Monday, May 26, 2008
Jeju, Shanghai, Toronto, CHICAGO!
May 6th-8th
Jeju Island, Shanghai, Toronto, and Chicago
I guess I should probably conclude this blog as opposed to leaving it hanging in South Korea. I’m about 3 weeks late in doing this, but those last few days were primarily consumed with packing.
The 6th in Jeju I had decided to not even get off the ship. I really didn’t have anything left in that port that I needed to see, so I stayed on the ship and prepared for my flight the next day. That night I hung out with my friends fairly late into the evening for a final hurrah, which was probably a bad idea, but I figured I should be at least somewhat social my last day on the ship.
The 7th was my flight out of Shanghai. After waking up really early to go through Chinese immigration checks, I quickly realized how bad of an idea staying out late the previous night really was. Let’s just say I didn’t feel too great after waking up at 6 AM on the floor of my cabin (last time I let people buy me farewell drinks). I then hung around the ship till the afternoon when I was finally allowed to get off the ship and take the shuttle to the Shanghai airport. I still felt like garbage, and after missing lunch on the ship, I was slightly worried about how well I was going to do in the airport. I had a few hours of waiting when I arrived, which allowed me enough time to at least grab a water and some salad flavored thin bread sticks that I found in a shop (which were actually surprising good). My bread sticks held me over though, at least through the ticket line, where I was informed my flight was delayed. I usually don’t have problems with delays, and when I do, I’m flying home anyways, but this was different. This delay meant I’d miss my connecting flight in Toronto, resulting in a Toronto overnight with an early flight the next morning, not exactly what I wanted to hear. Anyways, I waited out the delay, bought some candy bars for an emergency “meal” that I felt was likely with this rescheduled connection, and made my 14 hour trip back to North America.
The flight was pleasant, I had enough space and the meals were all decent. I could even choose my own movies to watch on the touch screen TV in front of my seat, so that was nice. We arrived in Toronto, at which point, I was instructed to proceed to the connections desk and pick up a voucher for the Hilton they were offering me to stay at, maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all! I got to the Hilton late that night, had a way overpriced sandwich that the airline gave me $15 towards, and went to bed.
I woke up four hours later to make my 7 AM flight, a time I’ve never quite agreed with. I left the Hotel around 5:00 that morning to make it through US customs, something I’ve never actually had to do before (I’ve never had to fly back into the US), and something that took forever. After getting though that, I boarded my nearly empty flight and made the 90 minute journey back home where my Dad was waiting at the airport. So I had made it, two foreign airports, a delay and an overnight later, I had made it back to Chicago. And here ends yet another cruise adventure. I’ll be flying out to the next ship June 8th, this time back to Southampton for 2 months in the Baltics and another month in the Eastern Med, putting me back home Sept 6th. I’ll post some pics online, lets say a collection of Asian highlights, and then be sure to come back in a few weeks when I start posting for my Baltic adventures. As always, thanks so much for reading and taking interest in my stories, keep in touch, and have a great one!
Jeju Island, Shanghai, Toronto, and Chicago
I guess I should probably conclude this blog as opposed to leaving it hanging in South Korea. I’m about 3 weeks late in doing this, but those last few days were primarily consumed with packing.
The 6th in Jeju I had decided to not even get off the ship. I really didn’t have anything left in that port that I needed to see, so I stayed on the ship and prepared for my flight the next day. That night I hung out with my friends fairly late into the evening for a final hurrah, which was probably a bad idea, but I figured I should be at least somewhat social my last day on the ship.
The 7th was my flight out of Shanghai. After waking up really early to go through Chinese immigration checks, I quickly realized how bad of an idea staying out late the previous night really was. Let’s just say I didn’t feel too great after waking up at 6 AM on the floor of my cabin (last time I let people buy me farewell drinks). I then hung around the ship till the afternoon when I was finally allowed to get off the ship and take the shuttle to the Shanghai airport. I still felt like garbage, and after missing lunch on the ship, I was slightly worried about how well I was going to do in the airport. I had a few hours of waiting when I arrived, which allowed me enough time to at least grab a water and some salad flavored thin bread sticks that I found in a shop (which were actually surprising good). My bread sticks held me over though, at least through the ticket line, where I was informed my flight was delayed. I usually don’t have problems with delays, and when I do, I’m flying home anyways, but this was different. This delay meant I’d miss my connecting flight in Toronto, resulting in a Toronto overnight with an early flight the next morning, not exactly what I wanted to hear. Anyways, I waited out the delay, bought some candy bars for an emergency “meal” that I felt was likely with this rescheduled connection, and made my 14 hour trip back to North America.
The flight was pleasant, I had enough space and the meals were all decent. I could even choose my own movies to watch on the touch screen TV in front of my seat, so that was nice. We arrived in Toronto, at which point, I was instructed to proceed to the connections desk and pick up a voucher for the Hilton they were offering me to stay at, maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all! I got to the Hilton late that night, had a way overpriced sandwich that the airline gave me $15 towards, and went to bed.
I woke up four hours later to make my 7 AM flight, a time I’ve never quite agreed with. I left the Hotel around 5:00 that morning to make it through US customs, something I’ve never actually had to do before (I’ve never had to fly back into the US), and something that took forever. After getting though that, I boarded my nearly empty flight and made the 90 minute journey back home where my Dad was waiting at the airport. So I had made it, two foreign airports, a delay and an overnight later, I had made it back to Chicago. And here ends yet another cruise adventure. I’ll be flying out to the next ship June 8th, this time back to Southampton for 2 months in the Baltics and another month in the Eastern Med, putting me back home Sept 6th. I’ll post some pics online, lets say a collection of Asian highlights, and then be sure to come back in a few weeks when I start posting for my Baltic adventures. As always, thanks so much for reading and taking interest in my stories, keep in touch, and have a great one!
