Greetings, everyone!
Well, we have left India and are now sailing through the Indian Ocean, soon to be in the Pacific! I have delayed writing this email, but I decided that I need to get it sent off since you are all probably curious as to what happened in India. Well, the reason I didn't want to write this email is that I had some strange feelings about India that I felt were not normal. However, in speaking to many, many other SAS students I have discovered, surprisingly, that a large portion of them feel the same as I do.
I was completely unprepared for what I experienced in India. Or, perhaps a better way to say it is that I was, in fact, too prepared. The India that I experienced was not at all the India that people had told me I would experience, and I left with a strange feeling inside - guilt. I feel guilty that India did not affect me the way I thought it should have. It affected me, of course, but so has every country that I have been to. India has left me feeling heartless and guilty, simply because I am not experiencing the distress and helplessness that so many told me that I would feel.
We arrived in Chennai (formerly Madras) on Saturday morning.
"You can smell India before you can see it" was one of the things I had been told, multiple times. I had also been told to bring an extra pair of shoes with me, because India would be so dirty I would want to throw them away afterwards. - "India will assault every one of your senses," they told me. You will see things you have never seen, beggars on the street will be grabbing you, it will smell horrible, etc - "It will be overwhelming, and full of contradictions. You will struggle not to cry." Dr. Doug informed us during pre-port that 80 percent of us would get "Delhi belly." In fact, we had no classes the day after India, because we would all be sick, not to mention mentally exhausted. - I had been excited about India until about a week before we arrived. Then, I began to wonder if I really wanted to go. I was scared, and not sure that this was an experience I wanted to have.
The morning we arrived, Yumika and I woke early to go up on deck and watch the ship dock, as we always do. "Well," Yumika said to me, "we can see India� but I can't smell it." "Maybe we are still too far away," I said. Later on, while waiting in line outside (the customs officials decided they needed to see each and every one of us, rather than doing all of our passports at once, as they did in the other countries) we still could not smell India. "Maybe it's because we're in the harbor," I told her. "It will probably be worse in the city� there aren't any people in this direct vicinity to litter or pollute." There was a smog cloud over the city, I noted.
It was after 1 PM before the ship was cleared and we were able to get off. Five people had trouble with their visas (they ended up never being able to get off the ship in India), and we were waiting with one of the girls to find out what would happen, so we didn't leave until almost 3 PM.
I braced myself before I walked off the ship. I took a deep breath, composed myself, and stepped into the sunlight. As we walked through the harbor area and closer to the street, I began to become nervous. I thought about what the dean had told us the night before. I didn't think I was prepared for the mob that would be waiting for us when we exited the gates� the beggars, the starving children, all of them grabbing at me. However, when I walked through the gate, the only people that "swarmed" me were the rickshaw drivers.
My roommate Janelle and I walked down the street a little ways before finding a 3-wheeled rickshaw, as we had been told to do. We also agreed on a price beforehand, as we had been told. We asked him to take us to an open-air market. "No shopping malls!" Janelle demanded emphatically.
I later learned that we were some of a very small minority of students who had actually gotten to an open-air market rather than a shopping center or the expensive emporiums that the drivers would take you to whether you wanted to go or not. They received a kickback from the store, maybe a hundred rupees, about two dollars, simply for bringing you there, even if you didn't buy anything. Every single one of us ended up at at least one of those stores while in India, sometimes multiple times because of different drivers who all wanted the money.
Anyway, Janelle and I spent a few hours walking around the market (our driver insisted on staying and driving us back and he followed us everywhere we went). It was interesting to see the market. At one point, we walked through a huge line that stretched on until it went around a corner and we couldn't tell where the end of it was. As we crossed through the line to the other side (it cut down the middle of the market) someone in line asked us where we were from. The United States, we told him. Houston, he asked. No, we said.
We asked what he was waiting in line for. To see God, he replied. He pointed to the front of the line, which led up some steps into a brightly decorated temple. God is up there. We walked up towards the temple, but could not see inside. We asked our driver. Apparently there was a Hindu god in the temple. At least, that was what we understood him to be saying (his English wasn't the best). There was also an elephant near the temple. This was something we got used to seeing in India� they were known as the blessing elephants, and you put a coin in their trunk and they hit you over the head with their trunk, blessing you. I never actually did this. I was going to, until my friend Tara got covered in elephant snot and commented that the elephants weren't exactly gentle with their blessing "taps".
Although I saw more cows walking the streets in India than I saw western people, I never felt uncomfortable. All the glances we received were purely out of curiosity, and I never felt threatened. In fact, India is the country that I have felt the safest in so far. It was more modern than I was expecting� billboards all over, traffic clogging the streets. It smelled bad when we drove over rivers or other water, but that was the only time. (Well, other than the normal bad smell of exhaust and pollution that is in any city.) There wasn't sewage running down the streets like I had expected� at some places in the slums there was a little, but no more than I'd seen in Brazil or Africa.
Anyway, after a bit more "shopping" (really just walking around) we returned to the ship to have dinner and shower because I had to meet my group to leave on my homestay. I did not participate in one of the Rotarian homestays in Chennai. I went to a rural village called Erode and did a homestay there. In order to get to Erode, we had to take an approximately seven-hour-long train ride. The trip to the station was interesting, with our leaders trying to keep us all together and doing a head count every single time we moved more than ten feet to a new locale.
