Farewell To Japan!

Today was the last day! We started off by getting breakfast by 9:30 am. It was a relaxing day because we didn’t have to leave the hotel until 11:00 am. When we met in the lobby, most of us were ready except for Kristen. She was trying to do something in her room, but we were cutting it really close so some of us had to leave and walk to the next hotel to catch the bus. Luckily, everybody made it and they loaded us in and off we went. The bus was about two hours long because we would stop at a different hotel every few miles just to pick up other people for the airport. When we finally got to the airport, we had about four hours to kill before we had to go to our gate. Everyone decided to eat at a restaurant that was mainly an American restaurant. I think that really showed that we were ready to get back into the states. I ate a pizza once again with a cheesecake and some orange juice. It was rather tasty. After everyone was done eating, we went our separate ways for a little bit to go shopping in the stores. It was literally like walking through a mall. There were so many different shops to look at. After I got done walking around, I went through security and passed through immigration. I sat at my gate for about an hour before we had to board. Our flight left at 5:20 pm and we landed in Chicago at 2:45 pm. The flight was 11.5 hours long. It was the strangest thing ever. I basically relived three hours of my life. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do that again. After I went through immigration and customs there, I walked to the terminal where Alaska Airlines was and waited for my flight to Seattle. My flight was at 7:40 pm and I had to wait for about 4 hours before I loaded. The flight was 4.5 hours long, so it was a very long Wednesday for me. I landed in Seattle at about 10:30 pm. With that said, here’s to switching my hours back! Wish me luck!

Flight back to the United States of America!

Our Last Full Day in Japan

This morning, we got up for breakfast in the hotel, and left for the Edo-Tokyo Museum. We arrived at 10 am and were given until about 11:15 am to explore the museum. I absolutely loved this museum because there you could play with some of the stuff that was on display. For example, they had actual houses, a theatre, and a newspaper shop actually built inside that you could walk through! I felt like I learned so much more because I was able to interact and watch things before my eyes. They even had little displays of the villages with miniature sized people. That museum was so incredibly detailed, I loved it!

The theater in the museum

We left the museum late. We had to make our way to the business center in Tokyo to meet with a IC alumnus to speak about an internship possibility. The company she worked for was called Sojitz. They were an international and a domestic company that was a trading company. I quite honestly didn’t really understand what they did since the internship wasn’t quite up my field of expertise. But what they had to say was rather interesting. Our next stop was the Emperor's palace. However, we didn't actually get to look at the place because he keeps the palace hidden. So we were able to look at the outside portion of it and take pictures.

View outside of Emperor's Palace

Julia and I at Sojitz

After we left Sojitz, we went back to the hotel and waited to meet back up at 6 pm to go to the Tokyo Tower. When we walked over there, it kind of looked like a red version of the Eiffel Tower. It was really cool. We all went up to the rooftop and had dinner up there. It was outside and an all you can eat buffet. It was nice. We even had to cook our own food. It was also cool to see the tower light up above us. It was a great way to spend the last night in Tokyo, and in Japan at that. I walked back with Jill, Kristen, and Professor Klein to the hotel. I packed up and waited for the next day. 

Tokyo Tower during the day

Let's Explore Tokyo!

Happy Birthday America! The greatest way to celebrate is to celebrate in another country that we went to war with! Wooo! Anyway, we had the choice of going to a fish market before going to the temple. Julia, Kristen, Leo, and I all chose to stay behind and find our way to the temple ourselves. I didn’t really feel like waking up at 7 am. Instead, I woke up at 9 am. Finding our way to the Sensouji temple it was really interesting. It was mainly Julia leading the way because she was the only one who truly understood the train system. We actually ended up guessing which train to get on because we couldn’t figure out which color to get on. It turns out that we ended up getting on the right train which was just complete luck. It was insane! We arrived at Sensouji temple at around 10 am and it turned out that the rest of our group was going to be a half hour late. So to kill time, we walked through the shopping center that was right in from of the temple. There was actually a lot that I could look at, but most of it was repetitive because most of the material and items were essentially the same. However, I walked around for that half hour and explored the many shops. There were probably three rows of the shopping stores and they were all about a mile long. It was incredibly long. When the rest of the group did finally come, we walked through the temple. I loved this temple because in front of it, there was a big pot with smoke that you could pray over. It reminded me so much of being home and smudging with our sweetgrass and sage to pray with the smoke. It made me kind of homesick. 

