true if you don't have the word in the vernacular for it. But that's okay because our lunch was one of those experiences that make this trip totally worth it. As much as we liked it though, we were hungry. There was only one restaurant that looked good in the area we were in and it's called The Blue Frog. There is one in Shanghai and one in Hong Kong. If you ever see one- go there. It was so much fun and we were literally the only customers in the restaurant. We decided we didn't need a full meal so we shared chili cheese fries, onion rings, and nachos. It was really funny. And they had a nightly deal that was for Coronas for 25 yuan. Seven yuan is equal to a dollar, so we paid a little more than $3 for it, but if you think about how that's imported it wasn't that expensive. Plus, we were able to eat raw vegetables, which I would not do anywhere else in China. And the group that I went with also went back the next night and got burgers and said they were really good. (I was in Xi'an already)

On the way home we took a taxi. It was only 19 yuan so we got home for less than $3 and it was over a ten minute ride. Plus we got ripped off because he went the long way. We know this because we had to split up into two taxis and the other group only paid 13. That's okay... one group from the same place paid 40 yuan so I feel okay with the driver taking two or three extra minutes.

The Rest of Japan

Tokyo:

The second day in Japan I had an FDP, Cultural Tokyo. The trip itself was pretty interesting, but I was freezing all day. Because the day in Yokohama was so warm, I thought that Tokyo would be warm too. So I went from sweating one day to having goose bumps the next. It was still a good day though.

The trip started at Meiji Shrine, which is for the Shinto religion. We walked along a gravel path that at one point was lined with bottles of sake. I’m not exactly sure why, the tour guide didn’t give us an answer, but they made the pathway more interesting. At the main part of the shrine there were small wooden signs that people could buy and then write on. You would hang them on the tree and then the wind would carry your wishes away and grant them. I didn’t buy one, but I loved seeing all of them lining the tree. We also saw a wedding there. The service was really short and there were very few people there in the wedding party and in attendance. After the service the bride and groom also posed for pictures from the tourists at the shrine.

After the shrine we went to the gatehouse for the imperial palace. We weren’t allowed to go any closer than about 500 feet from the gate house. All I know about the place was that if the gatehouse is that pretty, then the palace must be beautiful.

We then went to an area that had a Shinto shrine, a Buddhist temple, a pagoda, and a shopping area. Inside the Buddhist temple there was a spot for people to pick their fortunes. I received my fortune and it was a regular fortune, filled with happiness and sadness. Jill had a really good fortune, but then Justin had a horrible one. It said that the boat would sink. If we go down, it’s all his fault 

The last stop of the day was to a tower, where we saw the view from the 53rd floor. Since we saw a better view the day before it wasn’t as cool for us, but still a fun place to be anyways. That is also where the picture of the dress is from.

Hiroshima:

Even though I traveled on the boat between Yokohama and Kobe, I didn’t wake up to see us pull in. I figured it was enough that I saw Yokohama.

My trip to Hiroshima started at 8, the earliest that anyone was let off the boat anyways. I sat in my own seat on the way there but Justin and Jill sat across from me and we managed to find things to talk about or do for the five hour bus ride. It was actually a lot quicker than I thought it would be and I wasn’t bored until the last hour.

The first view I had of the dome was from our bus. It was crazy seeing it there in the middle of all the other buildings. Our tour guide said that until it was put on the list of historical places there were drives to tear it down because it was just a horrible reminder of what happened that day. It was really sad to see and it seemed to me that very few improvements had been made to the building starting the day the atomic bomb hit. All of the bricks and trash that were there the day of the bomb were still there. And around it people just walked back and forth to work or school and didn’t think anything of it. I guess if you walk back and forth everyday and weren’t alive at the time of the bomb, it wouldn’t be emotional after a while. Maybe I’m just simplifying things though; they could think of it every time they walked past. I don’t know.

We walked to the Children’s Peace Memorial next to put up the 3,000 paper cranes that people on the ship had made. The thousands and thousands of paper cranes already in the boxes were incredible. One of them spelled out “Peace”, one was a picture of a rainbow, and one was a picture of a crane. The amount of effort people put into the one memorial is mind-boggling. There are cranes from all over the world there.

The museum was the last stop on the tour of Hiroshima. The most amazing thing about the museum to me was that it doesn’t seem to blame the United States. There wasn’t too much about the “why” of the bomb in general. A brief history of WWII was at the beginning but it didn’t get into the politics behind the bomb. It was really sad to see most of the displays because they were items such as clothing worn on the day of the bomb.

