October 14 - Falling, Chinese Cupping, Zhengzhou

In other words, don't walk on the grass...

On the way to teach our classes on Monday, I stopped to use the washroom.  The Chinese have a habit of not having even floors, especially when you leave the washroom.  I was hurrying out of the room, when my foot caught on that lip, and down I went!  My left knee hit first, and then my right knee, and then my hands.  China also uses a LOT of tile on their floors.  I hit the floor with a lot of force.  It did not feel good at all!  Fortunately I landed right next to a radiator so that I had the ability to get up on my own.  

I quickly took stock of where it hurt, which was mostly my knees, and decided that I had survived.  We hurried on to classes and taught the students.  My knees were tender, but they didn’t bother too much.  We had lunch at the canteen, and then went to the little nook that we had found that has comfy chairs where we could relax a little before going to our massage.  After our massage, we went home to do our school work and get ready for the next day.

As I was sitting at the desk, entering scores, I could feel my knee swelling up.  I had to get up and hang some laundry, and I could barely walk.  It just got worse and worse as the evening went on.  By the time we were ready to go to bed, I was in a great deal of pain.  I asked David to give me a blessing, and we asked our children to pray for me.  

I kept trying to think of what else I could do to help my knee.  David had some naproxen, but I kept wondering if there wasn’t something topical I could put on.  I didn’t have any ice to put on it, and I didn’t have any way to put heat on either.  Dr. Tricia had given David some patches to put on his stomach for sea sickness, and he had only used one.  We had read on the directions (fortunately they had them in English also) that it was good for bruises and arthritis.  Basically swelling in the body.  We decided to try that since there were plenty left.  

By the time I got up in the morning, I was still in a lot of pain, but I could walk.  I decided that I had probably bruised the bone when I fell so hard.  Teaching went okay, I was able to climb the three flights to my classroom and then back to the apartment.  This is the week that Reader’s Theaters starts, so it has been a fun week.  The students don’t have a lot of resources to make props, but they are very creative in what they do.

In the afternoon, we went to the train ticket office that is on campus, hoping that we would be able to pick up our tickets for the trip we would be taking to Zhengzhou later that week.  After a phone call to Kang Ming to get the numbers, we were able to get the tickets. 

Wednesday, my knee was still sore, but I could move it without problems, so I was able to teach.  After lunch, we made the trek over to the massage place.  David warned them ahead of time that my knees hurt a lot.  As soon as we got there, they had me lay down on the table and looked at my knees.  There was a lot of concern in their voices as they looked.  When they gave me the massage, they were very careful around my knee. 

Our friend, Carol, who got us introduced to this place, arrived, and they were able to tell her of their concerns for my legs.  They wanted to do some Chinese medicine procedures to help reduce the swelling from my knees.  We thought, “Why not try it?”

I laid back down on the bed, and the first thing they did was a procedure called, “cupping.”  The cupping are glass vacuum cups, which are placed on certain places on your leg, being aware of where the blood veins cross in particular.  A vacuum is created and then taken off.  Afterward a small needle is inserted three times in that cupping spot.  Then the cup is put back on, and the vacuum returned.  This pulls some thick blood and clots out, relieving much of the swelling.  If the cup causes too much pain, they release it and put it back on.  It really wasn’t painful for me, more of a pinching sensation.

 

This is what the cupping looks like.  They drew out several small blood clots. 

After the cupping, they did a different procedure called, “mono moxi=bustion,”  With this, they attach by suction a small little “chimney” on your leg.  Then a tube of herbal medicine is placed in the chimney.  They light the tubes and let them smoke and burn down almost to your skin.  Once again, it is not really painful, just a tingling sensation as the tube of medicine burned down.  

The mono moxi-bustion helps to draw out toxins in the  body.  These little "chimneys" are attached to my skin and then they put a tube of  herbs in each cup.  

Each tube has to be lit separately.  

