Librarian at Sea

August 22
San Diego
I guess I didn’t make a blog for yesterday – August 21 – the day we returned to America! It was emotional, beautiful, long, fast, busy, hectic, happy, sad, overcast, sunny, cold, warm, happy, sad, and emotional.

I realized how ready I am to really get home, and tried to change my plane reservation from the 23rd to the 22nd, but it would have been too expensive.

Erika arrived at the ship around 1pm. It was great to see someone from home. We worked together in the library for several hours and then had a nice drink on the Harbor Front. I had a wonderful dinner with the ISE staff and the Administrative Team from my voyage. Very nice of them to include me in that.

Topped the day off by viewing fireworks that were set off from the deck of the Midway aircraft carrier next door.

August 22
Erika and I worked together again today. The Coast Guard came on board around 10 am and conducted a number of safety drills with the crew for about 2 hours. We mostly laid low during that time.

I am heading to Charlottesville early tomorrow morning. I think we’re going to take the ferry over to The Del (Hotel Del Coranado) for dinner in a bit. Figured I’d bookend the trip that way.

I’m really looking forward to being home. I miss Don and everyone so much.
See you all soon.

For the next installment of the Semester at Sea Library see Erika’s blog at http://librarianadventurepants.blogspot.com

August 19
Packing Day

I must admit I am now pretty ready to get off the ship. We’ve slowed way down so we won’t get into San Diego early. They wouldn’t have any place for us to park. But, when you slow a big ship down it ROCKS. And, we’re rocking now.

Also, I think we were all geared to staying on for about 2 months. If our voyage had been the Fall or Spring 100 day voyage we’d still have 3 or 4 ports to go and be right in the middle of everything. As it is, we know this is the end, and we’re mentally ready for it.

I’ve been VERY busy in the library for the past several days. Not only helping with research, but also, shelving, removing books from reserve, shelving, copying the MARC records to a file for Erin, shelving, trying to figure out Find@UVA for the ship, shelving, trying to figure out barcodes, and shelving.

People are starting to want to donate books to the library. Problem is we already own them. Mostly folks don’t want to lug them home. Can’t blame them, but it leaves the “excess book” problem for the library. We’re working on how to handle this for the future. Evidently the older ship had more storage room so they could just store quite a few books in the hold. The MV Explorer isn’t like that. It’s fast, but has less room – like a sports car.

Culture Shock
They used to warn folks about the culture shock they were in for when they returned to the U.S. and their families and schools. I guess there will be some of that, but with the internet, etc. I suspect less these days than formerly. I think it will be a bit hard for those of us who didn’t travel with anyone since we can’t say “remember when….” Don just has to come with next time.

But, I’ll be glad to get back home (note, I don’t say back to work – though, that goes without saying, right?) It’s been wonderful, but I’m ready to get off. Erika will have a wonderful Fall voyage. Just think, AROUND THE WORLD!

August 17
Reading Day
Warning, Warning - Library Stuff - skip down to avoid
Boy, was I busy today. If students put work off on a land campus they really put stuff off if they are in the midst of visiting 8 or 9 foreign countries and sailing around the Pacific Rim.

On the other hand, when they buckle down, they seem to really buckle down. They were reading and researching like nobody’s business today – and keeping me on my toes. One professor decided to give his exam today rather than on Exam Day (tomorrow). Many of his students were in the library most of the day reading and discussing material for his course. From their conversations I realized that they had actually read the material, thought about it, and formed their own conclusions. Pretty cool!

Barcodes
Another thing I’ve been working on today is figuring out how to format the enter barcodes into Winnebago that will conform to UVA’s barcodes. Erin and I have been communicating on this topic all day long.
(With copies to Erika who I’m sure has much more important things on her mind like
• how many bathing suits to pack
• whether or not to bring a sweat shirt with or just buy the inevitable S@S sweat shirt
• what number sun screen to bring (45)
• whether or not to have something for the Ambassador’s Ball made in Vietnam
• how she will get a cigarette during bunkering (she won’t)
• whether she’s gotten enough of the various currencies (she hasn’t)
• will her room have a bathtub (maybe)
• will the internet be fast enough (no)
• will Find@UVA work on the ship (looking good).)

