Day 18: Trending in Tokyo

Location: Yokohama, Japan

After last night's storm, the ship was comparably calm and so were the seas. We were said to have experienced 30 foot waves and 60 knot winds. The waves or the debris (I'm not sure which) tore the paint off the front of the ship. My professor told us that the Captain said it was the worst storm that he has been through with a ship like the MV Explorer. Glad it's over. Equally pleased that I didn't hear that tidbit before/during the storm. 

Lauren and I got up to look at the sunrise as we approached Japan. Somewhere along the way, we were told that seeing the sunrise as you approach each port is "the thing to do". It was freezing but gorgeous to say the least. As we approached the island, the Japanese government shut off the ship's internet.

Sunrise approaching Japan

We gobbled our breakfast and went back to our rooms to pack for the the next couple days. My class was meeting at 9 am to discuss our first field lab and where we would meet once we all cleared customs and immigrations and were off the ship. We were going to be traveling through Tokyo in some of the busiest places in the world so my professor implemented the "buddy system". My "buddy" was Amanda. Amanda is from the University of Colorado, coincidentally just like me. She's in the Journalism school, coincidentally just like me. With an emphasis in Media Studies, coincidentally just like me. (I think we'll get along nicely.)

Lauren and I met up after the field lab meetings and went to the sixth deck to watch as we arrived in the port. We usually are scheduled to arrive in port at 8 am but because of the terrible weather the past few days we were a little delayed. We arrived closer to 10:30 or 11:00 to a band playing, welcoming us to Japan. It was so cute.

Yokohama Port Terminal.

This is where the band played, welcoming us to Japan.

I'm learning to eat slower when we are at sea, but today we gobbled breakfast and lunch in a hurry so we could make our way to the gangway. The gangway is the place on the ship where we get on and off while in port. Those going on field labs (a field trip that is associated with a class) and those going on field programs (a field trip that is not linked to a class) have the first priority to get off the ship. (Boy, I wish I had known that secret ahead of time! I would have planned to have something the minute we reach each port as the debarking process is long.) 

Once all the field lab/program attendees are off the ship, the other remaining passengers are free to get off. Sometimes they call passengers off based upon their sea, or by faculty, family, or staff.

We had a little bit more time before our field labs would be leaving once we cleared immigration. We grabbed a cup of coffee while we waited in the terminal. Not Starbucks but hopefully we will find one in Tokyo. After my coffee, I found my class and my tour guides for the day.

Arriving in Yokohama

We walked from the port terminal to the subway. We took the subway (with a stop) to Shibuya. Shibuya has the largest intersection or crossing in the world. 3.2 million people cross that intersection everyday. It has a similar feeling to Times Square in New York City. It was incredibly overwhelming stepping off the train with so many people being around us. 

We had an hour to explore this area. We were supposed to emerge ourselves in the youth culture, pop culture, find other trends in Tokyo, and determine how mass media influences. An hour is not long...the time flew by. We found a Starbucks but we didn't grab a drink (hopefully tomorrow we will!). We found a Forever 21, a few department stores, crossed the famous intersection, and then had to return to our meeting place so we could move on to the next stop for the day.

The center of Shibuya facing the famous Shibuya crossing.

Looking out over Shibuya crossing

Standing in Shibuya

Our next stop was the famous Harajuku Street. Harajuku is an area between Shinjuku and Shibuya;renowned as a fashion capital of the world and known for its unique street fashion. It's also a large shopping district with international brands, its own brands and shops selling clothes young people can afford. It was comparably packed with people and comparably to Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

The famous Harajuku Street sign.

We walked up and down Harajuku street for a while, going in and out of the local shops.

This was the wall going up to a mall or department store.

 By now, we were starving. We tried a crepe like thing that was quite tasty. {Oh, how I enjoy my sweets}. In this picture, the crepe is in the rolledl up paper tube. We did A LOT of eating in Japan.

Crepe

This was a great place to see Japanese youth culture. Many of the girls dress up in cosplay outfits or Lolita goth girls. It isn't even worth me trying to explain but I did take a picture to give you an idea. 

Girls dressed in the cosplay outfits in Tokyo, Japan.

After walking up and down the street for a while, we went to Karaoke. Many of the locals go to Karaoke bars to relax after a long days work. That was a lot of fun! {No, I did not sing!} They pile about 10-15 people into a room. A book of songs is passed around until someone picks a song. Then the singer is handed a microphone and sings the song with the words on the TV. It was definitely a must-do experience in Japan.

The view from above Harajuku Street. Look at the crowd!

Amanda and I next to the Harajuku Street sign

Our last stop in Tokyo on the field lab was to Akihabara. {Yeah, you try saying that. It's quite challenging. It's frequently shorted to Akiba.}

Akihabara is also known as Akihabara Electric Town and is the "electronic district" in Tokyo. There were skyscrapers full of video games, like Sega. This is a major shopping area for electronics and computers. The anime/manga subculture is found in this part of the town. We could see that gaming is a big part of the Japanese youth culture.

We walked into one building that was full of games on the first floor. In the basement, there were photo booths. They were the coolest photo booths ever! We crammed five people into a two, maybe three person photo booth. We took pictures like we do back in the States in a normal photo booth. Then you walk outside the photo booth to a different screen. On this screen you could customize the photos and add different icons to the pictures. It was a pretty neat experience.

We walked back to our class's meeting place to have dinner and were served by girls dressed in cosplay maid costumes. My professor said that we were only supposed to get a salad and then an omelet stuffed with rice. The omelet was interesting to say the least. Good but different. We were also served pizza, fish and chips, oysters, and bread. It wasn't quite an authentic Japanese meal but it was pretty good! After dinner we made our way back to the ship. Many of the students on the field lab were planning on staying the night in Tokyo but they had to go back and swipe their cards back at the ship.

Lauren & I were planning on finalizing our plans that night using the Internet in the port terminal so we could make our way to Tokyo in the morning. Once in Tokyo, we would find Shelley, do more sightseeing and then make our way to Kyoto. We were told that there would be a whole bunch of Wi-Fi spots in Tokyo. Many people were planning on using those Wi-Fi spots to connect with their friends that were in other locations in Tokyo. Well after struggling to connect to any Internet we had to come up with a new plan.

We found Sawyer, Kyle, and Alexa who were struggling with the internet and making their plan as well. We decided that we would all meet for breakfast at 7 am and head to Tokyo for the day (and hopefully  run into Shelley). Lauren and I went back up to the ship and into the Piano Lounge to pull together some sort of plan for the next day. 

We didn't make it to bed until close to 2 am after packing and preparing for the next day.