There I am, smoking away.  It was a rather pungent smell.  The technician that was lighting them, had to step away for a while to catch her breath.  I could smell that odor for several days.  It is a smell that I remember and I have smelled it on other Chinese since.  Just lets me know what they have had done to them.

Taking the cups off my leg.

My knee felt much better on Thursday.  Still a quite tender to the touch, but overall, a lot better.  My right knee hurts much more than my left now.  I was wishing that I could have the same treatment applied to it.

I like to take pictures of some of the better moments of the readers theaters.  This student was expecting it, and flashed the peace sign without even breaking his lines!  He was so funny!

We let our classes out a few minutes early on Thursday.  The university had invited us to go to a conference in Zhengzhou that is meant to foster relations with foreign teachers.  We thought that many would be applying for a chance to go, but David and I were the only ones who could.  It was easier for us, because we don’t teach on Friday, but most of the others do teach then.  We had to meet our guide from the university at 12:25 p.m. by the north gate of the campus, so we hurried back to our apartment, grabbed a small bite to eat, got our bags, that we had packed the night before and got to the gate right at 12:25.  

Yu Yawen, who works in the Foreign Affairs office of the university, was able to get us a taxi to the high speed train station right away, and we arrived there with enough time to get some KFC for lunch.  

After we had ridden south on the train for about two hours, we stopped at Xuzhou. Yawen told us that everyone needed to stand up, so that the seats could be switched around to the other direction.  We hadn’t seen this done before, so it was interesting.  Then the train left in the opposite direction, taking a different track west.

After we arrived in Zhengzhou, we took a taxi to the hotel.  It took us almost an hour and a half!  Besides the fact that it was drive-time, there was also construction to slow us down.  

We got checked in and then they sent us in to dinner.  It was in the hotel cafeteria, and they were at the end of the time that they were serving, so it was pretty slim pickings in the buffet.  We did get enough to eat.  The hotel room was okay, but still quite, “Chinese.”

Zhengzhou is a hub of the great high speed railroad, it intersects with a lot of different tracks there, so you can go in any direction you want from Zhengzhou.

Friday morning, we were loaded onto buses and transported to Zhengzhou University campus.  It is a huge campus, over a mile long from north to south.  The opening ceremony was good until a professor from Canada got up and began pontificating on what he thought a university should look like.  Then we sat through a presentation by a woman who had lived for eight years in the US.  She told us all about the wonderful sites to see in Henan province.

 

All the foreign teachers and university personnel that attended the conference.  We are just right of the center of the picture on the second from the top row.

Lunch was in the university’s canteen with typical Chinese food.  After lunch they took our groups to two different places.  One was the robotics laboratory on Campus, the other was the medical school museum.  

The robotics were fun to watch.  The students who were demonstrating the robots had won several awards, including the highest award in China for robots in their categories.  

The museum was a history of the medical campus and was rather dull.  They were moving at an extremely slow pace.  David and I were tired, so we decided to go outside and wait for the rest of our group.  Yawen had the same idea, along with another one of the Chinese guides, so we all had a pleasant visit sitting in a gazebo by the water.

Going to dinner included a hike to the opposite end of the campus.  At times we wondered if our guide really knew where we were supposed to go, but eventually, we arrived.  The dinner became long and tedious when some of the men at our table decided that drinking a lot was okay.  They got loud and thought they were really funny.  Some of us got up and started walking around and asking when the buses were coming to take us back to the hotel.  It had been a long day, and we all wanted a rest. 

On Saturday morning, we were on the buses bright and early for the 90 minute drive to the Songyang Academy near Dengfeng.  Dengfeng is considered to be the birthplace of Kung Fu.  This academy was started many years ago and still trains Buddhist monks.  Today was a day for young artists to be there to learn to draw.  We came upon a large group, 30-35 children sitting on the ground trying to draw a picture of a very old tree.  We were a little disruptive as we went by.  The children all wanted to know where we were from.  We walked around a little and admired their work.

