NICK: On the road again, er, water?
Trip Start
Jan 25, 2006
1
37
106
Trip End
Ongoing
Matsuyama,
Japan
Tuesday, May 2, 2006
I was given flowers and my final paycheck, as well as a thank you for helping Aiko out in a tough situation. I was pleased that I could get the experience of teaching children so small. I'd learned so much about how children think and their capabilities. I also was happy I got the opportunity to be around children of that age, now I want my own (-:
Kidding, mom, I can wait a few years. I hope your heart didn't stop.
Ashleigh and I packed up our stuff and headed for the train station. We caught the train to Takahama and the bus to the harbor
01 Ashleigh modeling her Engrish shirt
. We really had no idea what to expect, since the ferry was an overnight ferry. I was kind of hoping that it would be like the Turkish ferry that I was on where there was seats like in an airplane that could recline. Ashleigh had heard something about tatami mats with tons of people sleeping in a room.
Ashleigh was right.
The room we walked to was a huge room with about 50 futon mats or so. We were lucky in that our futons were against the wall so I gave it to Ashleigh so she didn't have to afraid of being groped in the middle of the night (She didn't have to worry about anything, i got an elbow in the ribs from the teenage girl next to me, but that was about it).
I have a feeling that we were all packed in there due to Golden week. I can't imagine the ferry being filled up as much as it was any other time. Nearly every bed was taken.
We played a game of travel Scrabble and then went out exploring the ship. The thing was huge, it was like an ocean liner, but there was hordes of Japanese talking, laughing, smoking, playing slots and eating ramen.
With Ashleigh being the only white person on the boat.
I'd have to say, in all of my travels, I have always stood out from all of the large crowds of white people (or in Brazil, the black people) and have never quite fit in
02 Unterweg
. I still look non-Japanese, but traveling with Ashleigh draws the attention away from me. It's kind of nice.
Not that the attention that Ash gets is negative. From what I've been told (and kind of notice), is that the women want to be like her, and the men are attracted to her "exoticness."
I can appreciate that. (-:
anyways, we were woken up at 6 am by a stop in Kobe, and we soon landed in Osaka at 8.