Monday, May 5, 2008
Busan, South Korea
May 5th
Busan, South Korea
Today was great. It was nothing all that fancy or exciting, just good fun. Instead of the usual trip into the city as I’ve done my last two visits, I decided to take part in the crew soccer game that was going on. There’s a field right by the ship, so someone took the initiative to rent it out, I have no idea how. But the game was to be South America versus the rest of the world, something I just simply couldn’t pass up on being a part of.
We all got to the field and divided into our teams. South America didn’t quite have enough people to take on the world, so we gave them China as well. Meanwhile, my team had a few Americans, a good number of Europeans, a few Jamaicans, and Captain Canada. Yep, that’s right, for all my loyal blog readers this should bring back a memory of a certain story back on the Navigator. Well, seeing as it was a world soccer match, I needed to dress patriotically. Since the only patriotic thing that I own on the ship is a pair of Canadian boxers, I wore those. I figured, considering I’m about as graceful at soccer as a moose on a tight rope, I’d rather make Canada look bad then give people more reason to make fun of the US. So among my team was me playing defense in short Canadian Boxers and a now off-white undershirt.
So the game began, and was going really well. Any time I received the ball people simply started yelling “Canada!!” and I felt accepted onto my worldly team. We had the nurse be a Ref, who actually did a wonderful job at it, and the game carried on in a very sportsmanlike manner. I was nervous for playing because if it got too rough, I’d leave out of fear of breaking a finger, but it never got to that point. Captain Canada’s only real danger was probably to himself.
Turns out though that the Chinese didn’t play very well with South America and the rest of the world took home the title with some ridiculous score around 10-2. It’s nice to win after that tennis match yesterday, and even if I can’t beat Poland, I have one up on South America and China.
The game ended and every one returned to the ship a little sore, but with no injuries. I think they’re going to play again next week, maybe I’ll fly back for the game, I’m sure it won’t be the same with out me in the far left corner. The game ended and there was no time left in the port, so that’s about where my excitement ends. I’m writing this on the night of the 5th hoping I can get all of these posted tonight so you can read them before I get home. Tonight I’ll likely do little more than get some packing done and do some internet work as we sail to Jeju where I don’t plan to get off. We’ll see what happens though. Thanks for reading and keep your eyes toward the skies for the next triumphant return of Captain Canada!!!
Oh, and happy Cinco de Mayo!
Busan, South Korea
Today was great. It was nothing all that fancy or exciting, just good fun. Instead of the usual trip into the city as I’ve done my last two visits, I decided to take part in the crew soccer game that was going on. There’s a field right by the ship, so someone took the initiative to rent it out, I have no idea how. But the game was to be South America versus the rest of the world, something I just simply couldn’t pass up on being a part of.
We all got to the field and divided into our teams. South America didn’t quite have enough people to take on the world, so we gave them China as well. Meanwhile, my team had a few Americans, a good number of Europeans, a few Jamaicans, and Captain Canada. Yep, that’s right, for all my loyal blog readers this should bring back a memory of a certain story back on the Navigator. Well, seeing as it was a world soccer match, I needed to dress patriotically. Since the only patriotic thing that I own on the ship is a pair of Canadian boxers, I wore those. I figured, considering I’m about as graceful at soccer as a moose on a tight rope, I’d rather make Canada look bad then give people more reason to make fun of the US. So among my team was me playing defense in short Canadian Boxers and a now off-white undershirt.
So the game began, and was going really well. Any time I received the ball people simply started yelling “Canada!!” and I felt accepted onto my worldly team. We had the nurse be a Ref, who actually did a wonderful job at it, and the game carried on in a very sportsmanlike manner. I was nervous for playing because if it got too rough, I’d leave out of fear of breaking a finger, but it never got to that point. Captain Canada’s only real danger was probably to himself.
Turns out though that the Chinese didn’t play very well with South America and the rest of the world took home the title with some ridiculous score around 10-2. It’s nice to win after that tennis match yesterday, and even if I can’t beat Poland, I have one up on South America and China.
The game ended and every one returned to the ship a little sore, but with no injuries. I think they’re going to play again next week, maybe I’ll fly back for the game, I’m sure it won’t be the same with out me in the far left corner. The game ended and there was no time left in the port, so that’s about where my excitement ends. I’m writing this on the night of the 5th hoping I can get all of these posted tonight so you can read them before I get home. Tonight I’ll likely do little more than get some packing done and do some internet work as we sail to Jeju where I don’t plan to get off. We’ll see what happens though. Thanks for reading and keep your eyes toward the skies for the next triumphant return of Captain Canada!!!
Oh, and happy Cinco de Mayo!
Fukuoka, Japan
May 4th
Fukuoka, Japan
Today, like a week ago, was all about tennis. I left the ship with my tennis partner, Jersey, around 3:30, the soonest we were allowed off. From there we followed much of the same route from a week ago, just this time with out the third wheel, ha. Upon arriving at the first park, we found out that the same scenario existed as last week, everything was booked. So we decided to set off for the courts on the complete opposite side of the city again, but this time, we knew how to get there. So we set off for the tennis complex, but while riding though the city, we found ourselves in the middle of a parade. It turns out this week is “golden week” in Japan, meaning the city, if not the country, is filled with festivities. Like I mentioned, we came across a huge parade with dozens of marching bands, along with a beautiful park area filled with vendors selling street food. Needless to say, we put tennis on hold to check out the event. We video taped many of the bands as they passed, along with walked the gauntlet of street vendors. We each ended up buying this delicious crepe thing, mine was filled with cream, a banana, and caramel sauce - perfect tennis food. Next thing I knew it was 5:45 and we were quickly running out of time to play tennis. We had about an hour long window from 6:30 till 7:30 that we’d be able to play before needing to ride back to the ship, but that meant hustling the entire way to the courts from where we were. Well, we grabbed our bikes and went for it, determined to get one more set of tennis in.