Not even the library people really want to hear the ins and outs of the barcode problems. But, we’re working on it. Stay tuned, or NOT.

Find@UVA
Another issue we’ve been hoping to solve before I leave the ship is getting Find@UVA to work on board. I admit that because not many students were doing very much research while we were tripping from country to country to country this summer I didn’t spend a lot of time trying to diagnose this problem until the past few days. I knew I could get the articles for them, and that’s what I did. However, it is obviously better if they can simply, as on Grounds, click on the Find@UVA link and get to the full text – FOR FREE!

I think we’re on our way toward figuring this out. Jim gave me the base Find@UVA URL that I believe the ship’s IT guy will be able to use to provide the free access we intend. Cross your fingers….
Work Study Reception
Last evening we had a very nice reception to thank our work study students. Kristen looked great in her black dress. Katie, Ana, and Katie all wore kimonos from Japan. They also looked smashing. Lots of photos were taken.

I will say that the students on this ship are obsessed with taking photos. The one student party I briefly attended (remember back to “Dancing Through the Decades”) most of the 15 or so minutes I was there were entirely devoted to taking photos of each other. Several students have said they’ve taken in excess of 15,000 (yes, fifteen thousand) photographs!

Staffulty Lounge
Ok, I admit it. One of the things I will miss is the Faculty/Staff Lounge. While the students must buy alcohol tickets for designated events (not daily, by any means) ahead of time, we have access to a domain all our own. We have a spot at the front of the ship on the 7th deck with a wonderful view forward. During the day we have tea and coffee there. Lots of chairs and tables. Banquettes along the window walls for lounging on. From 1700 to 1800 and again from 2100 to 2300 each day it’s our bar. Antoinette and Edgardo keep us happy. It is nice to have one place on the ship where there aren’t students.

From 1700 to 1800 the senior passengers often have a program or something there. Today ZiZi played her violin. How nice to look out over the Pacific while drinking a beer and listening to someone you like play the violin beautifully. Just makes you realize how lucky you are to be doing this amazing thing.

Packing
AGH!!!!!!! This is going to be hard. I’ve somehow acquired a bit more than I left Charlottesville with. Not over $800 worth more, U.S. Customs (just in case you’re reading this blog), but more….
I did buy (very cheaply, U.S. Customs) a rolling duffle in Singapore, but it may not be big enough. Oh well, we’ll see.

One nice thing is that ISE (Institute for Shipboard Education) arranges for UPS to be at the pier in San Diego. We all just line up, go through Customs, then straight to UPS. Should be quite handy.

August 16
Hawaii
So near, yet so far. We're docked in Honolulu for bunkering, but we can't get off the ship. On to San Diego, and Charlottesville!

August 16 - this post covers August 13-16.
Cell phone day!
Oahu off the port side.
We dock and bunker (fuel up) in Honolulu today. That means ONE thing – cell phone coverage!! Everyone is very excited to talk to friends and family without having to negotiate the intricacies of a foreign phone card.

Some students didn’t need to wait for cell phone day. Several of them have computers with cameras and voice over internet phone service. It’s quite amazing to see that someone is not only talking to her boyfriend via her computer, but has him up on the screen as well. It’s the Jetsons!

We were talking at dinner last night about the technological advances that have undoubtedly been made in the past 2 months of which we’re blissfully unaware. While we’re up on most major new events via CNN.com and LexisNexis, etc. it’s definitely the case that the ship is just a bit of a time warp.

