(Written the night of April 26th, our second night in Japan)
Megan and I hung out. Shopped at the mall, got my disposable cameras from Carnival (Brazil) and rafting (South Africa) finally developed, replenished my stock of fiber (the hair product, not the stuff for your system), bought some American music to catch up (Modest Mouse, The Ataris, and….Avril Lavigne. What?), took the Shin-Kobe cablecar up to Nunobiki Herb Park (which I can only describe as pure bliss - quiet, amazing view of the city, blooming flowers, and the perfect sunny weather to go with it), had what I can only describe as breaded, deep-fried lobster (there’s a word for these things, I know) with miso soup and assorted veggies for lunch, internet cafe’d it for a bit (woohoo picture update!), got the last piece for my Ambassador’s Ball outfit, got fraps, and came back to the ship.
Since then I’ve been watching the pirated copy of The Sopranos I purchased in Vietnam and listening to my new CDs. As I do so, I’m preparing the backlog of picture posts that I need to get on here.
Like all the other Seattlites have remarked, Kobe feels just like home. It’s really nice to be able to have some alone time, not in a third world country, with high speed internet, without sweating from the heat, without going thirsty from lack of drinking water, without going hungry from lack of non-contaminated food, and without fear of becoming a victim of crime. Japan now tops Singapore as my favorite place to be after the United States of America.
And they have Ichiro posters too!
Alex, I’ve been following your posts throughout the voyage and want to thank you for your candid comments and observations. So much more interesting than the usual travel dialogues. You also spent more time than most discussing life on the ship. Thank you for your thoughts over the past several months and good luck in the future.
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