JAPAN PICTURES DESCRIPTION (look at previous post)
1-A few minutes after we arrived in our first stop outside of America in Yokohama, Japan with Carly, Kaity, Mitchi and Aishwyra
2-Having the first of many sushi dinners with Mitchi in Tokyo
3-The fish market tuna auction at 6am
4-About to cross Shibuya crossing, the busiest crosswalk in the world (mostly at night)
5-Mitchi & I at Meiji Shrine after a long day walking through the whole Shibuya district
6-Kaity, Mitchi and I at Tokyo DisneySea with our Disney masks we bought there
7-Mitchi & I and the rest of our group in the back on our first bullet train ride from Tokyo-Kyoto
8-The beautiful Yasaka-Jinja shrine in Kyoto by our ryokan
9-Our room in the ryokan
10-Eating an amazing traditional Japanese dinner in robes with Mitchi and Aishwyra
11-At the Golden Pavilion on a rainy day with Emily, Mitchi, Aishwyra and Dani
12-The bamboo forest
13-Trying Kobe beef for the first time on my field lab for my Consumer Behavior class. IT WAS AMAZING
14-A Kobe beef cow saying "hi"
CHINA
I used to think Japan and China were pretty much the exact same country with the same type of culture, but reading previous SAS'ers blogs prepared me for what I would experience. China is SO different than Japan.
RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:
-I was expecting everyone to be wearing masks due to pollution, but I rarely saw anyone wearing one! Masks were worn all around Japan though, but they wear masks for a different reason: for when they're sick
-The Chinese will spit when they feel like it. And when I say spit, I mean they really hack a loogie and SPIT. Loudly.
-People stare at you all the time and occasionally ask to take pictures with you
-China is insanely crowded and people have become accustomed to pushing and trying to cut in line
-The majority of places have all squat toilets (literally holes in the floor) and one "American" toilet.
-Facebook, snapchat, google, youtube, and Instagram are all blocked. Although I definitely got away with posting on Instagram, but it got blocked shortly after (they watch you)
-"Family Mart" is everywhere here and in Japan. It's basically the same as a 7-11
-My tour guide told me that Chinese women think pale skin is beautiful and put lots of makeup on to make their skin lighter. Funny because American's are the complete opposite!
-We were there right before Chinese New Year so everything was decorative. It's the year of the sheep or goat and there were statues everywhere, they still had Christmas lights up, and Christmas music was playing everywhere I went!
DAY 1
I got off the ship with Mitchi and Sydney and we didn't have any real game plan but just wanted to explore. We made our way to "The Bund" which was an area along the water that had some stuff. We found a Subway and discovered that it also had wifi, so obviously we stayed there and ate. For well over an hour. After we were satisfied, we bought tickets for 50 yuan (about $8) to go through "the bund sightseeing tunnel" which was our transport to get to the other side of the river to the area with the famous Shanghai landmark, the pearl tower. The tunnel goes under the water and has a random light and sound show that doesn't make any sense, but it was still quite cool. We got to the other side and thought about going up the pearl tower that apparently has glass floors (SCARY), but it costs money so we wandered over to a huge mall we spotted. We just hung out at the mall and had a really chill day, then headed back to the ship by 6pm. I had a quick small dinner, and then met up with my group I'd be traveling with in China. I basically gathered up a group of 7 people, some who didn't know each other, and told them about this independent travel tour company called The China Guide that I heard had good Beijing tours. It was a 2 day 2 night Beijing tour for about $280 per person and it was amazing! But we will get to that later…
We planned on going to the train station and attempting to catch the 7:30pm overnight sleeper train from Shanghai to Beijing, but after taking a while to navigate the public transport system, we would have to take the one at 9pm. We finally made our way to the station and for some reason left unknown, they didn't have a 9pm train on that specific day although they do usually every day. Our tour started the next morning at 8am (it's an 11 hour overnight-sleeper train ride to Beijing) and so I rushed to find wifi at a nearby Starbucks, and had to contact the company saying we were going to catch the next train out, the 7am bullet train that would arrive at noon. There was nothing we could do about it now, so we decided to go back to the ship and get ready to go out! We would have to wake up around 5am the next day so what's really the point of sleeping if we can sleep when on the train? So I went to the Garden Lounge onboard and many people were gathered about to head to a club called Muse, a club that seems to be in every country we've been to so far. The club was packed and poppin' and I'm glad I missed the train because everything in Beijing still worked out, but I also got to experience nightlife in Shanghai.