Library stuff
When I talked with Don earlier today he told me how much everyone enjoys it when I write about Library Stuff!! So, here you go….
I’m getting the books that needed cataloging done now. Some of these are books that Pitt had decided to add. They were doing their cataloging back in Pittsburgh. UVA decided to catalog on board. That’s worked quite well. I’ve been able to connect to OCLC pretty easily. It remains to be seen how well Erika will be able to connect with over 600 students on board. I think her cataloging will be done mostly from 800-900.

Shelf reading
Somehow the books in this library seem to get out of order more than normal libraries. I haven’t quite figured it out. We have signs up for people not to reshelve their books, but I’m sure some do and that’s one issue. I also suspect that when the crew cleans the shelves and books (2 or 3 times on this voyage alone) they may not always put them back in exactly the same order. I will try to get some areas (DS, Q’s, H’s) shelf read before I leave.

Donations
I’ve already gotten a few books from passengers to add to the library. Mostly so far these are books that will be good additions. I may have to reject some, or offer the option of the “take one, leave one” collection for some donations. I’m afraid that, as usual, the library will be the de facto recipient of many text books from the voyage. These excess text books are a problem that UVA will need to figure out.

Find@UVA access
We’re on the way toward figuring out why Find@UVA isn’t working on the ship. Since not too many students were doing research until the homeward journey I hadn’t worried too much about Find@UVA. However, it would be much better if it worked on board. I tried it yesterday when I was logged into Online24 (the for-fee internet access) and it worked. I believe it’s a matter of supplying another URL to the ship’s IT guy for free access. I hope so. We’ll figure this out.

August 15
Final Day of Global Studies
Several faculty members spoke to try to tie together the voyage and draw some lessons from it. The final speaker was Shira, the student with cerebral palsy. She did a PowerPoint and spoke eloquently on what it’s like to be disabled, and particularly a disabled traveler. Because Shira has difficulty with speech as well as mobility issues she had difficulty making friends at the beginning of the voyage. It’s been wonderful to see the students get to know her for the person she is rather than for her disability. I think having her speak at our last Global Studies class was a perfect ending.

With a 92 year man (Chief) and a disabled student on our voyage I think everyone’s awareness of and appreciation for the challenges and possibilities of age and disability grew.

August 14
Ambassador’s Ball
The biggest social event on the ship is the Ambassador’s Ball toward the end of each voyage. The Ambassadors is the student group which hosts the interport students for each port. These are students from the countries the ship visits who join the ship at the port before their home country. They attend classes, talk with the students (and the rest of us), give a presentation, and generally help the students prepare to visit their country. A great program.

Ana & Katie

The Ball is hosted by this group, but primarily planned by one of the residence directors, Marci, for our voyage. It’s our major “dress up” event. Many of the students wore clothes they bought or had made in either Vietnam or Hong Kong. Some truly beautiful outfits. Some students, including one of my library students, YY (Yun Yan), wore traditional outfits. YY and another student wore traditional Korean clothes and looked beautiful.

YY and Chris


The Captain’s dinner preceeding the Ball was very nice and elegant. We and our main dinning room clean up pretty good!

The dance was held in the Union. Several of the faculty and staff went early and we even danced to a song or two. However, the rap songs that they played early didn’t really lend themselves to dancing. Most of us retired to the Staffulty (Faculty/Staff) Lounge for our own after party.

All in all a very fun evening.

August 13
Passenger Talent Show

It’s always fun to see how talented people you know really are. When I worked at the Law Library I was awe struck by the talent that the law students displayed at the Libel Show. Same goes for this shipboard community. These students, staff, and faculty sang, danced, drew, painted, played instruments, performed monologs, and performed songs they wrote. They were really amazing.

It would be difficult to pick my favorite:
• Two teenage boys performing Saint-Saens Cello Concerto in A minor
• Eve who wrote, played and sang a song about our voyage and her new found friends
• Mondo, Ana, Katie, Emily, & Kelsey who danced their hearts out
• Shira, who made a puppet and performed a monolog using the puppet despite her cerebral palsy.
• Zizi who played a violin solo written by a countryman of her’s.
• Adar who did a hilarious skit which incorporated all our stops and many of the things that people did.
• Nikki and Lindsay who each sang a cappella

All the folks performed while the ship was rocking and rolling a bit. I call that real talent.