Nara:

I had never even heard of Nara until the transit day on the ship. Christina told me that she was going and told me a couple of things to do there. The only reason that I wanted to go was to pet the imperial deer. And I got to. I absolutely loved Nara, which was surprising since I was convinced I needed to see Kyoto while in Japan and didn’t see it because of Nara.

The day started with a very long hunt for an ATM for Justin and Christine. A word for anyone planning on visiting Japan: if you’re not using your credit card the entire time, take enough cash to last the entire time you’re there. The small amount of ATMs that accept foreign credit cards it very annoying. Another hint: 7-11s all have international ATMs, but they make you take out 1,000 yen at a minimum, which could be bad.

We then had a two hour train ride and a thirty minute walk from the train station to the park. And then we saw the DEER! I know what everyone’s thinking… there are deer in Cleveland. Why did you travel 8,000 or whatever miles to see a deer. The answer is that these “tame” deer will eat out of your hand and BOW TO YOU! Yes, they bow to get fed. It is hilarious. But they also push you if you don’t feed them. Which is kind of mean, but they are deer used to eating crackers. Kind of hilarious. They’re kind of scary too. You’ll have to see my video of them to see what I mean.

We mostly just walked around Nara after we managed to escape the deer. I did have chicken curry for lunch. It was really good- much better than I thought it would be. And I saw a few Shinto shrines and spent some money. Spending money is basically my thing on this trip and most of it is for pop, but the rest is for really fun souvenirs.

Japan Pictures

Yokohama!

We actually ended up arriving in Yokohama only about 2 hours late. Then they allow people off the ship by seas. (Each deck is divided into seas with somewhere between 40 and 80 people, kind of like wings on a floor) My sea was called fifth or sixth I think. It actually worked out good because the group I was hanging out with that day were called right around when I was too and it gave us a chance to eat lunch on the ship.

Going through immigration here will probably be the longest one we go through. They staple something to your passport, you get another sticker put in (at least this one didn't cost over $100 like the visas did for everywhere else), and they fingerprint you and take your temperature. I was afraid that I would have a fever and be denied access to Japan, so took two tylenol this morning to lower any fever I may have. I actually didn't realize they took my fever until I walked away because they say they're taking your picture and it does it then. (I'm not actually sure if a picture is taken though...)

Being on land was so nice! It was a LONG 10 days at sea previously. I felt like we were still on the boat though for the first day there. I could feel my legs compensating for the movement of the ship for absolutely no reason. Kind of weird but also really funny.

The first thing we did was actually the number one thing to do on my list. We went to Landmark Tower and rode the fastest elevator in Japan. It goes up 69 floors in approximately 40 seconds and reaches a speed of 720 meters/ second. Your ears pop on the way up. It was a 360º view: from there we could see all of Yokohama and parts of Tokyo. And we could see the ship! From up there it looked really big, but we all know better :) There was a dinner boat next to it so I think that made the change. I also got a caricature done at a small stand there. The artist's name was Mario and he spoke some English (obviously much better than I spoke Japanese) and there was a great disconnect between what he said and what he meant. I felt bad that I couldn't help at all in Japanese, but we managed to make it work. The funniest part was that I was wearing my Semester at Sea hoodie and they draw your clothes on the caricature. So he had no idea what he was writing but basically labeled the picture for me!

After the Landmark Tower we went to an art museum. I was amazed because I had never heard of this museum and there was a Picasso, a few Dalis, and an Andy Warhol. Nice for not expecting anything out of my 500 yen. We then walked around the city for awhile before dinner. Japan is CLEAN! I think this has to do with the fact that there are no garbage cans anywhere. I can't figure out how this connects, but I'm sure it does.

We spent the rest of the night by walking around the city, going to dinner and then riding a Ferris wheel! It definitely made my day :) I want to find at least one other Ferris wheel on this trip. After the Ferris wheel we went to karaoke! It was hilarious and the best part was passing all the rooms of locals because it was groups of about ten to fifteen middle aged men. And they were singing songs with tambourines. Very different than home.

Sorry for the long (and boring) post about Japan. I've already been in China for 6 days so the rest of the Japan blog will be in one post.

Shanghai!

Hi! I know I haven't written about Japan yet, but figured I'd post a picture of China. Posts will be coming soon, but I'm in China without a keyboard for four more days, so it will be after that!
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