Lauren Blogs about Tokyo

Today was one of the coolest days we’ve had so far. We split up into groups of three (I happened to be with Gabs and Jake) and began a scavenger hunt that spanned across the rather large city of Tokyo. Our scavenger hunt had us searching far and wide for items and photo opportunities and forced us to interact with native Japanese speakers. It was an incredible experience to ride subways and navigate Tokyo on our own. There were twenty items on the scavenger hunt to find and all of the groups tied for first place, although Wes, Mads, and Elizabeth got the prizes (only because they found an elusive Japanese ambulance). My group and I went all over Tokyo—Akihabara, Shibuya, Tokyo Tower—and by the time we went to our meeting place, we were fairly exhausted.
We exited our station and headed to the Tokyo Dome where we watched part of a Tokyo Giants baseball game! The stadium was pretty cool and I noticed that the baseball diamond didn’t have dirt between the bases, only surrounding them. The game was a little hard to watch because it was standing room only, but it was an excellent experience! The biggest downside to watching a baseball game was it made me miss my Dad and Cubs baseball (I wonder how they’re doing…).
Elizabeth, Gabs, and I left the game around the third inning to go ride a roller coaster. Sensei told us that it was “maybe worth the money”. What a liar. The roller coaster was one of the coolest things I’ve done in Tokyo! It was called the “Thunder Dolphin” and was right in the middle of Tokyo. The wait was long but worth every second. The first thing you do on the ride is climb 240ft and then you rocket almost straight down. The ride speeds up (as expected) and you barrel through the buildings and streets of Tokyo. You even go through a big hole in a building and go through a Ferris wheel (that has no middle—weird!). The adrenaline rush you get going on the roller coaster was unlike anything you’d get from an American roller coaster. It’s hard to compare a roller coaster in a theme park to a roller coaster in Tokyo that takes you through buildings and towards streets.
Today’s experiences were incredible and I wouldn’t trade them for anything. I take pride in the fact that my group (and the other groups) navigated a massive city on our own with no guidance from Sensei. It was incredible to see a truly American sport (one of the few) played in a foreign country (not to mention the crowds!!) and it was amazing to ride a roller coaster in Tokyo.

Maddie Blogs about Miyajima

So, Japan has been amazing, Miyajima was gorgeous we left Hiroshima in the morning and arrived in the afternoon. “The guest house” was awesome, and the sites were awesome, unfortunately everything closed at like… 5pm. The Japanese style bedroom was gorgeous it was 2 story and was where the meetings for the next day were held. The Misen Mountain was way too pretty to describe I'm very excited but we are going to eat soon we are in Tokyo now and we are too busy for you all ^_-

David's Blog

The past two days have been great work and great fun. Despite Doug and Jake getting wakizashi (Japanese short swords) at Toudaiji, Wes’s chinsuko addiction has progressed to chinsuko throwing violence. Yesterday while taking what was supposed to be a quick, twenty-minute walk to and through Fushimi Inari Taisha, Sarah wandered off on her own, as she often does, and sparked a search that made us eventually an hour late for dinner. The youth hostel owner was kind enough not to ninja us to death though.









Today we went to Osaka. We did a lot of shopping and Doug, Jake, Wes, Sarah and I all went to a restaurant that served Okonomiyaki, a fantastic Japanese food. We celebrated Tanabata at a Japanese temple tonight and then met up with Sadie McDowell, surprisingly unrelated to Jason McDowell and yet equally intellectual. We came back to the hostel and had a fantastic ofuro, as we have had every night. Finally, Elizabeth just learned to burp.

This trip is fantastic.

Elizabeth's Post

Dear Iowa,

We’ve spent the past two days touring Kyoto. Yesterday morning started off at Kinkakuji, the golden temple which has been burned down twice, and then we bus’d over to the Zen garden Ryoanji, where the focus was on Buddhist aphorisms, mainly focusing on a Zen garden with fifteen stones arranged so that you can never see them all at the same time, representing reality and its reliance on perception. After an extremely delicious lunch, we went to Nijo castle, which had an amazing view of Kyoto.






That night we all went back to the hostel pretty tired from our first day of sightseeing. Lauren, Maddi, Gabby and I headed down to take a nice relaxing shower and Ofuro (very hot bath). However, when I was waiting to use Gabrielle’s towel because I forgot to grab one, one of the ladies staying in the Hostel came in. “Are you okay?” she asked me (I was leaning on a shelf with my head on my arms, just chillin’), and thus begun my first naked stranger conversation. Hopefully it won’t happen again.

Today’s schedule consisted of: Ginkakuji, Kyomizudera , and Sanjusangendo temples. Ginkakuji, the silver pavilion, was under restorations and preservations, which meant that it was both covered in scaffolding and significantly less crowded and noisy than Ginkakuji. The gardens at Ginkakuji were breathtaking. Although from the highest point of Ginkakuji you could see far across Kyoto, the real beauty was when you were closer to the earth and you couldn’t see the whole picture. Over 300 different varieties of moss grow in the gardens at Ginkakuji. Kyomizudera was a very different atmosphere, and was full of anecdotal tidbits. There was a leap of faith, with an 84% chance of getting your wish (you only get one if you survive), three fountains granting Health, Wisdom and Prosperity, but you could only choose two so as to not piss off the gods, and a path closed when it’s too rainy, because of a landslide near the turn of the century. Sanjusangendo, the site of a famous duel and incredibly impressive archery competitions, but the most powerful was the huge hall containing 1001 statues of the Buddha. Each statue had eighty-eight arms and thirteen heads. So everyone has had an opportunity to find a site that is the most powerful to them already.


Tonight after dinner at the Hostel, we went on a group trip to Karaoke, which is a much bigger pastime in Japan than in America. The Karaoke place where Julie Sensei always takes students was vacant and for lease, so we went an extra few blocks to another one. After a Karaoke session in which everyone sang at least one song (!), we had to “book it” back to the hostel so we could make it in before curfew. Lauren and Maddi both get prizes for their incredible running in heels, full out running. Currently in our room, two are sleeping, three are writing, and Sensei and her sister are doing important things.

Plz don’t miss us.

Love,
Elizabeth Matus

Jake's Blog Posting

Currently we are on a plane to Osaka, I am surprised at how few people are on the plane. Saying goodbye to the Koyo High School students was really hard and I didn’t want to leave. I am very excited to see mainland Japan though and I hope that while we are there, we get to go to Akihabara. All of our suitcases are packed really full and most of us have very little room left. We are sharing what space we can and most of the space that is being taken up is food that our host families gave to us so when we finish the food off, that should get us more room. Anyway, I really enjoyed my time at Okinawa and I hope that someday I can go back.

Lauren's Blog Day

Dear poor folks still stuck in Iowa,

Okinawa has been incredible. A little hot and humid, but beautiful! The views I see when I drive to school are of gardens and miniature mountains. The mountains are covered in dense foliage of the most vivid green I’ve ever seen!
Koyo High School is also awesome! The building is really cool because almost all of the hallways are outside. The students are all really nice and greet me in the hallway, even if I’ve never talked to them before that. I’ve made friends here, which isn’t hard to do because everyone is extremely nice!
The trips we’ve taken have been exciting and epic--I have tons of pictures!! We’ve done a lot of cool and interesting things. One of my favorite things was Churaumi, which was a HUGE aquarium. There was a whale shark, which was massive, in the same tank as a tank cleaner. I have a picture that shows them in relation to each other. It’s awesome.
Okinawa rocks!!!

Sincerely,
Lauren

P.S. This would be longer but I have to go to class. xD