August 12 (the second one)
Library stuff
One worrisome thing. Two days in a row Winnebago has come up with the following message:
Cannot connect to the server “LIBRARY1@192.168.0.5’. Make sure the default server information is correct, the network cables are connected, the server is running, and the server can allow more users.
In light of the fact that many previous S@S librarians have reported that Winnebago is “unstable” and gets corrupted sometimes this makes me very nervous. I hope I will be able to copy the database to a CD in a few days without any problems. We shall see….

Crew Talent Show
A big shipboard event is the Crew Talent Show. This year’s cause is improving the crew gym. We raised $6,279 with our pledges.

It was great. Many talented folks on this crew who care a lot about their jobs, the ship, and the passengers. I was in the back (with an eye out for anyone who might need library materials) with several crew members. They were definitely having a good time.

Acts included:
• Dance to “In the Navy”
• An original song about Semester at Sea
• A great dance/act to a song something like “He’s my man” by a crew member dressed as a nun in which he drew a picture of Jesus by the end of the song. I can’t adequately describe this one, but it was lots of fun.
• Karaoke by several of the crew – very accomplished.
• Several dance numbers
• A traditional Philippines dance
• An ice sculpting demo

Tonight (August 13th) is the passenger talent show. Should also be fun. Ambassodor’s Ball is tomorrow night.

Food Consumption – June 17-August 12
This came out in the Dean’s Memo today. A few stats.
• Beef – 4906 lbs
• Burger patty – 564 lbs
• Milk – 3730 liters
• Cheeses – 1549 lbs
• Pastas – 2041 lbs
• Water (bottled) – 6720 bottles (1.5 liter)
• Beer – 7776 cans
• Sugar – 1050 lbs
• Fruits fresh – 181962 lbs
• Vegetables fresh – 29755 lbs

August 12 (the first one), 2006
Back to Work
We only have about 10 days left in our voyage, and it’s crunch time. The students are working on their papers. Just as on land, many have waited until the last minute to do their research and write their papers. The library has been hopping for the past two days. Kinda nice to be doing more reference work, I must admit.

Mostly the UVA database access is going smoothly. Find@UVA doesn’t seem to work on the ship – something we should investigate. I’m not sure why it doesn’t work here. So, I’m back to figuring out where the full text of articles might appear if it’s not in the database in which the student was searching. Also, downloading PDFs is problematic. If they aren’t too long downloading is going pretty well, but longer ones definitely take too long depending on the time of day and how many people are on the internet.

The students, as most of us, all assume that they should begin (and end) their research online. I am working to convince them to consider using books for some of their research. This is a small library, but it is geared toward the areas they are researching to some extent. For basic background information it’s certainly their best option. The Winnebago online catalog has some searching quirks and the students aren’t used to it the way they are their own universities catalogs, so I end up doing much of the book searching for them. Many of them have found books in this collection which were perfect for their research.

August 12, the first one
An article from the South China Morning Post on Semester at Sea

FT News, Education
SHIP SHAPE After weathering a political storm last year, the Semester at Sea study cruise is back on course and called into Hong Kong with a refitted vessel taking students on a voyage of discovery. Liz Heron went aboard
1066 words
12 August 2006
South China Morning Post
6
English
(c) 2006 South China Morning Post Publishers Limited, Hong Kong. All rights reserved.
THE WORLD'S FASTEST cruise ship glided into Victoria Harbour this summer bringing 285 university students to Hong Kong on a voyage of learning and exploration.
The MV Explorer is home to the Institute of Shipboard Education's 90th Semester at Sea study cruise, a summer school combining degree-level courses with visits to eight East Asian countries, and is now returning across the Pacific.
It was the vessel's first visit to Hong Kong since it was refitted as a floating university in 2004 and the first voyage sponsored by the institute's new academic partner, the University of Virginia.