Center of Sensouji-temple

Anyway, after I was finished looking around, Julia and I went with Mioko’s friend, who’s name I have forgotten. She was really sweet. She brought us down other streets and there was a street that was literally just orange. It was the coolest thing! It was also labeled orange, and it was pretty funny to me. When the whole group met back up again, we made our way to the Tokyo Sky Tower. When we got there, we bought tickets for the first level which was 350 meters in the air. Seeing Tokyo up in the Sky Tower was a very cool sight. There were buildings for miles! You couldn’t see grass at all and it seemed like all the buildings were stacked on each other. It was crazy! Later, we went up to the second level which was 450 meters high. It looked pretty much the same to me. What confused me the most though is that there were these robots that were displayed everywhere in the Sky Tower. I didn’t really know what they meant. I was told they were from some movie or T.V. show. When we came down from the Sky Tower, we went to the area where it was basically Anime land. We were there for a couple hours and Julia and I decided to sit in KFC because we didn't really know what to look at. After the couple hours there, we went back to the hotel. We had the choice of either eating as a group or by ourselves. Julia and I decided to eat in the restaurant that was in the hotel. Mainly because we really wanted to try their cheesecake. When we were down there, we saw a group come in and eat. It was a business dinner and there were like twenty people. They were also really loud and Julia and I couldn’t quite hear our own conversation. So, we ate the rest of our dinner and went back up to our room. We went to bed and called it a night. 

The Orange Street

View from Tokyo Sky Tower

Main street to Anime Land

There Are Over 13 Million People That Live In Tokyo

The morning started off by having breakfast at 8 am in the hotel. We were to meet at the Kanazawa Station by 10 am so we would be able to make the bullet train to Tokyo. We arrived in Tokyo at 12:50 pm and walked straight to our hotel. This was called the Grand Hotel and I shared a room with Julia. It was a very nice hotel. This was probably the biggest hotel room we had the entire trip because we were able to fit all of our luggage without having difficulties. Once we were all settled in, the whole group walked to a restaurant across from the hotel. It was called Jonathan’s and I once again, ate a pizza with some fries. Afterwards, we were brought to the Meiji-Shrine. This was dedicated to Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken after they died in 1912 and 1914. The shrine was established in 1920. This shrine was beautiful and the area surrounding it was very peaceful. There were so many trees that it felt never-ending.

Temple for Emperor Meiji

Walking along the path to the temple

After we walked around and went back to the front, we were given free-time until about 7 pm. A lot of us went into a kitty café where we were able to pet cats and drink tea at the same time. It was so cute! We were only there for 10 minutes because we didn’t want to pay for tea or coffee. We just wanted to see the cats. After the café, we went to the Harajuku section of Tokyo. It was really cool to see all of the different outfits that some of the people were wearing. I was only able to get a couple of pictures because most were walking by too quickly. However, there were some people that were dressed standing on the side of the street just for the entertainment of the people walking by. The cool part was that you didn’t have to pay them after you got done taking their picture. It was solely just for our entertainment. I was also able to go into a Disney store and find Stars Wars chopsticks. They were the coolest thing ever to find!

A colorful person 

A munchkin kitty! 