Now let me remind you that Jersey is a Polish trombone player in his 60’s. He’s not heavy, but at that age, “fit” might not be the first word that usually comes to mind, especially when juxtaposed against a trim 22 year-old, but let me tell you, this guy is unbelievable. I knew where I was going and was well aware of the time restraints we had, so I made sure to keep a strong pace the entire way. Jersey never fell behind, I was impressed. We talked to the office and reserved an outdoor court starting at that moment and began to play. I can’t believe I’m actually writing this, but I lost the first set 6-0, not so good for a trim 22 year-old. For whatever reason couldn’t hit a forehand, so maybe I’m out of practice, or maybe it’s the mental game that seeing an old guy across from you plays, but that set was not my shining moment. The second set was going better but got cut short by our pressing time restriction to return back to the ship for a show we had that night. But the truth is, even though I was losing, I was having a phenomenal time. I was just happy to be playing tennis against a friend from the ship in Japan. The energy was good, and we had some nice points, but it was amazing just to be doing what we were doing where we were. There’s no point in getting upset over a score, not when there is so much more to be thankful for.
Anyways, we hopped on our bikes and started our sprint back to the ship. I figured Jersey would have a harder time keeping up with me on the way back, but no, again he kept up and even would pass me to show he was faster. We needed to be back at the ship by 8:30 so we could get to our show by 8:45, maybe cutting it a little close, but it’s worth it for tennis. We rode back extremely quickly, despite the lack of light, and right as we came up to the ship, I decided to stop at a vending machine to enjoy one last moment in Japan. In Japan, they have vending machines all over the streets, most of which just serve bottled drinks. We ended up each getting some Tea for $1.50 because it seemed slightly healthier than the Coke option. Well, my tea was the worst I’ve tasted, Jersey had a similar reaction, so I guess farewell to enjoying one last moment in Japan…that stuff was garbage.
We made it back to the ship soon after with some time to spare, returned the bikes and got ready for the show. Tonight was Los Gauchos, the only show we actually play on stage and one of the few shows I always enjoy playing. For the second and final show of the night, I told Andres (the main performer and friend of mine) that I wanted to take some pictures. As I think I’ve described in a previous post, he likes to do this thing where he brings the entire band forward with his group so the audience can take pictures. I brought my camera so that I could do the same when we all went forward, so as the audience slowed down a bit, I took a step forward and shot a picture of the group to the amusement of the crowd. Andres was nice enough to then introduce me and say it was my last show before flying home, so that was kind of cool and really appreciated. I’ll miss that show, but was certainly happy to be apart of it while I was here. I’ll try to post the pic I took when I get back home. And then that’s about it for the day.
Before I conclude this post, I want to reflect on one thing, more so for myself when I go back and read all these entries many years later. Riding my bike back from the courts was one of the more enjoyable experiences of my life. Just being there in Japan, exhilarated by the exercise, and excited for the situation, offered such a wonderful sense of feeling alive, it was unbelievable. I couldn’t have been in a better mood than when I was on that bike. Even over the worry of a car coming out of a driveway in front of us and the hazards of cab drivers, there was something in that moment for me that was truly great. Now if only I had had some good tea to top it off with! Anyways, thanks for reading and have a great day!
Fukuoka, Japan
Today, like a week ago, was all about tennis. I left the ship with my tennis partner, Jersey, around 3:30, the soonest we were allowed off. From there we followed much of the same route from a week ago, just this time with out the third wheel, ha. Upon arriving at the first park, we found out that the same scenario existed as last week, everything was booked. So we decided to set off for the courts on the complete opposite side of the city again, but this time, we knew how to get there. So we set off for the tennis complex, but while riding though the city, we found ourselves in the middle of a parade. It turns out this week is “golden week” in Japan, meaning the city, if not the country, is filled with festivities. Like I mentioned, we came across a huge parade with dozens of marching bands, along with a beautiful park area filled with vendors selling street food. Needless to say, we put tennis on hold to check out the event. We video taped many of the bands as they passed, along with walked the gauntlet of street vendors. We each ended up buying this delicious crepe thing, mine was filled with cream, a banana, and caramel sauce - perfect tennis food. Next thing I knew it was 5:45 and we were quickly running out of time to play tennis. We had about an hour long window from 6:30 till 7:30 that we’d be able to play before needing to ride back to the ship, but that meant hustling the entire way to the courts from where we were. Well, we grabbed our bikes and went for it, determined to get one more set of tennis in.
Now let me remind you that Jersey is a Polish trombone player in his 60’s. He’s not heavy, but at that age, “fit” might not be the first word that usually comes to mind, especially when juxtaposed against a trim 22 year-old, but let me tell you, this guy is unbelievable. I knew where I was going and was well aware of the time restraints we had, so I made sure to keep a strong pace the entire way. Jersey never fell behind, I was impressed. We talked to the office and reserved an outdoor court starting at that moment and began to play. I can’t believe I’m actually writing this, but I lost the first set 6-0, not so good for a trim 22 year-old. For whatever reason couldn’t hit a forehand, so maybe I’m out of practice, or maybe it’s the mental game that seeing an old guy across from you plays, but that set was not my shining moment. The second set was going better but got cut short by our pressing time restriction to return back to the ship for a show we had that night. But the truth is, even though I was losing, I was having a phenomenal time. I was just happy to be playing tennis against a friend from the ship in Japan. The energy was good, and we had some nice points, but it was amazing just to be doing what we were doing where we were. There’s no point in getting upset over a score, not when there is so much more to be thankful for.