 

Students learning to draw.

Some of these kids were pretty good!

This tree is at least several hundred years old.

This is the tree that the students were supposed to draw.

This beautiful spot is full of water in the spring, but dry this time of year.  Still beautiful.

As we continued around the grounds of the academy, we met another group of children all dressed in blue robes with a black cap.  I’m not sure what these scholars were learning, but they all wanted to say, “Hello.” As they passed by us on their way to somewhere.  

Students excited to see Americans.

More of them.

Lunch was at a vegan restaurant that is known for its use of tofu and mushrooms.  They claim that they can make a tofu that will taste like any meat.  It’s all vegetarian.  The claim was pretty true.  We tried tofu fish, tofu chicken, tofu beef and tofu pork sausage.  It was all very interesting.  I would definitely eat the sausage again, the chicken and beef were okay, but I would only eat the fish again, if I really had to.  I think the best dish was a plate of mushrooms that had been sliced, and then crispy fried. 

Lunch was over way too soon, and then we were on our way to the Shaolin Temple.  It is supposed to be one of the most famous temples in China, bringing together the philosophies/religions of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism.  We had to walk quite a lot to see and do the things that we saw that day.

We first walked to see a stage production of Kung Fu.  They had several young men show off their skills.  The last three acts were the most interesting.  One young man walks around showing the audience that he has two bars of metal.  They looked to be about one-third of an inch thick, three inches wide, and about eighteen inches long.  Then he brings them to the Kung Fu master who has been warming up on the stage, and the master breaks one of the meal bars over his head.  The next master does some tricks with a chain, and another does something with a rope.

The grand finale was with a piece of glass and a balloon.  First, the young boy walks around the outside of the stage and allows people to touch and see that he has a solid piece of glass.  He walks it up to the stage where someone is holding a blown-up balloon.  They hand the master a pin (looked like a push tack to me), and he proceeded to pop the balloon through the glass!  Then the boy walks the glass around the room that shows that the glass has a hole in it, about a quarter inch diameter!  That was amazing!

When the show was over, we walked to where there were some buses waiting to take us up the mountain to the Shaolin temple.  There was a lot of just standing around listening to the lengthy talk by the guide, so I started looking for a place to sit. My knee was really bothering me from my fall last Monday, so I found a nearby bench and waited for them to finish.  

 

Gate to the Shaolin Temple area.

Tombs of the monks that are centuries old.  The roofs determine the importance of the monk.  The roofs also can have either three, five or seven levels.  Something about the odd number being better.

I thought the shape of this tomb was really unique.

More of the tombs.

As I sat there, a young boy on crutches came over and sat by me.  He looked like he had spina bifida by the way he used his crutches and dragged his feet.  I asked him his name (Talent) and introduced myself.  Talent is here in China while his mother teaches at a school. They have been here for five years.  David texted me when our group was moving on, so I got up and hurried to where they were after I said, “good-bye” to Talent.

We went through the temple and looked at what we wanted to see.  When it came to a part where we had to climb about four stories, I said my knee had had enough of walking up and down stairs today, so we slowly made our way back to the meeting area.

 

A pretty roof line.

Shaolin temple.  There were even more stairs than this behind it to climb, but I didn't have the heart to do it and aggravate my knee more than it was.

While David and I sat there, an older woman (said she was 70) came up and asked in pretty good English where we were from.  She didn’t know much more English, and we don’t know a lot of Chinese, but it was a nice visit with her.

While David was talking to her, I was noticing people as they went by. Young kids with curious stares are who I like to wave at.  Some respond and wave back, some speak the little English they know, and others hide behind their parents or grandparents.  Several asked if they could have photos with me.  

Just before the rest of our group gathered together, Talent and his mother came by.  She thanked me for talking to him and said that he said he enjoyed it. 

