Tokyo- Big City, Big Group, kinda overwhelming but still enjoyable

        Yesterday we arrived in JAPAN! We docked in the port of Yokohama at around 930. My “sea”, the Caribbean  (the section of the boat where I live), was the last to be called, however, so I wasn't off the ship until around 1230. It worked out well though because that meant that I got to eat lunch on the ship instead of paying for food in port. Some of my friends who were called earlier but had to wait around for the rest of the group were not so lucky.
        I was the last one in my group off the boat so once I arrived in the terminal, Mike, Brittany, Jenna, Whitney (Jenna's friend who I just met) and I all headed for Tokyo! We spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to purchase tickets for the metro but eventually we figured it out. In Japan, you don't just pay one fare for a ticket and get off where ever you want. You pay a different amount depending on the distance you are traveling, so you have to know what stop you want to take first. We had no idea where we wanted to go, we just wanted to get into the city and wander. So we just picked Shibuya because we were told it's a district where “if you are over 25 you stick out like a sore thumb”. We assumed it might be a good place to make some Japanese “tomodachi”s (friends).
        It took us about 45 minutes to get to Shibuya from the port. We had to transfer trams and we were not as efficient as the locals at transferring (obviously). There was a girl sitting across from me on the tram who looked close to our age and her and I kept laughing at one another. Or more we were both laughing at me and my friends because we were so excited and were taking pictures of everything! I wish I had talked to her more and asked her of good places to go. She could have been my first tomodachi! But I failed... we shared a very enthusiastic wave “good-bye” though and I'm sure she went and told her friends about the silly tourists she saw on the tram that day.
        After getting off the tram we stared walking, without any destination in mind. We found a McDonalds and Mike took a picture. He said he was gonna try to take one of every one he sees. It reminds me a lot of my dad, he loves his McDonalds. I just went in to use the bathroom. The toilets are so crazy! They have headed seats and lots of different buttons to try... I'm gonna just leave it at that
        Some students passed us and over heard me saying “I don't know”. They stopped and asked what I didn't know. I replied that I didn't know what to do and we were trying to ask them what they recommended, but we couldn't really get it across quickly and I think they were running off to school (they were in uniforms). So we just kept wandering and found a place to sit and have a beer. I had a Kirin Heartland and I collected the first bottle cap of my collection.
        Instead of random trinkets, I'm collecting bottle caps from each country. I'm planning to make a coffeetable or something covered in the bottle caps with a picture from my trip in the center. I'm curious to find out what pictures ends up becoming the most important one to me...
        Then we kept wandering... I was skipping and singing Regina Spektor, one of the girls with us thought I was weird and didn't like that I was drawing attention to us, but whatever. At least I'm making people laugh and smile, even if they are laughing at me for being a silly tourist. We already stand out just because of how we look, so I think its a good thing to draw attention in a more positive, silly way., She didn't agree, but whatever.
        Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a large wooden tori. A tori is essentially an entrance gate to a sacred shrine or temple.  This tori was at the entrance of the park for the Meiji Shrine. The park was lovely! It was so huge!!! Even though it was in the middle of a huge city, it felt very peaceful and I couldn't see any tall buildings, which made me very happy. This shrine was on Mike's To Do list, and we just stumbled upon it without even trying. Perfect.
        It was getting dark, though, and the park was closing. Plus, we still hadn't found a place to stay and were getting hungry. So we headed to the metro in Harijuku. Harijuku is supposed to be one of the craziest parts of Tokyo, but I think it was too early in the night, because we didn't see much of the crazy fashion we were told about. I would have liked to stay and wander there more, I liked being on the outskirts of the city. But the group wanted to move so I went along. I don't think I'm going to travel with a group of more than 2 other people again. In fact, I'd almost prefer to just travel alone. I think I have a very different travel style than most other people and in groups like this I often end up compromising too much of what I'd like to do (which is generally just to wander and meet people).
        At the metro there was a cute sign that said “smile is the best make-up”. I found it ironic that it was located in the part of town where people supposedly wear the most crazy make-up and outfits.