DAY 2
I slept for probably 2 hours that night, but on Semester at Sea, you aren't supposed to get any sleep when in port. We made our way to the train station by 7 and wanted to catch the 7:20 train, but everything was booked until the 8:25am train that arrived in Beijing at 2:45. That was the best we could do so I asked a nice random Chinese lady to call my tour guide, and I talked to her and everything was all good. We definitely dozed off on the bullet train but it was a very long and not too comfortable ride. We got off and saw a cute lady holding up a sign with my name on it, and she introduced herself as Helen, our tour guide. We right away went to a big van and got straight to the tour since we had to make up for lost time. We headed straight to the Temple of Heaven, this big cool place where the Emperor used to hang out back in the day.
It was absolutely freezing and windy at the Temple of Heaven and we then headed to the Hutong area to go on a rickshaw ride through this place with many close together small homes. Scout and I got on one and bundled up with the blanket they gave us, then we arrived at a home that we got assigned to for dinner. Helen knocked and this middle-aged couple answered the door and escorted us to a dining room (literally a room-it had a door) and began serving us dish after dish. I couldn't eat the majority of stuff besides rice, veggies and potatoes, so I filled up on that along with Vegetarian Scout and we thanked them and left. Chinese food looks good but so much of it has soy sauce and/or is breaded so it is not gluten free. I guess I will stick to PF Changs back home which has a gluten free menu. We rode the rickshaw back and went through a cute town with many bars and people performing onstage. That was it for day 1, and we all crashed that night since we had to be ready to go by 7:30 the next morning.
DAY 3
Breakfast this morning was complimentary and one of the most amazing breakfast I've ever seen at a hotel. It literally had everything plus traditional Chinese breakfast foods. I particularly loaded up on omelets and dragon fruit. We met up with Helen and the driver took us Tianmmen Square and The Forbidden City. We got out of the car at Tianmmen Square and once we went past it, got led to the Forbidden City which had so many temples everywhere that it got a bit overwhelming. There were so many and they all looked alike, so it was hard to distinguish which one was important or not. It was a 3 hour walk/tour from Tianmmen Square, through the Forbidden City, and up to Jingshan Park which had an amazing view of everything we had just walked through. We walked down from the park to meet the driver and saw many Chinese women doing a graceful dance in a park and a teacher leading it. So we decided to hop in the back and danced for a bit! It was so fun and relaxing and I'd definitely do that style of dancing if they had it in the US. I had Helen get a video of us dancing!
We drove for about an hour north to eat at an amazing restaurant right by the Great Wall. We then went to the wall and took a Cable Car to the top of the Mutianyu section, and were greeted by 2 cute puppies at the top. I was so confused because I saw no owner, but it was definitely a great start to my Great Wall adventures. We walked along the wall and took many pictures and it was an oddly blue-skied and sunny day even though there's usually snow there! I took my phone out and began blasting the Mulan soundtrack and it was just amazing. There weren't many people where we were and I just felt like I was on top of the world. We then found a snack shop on the wall and a girl in my tour group decided to drink a beer, and since I can't have a beer, I got the only alternative offered: a little thing of whiskey. It was absolutely nasty and we cheers-ed to being on the Great Wall but I got rid of it after 1 sip. It was then time to toboggan down the wall! It was so crazy and I have an amazingly awkward GoPro video of it since I stuffed the selfie stick in my shirt to keep it steady, but I will definitely cherish that video forever. I honestly was not expecting the Great Wall to be as amazing as it was but it turned out to be one of those really happy moments in life where you just can't stop smiling.