The exciting thing about the train is that it was a sleeper train, which I have never been on before. The group of students I sat with were really nice, and although the train left at 11PM it was after midnight before I climbed up into the top bunk (actually kind of hard to do) and tried to settle in for the night. The sleeper train was fun, but not something I am dying to experience again. Three days later when I returned to Chennai sleep-deprived from waking up every time I tried to roll over in the narrow space and with a neck, shoulders, and upper back that are still incredibly sore (I miss my chiropractor!) I decided it would be a while before I did another sleeper train.
Well, when we awoke the next morning, we were pulling into Erode. We then divided into two groups. I was in the smaller group, and headed off with nine other students to Gobichettipalayam (which quickly became referred to as G-town, for obvious reasons).
I really lucked out. The kids I was with were great. We all got along really well, and they were all very respectful and didn't complain even when none of us had showered in three days. We also had no trip leaders, and therefore no authority figures constantly reminding us "we have to wake up early tomorrow, you should get to sleep" etc. It was nice to prove that we all were mature enough and (luckily, the group I was with) considerate enough to not be disrespectful and represent our country and the program well.
Our host family was wonderful (and incredibly large). We stayed in a really big house and the family was very kind. The food they served us was wonderful. They all stood around with different dishes and any time one of us started to run out of something on our plate they would rush over and give us more. In India one does not use silverware. It is also rude to eat with your left hand. So there we are, trying to rip bread in our right hands, scoop up rice and chutney, etc. It got kind of messy sometimes, but it was fun.
Our hosts ran a school, so the first morning we went to the school and watched the boys chant/pray. It was Sunday, so school was not in session, but the students that were there (I think they are boarded at the school) showed us around.
We went to a market where we walked around and looked at all the different fruits and herbs and things that were there. It was interesting� very colorful! And it all looked wonderful. Then we went to a farm where we walked around for a while and later watched as one of the men who owned the farm climbed a tree to get coconuts for all of us to drink. We then went to a sugarcane place and got to see every step that goes into turning sugarcane into actual sugar. It was pretty neat, and let me tell you� real sugar looks and tastes nothing like the processed stuff that we know as sugar in the U.S.
We had a late lunch at the home of our host family's sister. It was wonderful. Then they had us all lie down for a while and take a nap. After our nap, we headed out again, this time to a textile factory where we saw them dyeing the cloth and all the different steps that went into getting it ready to be exported.
We then returned to the house we had lunch at and our host family showed us their pictures from weddings and other things, and then we had a long discussion with them ranging from everything about their society to what they thought of the war against Iraq. (Let me tell you, they did not seem to think very highly of Bush or his decisions, or some of the things our country has done in the past. They were very opinionated about everything. It was really interesting.) Then we had a late dinner and headed back to the original house where we would be staying the night. Once again, I stayed up late talking with my new friends (about 12:30), which couldn't really be helped, seeing as I was sleeping in a bed with two other people.
The next morning we met up with the other group of students at a school in Erode, where we had breakfast. Then we traveled on to Bhavani Temple, where we spent about an hour and a half going into the different temples and learning about the gods that they were for.
This temple is on a spot where three rivers meet (although one of the "rivers" was an underground spring) and any place that three rivers meet is considered to be very holy. In fact, our hosts told us, this could be compared to about as close a place that existed in the south comparable to the Ganges in the North. Indeed, we saw people bathing in the shallow river, and we learned that many people have their ashes dumped into the river after they die. However, I did not think it had quite the effect that the Ganges and Varanasi would have had on me.
After the temple we went to a carpet-weaving center, where everybody bought things. Since this was the place they were made, the prices had not been marked up. I myself bought a bed cover (yellow) that would fit a double bed and four pillow cases (red, purple, green, and pink) that came out to the equivalent of about twelve dollars. We then returned to the school for lunch.
After lunch, we went to a school for physically handicapped children. Most of the children had deformed feet or legs that made it hard for them to walk, although some had other ailments such as holes in their cleft palettes. The children were incredibly sweet, and they preformed many things for us, including a karate demonstration, a skit, and chanting. In return, we performed for them.
We had been aware this would happen, but we had not prepared much ahead of time. Ever resourceful, one of the students did gymnastics, one did Kung Fu, we all sang to them (the national anthem� something we all knew. We were going to sing John Lennon's "Imagine" also, but it didn't happen). We also helped bring the rain to India (snapping, patting your legs, etc to make sounds of a storm), and a couple of other things (like teaching them to do the wave).
The kids were thrilled. They said that Semester at Sea had never preformed that much in return for them. We had a short time to play with the kids and then we went to another school. Then the kids there (six 13-year-olds) did a dance for us to traditional Indian music and it was so amazing! They did an awesome job, even though they had only had two days to prepare.
We then visited a Sidda factory where they make herbal medicines. We got to see all the different herbs and every step that goes into actually turning them into pills. This is one of only a few places in the world that makes the types of medicines that they do, and they are the largest exporter of them in the world.
We then had a short meditation session, then went to dinner and back to the train station, where we said goodbye to our hosts. Another night on the sleeper train, and we arrived in Chennai at about six the next morning.