        We got off the metro  in Tokyo center, near the Imperial Palace. There were huge skyscrapers everywhere and lots of bright flashy billboards. Apparently this was the Tokyo that the others wanted to see. I'm pretty ambivalent to the big city style, but I went along. We walked by the Sony building and a seven story karaoke bar and other big buildings blah blah blah... all the same, in my opinion. Just like Times Square. One kinda cool thing was that the crosswalks went diagonally and lots of people would cross at once. The crowds were overwhelming to me, but still interesting to watch.
        We found a ridiculously gotti hello kitty store. Everything was covered in swarovski crystals and were absurdly expensive. Lots of high fashion stores, expensive crap with some label name so its supposed to be good. I couldn't care less about designers and labels and I think people who do are severely misled about what's important in life.
        While looking for a hotel, this random businessman noticed my shoes (I was wearing shoes  that  have individual toes and are blue, so they look pretty weird) and started laughing. He was the first older gentleman I had encountered who didn't look at me with complete disgust because of how non-traditional I look. Instead, he was really curious. Even to the point where he bent down and touched my shoe! According to my teachers, that's very unconventional and people are very against touching feet or shoes in Japan. I guess I made this guy curious enough to break out of that bubble. Or he just didn't care about such convention. Or my professors over exaggerated the social norms. All three are possible...
        Found a hotel, crammed 5 people in to so it'd be cheaper. It still wasn't exactly cheap, I'd prefer a hostel. But everyone wanted to put their stuff down and we couldn't find a hostel nearby, so whatever.  It ended up working nicely though because the hotel was walking distance to most of Tokyo center, whereas the hostel were not.
        We left the hotel to get some food and on the walk a guy stopped us to see if we wanted to go into his bar. It was not our mission to go to bars or clubs, but it turned out that this was an ice bar and it was totally empty. A lot of the students on the ship were talking about going and made reservations and everything. Apparently, the location moved and a lot of the students who paid for it either spent the whole day searching for it. And it just fell into our laps. We decided to go up, just for the experience of being in a bar made of ice. It was an interesting experience, especially since it was only the five of us so we could have fun and not deal with chaos. There was a drum made of ice (the drum head wasn't ice tho)! All the cups were ice as well, and the walls and benches.
        This japanese “couple” joined us. I'm pretty sure the guy just came in because he saw pretty girls tho... He was an older gentleman with a young, beautiful girl and all he would comment on was how beautiful all us American girls were. Another group of SASers came in right when we were starting to leave, 4 more girls and the guy was impressed. Sleazy businessman. All he seemed to care about was the superficial beauty, I wonder if he'd even be interested in who we are... probably not.
        We wanted to avoid hanging out with a bunch of SASers, so as they all started showing up, we left. Loads of people started coming out of taxis... apparently after spending the whole day looking for this place. I'm really glad I didn't spend anytime looking for anything in particular... wandering is much better.
        We went to have dinner at Zawatami Restaurant, they had an english menu and some of the people in my group were worried about eating weird stuff so they wanted to know. I was definitely the most adventurous person in my group... I don't want to travel like that again. It limits my adventures too much...
        One of the girls spit out the octopus into a napkin. Pretty disrespectful. I told her she should just swallow it down, but she thought about it too much. It seemed like the restaurant was used to getting tourists who don't know what they're doing or how to respect the food and culture. It bothered me to be associated with the group, but I knew I'd be with my Japanese friend soon enough and I wouldn't have to deal with this anymore.
        The same girl who spit up the food then went on to describe how fake she thought the money was. I said, “All money is fake. Its just a token that we apply value to in our minds to make transactions with. There's absolutely nothing real about it. Mike and I started having a great conversation about this and I could feel the tension building up in the others. The spitting girl kept asking for the check and trying to leave, even though I still have half a beer left. I just kept saying “I still have beer” and continuing my conversation. If she doesn't want to talk, that's one thing. But I find it very rude of her to try and rush the rest of us out and stop out conversation. But she's a product of American culture, where people are taught not to discuss real issues or second-guess their way of life... I guess I can't really blame her. I'll blame American culture instead...
        We left the restaurant and went to sing karaoke. Got a room in the 7-story karaoke bar. The spitting girl was making it difficult because she didn't want to sing or drink and she kept saying how tired she was. I asked if she wanted us to walk her back to the hotel then and we'd go out. She said no. I think I may have been a little too snappy with her... but her complaining was starting to bring me down and I just wanted to have a good time.
