Japan and afterwards

It’s 17^th of April and my body is totally confused. We lived April 15 TWICE when we crossed the international date line and now, we are advancing our clocks by one hour every night and loosing sleep. This is our third day in the Pacific Ocean in fairly rough water, and we have an additional four days before we get to Honolulu. We’ll only be in Honolulu one day from 6:00 am to 12:00 pm. so I plan to visit the Bishop Museum with one of the anthropology professors on board. My son, David, suggested Honolulu might be anti-climatic after the "exotic" other ports, and I think most of us feel that way since many of us have vacationed there.

I (with two other Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who are on board) gave the Peace Corps presentation last night. There were 100 + students who attended, so there is high interest among these students. I imagine there will be some who carry through and apply.

Tomorrow is a "no class" day so I get to sleep in . . . yeah!!

The ship docked in Kobe, Japan and the arrival procedures went more quickly than we expected. To ascertain if anyone had a fever, we walked by an apparatus that looked like a video camera (with a red eye) and all our temperatures registered and we were all in the acceptable range. We picked up our passports (the ship’s Purser’s Office keeps them while we are at sea and during most of the trips, but Japan is one of the countries where we had to carry our passports as we traveled.) The next three steps were accomplished simultaneously – we showed the custom’s people our passports, we placed our forefingers on the fingerprinting pads and our picture was taken, and the process was complete. I was in the first set of numbers (at the beginning of the voyage each passenger was given number which was placed on their passport—and I became #707) to be processed, so I was off the ship by 10:30. A friend and I decided we would explore Kobe’s downtown area. There is rail system that connects the port with downtown and different parts of the city called the Port Liner. We took the port liner to the shopping area and stopped for a cup of coffee. First shock: I paid $4.80 for a cup of black coffee –quite a change from previous ports! As we looked in the stores, we realized there weren’t any bargains so we settled for a nice lunch – chosen by pointing at the menu pictures (Japan is not “English-language friendly). Nor is it credit card friendly; most of the stores don’t take credit cards.

Next day I (with 30 others) went to Hiroshima on the bullet train. The bullet train is remarkable. The times are set like 9:57 and the train is there exactly at that time and leaves exactly two minutes later. We first visited Miyajima Island and saw the “floating” Itsukusima Shrine – a very large Shinto shrine which was build in the water and there is also a large red pagoda in the same area. Then we visited Shukkeien Garden, a beautiful Japanese garden which was so very peaceful--it was hard to step outside into the hurried world. After spending the night in Hiroshima, we went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum the next morning. The exhibits in the Hiroshima Peace Museum are very moving and it’s difficult to absorb all the death, suffering and devastation that the A-bomb caused. I personally think every politician who contemplates war against another nation should be required to see these exhibits. Talking about war and seeing the results are very different. We have had some very good lectures/discussions on board and some of the professors have given us information that was not widely known about World War II. I’m continually amazed that the American education system and the American news is so selective about what they tell us.

The next day we went to Himeje to see a very old castle which is a World Heritage Site. Some of the cherry trees were still in bloom so it was very beautiful. Everywhere we went in Kobe, Hiroshima and Himeji was exceptionally clean and well organized.

Japan was not one of my favorite ports. For the first time on this voyage, I felt I was someone to be tolerated rather than a welcome guest in Japan. I realize there are extenuating circumstances: I had/have a cold and am not feeling well as I would like, it’s the point in the voyage where we are all getting a little cranky, and I stayed in the city areas with shopping centers. etc. which I don’t particularly enjoy – I prefer the less sterile environment where I can get to know the people. I signed up for a Japanese home visit on our last day in Kobe, but when our group met the tour agent who planned the visits, the plans had changed and we went to a floral design school instead. All of us were disappointed, but were polite to the women at the floral school. At the beginning of the voyage, the administrative team asked us to be flexible; there have been many times during port visits that tours have been changed, so we have practiced being flexible a lot!

till later . . . after Honolulu when we have the longest stretch at sea before we reach Costa Rica