Kobe, Japan
Land of apologies, thanks, and strange goths
23.11.2009 - 24.11.2009
Japan has one of the coolest and most unique cultures in the places that I’ve been. For example, Sumo-Wrestling is amazingly cool, and I don’t know about you, but I also like Judo, Tai-Kwan-do, and Karate, which are all Japanese. The people in Japan are the second nicest that we’ve met, right behind Ghanaian people. Japanese people are definitely the most polite people I have ever met. They bow in thanks a billion times, and you don’t now when to stop, because they are still bowing and saying, “arigato, arigato, arigato, arigato,” which means thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.” They are so overly polite that its kind of scary in a way.
During our sail to Kobe from Yokohama, Gabi got really sick. He had a high fever, and was coughing a lot as well as sneezing. Well, as you know, we are all sharing a room, and if one person gets sick, so do the other two. To prove my point, Gabi is still sick (four days later) and Cy just got sick with a fever today, so I am the only one at school today, and probably tomorrow too. Anyway, we found out that we weren’t going to a sumo-wrestling match, and instead, we were going to a home visit, just like what we did in Morocco, except this would be a longer stay. On the first day in Kobe, Japan, we went to Himeji, one of the largest and most populated cities in Japan, that also is home to a huge castle that no enemy had ever gotten inside of, because of its amazing security involving men behind looking-holes throwing or shooting anything they could find. We also had ice cream and other food because Japan was the first country that we could eat everything, so we did just that. The second day, and our last day in any foreign country, we went on an SAS trip, which would also be our last. I felt like I was in the Adirondack Mountains after it was taken over by some ruler who planted a Japanese pagoda in the middle of the fall leaves. On the way back from the pagoda, our guide, who is the happiest guide we’ve ever had on this trip, taught us how to make origami cranes and Chinese warrior helmets. We sadly got back on the ship and said goodbye to our last foreign country, although Hawaii will feel like a foreign country.
I really liked Japan. In the beginning it was ok, but towards the end, it really got to be one of my favorites.
Here are my favorite countries in order:
1. China .965
2. South Africa .932
3. Vietnam/Cambodia .910
4. India tied with Mauritius .906
5. Japan .854
6. Spain .845
7. Ghana .812
8. Morocco .579
9. Canada .600 ( I can’t put it ahead of Morocco because it wasn’t a cultural experience, and Morocco was)
Posted by E5sports 27.11.2009 18:23