        I just rubbed it off and sang at the top of my lungs in karaoke,it was hard at first because we couldn't figure out how to turn the echo off because it was all in Japanese, eventually we got it down. They had plenty English songs and it was a good time, for me at least. I find it funny how some people put up these huge walls though. Walls against conversation, other cultures and foods and singing. More on this later tho...
        Went to sleep at around 2am and woke up at 530 to go to the fish market. Market is crazy! So many different kinds of seafood! It was a bit sad at times though, especially seeing live octopus in a bag... its one thing when they're dead, but to watch them struggle like that is hard. Group kept wanting to leave, I was curious so I kept going regardless. Took some crazy videos, they describe it much better than words can. If you want to see them let me know when I get home.
        Found a small shrine in the market. There's a place to wash your hands and mouth with water before making a prayer to preserve the sacredness. I washed myself and told the others to follow suit, but only one did. The others said they were scared of the water quality. In Tokyo?!?!?! Its one of the most developed cities in the world! I bet the water quality is better here than in most places in the states! In fact, I know it is because I went to the water purification facility. Yokohama and the surrounding area has had waterworks for 130 years! Longer than most places in the US and they are more rigorous in the way they monitor their water quality. I can't imagine how they will act when we're in India or Ghana...its gonna be a slap in the face for sure
        I couldn't handle being with them anymore so I went back to Yokohama by myself. I felt instantly better! I wandered around Yokohama Center for a few hours before my FDP to Yokohama Waterworks. I was skipping and smiling and feeling great! Not dealing with the group was wonderful! I wandered into a huge electronics store. It had ten floors all dedicated to electronics! It was NUTS! I needed a new battery for my camera so I bought it there. Tried to ask the clerk how to recycle electronics. He said he didn't know, but I think maybe he just couldn't understand me or couldn't say it in English.
        Kept skipping around, la dee daa... saw a casino and wandered inside. There were crazy flashing lights everywhere and loud noises and cigarette smoke. I was so overwhelmed! I just wandered between the aisles, wide-eyed and totally confused! The people in there must have completely dulled senses, I don't know how else they could stand it...
        The people who work in the casinos arjavascript:SetCmd(cmdSend);e called the “smile staff”. Its there job to just walk around and smile REALLY big at everyone. It seems like this is the place where really stressed out people go to play games.
        According to some friends I met later on, gambling in the way we do it is illegal. But people pay for these gold metal balls that they use to play the game and then they put their winnings on a card that they use to exchange for more balls or prizes. So its kind of a round-about way of gambling. In my experience, many things in Japanese culture seem to be indirect like this. As opposed to the American way of being very forward and direct.
        Went to the ship for my FDP. We visited Yokohama Waterworks. Japan receives about twice as much rainfall per person as the US, and yet they only need 1/3 of our water resource level to live their lives. I'm guessing this is largely due to the fact that they don't have huge, unnecessary lawns to water and they don't plant plants that can't live with the available water. Very unlike the US. Our society admires big, green lawns even in places like Arizona, where only desert plants grow naturally.
        Since globalizing, Japan not imports much of its food. They do not have the water resources to grow things like corn or raise grazing animals like cows or pigs, so they import a lot of these from the US. However, they do still grow a lot of rice.
        Amazingly, the Yokohama Waterworks uses only ½ of its water capacity! The people simply don't demand as much water. This is another thing that I find different from the US. We would never build a plant and then not use its full capacity because some economist would focus only on the loss of profit. For the Japanese, its good to have the capacity in case it becomes necessary, but it is important to limit the usage for sustainability purposes.
        One of the most interesting features of the waterworks is that they use fish and shrimp as testers of the water! They have one tank for fish and one for shrimp and they monitor the electrical levels. If the water is contaminated, the fish tense up sending electrical impulses into the water. These are picked up by the sensors and a warning is sent to the people in charge. It may seem silly to a western engineer, but its actually brilliant! I think this kind of this would be laughed at in the American media though. The guide was very knowledgeable and his English was great. I had a good time and learned a fair amount. Plus, the FDP gave me an excuse to get away from my group without them trying to "protect" me from whatever it is they're scared of. I didn't get their fear too much, Japan is very safe. I was grateful for the escape.