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(note: this is one of my pre-scheduled posts set to appear at 5:00am EST each morning I am in a port city. I will post follow-up information about each trip once I am able to get back on the computer.)
The ship is scheduled to arrive at 0800 in Kobe, Japan.We will be in Japan for the next 5 days.
This is the trip I will be going on today...
Welcome Reception (Time: 1600 - 1800)
Description:
Approximately 100 Japanese students will be invited aboard the MV Explorer to meet and interact with Semester at Sea participants. This will provide an excellent opportunity to meet Japanese students. Hyogo Prefecture sponsors a program, Hyogo Joint Summer Session at Sea (Seminar at Sea), which is similar to our Semester at Sea. The reception activities will provide you with an introduction to Japanese culture as the visiting students will present demonstrations of Kendo, Karate, Japanese dance and/or other arts and cultural traditions. Then it's your turn! Semester at Sea students should be prepared to share their talents - perhaps a demonstration of the latest dances, a guitar solo, a song or a Semester at Sea band performance. An informal social hour will follow. (PRICE: FREE)
Update:
I didn't get up early in this port to watch us arrive either. Too tired. I woke up, went to breakfast where I ran into Mark and just as we were serving ourselves in the breakfast line, there was an announcement that faculty/staff should come to the Union to do the "Thermoscan" process that we knew we would have to do prior to being allowed off of the ship. Mark and I decided to just leave our food on the table and quickly run to the Union to do it (essentially, we just had to show our student ID and then walk by a special camera that I guess measures how much heat you emit). As we left the Union, there was a long line of people behind us that snaked the entire length of the ship so we made the right decision to run to get it done right away.
Needless to say this process took a little while and then after everyone did that, we had to wait some more for the Japanese officials to process our passports. In waiting, they had an event in the Union where some drummers performed and then we had a "diplomatic briefing" from some guys who work in the U.S. embassy.
Japanese drum performance in the Union of the ship in Kobe, Japan
video of Japanese drum performance in the Union of the ship in Kobe, Japan
(click here for bigger version of the video)
video of Japanese drum performance in the Union of the ship in Kobe, Japan
(click here for bigger version of the video)
After our passports were finally processed, people were called up to the Faculty/Staff lounge to get their passports (which you needed if you were getting a rail pass or were going to stay overnight in a hotel).
We were allowed to get off the ship at around 1:00 pm and I decided to go with Emily (the nurse) and Kristen (the assistant field office coordinator) to the train station because I wanted to get my Japanese Rail Pass ticket. I had an "exchange order" that I purchased before I left the U.S. and it needed to be exchanged within 90 days of the date I got it in order to be valid so I wanted to make sure I got it exchanged on that first day. Since Emily and Kristen were going to Kyoto to spend a night there, I just went with them to the train station before parting ways.
nurse Emily and assistant field office coordinator Kristen on the elevated rail train/subway system on our way from where the ship was docked to the Kobe train station
After getting my rail pass, I walked around a bit in Kobe. There were a lot of shops and there are apparently a lot of mall-type areas in Japan that are open air, but covered with a roof.
Kobe, Japan
video of Kobe, Japan
(click here for bigger version of the video)
video of Kobe, Japan
(click here for bigger version of the video)
After walking around a bit, I went back to the ship for the "Welcome Reception." When baby Ryder made an appearance, he got a lot of the Japanese students' attention.
I decided to take a nap after that and set my alarm to be awake by 7:30 pm because that was the meeting time for people I'm friends with to go out into Kobe. I woke up at 7:41 pm though and apparently missed the group.
some longer video I took in Kobe, Japan
