Making my way through Asia (and grad school) one adventurous step at a time.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Adventures in Japan... (Part I)

My friend Jen and I arrived home last night after a 10-day adventure in Japan. Since I still have a week of vacation left with nothing planned, my next few posts will be re-capping my trip. Right off the top, let me say that I had a fantastic time and very much enjoyed the break. However, there are a few things I hope I will never ever do again...

1) Never start a vacation in a typhoon with a pair of canvas running shoes and a broken umbrella.
Before we even reached the ferry terminal we were drenched and cold. By the time we arrived at the terminal, all the clothes I'd packed in my backpack were soggy, and we were dripping all over the floor.

2) When you board a ferry 2 hours after a typhoon has passed by and soaked you, don't think "Hey, a nice hot bath would be great right now." We were in the Japanese-style bath house onboard when we left the shelter of the harbour and hit open water. With a single heave, 1/2 the water in the tub splashed out onto the floor. Clinging to the side of the tub, we were tumbled and tossed and rocked and sloshed until we were queasy. I spent the rest of the night in my bunk willing my stomach to ride out the storm. By morning, the sea had calmed and we pulled into Fukuoka harbour around 8am, ready to catch the train to Kyoto.

3) After a night on a stormy sea, and a morning on a bullet train, don't expect your lunch menu to stay still when you finally sit down on something that doesn't pitch, toss, rock, sway or bump. By that time, my stomach was hunky-dory, but trying to convince the rest of my body that it was stationary was a bit tricky.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Now you know why sailors stagger when they are in port.