After taking a wonderful shower (any shower feels wonderful after walking around in 90-degree heat for two days without one), I met my friend Helen and we went into the city to a place called T. Nadar to do some shopping. Then we returned to the ship to leave on a trip through SAS. We went to a lecture on poverty and gender issues, and then went to the "slums" to walk around. Even here, I found that what I witnessed was not as horrible as what I was expecting. Maybe it is just hard to see such horrible things when you are surrounded by such beautiful, kind people. After returning to the ship and having dinner, I was exhausted after my last three nights of barely any sleep. I decided to stay in for the night, and take it easy.
The last day in Chennai, my friend Yumika was supposed to be returning from her own homestay, and we had made plans to go to one of the famous Indian movies we had heard so much about. The film industry in India is huge, and the movies are a grand experience: people clap, boo at the characters, everything. We were both excited to be going. However, the time she was supposed to meet me came and went, and I sat on the ship, wondering what had happened. Finally it was the time that we had agreed that if she weren't there, I would go do something on my own. (I later found out that she hadn't stood me up - it was a situation beyond her control).
However, all my friends were on trips or already out in the city. I went and sat next to the gangway, waiting for a group of people that I would ask to join (I actually did this in Brazil, also, and it worked out well then). After sitting there for about 45 minutes with no prospects (I didn't feel like asking the group of snobby sorority girls, the professors, or the guys who were discussing about how their time in India so far had consisted of getting drunk and passing out on the beach. I figured if I went with the first or last group I listed, some of us would not end up coming back to the ship alive� and I don't mean me).
Finally, I saw my friend Jon walking out with another girl I knew. I jumped up, asked if I could join them, and set out into the city for the final day. We went to Spenser's, the mall in Chennai, where we met up with an Indian boy that my friends had introduced to me the day before. We shopped around a little, and went to an Internet caf�, and then returned to the ship. Right as I walked into the port area, Yumika and two other friends were walking out, so I turned around and went right back to Spenser's again. Today was the only time that I had actually gone somewhere and seen other SAS kids, maybe because I hadn't gone to the mall before now, but it was swarming with them!
When we got back to the dock, Yumika had taken out 40 rupees to give the rickshaw driver (which is a little less than a dollar) in addition to what we had agreed on, when a woman ran over and snatched the money from her and ran about ten feet away. She stopped, looked at us, and counted the money. As we got out of the rickshaw she ran into the street and then away. It wasn't a big deal, it was only 40 rupees, and the lady definitely needed it more than we did. But it was a surprise how quickly it happened and it was kind of sad to see. Actually, the end of our last day was the only time since we were in India that the harbor had had a large amount of people in it. It wasn't as many as they had warned us about, but there were some children begging and pushy people trying to sell us things or get into their rickshaws.
So, I left India. I left it without the feelings that my life would never be the same again. I left without the feelings that I had witnessed horrible atrocities. I left it without the images of dirty children begging me for change haunting my dreams. I left with a feeling of guilt that I did not feel these things. It changed me as much as every port has� but it was not the change I had expected. I left thinking that I would like to return someday� for many reasons. Considering I hadn't been sure I wanted to go the first time, that was a surprise to me. I left India with my shoes� the extra pair of old shoes that I had brought, expecting to be so filthy I would throw them out. I laughed, thinking my shoes had been dirtier on my safari
So, I guess I do need more time to evaluate my feelings of India, just like they told me I would. I need to evaluate why I didn't have those experiences - did I just not witness what other people did, did it not affect me the same way, or was everything simply exaggerated beforehand? It's almost as if no one was willing to admit India hadn't affected them like everyone said it would, so they played along, telling their horror stories and exaggerating their experiences. Interestingly enough, the majority of people I have talked to seem to feel the same as I do� and I know that this ship is not full of heartless, uncaring people. So, I guess I'll just have to wait and see�
I hope you are all well, and you're staying warm and safe during the Colorado blizzards. (By the way, thanks to the THREE people who all sent me pictures/comics of snow "just in case you forgot what it looks like").
Only six weeks until I'm back. I can't believe it is that soon!
Best wishes,
Christina
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Japan
Nagasaki � April 6, 2003
Hey everyone! Sorry if this email is shorter than usual. I have to write it quickly because we had Korea Seminar Day all day today. I want to get this sent off before we get to Korea tomorrow so that I don�t have to send a really, really long email later.
Well, the first thing that I should let everyone know about is another (yes, another) itinerary change. While we were in Nagasaki, we were able to have a brief inspection of the ship, which was enough to allow us to be granted an extension to the date by which we must have the full inspection. Therefore, we are going to be able to arrive in the States on our original date (May 6). Two new ports have been added to fill the extra time. Our (hopefully) final schedule is this: Pusan, South Korea from April 7-11; Osaka, Japan from April 14-18; Seward, Alaska from April 29-30; and Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, from May 4-5; then Seattle on May 6. All right, on to the stories of Japan.
We arrived in Nagasaki, Japan on April 1, and you wouldn�t believe what a relief it was to finally make it somewhere. We didn�t want to believe we would actually be somewhere until we actually were there, lest they change the itinerary again. The first day was a busy one. I would like to say right away that somewhere in my unconscious mind I must have certainly known what I was doing when I became friends with Yumika, who is from Japan. I would have struggled quite a bit in this country had it not been for my indispensable friend and her ability to speak Japanese.