Anyways, we hopped on our bikes and started our sprint back to the ship. I figured Jersey would have a harder time keeping up with me on the way back, but no, again he kept up and even would pass me to show he was faster. We needed to be back at the ship by 8:30 so we could get to our show by 8:45, maybe cutting it a little close, but it’s worth it for tennis. We rode back extremely quickly, despite the lack of light, and right as we came up to the ship, I decided to stop at a vending machine to enjoy one last moment in Japan. In Japan, they have vending machines all over the streets, most of which just serve bottled drinks. We ended up each getting some Tea for $1.50 because it seemed slightly healthier than the Coke option. Well, my tea was the worst I’ve tasted, Jersey had a similar reaction, so I guess farewell to enjoying one last moment in Japan…that stuff was garbage.
We made it back to the ship soon after with some time to spare, returned the bikes and got ready for the show. Tonight was Los Gauchos, the only show we actually play on stage and one of the few shows I always enjoy playing. For the second and final show of the night, I told Andres (the main performer and friend of mine) that I wanted to take some pictures. As I think I’ve described in a previous post, he likes to do this thing where he brings the entire band forward with his group so the audience can take pictures. I brought my camera so that I could do the same when we all went forward, so as the audience slowed down a bit, I took a step forward and shot a picture of the group to the amusement of the crowd. Andres was nice enough to then introduce me and say it was my last show before flying home, so that was kind of cool and really appreciated. I’ll miss that show, but was certainly happy to be apart of it while I was here. I’ll try to post the pic I took when I get back home. And then that’s about it for the day.
Before I conclude this post, I want to reflect on one thing, more so for myself when I go back and read all these entries many years later. Riding my bike back from the courts was one of the more enjoyable experiences of my life. Just being there in Japan, exhilarated by the exercise, and excited for the situation, offered such a wonderful sense of feeling alive, it was unbelievable. I couldn’t have been in a better mood than when I was on that bike. Even over the worry of a car coming out of a driveway in front of us and the hazards of cab drivers, there was something in that moment for me that was truly great. Now if only I had had some good tea to top it off with! Anyways, thanks for reading and have a great day!
Kyoto (Kobe) Japan
May 2nd/3rd
Kyoto (Kobe) Japan
Today was my second and final over night in Kobe and I had set out to make it a good one. After some quick planning in the morning, I left the ship with Terry and Mario for a night in Kyoto, one of the top tourist destinations in Japan, and what we were hoping would be a night to remember.
We left the ship, took the train into the downtown station in Kobe, Sannomiya stations, and from there hopped on our train that would get us to Kyoto in about 75 minutes. The public transportation is really nice in Japan, though somewhat expensive, the system really puts the Chicago land systems to shame. Aside from nice chairs and a clean, safe environment, whenever the conductor walked from car to car, he would stop before entering or exiting each car, face the passengers, and bow. I must have seen this guy bow 20 times as he walked in and out of my car, it was really interesting, not to mention humorous when he would look up and see my camera pointing right at him…I’m sure there have been plenty of “stupid American” remarks said behind my back.
When we arrived at Kyoto and exited the station, the first place we wanted to stop was at a bike rental a few km up the road. After getting our bearings, we set off down the road, only to soon come to the conclusion that at 6 PM, a bike rental might not be the best idea, especially one that seemed to be an hour walk away. So we abandoned that idea and began walking to the geisha area Mario had expressed interest in. While walking, we came across a jazz club that looked more than promising, and after figuring out the show started at 7:30, we decided to make a quick trip for dinner and then try to make it back for the show.
Dinner was conveyor belt sushi. Now, Terry and I have been looking for sushi since we got to Japan and for whatever reason have found tremendous difficulty locating the quintessential Japanese food. That ended tonight. We asked a local where the best sushi place was, which conveniently, was a conveyor belt sushi joint across the street. By conveyor belt, I mean there is literally a conveyor belt that loops around the tables and bar where by the customers grab any sushi dish that catches their eye at that time. Each dish was about $1.30, and for the bill, they just count the dishes stacked on you table. We sat down at a booth on the second level of the restaurant and began grabbing at sushi dishes, all of which were extremely simple and unbelievably good. I ended up with 7 dishes, just under $10 worth, and a great feeling of fullness that only raw fish and rice seems able to produce.
We then left just in time to get back to the jazz club before the band started. We went up to the 5th story of the building where the club was located, walked in the door, and were informed of the $50 cover charge. Yeah, that’s right, $50 to hear jazz at a Japanese club. I’ve been to rock concerts for less than that. Well, we were sure the guy at the door must have been mistaken because for whatever reason, Mario had previously understood the cover to be $5, certainly more reasonable, but after a couple minutes of arguing with the guy about the price, it was apparent he knew exactly what he was charging and there was no room three budget conscious Americans. It was too bad that it didn’t work out though because the club looked really hip (not to mention packed), but even as the flyers mentioned as we left the building, the cover was quite clearly going to be $50.
So we left determined to find a different club with a similar scene for a reasonable price. Impossible in Kyoto, never! We started wandering the streets, and to our surprise, came across countless jazz clubs. These aren’t your usual jazz clubs though, these are rooms that might hold 20 people max with a piano in the corner, maybe with bass and drums as well. Each club we entered gave us their times and a description of the music that would be going on that evening, none of which quite compared to our $50 find. We must have visited 10 different clubs to find the same thing. One of which, however, we found when we heard a trombone player as we walked the streets. We followed our ears up to a club, again tiny, but completely empty with some small Japanese guy standing in the corner practicing his horn. That club, as he quickly pointed out, was membership only, and quickly turned us away. I did, however, manage to get some info out of him as to where we cold find another club, which he marked on our map and told us was called The Blue Note. We set off to find it.
