We arrived in Kobe, Japan early in the morning. I only had two short days at sea before arriving at this port. I spent the day with my final field class for my Buddhist philosophy class. For the class, we went to Kyoto which is a town that is famous for its temples. My Great Aunt Noriko is from Kyoto. When we arrived in Kyoto, we visited one of the most famous Shinto temples. This temple had 10,000 arches all lined up together and I walked through all of them like a tunnel. Then we took a quick drive to a Zen Temple. We met with a Zen Monk, and he showed us around the temple. We then toured the gardens and koi ponds that surround the monastery. We then got a chance to practice Zen meditation at the monastery. It was so wonderful to learn about Zen Buddhism while practicing it! Then we went to dinner and we enjoyed traditional Japanese food. After a long day we made our way back to the ship. Later that evening, I explored the city of Kobe with a couple friends.

n the morning I took a quick flight to Tokyo. My friend and I were able to navigate the public transportation system, and we made our way closer into the city. We grabbed lunch at a food court in the city. Then we headed to the MORI Building Interactive Art Museum. This was an amazing interactive art museum/adult playground. We spent hours exploring the museum, and there was a new hidden exhibit behind every corner. There were no maps or signs, so I really have no idea if I saw the whole museum but I hope I did. We took the subway deeper into the city to get to our hotel. We stayed at a Pod Hotel. Basically a person gets a bed in a pod to sleep in. It was really interesting to experience, but it was just a glorified hostel.

Later that evening we walked around Shinjuku and got dinner in that area. Tokyo was such an amazing city.

We didn’t really have a plan for Japan so we were winging it for the day. Our first mission was to find the huge jiggly Japanese pancakes. We were successful, and they were so good. We spent the day exploring Harajuku. There is a candy street in Harajuku which is entirely dedicated to sweets. I was in heaven. We spent the afternoon exploring and thrift shopping. We headed back to our hotel and got ready for the night. We ate sushi for dinner, and it was amazing. Then we headed to the Robot Restaurant for a show. I can best describe the show as an insane light show with robots on steroids. It was incredible. Later that night we enjoyed the Tokyo night life.

The next morning we went to Shibuya. Shibuya is home to the world’s busiest crosswalk. We crossed it a couple times. Then we got breakfast at a coffee shop that has an amazing view of the street. We wandered around Shibuya until it was time for lunch. We got sushi at one of the most famous conveyor belt sushi restaurants in Japan. We ordered on a screen and in a couple minutes our food appeared right in front of us. After lunch we spent the afternoon wandering the streets of Tokyo. We planned to visit an Otter Cafe but I was seriously disappointed with the conditions the animals were living in. So, we made the decision to not support that. At this point we had walked almost 10 miles so we went back to the hotel for a quick nap. We grabbed dinner and ventured back out into the city for an awesome night.

After 1 hour of sleep, we made it to the airport to board our ungodly early flight. Once we arrived back in Kobe, I quickly showered on the ship and went out to explore the city. It was so much fun to explore the city of Kobe with my best friend Kobe. The city was kind of dead, and I have no idea where the people were. We explored the waterfront and the Kobe tower. We explored Chinatown even though we’d been in China a couple days before. We finally stopped for lunch, and it was the perfect ending to our trip. Kobe and I met on the first day in Spain, and we got pizza at the only restaurant open. So, it was only fitting to spend our last international meal eating pizza at the only place that was open on a rainy afternoon. Crazy that we have come full circle-figuratively and literally. After such a long day we made it back to the ship. I’m sad to say goodbye to my last international port, but I’m excited to see what next adventure life has in store for me.