With visits to Angkor Wat, Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City already under their belts, students disembarked into Ocean Terminal and fanned out on excursions and activities or tours to China.

This year's 65-day summer school was going with a swing after organisers weathered a political storm following disruption to last year's spring cruise when a 50-foot wave smashed into the bridge in mid-Pacific.

The wave shattered windows, shorted the electrical system and stopped all but one of the engines. A teacher suffered broken ribs and a collapsed lung and students had to be flown onwards to China and Hong Kong from Honolulu.
Then the University of Pittsburgh - the programme's academic sponsor for the previous 24 years - pulled out in June last year over a number of issues, including opposition to the institute's decision to cut ties in 2004 with the Seawise Foundation, set up by Hong Kong shipping tycoon Tung Chao-yung and led after his death by former Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa.

Executive Dean Don Gogniat said the Explorer had been fully repaired since the accident and the institute had stepped up international security intelligence for the vessel. "We have updates from a sophisticated consultancy firm that synthesises all the latest data on terrorism, military conflict and hazardous weather and provides advice on travel safety," he said.

Dr Gogniat said there had been five other universities that had shown interest in taking over Semester at Sea. "But we finally selected the University of Virginia," he said. "It's a top-notch school in the US."

Virginia has taken over accreditation of the courses offered on board, with the full programme accounting for 10 to 15 of the 125 to 130 points students need for a degree at most US universities, other than the Ivy League. The university is also a key sponsor, providing scholarships for needy students.

At sea, students attend classes seven days a week with just the occasional day off for rest and recreation. In port they must join field trips or conduct independent research that counts for 20 per cent of the academic credit.

All students must take a core course on global studies, but can select the rest from a menu of about 60 courses across arts, humanities and social science subjects.
This summer's cruise includes students from 136 universities across the US and nine in other countries, including Canada, Mexico and Japan. Also on board are 17 faculty, 24 staff plus 42 adult learners hitching an educational ride.

In addition, visiting faculty join the ship for anything from a few hours in port to several weeks, while "interport students" get a free trip home from the previous port in exchange for telling students about life in the next destination.
Former visiting faculty have included Fidel Castro, Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa and Bishop Desmond Tutu, who joined the ship for one whole transatlantic voyage from Brazil to South Africa.

Dr Gogniat said: "Semester at Sea changes students' lives. On this voyage you learn that you are in a closed system called the world and it is an integrated system. That makes for a global citizen.

"There are more people who get involved with service projects and the Peace Corps and non-governmental organisations after SaS than practically any American university per capita."
The summer school and the full 100-day round-the-world trip takes students beyond the normal tourist itineraries and includes places once off-limits for US travellers.

In 1994 Semester at Sea mounted the first large-scale visit to Vietnam by American college students since the Vietnam war and in 1999 made the largest US government-sanctioned visit to Cuba in nearly four decades. But at a time of growing public concern about safety standards in student adventure travel, it has also suffered accidents more serious than last year's wave.
In March 1996, five travellers, including four students, died in a bus accident in India and in October 2000, a container ship sideswiped the programme's former vessel, the SS Universe Explorer, on the Saigon River, slicing a 30-foot gash in its hull and damaging five student cabins. No one was hurt.
Captain Jeremy Kingston, who joined the ship after last year's accident, said that a wave-deflecting structure was added to the ship during maintenance last year. Security on the ship was also tight to meet the the International Ship and Port Facility Code, introduced 18 months ago in response to 9/11.