After walking in circles for a bit, we were actually able to locate the club with the help of a few locals and a slight modification to our pronunciation – “Brue” note. We walked into this small, hole in the wall sort of place with a combo stuffed into the far side of the bar. There were maybe 10 people in the entire place, but considering it’s size, it still felt crowded. We slid past the bar and each found a seat (which were all drum thrones) feet from where the group was playing. Right across from me was a man originally from the UK who informed us that tonight was nothing more than an open jam, but after our introductions and letting him know each of us are musicians, it seemed as if we came to the right place at the right time. Soon after, the band finished its set and took a break, giving us some more time to figure out what the situation was, get our new friend’s name (Benny), and find encouragement to join the jam. Now, like usual, I don’t just walk through random Japanese cities carrying my sax, so I didn’t have my main horn to go and sit in with. There was, however, a lady in the bar who had a tenor sax with her, though I didn’t yet get to hear her play. Well, obviously I wanted to play in a Japanese club so I asked Benny to talk to the lady for me (he was fluent in Japanese, unlike myself who might know three words and still fail to pronounce them correctly). I told Benny before hand that if the roles were reversed and she wanted to borrow my horn, there’d be absolutely no way in the world, so it’s no big deal if she declines. But Japanese hospitality and friendliness prevailed and she handed her Series II Selmer tenor over without a second thought. I did a quick warm up to see if I could get a note to speak, which seemed to impress her, and was invited up to play the first tune of the next set.
I also went up (more like stood up and turned around) with my friend Mario who sat at the piano. Mario isn’t a musician on the ship, but has been studying piano and jumps at any chance to play. So we got ready to play, the drummer introduced each of us as “Mike son” or “Mario son”, and began with Blue Bossa. We played the tune down, everyone took solos, and the audience seemed to enjoy it. I felt like I was received very well and following the tune, was invited to keep calling tunes and playing solos.
It’s kind of weird using someone else’s horn. I’m not too concerned about germs, but horns and mouthpieces and reeds very greatly from person to person. The horn I borrowed was a great, well respected horn, but the metal mouthpiece (link) wouldn’t have been my choice. The horn played decently though, I was at least producing a sound, and that was about all I was worried about.
The night progressed on and I kept playing, and Terry even came up and joined in with My Funny Valentine. I liked it, he, on the other hand, wasn’t too impressed with his slightly inebriated vocalizations. But what I got the biggest kick out of was our encounter with one of the audience members. Let me preface this next comment by saying that Japan, by far, has had the highest numbers of gorgeous girls walking around the city. Without question, Japan has been a joy to every male I know for just that reason. Now our friend at the bar, who seemed to like my saxophone playing, fell on the complete opposite side of that spectrum. Aside from being completely drunk, she spoke no English, was not in the least bit pleasant to look at, and was unusually touchy-feely. I found it funny simply because while I was playing, our “friend” would be getting really close to Terry and rubbing against him, something he certainly didn’t appreciate. Even after I’d finish and sit down, she’d be sitting by him while he looks at me with a disgusted and uncomfortable look and insists that I take care of this “thing”. But anyways, she made it really awkward till we left, something we must have done around midnight.
As we were wished farewell by our new Japanese friends, we departed with Benny who offered to show us to a small little bar that was more rock and roll themed, something he thought we’d appreciate. Yeah, not so much, we left the second he stepped out the door to meet up with his friends again. From there we decided it might be about time to start looking for a hotel seeing as the trains stop running at midnight, so here’s where the real fun begins…
Turns out Japan totally closes down at midnight, meaning all hotels stop receiving guests at that time or sooner. Literally every hotel we walked into there on out was closed, which we soon figured out might pose a problem. Now, my friends were sort of upset that we didn’t check in somewhere sooner seeing as we were vaguely familiar with the shutting down thing, but I was more than happy to walk the streets a little more. I get excited by not quite knowing where we were going to end up and the process of finding something. It’s kind of scary not really having any options, but at the same time, when you’re with people that you trust, just the trill that makes for better blog stories.
We asked a couple of people for advice, and they’d give ideas I’d never considered in my life, such as renting a karaoke room till 7 am. Anyways, here’s the sequence of events. The first place we tried that looked like an option was a hostile. The door was open, but the office closed at 10:00 and wouldn’t open again for another 12 hours. We went inside and briefly looked around. There was a really nice back room with couches, a TV, and a computer. We sat down for a bit and I tried to convince my friends of just laying down there for the night and then leaving early in the morning before we were found out. The idea was trashed on account of fears that we’d get arrested for trespassing, something they didn’t want to risk (I was all for it). So we left that nice room for the streets and continued walking. We came across a restaurant where we met an Israeli guy and asked for ideas. He recommended the Karaoke, among other things, and listed them on our map. So we set out to find his suggestions.
The Karaoke place we stopped at was certainly interesting. In Japan, there are Karaoke places everywhere. If you want to have a good time with your friends, you go to this place, actually rent your own private room with a TV, order some food and drinks, and sing your heart out. We weren’t so focused on the singing as we were on the sleeping possibility. After Mario tried his hand with negotiating the price of the room, we each paid $17 and were to be set till 6 or 7 AM. Or at least we thought so till we saw the room. When Mario opened the door to this 6x6 box with two couched, it was clear the room wouldn’t hold three guys that wanted to sleep. We tried to get a larger room, but as we discovered they were all reserved, we ended up getting our money back and moving on to the next opportunity.
We continued trying to locate places circled on our map, most of which yielded no results. Mario suggested the idea of staying in a bar till they closed at 5 AM, yet another idea completely new to me. So as we walked down the street following our map, we looked for places that advertised such late operating hours, and for each one that did, Mario and I ran up to check them out. The first three or so just weren’t going to work, they weren’t set up for sleeping, and as the night dragged on and we confronted failure upon failure, we were getting more and more desperate. Then, one of the bars we checked turned out to be just what we were looking for. This small, 15 person max establishment, had no more than a bar with a half dozen stools and 4 large couches – bingo. Further more, it was empty, perfect for the little time we had to sleep. At this point it was 2 AM, and although that’s not even really all that late, it’s a totally different story after you’ve walked around Japan for the past 8 hours. We all went up, ended up ordering a pizza made in some glorified easy bake oven (still tasted good), and tried to sleep on our red couches with unusually furry pillows. The music blaring in the background wasn’t much of a help, especially considering it was some weird Hip hop/R&B/Smooth jazz blend with English words, but at least we had a place. At about 3:30 a couple came in and further disturbed our less than peaceful sleeping environment, but again, what can you expect from a bar. I’m just glad the bar tender was nice enough to let us be after we finished our pizza. We were eventually told to leave at the 5:00 closing time, but just those couple hours did a great deal of good. I didn’t really sleep that much cause I was to hyped up on the excitement of Japan, but Mario and Terry seemed to get some rest in.