The first day we set out in search of a bank to exchange our money (not an easy task� Nagasaki is not a very big tourist city, and Semester at Sea has actually never gone there before. Many of the banks we found would not exchange foreign currency.) We then headed to China Town (hey, we figured if we couldn�t actually GO to China, this was the next best thing, right?). It was fun, but it was a lot smaller than I had been expecting. Actually, Nagasaki itself was smaller than I had been expecting. After China Town we went out to lunch and had Champa noodles (kind of in a soup) and Saraoudon (noodles and vegetables). Yumika�s language abilities came in handy. Without her I would have been randomly pointing at some Chinese characters on the menu and very easily could have ended up with something that I had no idea what it was. It was really good, although it was kind of� interesting� looking. We started talking with a businessman and when he left the restaurant he put 2000 yen on the table - it nearly covered our entire meal
After lunch we jumped on the tram and took it to the outskirts of town to visit the Atomic Bomb Museum and Peace Park. We visited the hypocenter of the bomb, and you would never be able to believe today that it has once been a site of such horror. In the hypocenter was a beautiful park in which all the Cherry Blossoms were in bloom. There were statues in memory all around the park. You could tell Nagasaki isn�t a tourist city, as many of the sculptures had placards only in Japanese. Everywhere you went there were chains full of paper cranes. At the base of every memorial stood flowers and bottles of water for the victims, who had all complained of an enormous thirst directly after the bomb exploded. In fact, the quest to quench the thirst was often what kept these people alive, and as soon as they drank water many of them died.
The bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki was actually more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima (the Nagasaki bomb was a plutonium bomb, while the Hiroshima bomb was uranium). However, due to the fact that Nagasaki has so many hills and the bomb was almost three miles off target, fewer people died in Nagasaki than in Hiroshima. However, the immediate death toll in Nagasaki (only from the explosion, not counting those who died in later days, weeks, months and years from radiation, cancer, etc.) was 50,000.
We then went into the museum, which was wonderfully put together. I was struck and deeply moved while walking through the museum that it was strictly a memorial; no blame was placed on any country and no lingering grudges seemed to exist. After the museum we walked to the HUGE statue that was built in memory. It is a man sitting on a chair looking straight ahead, left foot on the floor and right foot cross-legged. The left arm was straight out to the left side with a flat palm, and the right hand pointed straight up towards the sky with one finger pointing. I wasn�t sure exactly what the pose was for, but it was a moving statue, sitting in a reflecting pool.
After Peace Park we went to an Internet caf� (buy something to eat or drink and you can have free internet for as long as you want!) and then went back to the ship. For dinner we decided to do one of Yumika�s favorite things from when she was in high school - convenience stores. Convenience stores are much better in Japan, you get a bad connotation when you hear that word, but we actually got a big selection of different things that were all really good. We sat outside the ship and ate. (It was actually quite cool the whole time, and cloudy and rainy also.)
The second day we decided to leave Nagasaki and go to Fukuoka. Japan is composed of several islands (I hope you all knew that). The main island is called Honshu and it�s where Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, etc. are. The smaller island to the south that Nagasaki is located on is called Kyushu, and the largest city on Kyushu is Fukuoka. Anyway, we went to the train station in the morning and bought tickets to Fukuoka. (Japan is expensive! Even more so than the U.S.!) The train ride was just over two hours. I went with my friends Yumika, Jon, Victoria, Helen, and Martha.
When we got there, we went out to lunch at a Ramen noodles place because Fukuoka is famous for its Ramen noodles. The place we went to was a lot of fun. It totally catered to the solitary, business culture of Japan. There were two long rows of tables with stools in front of them. Each stool was partitioned off so that you were in your own little compartment. The first thing you did before you even went in to the restaurant was to buy the tickets saying what food you wanted from a vending machine type thing out front. Then you stood in line and when you got to the front, there was a board with a light for every stool. When one of the lights lit up, it meant that stool was open, so the next person in line would go to it. Then you gave them your ticket along with a sheet on which you specified how you wanted the soup (i.e. noodle firmness, how much garlic, do you want pork in it, etc.). Then you get your soup and eat pretty quickly so that the next person can come in. It was really good, and although eating with chopsticks is pretty hard, by this point I was starting to get the hang of it.
The rest of the day we spent just walking around the city, doing shopping, etc. We went to a shrine and it was one of the most peaceful places I have been in my entire life. We also tried to go to the Fukuoka Tower, but it was a failure� and a very cold one at that. We made it to Fukuoka Tower, but it wasn�t the building that we had thought it was going to be, and it was probably in the low 50�s or high 40�s at this time. And we were walking around at about 6:00 p.m. trying to figure out how to get back to the subway station. Anyway, we finally figured it out and went back to the main part of Fukuoka and had dinner and drinks in one of Yumika�s favorite restaurants. We caught the late train back to Nagasaki (hotels are expensive!) and arrived a little after midnight.
The third day our water was unexpectedly turned off, and since Yumika hadn�t showered yet, she didn�t want to go out (I don�t mind, she said. It is Japan. I have seen it. She wasn�t too happy that we ended up going to Japan twice, and I can�t say I blame her. I don�t know how happy I would have been if two ports on SAS were in the States. Wait, I guess now there are two ports in the States� hmmm� I guess it�s different, though, when one is Alaska and the other is just where you fly home from.). Anyway, since I was Yumika-less for the day and didn�t have any major plans anyway, I spent the morning wandering around Nagasaki. I made some phone calls home and talked to some local people on the street and went into some shops, but mostly I just walked around and observed Japan.