Our group made its way to the buses that would take us back down the mountain.  They didn’t have a bus ready for all of our group to go down together, so they had part of our group pile into an oversized golf cart.  When we were still a pretty good walk away from where our bus was parked, the cart started to fail.  The driver got it going again, but it kept failing.  We just barely made it into the parking area for the golf carts before it totally died!

We transported to a restaurant that was NOT vegan for supper, and then went to a special show called, “ShaoLin Zen Music Ritual.”  Most of us were really tired at this point and just wanted to get headed back to the hotel.  After the show was over we were all glad that we had stayed to see it!  The lights, the music, the singing, he choreography all made it a spectacular show! 

 

Some of the scenes from the Zen Music Ritual production.

We got back to the hotel after eleven and hurried to get to sleep.  Tomorrow was going to start early.  We talked to Yawen to see if we could change our train tickets to sometime earlier than 3pm  She said that there were spots available on the 11 and 12 o’clock trains the next morning, but we would need to go there early and exchange the tickets we had.  We decided we were done with the conference and that seeing the museum (that wasn’t even finished yet) was not going to ruin the conference for us. 

The hotel got us a taxi that was able to get us to the train station in a half hour (compared to the one and a half hours earlier this week.  Sunday traffic was light!  We were able to get tickets on the 12 o’clock train, but the eleven o’clock train was all sold out.  The wait at the train station wasn’t too bad.  We made it home in good time. 

 

Just an interesting choice of words, "Retrievable", "Unretrievable."

October 5 - Shimonoseki, Japan and Typhoon Kong-Rey

Shimonoseki was the last port on our cruise.  We only had about seven hours in port.  The dock is really far out, and the only way to get there is to take a shuttle bus in to the city.  We all got on the same bus, and we were fortunate to all get seats again.  The buses were supposed to leave on a certain schedule, but it seemed our driver wanted to sit there and wait until there was no more room on the bus to even stand.  

When he finally took off, it was about ten minutes late.  It was supposed to only take twenty minutes to get to the first stop, but it was closer to a half hour.  Then it was supposed to take twenty minutes to get to the next stop, but that one only seemed about five minutes.  That part really didn’t bother me.  It was the starting late that did. 

David and I had researched what was available the night before and decided that we wanted to go see the aquarium that was in the Hakata area.  There were also some more shines in the area and the rest all decided to go see them, saying they might go to the aquarium later.  I think we were the only ones to go.  They were giving out discounts to tourists for the aquarium, so it only cost us about $17 US each to get in. 

Because it was October and they were going to celebrate Halloween at the aquarium, what could be more appropriate than to have a sea witch come!  The children loved her!  

Part of the dolphin pre-show.

I call it the vampire fish.

I don't know what this one was.  They had so many cool fish and sea creatures!

Horseshoe crabs.

There were several school groups that were there, ranging in ages from preschool to junior high school ages.  We started to wander, but needed to decide where we were at in the building, and see what the best path would be.  On the list of activities to see, was a dolphin and seal show.  We quickly found the arena, and when we noticed all the backpacks that were already in place, decided it would be best to stake our places now and wait for the show that would start in a half hour.

The pre-show, where they are “warming-up” the dolphins was fun with some huge jumps and flips being performed.  Then as more and more people came in, we were glad that we had decided to stay there and wait.  The show was really fun.  After the show, we wandered the aquarium and saw some amazing fish, plants and animals. 

It was a little after noon when we left the aquarium, so we headed over to the place where we would meet the bus and had lunch at an Indian restaurant.  The nan bread and soup were really good.  We caught a bus shortly after we were done and got back to the ship.  The ship left the dock around 3:30 p.m. 

After dinner, David and I went to the Broadway style show that was planned for the entertainment that evening.  The others of our group had all planned to go, but not until the 9:15 p.m. showing. I didn’t think I would be awake to stay up for the later show, so we went to the 7:30 p.m. show.  Both of us left the theater in tears because the theme of the production hit a little too close to home with David’s cancer.  A young couple falls in love, has two kids, but then she falls sick and dies.  It is mainly about what he goes through after she dies.