Following our exit from the bar, my now marginally reenergized group set off to walk to the train station, a different one from our trip to the city. This train we believed would be faster, which it was by 15 minutes, but at $4 price increase. But once again, the train was nice and clean, it made for an enjoyable ride back to Kobe. Upon returning back to the actual port city, Mario soon took the next train back to the ship terminal while Terry and I opted for just a little more time out on the town. We were looking for a coffee shop where we could sit down and enjoy the morning. The only problem was that the coffee shops don’t open till 8:00 or 8:30, so we had about a half hour to kill before we sit down and actually ingest something. We ended up at a place called Excelsior Café, a chain I’ve been noticing more and more recently, and just hung out for a while. We eventually made our way back to the station, caught the next train to the terminal, and returned to the ship after a long night out.
The remainder of the day involved a good deal of sleeping, and even a trip to the gym, but that pretty much concludes my last overnight in Japan. I want to say there was something else worth mention about that night, but I can’t think of it now and this post is already long enough, for for those who made it, congrats and thanks. And if you’re going to Japan, please book your hotels in advance. Have a great one!
Kyoto (Kobe) Japan
Today was my second and final over night in Kobe and I had set out to make it a good one. After some quick planning in the morning, I left the ship with Terry and Mario for a night in Kyoto, one of the top tourist destinations in Japan, and what we were hoping would be a night to remember.
We left the ship, took the train into the downtown station in Kobe, Sannomiya stations, and from there hopped on our train that would get us to Kyoto in about 75 minutes. The public transportation is really nice in Japan, though somewhat expensive, the system really puts the Chicago land systems to shame. Aside from nice chairs and a clean, safe environment, whenever the conductor walked from car to car, he would stop before entering or exiting each car, face the passengers, and bow. I must have seen this guy bow 20 times as he walked in and out of my car, it was really interesting, not to mention humorous when he would look up and see my camera pointing right at him…I’m sure there have been plenty of “stupid American” remarks said behind my back.
When we arrived at Kyoto and exited the station, the first place we wanted to stop was at a bike rental a few km up the road. After getting our bearings, we set off down the road, only to soon come to the conclusion that at 6 PM, a bike rental might not be the best idea, especially one that seemed to be an hour walk away. So we abandoned that idea and began walking to the geisha area Mario had expressed interest in. While walking, we came across a jazz club that looked more than promising, and after figuring out the show started at 7:30, we decided to make a quick trip for dinner and then try to make it back for the show.
Dinner was conveyor belt sushi. Now, Terry and I have been looking for sushi since we got to Japan and for whatever reason have found tremendous difficulty locating the quintessential Japanese food. That ended tonight. We asked a local where the best sushi place was, which conveniently, was a conveyor belt sushi joint across the street. By conveyor belt, I mean there is literally a conveyor belt that loops around the tables and bar where by the customers grab any sushi dish that catches their eye at that time. Each dish was about $1.30, and for the bill, they just count the dishes stacked on you table. We sat down at a booth on the second level of the restaurant and began grabbing at sushi dishes, all of which were extremely simple and unbelievably good. I ended up with 7 dishes, just under $10 worth, and a great feeling of fullness that only raw fish and rice seems able to produce.
We then left just in time to get back to the jazz club before the band started. We went up to the 5th story of the building where the club was located, walked in the door, and were informed of the $50 cover charge. Yeah, that’s right, $50 to hear jazz at a Japanese club. I’ve been to rock concerts for less than that. Well, we were sure the guy at the door must have been mistaken because for whatever reason, Mario had previously understood the cover to be $5, certainly more reasonable, but after a couple minutes of arguing with the guy about the price, it was apparent he knew exactly what he was charging and there was no room three budget conscious Americans. It was too bad that it didn’t work out though because the club looked really hip (not to mention packed), but even as the flyers mentioned as we left the building, the cover was quite clearly going to be $50.
So we left determined to find a different club with a similar scene for a reasonable price. Impossible in Kyoto, never! We started wandering the streets, and to our surprise, came across countless jazz clubs. These aren’t your usual jazz clubs though, these are rooms that might hold 20 people max with a piano in the corner, maybe with bass and drums as well. Each club we entered gave us their times and a description of the music that would be going on that evening, none of which quite compared to our $50 find. We must have visited 10 different clubs to find the same thing. One of which, however, we found when we heard a trombone player as we walked the streets. We followed our ears up to a club, again tiny, but completely empty with some small Japanese guy standing in the corner practicing his horn. That club, as he quickly pointed out, was membership only, and quickly turned us away. I did, however, manage to get some info out of him as to where we cold find another club, which he marked on our map and told us was called The Blue Note. We set off to find it.
After walking in circles for a bit, we were actually able to locate the club with the help of a few locals and a slight modification to our pronunciation – “Brue” note. We walked into this small, hole in the wall sort of place with a combo stuffed into the far side of the bar. There were maybe 10 people in the entire place, but considering it’s size, it still felt crowded. We slid past the bar and each found a seat (which were all drum thrones) feet from where the group was playing. Right across from me was a man originally from the UK who informed us that tonight was nothing more than an open jam, but after our introductions and letting him know each of us are musicians, it seemed as if we came to the right place at the right time. Soon after, the band finished its set and took a break, giving us some more time to figure out what the situation was, get our new friend’s name (Benny), and find encouragement to join the jam. Now, like usual, I don’t just walk through random Japanese cities carrying my sax, so I didn’t have my main horn to go and sit in with. There was, however, a lady in the bar who had a tenor sax with her, though I didn’t yet get to hear her play. Well, obviously I wanted to play in a Japanese club so I asked Benny to talk to the lady for me (he was fluent in Japanese, unlike myself who might know three words and still fail to pronounce them correctly). I told Benny before hand that if the roles were reversed and she wanted to borrow my horn, there’d be absolutely no way in the world, so it’s no big deal if she declines. But Japanese hospitality and friendliness prevailed and she handed her Series II Selmer tenor over without a second thought. I did a quick warm up to see if I could get a note to speak, which seemed to impress her, and was invited up to play the first tune of the next set.