It was nice that I was able to do that; I think that Japan is the safest country that we have visited yet. I never thought twice about walking around by myself or about carrying a purse rather than using a money belt. I went back to the ship to pick Yumika up later in the afternoon, and we walked downtown to the post office. Then we went to a bookstore and then back to the ship to pick up some friends. We were supposed to go out for Brian�s birthday and my birthday together. But I didn�t feel like going out with them because it was mainly for Brian�s birthday and it was all his friends. I didn�t feel like it was right for me to go out with them for my birthday also.
So, I had dinner on the ship with Diana and Kate (the other two girls who go to Mizzou) and then we walked into town to go see a movie. We ended up seeing Catch Me If You Can (in English with Japanese subtitles). I wanted to see Lord of the Rings since I couldn�t get anyone in the U.S. to go see it with me when it came out. But since they had both already seen it a couple of times I was overruled.
The next day was my birthday. Yumika had plans with a friend who was from Nagasaki that night, but we spent the day doing some things we had wanted to get done. We did some shopping (yay for the 100 yen store), and went out for lunch. Then we went to Glover Gardens, a Buddhist temple, and a Confucian temple. We went back to the ship for dinner and then Yumika went out with her friend and I wrote all my postcards home.
I decided I didn�t want to spend my twentieth birthday on the ship, so although I had no one to go out with, I decided I would go to the movies by myself. I walked downtown and bought my ticket (movies here are funny� they actually have you pick the seat that you want to sit in when you buy the ticket. You can�t just go in and choose a seat, you have an �assigned� one). Two guys from the ship (Gabe and Joel) happened to be at the same movie and they invited me over to sit with them and we watched the movie together. It was nice because they had both also read the Lord of the Rings books and so it was fun to have people to discuss the movie and books with. We were almost back at the ship when they learned it was my birthday, and they offered to take me to Mister Donut or the convenience store down the street (the only two places still open at 1:00 a.m.). So, even though my birthday wasn�t spent at the Great Wall as planned, it turned out okay in the end.
The last day in Nagasaki was a short one. On ship time was earlier than usual because Nagasaki is a daylight port and so we had to leave while it was still light. Yumika and I went to an Internet caf� in the morning and had lunch. Then we met her friend Kaori who is from Nagasaki. We went to Mister Donut and sat and talked for awhile, then went and had our pictures taken (you know those machines that take instant pictures of you and print them out on a little strip of paper? Those are HUGE in Japan. We went to a place that had tons of them, all with different backgrounds and things. You put the money in and it takes about eight pictures of you, and the camera slides around so you can get different angles. Then you go to the other side and pick the four best pictures. Then you �draw� on them on a computer screen. There are different stamps and colors and things you can add, and then the pictures get printed out). Then we went and bought some comics (�Manga�) because Yumika needed them for one of her classes. Then we walked back to the ship and it was time to leave Nagasaki.
I really liked Japan a lot. Aside from the fact that it was so expensive, I am not at all disappointed that I am going to be back in Japan in about a week. Of all the ports we�ve been to, I think Japan was a good one to end up in twice. If Japan weren�t expensive, it would be so great - the Japanese are the most fashionable people ever. I could have spent so much money! They especially had lots of cute jackets and shoes (all made for little feet, though). Anyway, I will be in Korea tomorrow, so I guess you can expect another update in a little less than a week. Hope you are all well!
Christina
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OSAKA Japan
Sent: April 22, 2003 - 4:58 AM
Well, everyone, I�m hoping to finally get this email written today. The ship is rocking like I�ve never seen it before- the waves are over twenty feet high. If I was in a smaller boat, this would be �The Perfect Storm�-esque. They have closed off all the doors outside and no one can go out because it is too dangerous; the elevators were shut down, and they have hung �barf bags� from the railing in every hallway. A lot of people are sick, and one girl broke her hand in a slamming door. It�s actually quite scary.
I went up to the Navigator�s Lounge to take pictures (I didn�t end up getting any because there would have been a reflection in the glass. It was too dark even though it was a little after noon). There was snow/rain/sleet coming down and the sea was just roiling with waves topped with a foaming white. You would see them break on the bow of the ship, and water would come crashing over the front. Our room is creaking so loud it sounds like it will fall apart (I barely slept at all last night) and when the front end of the ship comes really far out of the water there is a horrible groaning sort of noise (think Titanic when the ship started to sink and it rose straight up before breaking in two). Then, when it comes down it sort of �jumps� a little bit.