Street for Harajuku

Later, our dinner was in the downtown area of Tokyo. We went to a restaurant that was in a shopping center, and I ordered some spicy ramen noodles that were from China. They were super spicy! It brought tears to my eyes and my nose got really runny! Anyway, it was also Kristen’s birthday, so we celebrated by requesting a cake from the restaurant. I was really surprised by how nice she was because she cut that cake into like 15 pieces and tried to give a piece to everyone. Of course nobody really took it because it was her birthday. I had a piece myself though and it was really good. While we walked back outside into the city, I saw how crowded everything was. I have never seen so many people cross the road at once during a red light. It was insane to me! Anyway, afterwards, we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

Downtown Tokyo

It's Time To Relax

Today was a rather relaxing day. It was basically our only free day throughout the entire trip. Since that was the case, Julia, Jill, and I all slept in until about 11 am. Of course we had breakfast at 8 am, but afterwards, we came back and crashed back out. When we woke back up, we decided to go to the mall by the Kanazawa station since there were a lot sales going on in there. We ate at a restaurant that served pasta and pizza. I ate pizza with some orange juice. Afterwards, I ended up going to a store called Lush and bought face stuff that helps with oily faces. I just wanted to try it since my face is constantly oily. Besides that, there were so many stores to choose from since there were six floors. It was almost overwhelming to me. There was a moment towards the end of our shopping spree that we saw Kristen standing in the middle of a crowd waiting for people to pass by. It looked rather funny because she’s so nice and we were trying to figure out how long she might have been there for just letting people pass by her. When we talked to her, we decided to split up. Julia went with Kristen, and I went with Jill. Jill wanted to see the castle while I wanted to walk through the fish market just right up the street. Once we dropped all our stuff off at the hotel, we made our way there. I walked Jill near the castle so she wouldn’t get lost and I walked towards the fish market. When I got there, all the shops were beginning to close. So I walked through quickly and looked at everything. I thought it was a pretty neat place. It made me wish that I spoke Japanese so I would be able to carry a conversation and get to know more about the locals. I felt like I missed a lot about the culture and the people there by not knowing the language. I decided to return back to the hotel and I forgot that Jill had the key. So I was locked out of the room for about 40 minutes until Day and Rachel walked through. When I was back in the room I fell asleep again and woke up at around 7 pm. I didn’t have dinner because I wasn’t really hungry. So I sorted through all my stuff and called it a night.

It Is Essential To Care For The Sea

Today was a rather eventful day. We had our usual 8 am breakfast by the lady who makes it all by herself. On a side note, she did a great job. Anyway, we met at the front of the train station at 9:30 am and had two men from Kanazawa University drive us. Five were able to fit into each car. I was not mentally ready for the three hour drive to the Sea of Japan Marine Environmental Research Center. I actually didn’t even realize that it was going to be that long of a drive. About halfway through the trip, we made a pit stop at a little market for a bathroom break. There was a little trail next to the market and there was a tower that you could climb and view the Sea of Japan. It was the coolest thing I had witnessed because the view was spectacular. I was able to see for miles on end.

The walkway on the tower

View from the tower

After the break, we got back on the road towards the research center. Throughout the entire trip, our driver got lost at every location we were headed to. It was a bit entertaining and funny. When we finally got to the spot, we got on a boat and sailed onto the sea for a little bit. While out there, we collected samples from the bottom of the ocean floor, and from the water itself to observe the plankton. It was really neat because when they would drag in the tools to collect the water, jellyfish would be stuck inside and the researchers would reach in and throw them out. We were able to touch some of the jellyfish and they weren’t as soft as I thought they would be. It amazed me because they looked white in the water, but clear when above the water's surface. After the collection of samples, we went back to the laboratory and the researchers and professors gave us handouts to look at. Luckily, they were all in English this time instead of Japanese so it was much easier to understand what they did and what they were studying. They also set up a microscope and we looked at the material from the ocean floor. They wanted us to see if we could find anything moving underneath the microscope. I think the only person who managed to find anything was Jill. I don’t actually remember who found the plankton. Anyway, there was more to do besides look under the microscope and read the handouts. I was able to look at the marine life they had in the laboratory. My favorite was the flounder fish whose face was on the side of the body because they swim on the ocean floor. I thought this was cool because the way their eyes moved and followed everyone that walked by. After we explored the research center for a little while, we went to lunch in a nearby airport. I honestly thought that it was the most random thing that we ate in an airport, but the food was still really good. Oh, we also got lost trying to find the airport as well. Like I said, our driver got us lost everywhere this day.