But, if today's world is marked by terrorism and security, the chance to study and travel is no less magical for the students.
James Maclean, 21, of Boston University, said: "The classes are great but we learn the most when we are in port meeting people.
"Everyone I met had preconceived ideas about Vietnam - I definitely did - and it was completely different. It was much more developed than I thought."
Abra Chusid, 21, a drama student from Northwestern University, said she had been struck by how westernised some Asian countries such as Singapore were, yet people had kept their culture alive through the arts. "I am applying for a fellowship to study theatre in Singapore," she said.
Lindsay Rolfe, 19, of Colorado State University, said: "We have all decided that in 30 years we are going to be adult passengers here."
The summer school costs about US$10,000 per head and the full semester round-the-world programme about US$15,000.
Visit www.semesteratsea.com

Kobe, Japan

As Dean Don says, Kobe is a great port to either begin or end a voyage in. Kobe is a small city – 300,000 – and very manageable. Squeezed between the mountains and the sea, it is sort of long and narrow. The Port is very convenient to downtown. And, Japan is a very organized country. There are a multitude of trains and train companies and lines, but they all run on time, and the information desks are very helpful.

Baseball

I’ll start with baseball. After our wonderful experience with Korean baseball many of us wanted to compare that with Japanese, which we had heard so much about. The Kobe major league team wasn’t in town, but one of the AAA-equivalent teams, the Kobe Braves, was. Upon finding this out at about 5:30pm on Tuesday I spotted Roxanna, one of the adult passengers, and we agreed to head out to the ball park.

In general, I liked my Korean baseball experience better than my Japanese one. The fan participation quotient was far higher in Korea than at the Japanese game.
Highlights included:
• Kobe Beef Croquette – the closest I got to Kobe beef, and quite good, whatever it was.
• American hot dog – served on a stick. Not a corn dog, just a regular hot dog on a stick.
• Fireworks – wonderful display after the 5th inning.
• Fire cannon – when our team hit a home run (to tie the game they ended up loosing) two chimneys in the outfield stands shot fire into the air.
• Balloons – After the 6th inning, I think, they fired the fire cannons again, and let off hundreds of blue and orange balloons. The fans had blown up these long balloons, but not tied off the ends. The balloons are evidently made to sail high up and make noise as they lose their air.
• American style stadium announcer – after the almost complete lack of announcements at the Korean game, the American sounding announcer at the Japanese was kind of fun.

I very much disliked the commercials they showed during inning breaks – real commercials. I also disliked the lack of a stadium organ or any fun music between innings. At least at this AAA game there wasn’t much unison cheering. They seemed to know only one clapping pattern and one or two cheers. Compared to the 50 or 60 cheers at the Korean game this seemed pretty spar.

There were many more people at the minor league Japanese game than at the Korean game. And, every time I went into a coffee shop or pachinko hall (just for the cultural experience) they had baseball on the TV.

Arima Hot Springs
One of the highlights of Japan for me was my trip to the spa and hot springs about 20 miles into the mountains outside of Kobe. Those of you who know me, know that it’s difficult for me to pass up the opportunity to visit a spa or hot springs. When I discovered there was one not too far outside of Kobe, and when Steven, adult passenger, said he’d gone on Sunday and that is was great, that settled it.

It took about an hour on three different lines to get there – but the trains were on time! The town is nestled into the mountains – very pleasant with a river running through town. Reminded me just a bit of Bristol, NH, (or, maybe, Scottsville) but much hillier. I had a choice of three spas, and asked a local information person which one she preferred. Once she figured out what I was trying to pantomime she gave me excellent advice to go to the one which offered several different options for soaking – Taiko no Yu Spa. She showed me on the map how to get there and I was off.

Despite my first faux pas of not taking my shoes off before I approached the registration desk I didn’t do too badly at the spa. Basically, it consisted of two sections – men’s and women’s. In the women’s section there were two large locker rooms – you got a key in one locker room where you changed into pants and a wrap top they gave you, then proceeded to the second locker room where you changed into nothing. The main floor of the spa had four different large baths each about 3 feet deep. They got progressively hotter. Two were red colored, presumably with the iron that naturally occurs in the water. There was also a smaller, very cold plunge bath, and a sauna. So, one could travel among the various baths to one’s heart’s content. I assumed that was all there was.