Somehow (knock on wood) I have managed to keep from getting seasick, although my roommate was not as lucky. I think it may have to do with trying to stay off my feet as much as possible today (not hard to do. When walking down the hall or the stairs, the ship tilts one way and you feel like you are climbing a mountain. Then it rocks back and you are practically running. That doesn�t even mention the side-to side rocking. I chose to stay in my room as much as possible. I also took Dramamine this morning just in case). The rumor is that the waves are a nine on a scale of one to twelve. The highest we have had so far was six or seven. I don�t know if that is true, but I guess I will find out tomorrow probably. Anyway, the point of that big long explanation was that they cancelled our last day of classes and our CORE final tomorrow and moved them to the next day. So, since I know have a whole day free tomorrow to study, I figured I should get this email out to my eager fans. ;)
Well, after just two short days at sea after Korea (not nearly enough time to recover, considering we had classes both days), we found ourselves back in Japan again, this time on the main island, Honshu, in the city of Osaka. It took nearly until noon to clear the ship, so I had lunch on the ship rather than trying to go out and find a place to eat. Then I set off with a few other girls in search of a bank to exchange money. This proved to be harder than we thought, as we all had traveler�s checks and most places would only exchange cash. An hour or two and quite a few subway stops (and one transfer) later, I walked out of the bank with my Japanese Yen safely in my bag. I happened to be next to a huge department store, so I went in and played with some of the high-tech gadgets like binoculars and digital cameras. Later, I heard from a friend why Japan is so advanced and has better and cheaper technology than the U.S.- they are living in the future! That�s right, folks, they are a whole thirteen hours ahead of us! That is why everything technological happens there first. J
Anyway, I bought some film, since I was starting to run low, and then just wandered around the city for a while. One week every year, depending on when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom, there is a festival in Osaka. This year it just happened to coincide with the time we were in Osaka. I knew which subway stop it was at, so I decided to try and find it. Well, after exiting the subway, it was nearly impossible to find the stupid festival. I wandered in the wrong direction in three different ways, walking all the way to a completely different stop in each direction. The last direction I tried was no better, and after crossing bridges over two different rivers, I found myself at a subway stop that was even farther off-course than any of the others had been. I decided to take the subway back to the ship and have dinner there. After dinner I explored the port area but came back early to take a shower and go to bed because I was still feeling a bit sick from the cold I left Korea with, and I had an early morning the next day.
On day two I woke up a little bit before five in order to get ready and be outside at my bus by quarter after. I spent the morning on the bus on the way to Hiroshima. The �countryside� of Japan that passed by outside my window was beautiful. We had boxed breakfasts and lunches from the ship, and we arrived at Hiroshima at about 10 a.m. The first thing we did was walk through the peace park. We saw the bridge that had been the original target on the day the bomb was dropped; it had hit its mark almost exactly; it was only a few hundred meters off. We also saw the �a-bomb dome,� a building that was previously the Industrial Promotion Hall. It was the only building that survived the blast, although it was left almost completely in ruins. We saw the peace flame, which is a flame that will burn until the last nuclear weapon on earth has been destroyed, and then be extinguished. We also saw the children�s memorial, which was built in memory of Sadako (remember the children�s book, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes?). The memorial was surrounded with cases containing thousands of paper cranes. We had all folded a crane on the bus ride up, and we placed our cranes into one of the little shelters.
When we went into the actual museum we received headsets so that we could hear everything in English, and we almost went to a short half-hour movie. The first thing we saw when we walked into the museum was a sign stating, �We are opposed to the war on Iraq.� This museum was much more graphic than the one in Nagasaki, and also much larger. It was even more anti-war, had a lot more personal stories, and although it showed more on how a nuclear bomb works, it showed less on the status of nuclear weapons today. I was touched by a display that showed that all of the successive mayors of Hiroshima have sent telegrams protesting every single nuclear weapons test since the 1960s to the country responsible for the test. Here is a scary fact for all of you: some of the hydrogen bombs that we have today are over 1000 times more powerful than the one that was dropped on Hiroshima. That is like 15,000 tons of TNT!
The most chilling part of the whole day, however, was not anything that I actually saw in the museum. When I turned in my headset and started to walk out of the museum, I stopped when I saw a display containing newspaper articles with pictures of President Bush that were discussing the war with Iraq. There were letters on the board from children around the world who had visited the museum and felt that the war was a horrible thing. Then I looked in the comment books that were next to the display. One of the books was for people to write their names and countries and any brief comments about the museum, and another was solely for comments. I felt a chill go through me as I flipped through the comment book and saw many comments that were anti-American, such as one stating that the museum just �proved how evil Americans are.� Many of the comments adamantly stated that the U.S. needed to stop the war against Iraq. Not all of the comments were like that, of course; the majority of them weren�t. But it was still a weird thing to see. I think that although I had realized that Americans are hated in many other countries, the peace museum was not where I had expected to run into such solid proof, and I had been unprepared for it to happen in Japan, of all the countries we had visited. It was the first time that I was able to see clearly how some other people view Americans, and I am still not quite sure what to think about it all.
When we left the museum we went outside to have our boxed lunches in the park and walk around a little bit. It was a beautiful day, the nicest since we had arrived in Japan the first time a few weeks earlier. There were lots of Japanese school children on field trips to the park, and many of them stopped us to ask us questions. After we left the museum and park we took a trip to a traditional garden. However, the garden was Chinese, not Japanese, but it was still beautiful. It was nice to walk around in after being cooped up on the bus and in the museum all day. After the garden we loaded back into the buses and started the five-hour trip back home, stopping en route for dinner. When we returned to the ship I met a few friends who were headed out to the Ferris wheel. Our ship was docked right next to the largest Ferris wheel in the world. We only went around once, but it still took fifteen minutes, although it WAS going pretty slow. We had a nice view of the city from above. After the Ferris wheel, it was pretty late and I was tired from my long day of traveling, so I headed back to the ship.