Microscopic Handy Work

Tori, Mioko, and Leo enjoying the boat ride

A tid bit of Marine Life

Collecting Water Samples

Once we were back in the car, I fell asleep and the next thing I know, we are on a beach. The beach was beautiful with the sun completely reflected off of it. As I walked along the beach, I found some sand dollars, sea shells, and a couple of dead fish. Also, right down the beach from us, someone was filming a movie and there was big camera crew. It looked like a pretty dramatic scene with the girl looking into the distance and the guy trying to get her attention. Anyway, as I was walking, one of the men from the laboratory told me the direction of where North Korea would be. I looked at him with horror and he laughed at me and said it got even more interesting. He explained to me that since the wind current moved from North Korea to Japan that sometimes on the beach, people will find product or waste from North Korea after a really bad storm. I asked him if anything interesting was ever found and he said not that he knew of but most likely yes.

Our stop at the Sea 

The Sea of Japan

After a while, we got back into the cars and headed back to the hotel. When we got back, we had the option to get food as a group, or go by ourselves. I ended up falling asleep for about two hours and woke up to find Jill and Julia with me as well. We went to the mall by the Kanazawa Station and ate at a pancake restaurant. It was actually really good. Afterwards, we walked back and went to sleep for the night.

My Pancake Dinner!

Together We Explore

Today was the day to explore the city of Kanazawa. The Illinois College students were split up among the Kanazawa students and we went to visit places throughout the city. The people in my group were Julia, Kristen, and Sam. Mioko was supposed to come as well but she had felt ill and stayed in to get well. We started the day off at 10 am and had our usual breakfast at 8 am. The first place we went to was a little store where we went upstairs and saw that we were going to paint the Ishikawa mascot. I chose the one that was already painted yellow where we were given about an hour to design them however we wanted. I ended up just making lines that were red and black with white dots in them. Then, I filled in spaces that was a color brown. Turns out, I subconsciously used the medicine wheel colors that is basically pan-tribal within Native American cultures. It was neat to see that I added a taste of myself within the Japanese culture.

My group posing with the little mascot

After we painted, we walked towards a garden that had a restaurant inside that we ate in for lunch. I made lunch interesting because I was confusing the Kanazawa students when I said I wanted an egg roll. They didn’t know what an egg roll was and it took about five minutes to figure that out. When they did figure it out, I had to explain that I just wanted it as a side. It turns out that I couldn’t have it as a side and that I had to order a whole other meal in order to have the egg roll. So I just stuck with having noodles and rice. It was pretty good. When we were done, we walked around the beautiful garden for about a half hour. There was this little shrine where if you threw a coin and it got stuck, you were able to make a wish. We stood at that shrine for about 15 minutes trying to make a coin stick and only about a quarter of us managed to do this. I was one of them J. I got it stuck on a piece of moss that was growing on the shrine. Right next to the garden, there was a castle. We went and visited that and only took pictures on the front lawn. Apparently, it was rebuilt because the first one burnt down sometime ago. 

The pond in the garden

Julia and I in front of the castle

The next spot we went to was the Higash-chaya district. Here, we had Japanese sweets and green tea in the restaurant. It was very delicious. Then we walked through the district where we looked at some things we could eat that edible gold, or buy items that had gold in them. I bought ice cream that had edible gold and it really didn’t taste like anything. Just tasted like vanilla ice cream. Afterwards, we found the other group and went back to the hotel. Later, I got to go to dinner with Mioko and Professor Klein. We ate at a French restaurant in the mall next to the Kanazawa station. It was really good. I got pasta and unlimited bread and drinks. After that, I went back to the hotel room and fell asleep for the night. It was great.

The Japanese Sweet

A stroll through the Higash-chaya district 

My ice cream with real gold on it!

Please Be Careful. The Cliff Is Very Jagged.

