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.