The third day I decided to try to find the cherry blossom festival again. Some people had told me it was right along the river. I had passed over two rivers and not seen it, but I figured it was worth trying to go back to find again. This time when I exited the subway and still didn�t know which way to go, I decided to walk back to the rivers I had crossed. Then I would just walk along one river up in the direction of the subway stop it was near, and I would be bound to find it. Well, I hadn�t realized how far I had walked before getting to the rivers, and it took me almost 40 minutes to get back to them. The walk up along the river was really pretty, and so I took my time on it. Eventually I got to a point where I could see an overpass up ahead with mass amounts of people on it. I walked a few more minutes in that direction, and then joined the mob of people, figuring that they must be going to the festival. I was right!
The festival turned out to be great. I couldn�t believe how many people were there. There were hundreds, perhaps thousands of people at the festival, all walking down this narrow little walkway and taking pictures of the blossoms. It was so amusing. I started taking pictures of the people taking pictures. There were so many people you could barely move. Along another strip, next to the one with the blossoms, there were vendors with all kinds of food and games. I walked up and down the street looking at them all, and finally ended up buying chicken on a stick for lunch and sitting down to watch the people as they passed. Then I had ice cream and walked around a little more. I met a Japanese guy who was studying photography (he came up to me because he thought that I might be too, because of my camera) and I walked around with him for a little while and we talked about all the places that each of us had been.
After the festival I walked around that part of the city, stopping by at Osaka castle on the way. I went back to the ship for dinner, and then headed back downtown with Katie, Diana, Jessica, and Caitlin. It was a typical big city with neon lights and lots of people. We walked around, looking in a few stores but mostly at the people and the atmosphere. We went to a place that had a smaller replica of the Statue of Liberty and was supposed to be like America. The shops were all vintage clothes shops and since it was late and everything was closed, it was a bit creepy. I laughed with my friends when I realized that the place I had felt most unsafe in Japan was in the part that mimics America. We walked around a bit longer, but everything was closed, and after finding ourselves in the �bad� part of town (i.e. we were trying to figure out why every store had stylish young Japanese men in suits out front with earpieces in their ears. We eventually realized the shops were �selling� women�) we decided to head back to the ship.
The last subway runs at 11:30 and we didn�t want to get caught. I had been planning to go to Kyoto or Nara on my fourth day in Japan (both two places everyone said we must visit; very culturally rich with temples, shrines, museums, etc. Nara also has a deer park that is a huge tourist attraction). On the way back to the ship, however, I saw my friend Gabe and started talking with him. He was on his way back from visiting some missionary friends he had met online who live in Japan. They had told him about a place called Koyasan up in the mountains and told him that it was somewhere he had to visit. We talked about it for while and it sounded really interesting and beautiful and when he invited me along I didn�t hesitate to change my plans.
So, on the fourth day I set off in the morning for Koyasan with Gabe, Johnathan, and Joel. Koyasan is located southeast of Osaka, on Mount Koya, and is the home of the Shingon school of Esoteric Buddhism. According to �A Guide to Koyasan,� a pamphlet that I received while there, �There are more than two thousand temples, shrines, towers, stupas, and assembly buildings inside the mountain.� The practice of Esoteric Buddhism is described as �a way of discovering the mysterious kingdom within our human structures and creating the harmony between man and nature.�
We did not arrive in Koyasan until about one-thirty in the afternoon The train ride took a long time and we had lots of transfers, but it was absolutely beautiful. After we got off the last train we had to take a cable car up the mountain, after which we ate lunch and found a place to stay for the night. The temple, or Shukubo, where we decided to spend the night was called Muryokoin, and was run by Buddhist monks. It was a traditional place to stay, and we had to take off our shoes and wear slippers that they provided. You took the slippers off outside your room. They served our meals to us on a little table in our room, around which we sat on the floor on pillows. We ate Shojin-ryori, which were vegetarian food - no meat, fish, onions, or garlic. At the end of the day, they moved the table to the side and brought in big fluffy futon mattresses for us to sleep on and warm, soft blankets (it got cold during the night!) The walls were paper-thin and you could hear everything around you, and our doors and windows did not lock, just slid open and shut.
After we had gotten situated in our room, we set out to explore the small town. Unfortunately, the English-speaking monk who lived in the Shukubo was busy that day and was not able to show us around or give us any background. First we went to Kongobuji, the central monastery and walked around there for a little while. This was also where the big bell was located that was rung with a log hanging from the ceiling.
Next, we walked to the opposite end of the town to Okunoin, which is the cemetery. The cemetery contained thousands of tombstones and monuments, and the light was mostly blocked from the tall, thick-trunked trees that enveloped the cemetery. We walked through the cemetery for about two hours, and I was overcome with a dreamlike, unreal feeling. The cemetery was beautiful, with moss-covered monuments and statues. It was interesting to see how the dead are memorialized. We saw lots of small statues that were dressed in clothes and aprons and hats, mostly red. Candles and incense burned in holders that were built into the monuments, there were small, shallow wishing-well type pools with water running into them, and every once in awhile, a side path would lead up to a small temple.