As I was taking my (probably) 4th sauna I heard English across the dark space. A woman who teaches English in Japan told me about the upstairs, open air section. I immediately headed up. More baths as well as several different places to sit – some where you could soak just your feet, some where you sat on a slab of marble as water flowed behind and under you. Also, tatami mats where you could lie and air dry. All under a bamboo canopy. Very relaxing and wonderful.

After about 3 hours of various bathing I reluctantly left and headed to the toy museum for a beer (that’s where the guide directed me). I noticed quite a few women and men dressed in kimonos but didn’t think that much of it since, even in cities, it’s not too rare to see kimono clad women.

On Main street they were obviously preparing for a fair or something – food stalls were being set up, people were milling around – many in kimonos, Japanese lanterns were lit. I bought an odd sort of jelloish pudding (not bad) and asked the English-speaking girl what was going on. I’d run into the final night of the Summer Festival in Arima. They have traditional geisha performances and other entertainment.

I hung around to see a few geisha dances, in which other kimono clad folks participated. Picture a non-English speaking middle aged Japanese woman wandering around either the Scottsville 4th of July Parade or the Bristol Lilac Festival and that was me – the only non-local person at the festival. It was so much fun. Even missing the direct train and taking a much longer time to get home was fun. Finally, the hole in the wall (picture the White Spot) restaurant I got dinner at when I got back to Kobe was good.
Kyoto
Ellen, member of the medical team, and I went to Kyoto the day we docked in Kobe. We took the train over, then took a bus to the Golden Pavilion. After a green tea soft serve we strolled through the gardens. A university student gave a good tip to go to the Ponto-cho district for dinner. This former red-light district of Kyoto is a good place to walk around. There are many shops catering to traditional Japanese wares – lacquerware, kimonos, tea, woodblock prints, fans, etc. Also, good number of women and men in traditional dress.

We ate at a sort of Japanese pub. Very good. Not too expensive – though since they didn’t take credit cards (as many, many places in Japan don’t) we were lucky that we had just enough money between us to cover our meal.

Himeji Castle

“If you see no other castles in Japan you should at least make the effort to visit Himeji-jo, unanimously acclaimed as the most splendid Japanese castle still standing.” --Lonely Planet
I couldn’t agree more. Thanks, Beth, for the tip. Also, a very pleasant train ride along the coast and at the foot of the mountains.
For those of you who get the chance the gardens, an extra ticket, are worth the price.

Kobe

Aside from the above trips I pretty much explored Kobe. I found a nice coffee shop that I returned to several times. Aaron, photographer, and I explored together on our last afternoon, after running into each other on the street. He took me to the Japanese Garden in town where he’d already been. Very peaceful, lovely spot in the center of town. Then we went up to the Kitano area, where I’d already been. It’s the area of Kobe where foreign merchants built their houses, right under the hills. There are nice western style houses and shops and cafes. Sort of touristy, I guess, but I liked the area. We then took a cable car, pretty popular in Japan, up to the first hills above town. Nice view. He ended the day repeating his favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurant, and I mine.

Leaving
Sailing out of the Port of Kobe was certainly bitter sweet for all of us. We’re all excited to be heading home, but also sad that our “voyage” is ending. I think for many people Japan was the best port. Not sure if it was for me, but it certainly would tie with Vietnam and Korea(!) for that honor. I think part of this is because this voyage has definitely made me a better, more adventurous traveler. While I do subscribe to the “café” school of travel – where you don’t necessarily have to see everything, but take time to sit and drink a glass of wine, I will now feel more confident to jump on a train one afternoon to see something I’m interested in. So what if you make a mistake and end up in a city you didn’t plan on visiting, there’s probably something there to see as well!