HELLO JAPAN!

AHHHHHHHH!  Japan was AMAZING!!  I know I updated this when we were in Tokyo but I am going to give a more detailed thing now! (and sorry if I repeat myself, I forget what I wrote when I updated it in Tokyo). 
So after we got off the ship, we went to Yokohoma station to cash in our railpasses.  Then we went to Tokyo and found our hostel.  Good ole Anne.  We lucked out there.  We were in a 10 person room, but it was only the 3 of us in it for the 2 nights we were there!! We got ready to go out and then went to find some place to eat.  We found this place to eat and when we got there, it hit how rough the language barrier was.  We had our little Japanese language sheet but the waiter was pointing to the prices and what they were on the menu, but it was ALL in Japanese… the price wasn’t even in numbers which it usually is at other places.  So we left that place and found this other restaurant where the prices were in numbers and there were pictures so all we had to do was point to them.  I got this like noodle thing with pork and vegetables in it.  Jamie and Tess got fried rice which they LOOOOOOOOVED.  We then went to central Tokyo and found this place for Happy hour and then went to an irish pub.  It was so funny because we were sitting in an irish pub, in Tokyo, watching male ice skating from 2007 and listening to rap and Taylor swift.  It was such a odd combination.  We left there and grabbed a train and it was PACKED!  I felt like a can of sardines and there were these Japanese men just laughing at us because we were so like… “uhhhhhhhhhh?”  Then we got back to Anne and crashed because it was a long day.
The next day, we got up and went to Akihabara which is the electronic district of Tokyo and just wandered around there.  Then we went to central Tokyo and saw the Imperial Palace.  After that, we went to Shinjuku and did some shopping there before going back to the hostel.  We then got ready and went to Roppongi where we ate at a TGIFridays (soooo American I know but we were going to go to this one restaurant, until we looked in and saw the chef with a straight up dead piglet in his hand and cleaning it with water it looked like).  After Friday’s we walked around and went into a bar where we made up 3 of the 4 people there.  It was hysterical.
The next morning, we got up early because we had to catch a train out of Tokyo station at 8:33am to go to Kyoto.  Our train ride was around 3 hours.  We got to Kyoto and dropped our bags off at the hotel because check in wasn’t until 2.  We found this little place to eat and then just wandered around central Kyoto and shopped and talked about what we wanted to do the rest of the day.  We checked into our hotel then around 2:30ish I guess, and then we all got showered and ready to go see the golden palace… until by the time we all got ready to go, it was literally MONSOONING out and we didn’t go ☹.  I’m upset about that but its whatever.  So then we just decided we would go to dinner and then go out.  We found this little tiny local restaurant and I had ramen!  It was noodles with scrambled eggs and seaweed in it in a broth.  Tess and Jamie got fried rice again. Hahaha.  After we ate there, we went to the conveyor belt sushi place.  Tess tried a lot of weird things, where as I stuck with an avacado roll (Jamie too), but I also tried a roll with I don’t know what in it, and a salmon one.  It was good, but I like when the salmon is wrapped in the rice and not just laying on top of it because that way I don’t feel the texture of the fish as much! After that, we went to a bar where a university from Kyoto rugby team was!  And they sat with us and we talked about Mariah carey, and Michael Jackson (who they love) and Meg Ryan who they like too. 
The next morning, we caught a train to Hiroshima.  That was about 2 hours ish.  Maybe a little more.  When we got there we were in a station looking at a map and a guy came up to us and brought us to the information center and when he left us he each gave us a paper crane.  We went to the Atomic Bomb Dome and were walking around there when this lady came up to us and told us she would give us a free tour of some sites but it was going to be quick because she had to go home and start cooking dinner.  She took us to this statue and I wish I could understand what she was saying but she made us feel it because it used to be smooth but it was rough now because of the radiation.  There was also a shadow on the face of the statue that represented something but I couldn’t understand what.  We then went to a cemetery where the stones I believe all survived the blast but were chipped because they all fell over when the bomb dropped.  She also took us to the place where the bomb actually exploded over a hospital.  That was the craziest part, that we were standing at the actual place the bomb exploded.  After that, we went back to the park and walked around and went to the Children’s Peace Park where all the paper cranes are.  It is for Sadako Sasaki, who died when she was 12 due to radiation from the atomic bomb.  It’s said that you fold 1,000 cranes, you get a wish, and she only folded 644 before her death.  There, we put our paper cranes down with the others. 
After Hiroshima, we went back to Kobe to meet the boat and get ready to go out.  Some place was having a Semester at Sea party where everyone was so we went there.
The next day, me, Jamie and Tess explored Kobe a little and got a Kobe beef lunch!  It was AMAZING!  Then we did this awesome photo-booth thing and then went back to the ship.  The ship pulled out of Kobe at 8 last night, and we are now headed for Shanghai, China!  We will be there on Tuesday and are there for a whole week!
Alright well I’m going to go!  I have dinner with my extended family tonight and then I am going to go to post-port which is where people share their stories about Japan, and then I have a meeting for Sea Olympics.  Busy night!