After leaving the cemetery, we returned to the Shukubo, where we had dinner. It was served to us in our room by the monks, who carefully arranged everything to the precise location it needed to be on the small serving tray, etc. They were very kind, and before entering or leaving the rooms they would kneel down outside the doors to open or shut them. After dinner we went back out, in the dark, to three more temples. Since we had been invited to Oinori, the morning service the following morning, we went out for hot chocolate at the cutest little coffee shop ever, with a really sweet lady running it, and then called it an early night.
Back at the Shukubo, my friend Gabe decided to use the public baths before bed (they are very common in Japan. They are segregated baths, kind of like hot tubs. You sit on a stool and wash your body before going into the baths. I never actually went while in Japan because the idea of walking around naked and seeing everyone else walking around naked was not very appealing to me). The baths were available for guests only until nine o�clock, at which time the monks and nuns were able to use them also. When Gabe went to the baths, it was full of monks and he said the funniest thing was that they were all shaving their heads with Bic razors, Gillette Sensor Excel, etc. In this quiet little town in the mountains, we felt like we had been transported back through time, and it was funny to see this.
The next morning we were awakened at 5:30 to get ready for the 6:00 services. We went in and sat down along the side of the room. A sort of gong or bell was rung outside a few times, and the monks began to come in and kneel down. The room was dimly lit, as the morning sun was still weak. A few lights were turned down low and the only other light came from the candles that were lit around the room in order for the monks to have enough light to read from their prayer books. Incense filled the room; by the middle of the services, my eyes burned and it was so thick that the air was cloudy and I was afraid that if there was any more I might have trouble breathing. The monks chanted in three different languages: first Sanskrit, then Japanese, and finally Chinese. They had mantras for the four noble truths, wisdom, power, and a few other things. After the service, when a monk explained a few of the things to us in English, I had nothing to write with and, unfortunately, by the time I got my hands on a pen and paper I was having trouble remembering all that he had told us.
One monk off on the other side of sort of a partition was by himself in front of a fire with lots of little bowls of things in front of him. He was chanting and throwing things into the fire. Later we learned that he had put in 108 pieces of wood (although I can�t remember what he said the number was for. I think it may have had to do with illusions), and sesame. At one point in the ceremony, we got up and followed a monk towards the back of the small room. He poured a cup of tea and handed it to me, and I put it in a small �holder� for it, then bowed to it, and walked on. He proceeded to dump the tea out into a bowl and pour fresh tea for the next person. Then another monk had me take a pinch of something out of one bowl and drop it into another bowl, to which I also bowed, and then I went back to sit down. I am not sure what it was all for, and I was unable to ask anyone after the ceremony.
After the ceremony, one of the monks talked to us for a few minutes about some of the things we had seen in the ceremony. He explained his prayer beads to us, and how they were able to count their prayers and chants up to 10,000 on them (there were 100 main beads and then ten beads on one end to count each set of 100 and ten on the other end to count each set of 1000). He also told us how in esoteric Buddhism one must learn to follow the flow of their thoughts without becoming distracted by them. You have to not control them, but just watch where they go, but not lose your concentration
I very much wanted to stay and ask questions and learn more about everything, but unfortunately we had to leave in order to get back to the ship, because it was departing that day. Koyasan was an amazing place. It was wonderful to get out of the city and away from people, which I feel like I have not been able to do since this voyage started. It was relaxing and beautiful. My only regret is that I could not have spent more time there. I have so many questions that are left unanswered and so many more things there that I would like to see and experience. I suppose that someday I will just have to return, hopefully after I have had more time to study this religion so that I can better understand the things that I see.
Anyway, after breakfast we took the trip back to the ship and got back in time for lunch. I spent a short while stocking up on a few things from the convenience stores for the long trip across the Pacific, and then headed back to the ship (on-ship time was in the early afternoon), and then we set off for Alaska.
And now, here we are, on our way back to the States and nearing the end of our journey around the world. I hope everyone is well, I probably won�t be emailing after Alaska and Canada until after I am home. Good luck to everyone for the end of the semester, and I�ll see you in a couple of weeks!
Christina
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Ship Life
Subject: Happy Easter
Sent: April 20, 2003 4:28 AM
Hello everyone! I just wanted to say Happy Easter to everyone, and let you know I haven�t forgotten about you! I have been very busy with writing papers and getting ready for finals, as I have all my finals starting in just a few days, and I have had to finish all of my field reports from Japan and Korea. I haven�t gotten a chance to start writing my email about Osaka yet, but hopefully tomorrow I will have time to.
Today was Easter, but it was just a normal class day for us, besides the fact that Easter services were held for those who wanted to go at 7:00 a.m. before classes began this morning. The Easter Bunny didn�t make it to the ship this year. We are guessing it was because the weather has been too bad! (There were crazy high waves yesterday, and today it is FREEZING outside!).
I had Easter dinner with my extended family tonight. They actually had an Easter dinner on board the ship tonight, complete with turkey and ham and stuffing and mashed potatoes� the whole works, with ice cream for dessert! Tonight I am going to a community college presentation by one of the professors on his time in Uganda in the Peace Corps. Then it�s back to the books again!
So, anyway, I hope you all have a great Easter, since by the time you get this mine will be over and yours will just be beginning. I hope you are all well, and I will see you in just over two weeks!
Christina
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