I also went up (more like stood up and turned around) with my friend Mario who sat at the piano. Mario isn’t a musician on the ship, but has been studying piano and jumps at any chance to play. So we got ready to play, the drummer introduced each of us as “Mike son” or “Mario son”, and began with Blue Bossa. We played the tune down, everyone took solos, and the audience seemed to enjoy it. I felt like I was received very well and following the tune, was invited to keep calling tunes and playing solos.
It’s kind of weird using someone else’s horn. I’m not too concerned about germs, but horns and mouthpieces and reeds very greatly from person to person. The horn I borrowed was a great, well respected horn, but the metal mouthpiece (link) wouldn’t have been my choice. The horn played decently though, I was at least producing a sound, and that was about all I was worried about.
The night progressed on and I kept playing, and Terry even came up and joined in with My Funny Valentine. I liked it, he, on the other hand, wasn’t too impressed with his slightly inebriated vocalizations. But what I got the biggest kick out of was our encounter with one of the audience members. Let me preface this next comment by saying that Japan, by far, has had the highest numbers of gorgeous girls walking around the city. Without question, Japan has been a joy to every male I know for just that reason. Now our friend at the bar, who seemed to like my saxophone playing, fell on the complete opposite side of that spectrum. Aside from being completely drunk, she spoke no English, was not in the least bit pleasant to look at, and was unusually touchy-feely. I found it funny simply because while I was playing, our “friend” would be getting really close to Terry and rubbing against him, something he certainly didn’t appreciate. Even after I’d finish and sit down, she’d be sitting by him while he looks at me with a disgusted and uncomfortable look and insists that I take care of this “thing”. But anyways, she made it really awkward till we left, something we must have done around midnight.
As we were wished farewell by our new Japanese friends, we departed with Benny who offered to show us to a small little bar that was more rock and roll themed, something he thought we’d appreciate. Yeah, not so much, we left the second he stepped out the door to meet up with his friends again. From there we decided it might be about time to start looking for a hotel seeing as the trains stop running at midnight, so here’s where the real fun begins…
Turns out Japan totally closes down at midnight, meaning all hotels stop receiving guests at that time or sooner. Literally every hotel we walked into there on out was closed, which we soon figured out might pose a problem. Now, my friends were sort of upset that we didn’t check in somewhere sooner seeing as we were vaguely familiar with the shutting down thing, but I was more than happy to walk the streets a little more. I get excited by not quite knowing where we were going to end up and the process of finding something. It’s kind of scary not really having any options, but at the same time, when you’re with people that you trust, just the trill that makes for better blog stories.
We asked a couple of people for advice, and they’d give ideas I’d never considered in my life, such as renting a karaoke room till 7 am. Anyways, here’s the sequence of events. The first place we tried that looked like an option was a hostile. The door was open, but the office closed at 10:00 and wouldn’t open again for another 12 hours. We went inside and briefly looked around. There was a really nice back room with couches, a TV, and a computer. We sat down for a bit and I tried to convince my friends of just laying down there for the night and then leaving early in the morning before we were found out. The idea was trashed on account of fears that we’d get arrested for trespassing, something they didn’t want to risk (I was all for it). So we left that nice room for the streets and continued walking. We came across a restaurant where we met an Israeli guy and asked for ideas. He recommended the Karaoke, among other things, and listed them on our map. So we set out to find his suggestions.
The Karaoke place we stopped at was certainly interesting. In Japan, there are Karaoke places everywhere. If you want to have a good time with your friends, you go to this place, actually rent your own private room with a TV, order some food and drinks, and sing your heart out. We weren’t so focused on the singing as we were on the sleeping possibility. After Mario tried his hand with negotiating the price of the room, we each paid $17 and were to be set till 6 or 7 AM. Or at least we thought so till we saw the room. When Mario opened the door to this 6x6 box with two couched, it was clear the room wouldn’t hold three guys that wanted to sleep. We tried to get a larger room, but as we discovered they were all reserved, we ended up getting our money back and moving on to the next opportunity.
We continued trying to locate places circled on our map, most of which yielded no results. Mario suggested the idea of staying in a bar till they closed at 5 AM, yet another idea completely new to me. So as we walked down the street following our map, we looked for places that advertised such late operating hours, and for each one that did, Mario and I ran up to check them out. The first three or so just weren’t going to work, they weren’t set up for sleeping, and as the night dragged on and we confronted failure upon failure, we were getting more and more desperate. Then, one of the bars we checked turned out to be just what we were looking for. This small, 15 person max establishment, had no more than a bar with a half dozen stools and 4 large couches – bingo. Further more, it was empty, perfect for the little time we had to sleep. At this point it was 2 AM, and although that’s not even really all that late, it’s a totally different story after you’ve walked around Japan for the past 8 hours. We all went up, ended up ordering a pizza made in some glorified easy bake oven (still tasted good), and tried to sleep on our red couches with unusually furry pillows. The music blaring in the background wasn’t much of a help, especially considering it was some weird Hip hop/R&B/Smooth jazz blend with English words, but at least we had a place. At about 3:30 a couple came in and further disturbed our less than peaceful sleeping environment, but again, what can you expect from a bar. I’m just glad the bar tender was nice enough to let us be after we finished our pizza. We were eventually told to leave at the 5:00 closing time, but just those couple hours did a great deal of good. I didn’t really sleep that much cause I was to hyped up on the excitement of Japan, but Mario and Terry seemed to get some rest in.
