Japan in Thirty Days

A Pirate Ship and Saturn’s Rings

26 Mar 2011 5 Comments

by Jillian in Jillian/ジュリエン

Yesterday (Saturday) was my first full day in Japan. I will continue writing about what happened since my last blog yesterday morning.

I woke up super early, and had some breakfast and starting blogging. Morning blogging seems easier for me right now, since I am refreshed, by still recall what happened. I know from experience that if I wait too long, the days all jumble together. After breakfast I walked around Shizuoka a bit, trying not to get lost. I got lost here back in October, and so I’m wary! This city confuses me more than most, for some reason. Anyway, the streets I walked were full of little shops selling things anywhere from cosmetics to shoes to electronics. There were a lot of people on the street, and it was a cold but sunny morning. The other thing which was unavoidable noticeable was hordes of high school kids placed in strategic locations along the street holding huge banners with the words “DREAM”, and other words in Japanese, trying to collect money for earthquake/tsunami relief. There would be groups of them holding a banner, and as you walk by they all start shouting at you to please donate. I started laughing the first time I walked by, because I couldn’t read the sign (and therefore didn’t even know what the cause was), and they were all shouting at me in a language I don’t really understand… Though I knew what they were doing, since I had done it for Rotary last time I was here. Yes, I have stood on the street with a donation box shouting “bokin onegaishimasu!!!” And no, I didn’t donate, because I already have a $250 check from Chapala that I will be giving to Rotary District 2620 for aid relief when I go to Hamamatsu!

After my walk, I went back to the hotel and listened to music with my eyes closed for a bit. This is because I somehow got soap in my left eye, and it was super red in one part, and looked really gross, so I was hoping that a little shut-eye would make it look better. By the time Mai arrived around 1 o’clock, my eye did look considerable better, as a I type right now, it is back to normal. Mai and I went for some delicious ramen, at my request. Om nom nom, it was so good!! I even drank all of the broth, and Mai told me I was crazy and it would make my stomach hurt. (Foreshadowing…)

After luch we walked to an English school called English Box which Mai used to attend. There I met many students, and one in particular named Misa. Such a cute name! Anyway, Misa speaks English super well, and will be going on exchange to UC Irvine for 6 months starting in July. I also met another lady named Noriko, who I will be having dinner with in Shimizu this evening. After chatting with the students at the school, Misa, Mai and I went walking around Shizuoka. I went into Uniqlo, but I didn’t find anything I wanted. The shopping complex Uniqlo was in also had loads of other shops, and many of them were kind of punk/visual kei/alternative. I was thinking how much Max and Teela would love to see it

And while we were there, we did purikura!! (Japanese photo booth)

And yes, the machine does crazy things to your eyes!!!

Next, Mai decided we should go see the ocean, since Misa lives near the ocean anyway. By this time, it was starting to get dark… But here we are at the beach!!

And behind the van parked next to us were three guys who we thought were having a little barbecue. As it turns out, they were waiting for dark to set up a telescope to see Saturn’ rings! They were super friendly, and we took some silly photos with them, and promised to return around 8 or 9pm.

Next we drove up the beach to see a giant replica pirate ship/playground. It was amazing!! I was thinking it probably wouldn’t be allowed in America for liability reasons or something. It was a giant jungle gym! Mai, Misa and I ran around like crazy elementary school kids until we were tired. It was such a beautiful night, and the breeze was really refreshing.

After running around, it was getting to be 7 o’clock, and we decided it was dinner time, though none of us were really hungry. And, my stomach was really starting to hurt (remember the ramen I ate for lunch?). We drove to the grocery store where Misa and Mia picked out some dinner to cook. I think it was a curry stir fry with rice… The only thing that looked appetizing to me was an apple, so that’s what I got. We went to Misa’s apartment, and it’s sooooo cute!!!! The Japanese use of space still boggles my mind! Mai and Misa made dinner, and we all ate and chatted about school, Misa’s photo albums, books, and music. After a while it was 8:30pm, and we decided to head back to the beach to meet the guys from earlier and see Saturn’s rings. I mean, how often does one to that!? We go back to the beach, and the group of three guys has grown to a group of five. They were really surprised we came back; they didn’t believe us when we said we would. We asked it they were a club, but it turns out they are a group of friends who enjoy astronomy. Their names are, to my recollection: the “leader” Tomo, Kazumi, Tomoya, Katsuya, and Naoto. They set up the telescope, and we all took turns looking at Saturn. I didn’t really know what to expect, and it looked smaller than I imagined. But, thinking about how with the naked eye, Saturn looks like a little dot in the sky, the view through the telescope was really amazing and beautiful!! This isn’t my photo, but it looked something like this:

And here is a silly photo of Mai pretending to be Saturn, and everyone else is the ring around her

Afterwards, we called it a night. We dropped off Misa at her apparment, I went back to the hotel, and Mai went home. I slept good last night.

The experiences I just shared with you are the ones that make me happiest. I would never have had so much fun at the beach, been able to meet Misa-chan, or chat with a group of guys who wanted to see Saturn’s rings if I was just a tourist. This was only possible because of my Rotary trip, and meeting a friend like Mai