The hotel in Kanazawa provided breakfast for us by 8 am. It was a nice simple breakfast. There was salad, an over-easy egg, two pieces of toast, and some yogurt. It may sound like a lot, but it actually didn’t feel me up. And that’s not me being fat! The food here is just very light and comes in small portions. Once breakfast was over, we met with Kanazawa students and a couple professors downstairs to head to Tojinbo. We arrived around 10:30 am and were able to explore the area until about 12 pm. The area was absolutely breathtaking. The Sea of Japan was so beautiful, but the cliffs we were standing on were really sketchy to me because I was afraid somebody was going to fall to their death. Luckily nobody did, but Leo was scaling the cliff sides like his life wasn’t at risk or anything. Apparently one of the cliffs we were on was famous for a spot where a lot of suicides happened. It was strange to be on a place where a lot of people went to kill themselves. After we explored the area, we went up to the shops and bought some ice cream. So far, I have discovered that my favorite is the strawberry ice cream. For once, I don’t like chocolate ice cream and I think it’s because it tastes different than from America. Once that was finished, we loaded back up on the bus and drove to a little market that a restaurant inside. This is where we had our lunch and I had ramen with rice. It was delicious. I think I will miss the ramen noodles the most here.

Cliff side at Tojinbo

Breakfast from the hotel

After lunch, we headed back to Kanazawa and went to a museum. Here, we were told the story of the floats that children sit on and were able to do different types of activities. The activities included playing a Japanese instrument and practicing a basic form of the tea ceremony. Only the students from Illinois College went in while the students from Kanazawa stayed outside. I’m not really sure why they didn’t participate with us.

Set up for Tea Ceremony

The music section

The next destination we went to was a little tea area where we were told the importance of the tea ceremony and what the space was used for. Afterwards, we explored the house and headed back to the hotel. After we relaxed for a little bit, we went to a restaurant with the Kanazawa students. I really liked this restaurant because it had a lot of posters from the 1930’s and 1940’s. The posters showed what kind of fashion was around, and what kind of propaganda was being used for the war. Again, we sat on the mats for dinner and waited for food to be passed around along with our drinks. We were limited to two hours in the restaurant which we used to the absolute fullest. After dinner, we walked to the hotel again and fell asleep for the night.

Kampai!

Back To The Past Part 2

This morning, we woke up for breakfast in the hotel and got ready to leave for Kanazawa. Before we left, the lady in charge of the hotel gave us the group picture she took of us when we first got there. I thought this was a really nice gesture. The shuttle brought us to the bus station and we waited for about a half an hour to get on the bus to Shirakawago. We arrived there around 10:45 am and we walked around the folk village there. When we crossed the bridge into the village area, there was a little coffee shop that was open. Mioko, Julia, Day, and I went into the coffee shop, and sat there for about an hour and a half talking. It was fun to watch people walk around and try to see what they were thinking. Eventually, the owner kicked us out and we went back out to the village and looked for something to eat. We ended up eating at a noodle place where we also got ice cream. When we walked back across the bridge, we saw the rest of the group down in the water jumping on the rocks. So Day and I decided to do the same until the bus came to pick us around 1:45 pm.

Lunch (Cold noodles)

Day at the River Below the Bridge

Scenery in the Village

Coffee Cafe

The Bridge to the Village  

The bus to Kanazawa was about 2 hours long and I ended up falling asleep. When we arrived, we were dropped off at the Kanazawa Station and many Kanazawa students were there to meet us. It was nice to see that we weren’t that far from our hotel. When we got to our rooms, the floor was covered in six beds. They opened a conjoining wall to make it one big room for us which I don’t understand because we could have just been three to a room. There was barely any room for our luggage again and there was six of us. After we got settled in, we had free time to explore the city. Julia and I went together and we explored a temple that had a really pretty garden. The garden had a pond with really big coy fish and it freaked me out a little bit because one spit some water into the air. Then we walked to a French restaurant where we had to ask for an English menu. It was an interesting experience because none of the waiters spoke English which is to be expected. In the menus, we saw that a certain kind of pizza was recommended so Julia and I both ordered the pizza and a really nice ice cream sundae. It was really good! Afterwards, we wandered back to our hotel, and relaxed for the rest of the night.