Following our exit from the bar, my now marginally reenergized group set off to walk to the train station, a different one from our trip to the city. This train we believed would be faster, which it was by 15 minutes, but at $4 price increase. But once again, the train was nice and clean, it made for an enjoyable ride back to Kobe. Upon returning back to the actual port city, Mario soon took the next train back to the ship terminal while Terry and I opted for just a little more time out on the town. We were looking for a coffee shop where we could sit down and enjoy the morning. The only problem was that the coffee shops don’t open till 8:00 or 8:30, so we had about a half hour to kill before we sit down and actually ingest something. We ended up at a place called Excelsior Café, a chain I’ve been noticing more and more recently, and just hung out for a while. We eventually made our way back to the station, caught the next train to the terminal, and returned to the ship after a long night out.
The remainder of the day involved a good deal of sleeping, and even a trip to the gym, but that pretty much concludes my last overnight in Japan. I want to say there was something else worth mention about that night, but I can’t think of it now and this post is already long enough, for for those who made it, congrats and thanks. And if you’re going to Japan, please book your hotels in advance. Have a great one!
Sea Day
May 1st,
Sea Day
The usual, nothing really. I played my last big band set for this contract today though, so that’s exciting. Thanks!
Sea Day
The usual, nothing really. I played my last big band set for this contract today though, so that’s exciting. Thanks!
Shanghai
April 30th
Shanghai
Today was my last trip into Shanghai before flying back home in a week. This trip had one objective though, buy jackets.
My friend had previously found out this market where he was able to buy North Face jackets for $15-20 dollars, some even less. I wanted to buy a couple, bring some home, and exercise the powers of Ebay. So after getting off the ship early, we made our way to a subway, and from there to the market where I got to see some great negotiating in action. Through a succession of price disapprovals and walking out of the shops, we were able to work the seller down to what must have been the lowest price she could have offered for the jackets. My friend Garreth bought about 7 to take back to the ship and sell to the Philippinos, while I ended up with two windbreakers and two heavy winter coats for a total of $70. As a point of reference, the lighter windbreaker sells in a North Face shop for $100, so I figure I got a good deal. Now, the million dollar question: are they fake? You know, I can’t tell. They have tags, are in good shape, and I’d certainly wear anything I bought, but there’s no way for me to certify authenticity when some Chinese lady pulls them out of a box in an attic.
We didn’t stay in the underground market too long because we had to get back to the ship for an early sail away, but we did have time for a great lunch. I don’t quite remember all that we had, but I know there was a lot of it and it was great. Also, it was cheap because the entire trip, including train passes, was less than $10.
So we got back to the ship after walking through some really dirty streets of Shanghai. I had my garbage bag of coats while Garreth had a huge rolling duffle bag of his investments that he had made way too top heavy, giving me a few laughs as he ran across the road only to be instantly halted by the bag he just rolled over. On the way back we managed to see some sites though, including an accident between a biker and a motorbike, and a lovely rear-ending between two cars. Oddly enough, it all occurred right after we expressed disbelief in how it seems like there aren’t any accidents despite the confusion of the roads.
We made it back to the bus though, which then transported us back to the ship. I had my last Passenger boat drill and now get to start my final cruise before flying home. Yay!!!
Shanghai
Today was my last trip into Shanghai before flying back home in a week. This trip had one objective though, buy jackets.
My friend had previously found out this market where he was able to buy North Face jackets for $15-20 dollars, some even less. I wanted to buy a couple, bring some home, and exercise the powers of Ebay. So after getting off the ship early, we made our way to a subway, and from there to the market where I got to see some great negotiating in action. Through a succession of price disapprovals and walking out of the shops, we were able to work the seller down to what must have been the lowest price she could have offered for the jackets. My friend Garreth bought about 7 to take back to the ship and sell to the Philippinos, while I ended up with two windbreakers and two heavy winter coats for a total of $70. As a point of reference, the lighter windbreaker sells in a North Face shop for $100, so I figure I got a good deal. Now, the million dollar question: are they fake? You know, I can’t tell. They have tags, are in good shape, and I’d certainly wear anything I bought, but there’s no way for me to certify authenticity when some Chinese lady pulls them out of a box in an attic.
We didn’t stay in the underground market too long because we had to get back to the ship for an early sail away, but we did have time for a great lunch. I don’t quite remember all that we had, but I know there was a lot of it and it was great. Also, it was cheap because the entire trip, including train passes, was less than $10.
So we got back to the ship after walking through some really dirty streets of Shanghai. I had my garbage bag of coats while Garreth had a huge rolling duffle bag of his investments that he had made way too top heavy, giving me a few laughs as he ran across the road only to be instantly halted by the bag he just rolled over. On the way back we managed to see some sites though, including an accident between a biker and a motorbike, and a lovely rear-ending between two cars. Oddly enough, it all occurred right after we expressed disbelief in how it seems like there aren’t any accidents despite the confusion of the roads.
We made it back to the bus though, which then transported us back to the ship. I had my last Passenger boat drill and now get to start my final cruise before flying home. Yay!!!
Jeju Island
April 29th
Jeju Island, South Korea
It’s been about a week since this day and I honestly can’t remember a thing. I’m pretty sure I stayed on the ship because there is very little to do at Jeju and I didn’t want to spend any money. So there you have it, my entire day in Jeju. Need I mention it was another day off?
Jeju Island, South Korea
It’s been about a week since this day and I honestly can’t remember a thing. I’m pretty sure I stayed on the ship because there is very little to do at Jeju and I didn’t want to spend any money. So there you have it, my entire day in Jeju. Need I mention it was another day off?
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