Spring 2015 - Day 18

I woke up feeling better. I didn't enjoy that I had to get up early for class but I slept almost 10 hours, I definitely needed it. It was still very choppy out so I went back to feeling exhausted in the middle of the day but the sea sickness was definitely less. All of the naps I took also helped.

 

In photojournalism we discussed photoessays, how to build one and what makes one good to bad. Basically the answer to the latter is just having a variety of photos and making sure it can tell a story on its own, that it doesn't have to have words to go along with it. 

 

We have to make a photo essay about our time in Japan and in India. We also have to do a photo essay on anything for our final project. I think for that one I will do it on TOMS shoes. I am doing a service trip in South Africa to go hand out TOMS shoes to people in need, I think that trip would make a great photo essay.

 

In World Mythologies we discussed a lot of Japanese Myths. Most of them had to do with creations myths. I would like to say that I paid very close attention and took good notes but that would be a blatant lie. He's just a very hard professor to take in. 

 

After lunch I took a nap. I love naps. Especially when I am exhausted from the rocking. I don't want to be exhausted for Japan tomorrow so I just let myself take as many naps as I want. 

 

In Mixed Media we did a really awesome piece of art. We had to bring a photo of the ship with us as well as a piece of text. It could be a text book or a pleasure reading book, or even just text from a brochure. I am currently reading Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, so I just brought my kindle. 

 

We had to take our photo of the ship, analyze it for the important parts, and then re create the photo just with words. So I sketched out the picture of the library I took and then filled it in with text from a random Lord of the Rings chapter. It turned out pretty awesome, and you can even tell it is the library! It was a lot of fun and it was a good way to learn what the important and distinctive parts of a photo are. 

 

Our family met for dinner, or tried to, we struggled to get started. Usually we are huge so we tried to take over the captains table, which turned into a huge deal and it turned out that there wasn't really enough of us there to use the large table. But we already were there so we just went with it. When I finally got in line for food they ran out of noodles. The evening before a country they serve us a meal of that country, so tonight was Japanese food. The noodles looked awesome so I really wanted them but they had run out. All of the people in line wanted noodles so we were all waiting and holding up the entire line. They brought out new meat twice and new sauce and new soup. They just kept bringing everything else except for noodles! It was so frusturating. 

 

I eventually gave up and just ate my meat, which was very similar to schnitzel. It was fried pork, almost exactly the schnitzel, it was delicious. I thought of Molly the whole time because she was obsessed with schnitzel ever since Germany. 

 

In the evening we had logistical pre-port. That means tomorrow is Japan! Woohoo! The day has finally arrived. It felt like this stretch of sea was never going to end. 

 

In logistical pre-port we learn about how immigration is going to work, where the ship will be docked, various health things to watch out for, and things like that. 

 

We will be having face to face immigration. We will have to get off the ship to go through it and we won't be able to get back on the ship until everyone has been cleared. So, basically, bring all of your stuff with you to start your day or waste three hours waiting. We will just head off as soon as we are all through immigration. 

 

We will not have internet while we are in port, that even means no email access. 

 

There will be postage service so I will be able to send my first post cards! Yay! 

 

For those of us that are transiting with the ship to Kobe (that includes me!) there will be a fancy sit down dinner (yay!) 

 

The Japanese currency is the Yen. At this time the exchange rate is 1 USD = 118 Yen. 

 

There are almost no health concerns. Really nothing specific to Japan, just the usual trauma, and alcohol. There is minimal risk of travelers diarrhea, the water is fine. 

 

Some less common health concerns, which are specific to Japan are Japanese encephalitis. It comes from mosquitos but there is almost zero risk of it. Also, there was an outbreak of dengue fever in Tokyo in 2013 but it seems to be completely resolved. Finally, there is always a risk in eating raw and undercooked fish/shellfish. So we just need to make sure we are going to reputable sushi places and are not eating sketchy sushi from street stands or something. I don't think I would do that even if they told me it was safe. 

 

As we were listening to the ship doctor talk, Jessi was irritated that he wasn't doctor Dave and whispered under her breath to me, "You're not Dr. Dave, get the heck off the stage. If I had tomatoes I would throw them at you." 

 

Sounds a little harsh, yes, but we were really fond of Dr. Dave. He gave us our health information in a much more interesting and hilarious way. 

 

This is just not the same. 

 

When pre-port was over I decided that I needed to pack for our Japan adventure and I also needed to blog about both today and yesterday. So I went back to my room and I got my stuff together and then I sat down and wrote and wrote for a really long time until my blog for yesterday was done. 

 

Then, I went to send it… and it didn't work. It just kept popping up with "message can not send" which usually means I am not connected to the internet. And it seemed I couldn't get connected to the internet. I tried and tried so hard that I tired out my computer and it crashed on me. 

 

Of course, I hadn't saved all that writing I just did because I thought I was going to send it and that would be that. But no, my computer was crashed and my lovely blog was all gone. 

 

And now I didn't even have a computer to use to write about today. I was so angry. I just gave up on everything and went to bed. 

 

Thank god tomorrow is Japan and I can buy my new computer and will not have to deal with this frustration any more. 

 

Japan, I am so excited for you to get me off this ship I have been stuck on for 10 days, and for you to provide me with new technology. 

 

Oh, and that that cultural experience and what not.