The temple Julia and I visited

Pond beside the temple

My beautiful Sundae

Here's to going back in time

This morning, we woke up at 8 am for breakfast and left for the Hida Folk Museum. This was a cool place because the houses were preserved from the 1700’s and onward. When we first entered, we were able to play with some toys that children played with. It was fun, especially when we tried walking in the stilts. That was a real challenge. A few of us were also able to take some Japanese umbrellas and walk around with them to block out the sun. As we walked around and explored the houses, I was fascinated by the straw roofs. I asked the group how long they thought it took to build one of these roofs and Jill said she did a presentation on them and said it took a day. When a family needed a roof to be added on, the entire community came and helped and finished it within a day. I was highly impressed by not only the fact that it took a day, but the idea that everyone came together to help one another in a time of need. I wish the atmosphere was like that in America. In most of the houses that we went into, we had to take off our shoes and walk around in slippers. Everything looked so polished and cleaned. I was also impressed by the amount of room each house held as well as how tiny everything was. The houses also showed that the Japanese sat on the ground for everything as well. It was cool to see that many of their traditions still exist today. As we were getting ready to leave, there were baby ducks sitting out front. It was really funny because Julia picked one of them up, and the duck pooped on her. She was able to wipe everything off her hand, but she didn’t realize there was still some stuck to her t-shirt when we got back to the bus. I had to be a good friend and tell her.

Ringing the bell

Just look at that roof!

Time for a group photo

When we arrived back to the hotel, majority of the group walked back into town to do some exploring and shopping. I went with Mioko, Julia, Day, and Leo. We went into a couple shops and looked around. In one of the stores, we looked at Sakai and I was surprised to see a bottle that was worth 210,000 yen. That’s an enormous amount of money just for alcohol. We also found a jewelry store that had a lot of handmade stuff. I was really shocked to see the different types of color combinations that some of the jewelry had. Anyway, in one of the gift shops, I ended up buying a little devil looking thing that is supposedly the mascot of the area. Mioko told me it was to keep the bad spirits away so I bought two because I definitely need that on the reservation for when I go home. When I got back to the hotel, I took another bath with Day. I love the bath because it is so relaxing and I feel so refreshed. After that, we had dinner in our kimonos again where a lot of food was served. The food was really good again where most of it was seafood. That was basically the end of the night. I went back up to my room, played on my laptop, and called it a night.

Little puppy we saw walking around

A street in Takayama

Stay Close To The Ground So We Can Be Connected To The Earth

We left for Takayama from BKC today after we had breakfast. We were supposed to leave by 9:15 to catch the bus to the station and catch our train, but Sam and Leo left a really big mess in their room. So, that made us about 20 minutes late and Mioko Sensei had to change the tickets and catch a new train to Takayama. Once again, the view was spectacular. There were so many deep valleys with green, lush hills. The train ride took a while so I sat there and took a nap. When we finally arrived at the station, there was a van there to pick us up and bring us to the hotel. I absolutely loved the hotel! It was so cute and quaint. My roommates for the past two nights were Day and Julia. It was a good experience because our coffee table and beds were on the floor. The chairs were on the floor as well so I might as well have just sat on the ground. After we got settled into the hotel, we took a tour around the town. After the mini tour, Mioko asked if we wanted a little snack before dinner so we all parted ways and went somewhere different. I followed Mioko around and I think I tried about 4 different types of treats. I was getting a little worried because dinner was only in a couple hours. We walked back to the hotel about an hour before dinner started. I decided to take a Japanese bath with Day. I really enjoyed this even though it was an interesting experience. I was able to bathe in front of the bath where everybody could literally see me wash myself. It was a little weird at first, but liberating at the same time. After the bath, I put on a kimono and wore it to dinner in the hotel. In the dinner, we had to sit down once again. We were served a lot of food. I was really full by the end of the night. After dinner, the hotel staff set up our beds on the ground and we laid down for the night. 

Time for dinner

Snack right before dinner

Hotel in Takayama

Our bedroom for two days

All of the dinner served to us