We left the wall and impulsively decided to attend a Chinese acrobat show which I heard was fantastic. So Helen got us seats towards the front and it turns out, everyone on the Beijing field program through Semester at Sea got tickets for that also. I ran into so many people! When in a country, Semester at Sea really takes over that country and you see people in the randomest places. The acrobat show was amazing of course, but the craziest part was the finale with the motorcycle cage. Just google it. You'll probably have a heart attack just watching a video of it, but seeing it in person was absolutely insane.
DAY 4
Our tour was over but we still had all day until our overnight train left to go to a city 1 hour outside of Hong Kong, where our ship had moved to. We walked 15 minutes down the road from our amazing hotel, The Penta Hotel, to the Pearl Market. This was where everyone sets up their stands of stuff and you are supposed to bargain with them for anything and everything. I got literally 6 pairs of Beats headphones for $5 each. There was great wifi in there so I FaceTimed my mom and she made me get them for literally our entire family and kept pointing to things she wanted as if she was there with me! After many hours there and purchasing way too many things I did not need, we grabbed lunch and made our way to the train station and went to our tiny compartment with 2 bunk beds for 4 people. I slept like a baby that night after we all had a laughing fit for like 30 minutes straight (don't ask). Overnight trains are so convenient and we got off the train around 7:30am, 11 hours later.
DAY 5
After getting off the overnight train, we took literally 6 hours to make it to the ship after trains, subways, and having to go through Hong Kong immigration since it's separate from China. It was so nice to see the MV Explorer and be home! Hong Kong was way warmer than China (in the 70s) and I instantly fell in love with the city. I hung out for a while and ate dinner, then went up to deck 7 to view the famous nightly Hong Kong light show. What I saw was basically random green lasers shooting from/to buildings, and I could not hear the music that went to it so it was not too great. It was still cool to see though since the Hong Kong skyline is beautiful.
I ended up talking to some guys I'd never met before on the ship and we all decided to take the ferry over to the island to this place called Lan Kwai Fong which is a huge nightlife district. There were a few streets on hills that were completely packed with bars and clubs, and the streets were packed with people. It was a fun night experiencing the Hong Kong nightlife! I took a taxi with some people back to the ship and hung out in the McDonalds right next to the ship. It was open 24/7 and many people were sleeping in there. I also met a few sweet Hong Kong girls around my age that were flirting with my friend Jordan and we bonded over our love for The Vampire Diaries.
DAY 6
I woke up early to go to Lantau Island to see the biggest Buddha in the world. Scout and I gathered Peri, Rick, and Carly and we went off to see it. There was a huge line that took over an hour, but we finally made it to the cable car thing that took us up and took 20 minutes to get to the top! The view was beautiful and some people were hiking all the way up these crazy mountains/hills! The Buddha was incredible but since we had to make it back for on-ship time, we were only up there for about 20 minutes and then rushed back to the ship.
I enjoyed every second of both China and Hong Kong. They both are so different than Japan, and even China and Hong Kong had different vibes. I don't think I would want to go back to China though, but I loved emerging into their culture and seeing similarities and differences from America.
CHINA PICTURES DESCRIPTION
1-Sydney, Mitchi and I exploring Shanghai with the famous Pearl Tower in the back
2-About to use a squat toilet for the first time
3-The Temple of Heaven
4-A sheep structure for Chinese New Year
5-Tianmmen Square
6-On top of the world at the Great Wall of China
7-Using my selfie stick on the great wall. It was such a beautiful day with not many people there
8-About to toboggan down the wall. It was about a 4 minute ride down!
9-Typical menu in China with a full turtle offered
10-Scout, Patti, Saskia and I in our tiny compartment in the sleeper train from Beijing-Hong Kong
11-Hong Kong city life
12-The beautiful Hong Kong skyline
13-Peri, Scout and I on Lantau Island in front of the world's biggest buddha
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