David had been tracking a super typhoon that had been named Kong-Rey.  It was on a collision course with our ship’s path!  We didn’t know what the ship’s plan was, but it turned out that we were trying to cross the strait ahead of it.  Fortunately, it had been downgraded from a category 5 to a 3 and then to a category 1, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but I don’t want to know what a stronger storm would be like!

We didn’t get a lot of sleep.  The ship was rocking and rolling quite a lot.  We didn’t dare leave the room.  At times, we were afraid that we might be knocked out of bed, but it didn’t happen.  It was difficult to move around the cabin.  It would seem to be moving in one direction, and then all of a sudden change to another.  And it wasn’t just back and forth, it was sideways, diagonal and back and forth!  We were a little worried but decided to have faith instead. 

When the morning came, we were still afloat, even though we were still rocking and rolling all over the place.  When it came time for breakfast, we carefully made our way down to the restaurant.  It was a little better lower in the ship.  We spent the morning assuring our family that all was well, and that the sky was beginning to have patches of blue.  We talked to someone at the service desk and learned that at one point we were only 70 miles away from the eye of the typhoon!  We have enjoyed this last day of the cruise to just relax.

One of the premier shows on the cruise was one called, "Pixels." They had music, dancing and a fantastic light show that went with it.  The only night we could get tickets for was Saturday night because it was so popular.  

Sunday morning, we packed and waited for our time to leave the cruise ship. They had a special line for foreign nationals to leave in, and we made it through fairly quickly.  Our bus driver found us and drove us all back to the other BYU teacher’s apartment building.  We visited with Neils and Jolene Thompson while the Holt’s got the Thunnel’s situated in their hotel room.  Then we met them at their apartment in time for them to get us a taxi back to the train station. 

As we entered the Holt’s apartment, they found their electricity had been turned off while they were gone, so all the food, including a lot of meat, that was in their refrigerator was spoiled.  It’s so sad, but happens often in China. 

We made it to our train and got a taxi back to our apartment.  Safe at home.  It was a lovely trip!

The only train tickets available for our trip back to Jinan were in the business class car.  this is what it looks like.  The seats recline so that you can sleep in it (if you are small like most Chinese).  They bring you a bottle of water and a small bag of snacks.  Of course, we had to pay extra for the tickets, but we didn't want to be getting back to Jinan at 10:30 and try to get up for our early trip to the Qianfoshan campus the next morning.

Day 3 - Fukuoka, Japan

Fukuoka, Japan Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Thursday, we docked at Fukuoka, Japan.  Our primary objective was to go see the LDS temple that is there.  We had gotten the address and showed it to the man that was getting people in taxis.  With fourteen of us, we put four in each taxi, but one taxi had two, that was David and me.  Our taxi driver was the best, because we got there first even though we started last!  He seemed to know how to avoid the bad traffic.  We had them wait for us because we were going to go on to the zoo and botanical garden that were close by the area of the temple. 

We got our pictures of the temple, and then tried to decide what to do next.  The offices of the temple president and the mission president for the Fukuoka Mission are right below the temple.  One of our group went down there and found two of the missionaries!  They were able to help us out.  It turns out that the botanical gardens and the zoo were just steps away from the temple!  We paid our taxi drivers, and then the missionaries showed us where to get tickets, which was right around the corner from the mission office.

 

If they don't know what this is for, I don't either!  Made me laugh!

The Japanese River Rat made me think of the ROUS's from the movie, The Princess Bride.

This is a sun bear.  They have extremely long claws that you could hear clacking on the cement as it walked.

Most of the couples wandered off in different directions, but we mostly stayed with the Holt’s and the Thunnel’s.  They have as much interest in trees and flowers as we do!  We had to go through part of the zoo to get to the gardens, but that was okay.  We saw some animals we had never seen before. 

These little automated cars would carry either up to the botanical garden or down to the zoo area.  They only go up if they detect that someone is in them. 

That is how far it is to the bottom of the rail to the zoo from the top at the botanical garden.

Our group’s plan was to wander where we wanted and then meet up at a certain place at noon.  We had planned to take the missionaries to lunch, but they got busy and were too far away to meet up with us again.  We asked the Sister in the mission office about getting back down to Tenjin area of town (it was close to the ship dock) and she was able to tell us how to catch the bus, and it would be a lot cheaper to do that then get taxis up there for all of us.  

An interesting flower at the gardens.

A waterfall wall.

Conical shaped tree.

 

This is what was left of the rose garden.  It was still pretty and smelled wonderful!

In the distance is the green house.  We didn't have time to see all we wanted to see, and the rain didn't help.

Fortunately, the bus was at the beginning of its route, and we were all able to get seats to sit for the long trip back to Tenjin area.  The people on the bus were kind in showing us how their bus system worked.  When we got to the Tenjin area, we had to find where all the restaurants were that we were assured we would find there.  It was down in the area for the subway system and we found a lot of different varieties of food.  Some of us had Italian, some had Japanese Raman noodles, and others found hamburgers. 

We all agreed to meet at a certain place and time, so we could go in search for the Shinto shrines that were supposed to be in a close area.  Following the directions on Cindy’s phone, we walked about a half mile and found the first shrine.  We couldn’t go in to certain areas, but we did find one shrine hat seemed to be dedicated to noodles and the man who brought them to that area.  It seemed a little strange to have a shrine made to him, but I guess we have Colonel Sanders and the McDonald’s clown…

 

These are the shrines to the men that brought certain noodles to the area.

Gate to the shrine.

Zen garden.

Main gate of the temple.

The wall went a long way.

Some of us were tired, and we wanted to go back, but others wanted to look for some more.  After looking at that shrine, David and I walked to the next street, and just as we got to the street, a taxi drove up, and we were on our way back to the ship.  It was a long, partly rainy, but fun day.

This was the last temple we saw that day.  You had to take your shoes off to go in, and since I had shoes that I would have had to untie and retie, I just got a picture from the doorway.

We were greeted by this little guy when we got to our room that night.

Oct 1-3. Cruise from Tianjin, China to Sasebo, Japan

Ready for our cruise!

The Holt’s had arranged for all of us to be transported to the harbor for our cruise in a bus.  It arrived at the hotel at 9:30 and drove us to the apartments that the other BYU teachers from Tianjin stay in.  After everyone was loaded up, we drove for about 90 minutes to the dock for the cruise ship. 

Shipping containers waiting to be used at the Tianjin harbor.  This is just a small section of the many that we saw.

After we dropped off our bags, they told us to get in a special line for all the foreigners to be processed through.  Since we were not Chinese, like 98% of the passengers were, that's where we went.  We got through without problems and found our rooms to drop our stuff.  We hurried up to the top deck where we had lunch with everyone else on the cruise ship.  Very crowded!  Some of the food was Chinese, some was American.

Our first steps on this ship, Ovation of the Seas.

Eventually we made contact with some of the other BYU teachers.  The ship took off a little earlier than planned, but we didn’t mind.  We wandered the ship and tried to get to know where things were.  It was a fine day for cruising!  We also tried to plan some activities that we would do as a group for the time we were together.

Home, sweet home for the next few days.

After dinner, David and I were on our own, so we wandered down by where one of the cafes had the TV on.  We sat down on some stools and started watching an American football game, something we haven't seen since last Super Bowl.  We only planned to watch for about 20 minutes, but a ten-year-old Chinese boy came by and said, “American Football!  I like American Football!”  We tried to talk with him a little.  His English was okay. 

After a few minutes, a man in a wheelchair came by, and it turned out to be the boy's father, who we had met earlier in the day.  We had met him after the instructions were given about using the lifeboats were finished.  The crowds near the elevators, with everyone trying to get on were pressing.  We had watched this man in the wheelchair trying to get on.  After several unsuccessful attempts, it looked like he was discouraged.  David and I noticed him and decided that we were going to help him get on the very next elevator.

David wheeled him close to the door, and I stood in front of it, kind of making a barrier that others couldn’t pass by us.  When the doors opened, I stood in the middle of the entryway while David wheeled him in, and we got him on!  This man was very grateful, and his stopping by where we were watching the TV was an acknowledgment of the service we had done for him earlier that day.  We had a friendly talk and enjoyed getting to know them better.  He taught us some Chinese words, and we taught them some English. 

I kept reading these signs on the ship.  Made me laugh.

Another sign.  Ha ha!

Tuesday was a day on the ocean.  We once again wandered the ship, met with our friends, and ate.  This ship is equipped with a lot of fun activities: wave boarding, wind tunnel, two swimming pools, many cafes, a basketball/soccer court that also doubles as a roller-skating rink and a bumper car deck, and a LOT more.  

Our group decided to try to get together for dinner on Tuesday.  We were able to get two tables close together, but they didn’t have a place for all fourteen of us at one table.  We were set at two tables close together, and we still had a fun time.  We decided that we were all going to go up and do the bumper cars.  There was quite a line, so we had to wait.  We watched as the Chinese had fun, but I don’t think they really had the idea of what the bumper cars were all about.  They were all so nice and just had fun going around in a nice circle.

It came our turn, and all but one of us got in the cars. He was our photographer for this event.  We also had a young Chinese couple that we shared the bumper car arena with.  All of us crazy Americans were running into each other, and we even got the Chinese couple following our craziness!  When our time was up, the Chinese waiting in line to do the bumper cars, applauded us!  I think they had a lot of fun watching us bump into each other!  It really made me smile when the young Chinese man that was out there with us, got to bump me at the end, and we shared a good laugh.

Our first glimpse of Japan.

Second glimpse of Japan.

Wednesday morning, we docked at Sasebo, Japan.  This was the first time that the Royal Caribbean had docked at this port, so all of the crew were excited and proud of it.  Sasebo is also the location of an American naval base.  Most of the shops seemed fairly new.  We walked through a covered mall area that was supposed to be unique.  We also walked through what was supposed to be an old market area, but we weren’t impressed, China has better old market areas.  It was very short and mostly had fruits, vegetables, and meat for sale.  

Going up that little street was where the "old" market was.

Tiny fish for sale at the old market.

Several flower shops that we passed by where the fragrance made it so that I just wanted to stay there and smell the flowers.

Eels for sale.  I don't think I have ever eaten eel.

A Shinto temple at the top of all those stairs.  I was happy to get a picture from the walkway over the road so that I didn't have to climb all those stairs.  My knee was really bothering me that day. 

After wandering for about two hours, we decided to get some lunch.  At the dock, people had a chance to have their picture taken with a mascot for the most famous burger in Sasebo, “The Big Man Burger.”  A few of us decided to eat there.  It was a really good burger, but we found a lot of things to be very expensive in Japan.  That one burger, good fries, and one ginger ale cost us almost $12 US.  It was 1240 Yen.  Except for the food, we really didn’t spend much money there.

The shopping mall that didn't end, at least it seemed that way.  

Our expensive lunch.  

When we entered the first part of the shopping area, we walked by this window display!  I couldn't believe that they were selling University of Minnesota clothing all the way here in Sasebo, Japan! 

After wandering the shopping area a little more, David and I decided to go back to the ship.  Some of the others were in search of a Shinto shrine that they were told was there, but we lost interest because of how tired we were and went back.

This was the first time for this ship to dock in Sasebo.  When that happens, the city will put on a special farewell ceremony for the ship.  The mayor greets the captain and some of the crew and then there was singing and dancing.  We could only see it from the top (15th) deck.

This little guy was waiting for us when we came back to our cabin for the night.