Day 17 Tokyo SkyTree Tower

Tokyo Skytree is a broadcasting, restaurant, and observation tower in Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. It became the tallest structure in the world in 2011. The full height is 634.0 meters (2080 feet tall)!

At Tokyo Skytree station 

Cole and Zurn sensei went up to the Skytree 350m observation deck. 

Rising 350 meters above the ground, the "TOKYO SKYTREE TEMBO DECK (350m)" is covered in huge 5 meter-high glass for a 360-degree all-around view, allowing visitors to see from the foot of the SKYTREE up to 70 kilometers away in the distance.    

We also visited a special exhibition "THE ART OF THE WIND RISES" by Hayao Miyazaki at SkyTree. We were very lucky to see this art work since this exhibition lasts only 6 days.

Leah and Athena visited the aquarium. This aquarium uses only artificial seawater for all thanks except freshwater tanks.

Tokyo Skytree has a shopping/restaurant/entertainment place called "Soramachi" Area.

Sensei visited a fancy candy shop.

Day 16 Host family day

We spent a great time with host family. Here are our host families! Thank you very much for having us for two weekends.

John and Kajima family

Parthan and Osaki family

Cole and Hiromatsu family

Tom and Kimita Family

Blake and Noguchi family

Athena 

Athena and Takamura Family

                                                        Gina and Tobita Family

Parthan, John, host family, and elementary School coordinator Mr. Komaki

Leah and Matsumura family

Cole and hostfamily Grandson

Day 15 Rain! Capsule Hotel / Kit Kat store

At the Kappashi ( kitchen street in Asakusa)

Rainy Saturday Cole, Zurn sensei and Sensei took a walk around Asakusa Area. 

Asakusa (浅草) is the center of Tokyo's Shitamachi (literally "low city"), one of Tokyo's districts, where an atmosphere of the Tokyo of past decades survives.

At  Asakusa sensoji-temple

The breakfast is at Mos burger fast-food restaurant. Sensei got Rice burger with Shrimp Tempura (deep fried)

We went to the Kit Kat Store. 

Nestlé has opened the world's first Kit-Kat boutique in Tokyo, where you can choose from wonderfully experimental flavours like Purple Potato, Cinnamon Cookie, European Cheese, Bean Cake and Wasabi, as well as three special varieties created by Japanese chocolatier Yasumasa Takagi: Sublime Bitter, Special Sakura Green Tea and Special Chilli. So enthusiastic was the crowd on the store's January 2014 opening day that all 500 bars available sold out in under two hours.

We stayed at the Capsule Hotel in Asakusa. Everyone got a "cubicle" with a folding door that is tall enough to sit up in, but it does have its own tiny TV! One night's stay is about $28 per person, which is super-cheap for Tokyo. Somehow we all got sleep.

Our free time in Akihabara had rain. The first big rain of the trip, but we didn't need to walk a lot today.

Day 14 Going back to Tokyo

We got up at 5:00 am and left Hiroshima for Tokyo by the Shinkansen (it is a network of high speed railways lines in Japan operated by the Japan Railways). The ride on the Shinkansen is very comfortable. It has lots of legroom and big windows for a great view of cities we passed. 

We arrived Tokyo at 11:40 am. Wow so many people at Tokyo Station!!! We put in our big luggages at coin lockers at the station and hit the 6 hours Tokyo free day! 

Boys spent time in Akihabara. 

Akihabara also called Akiba after a former local shrine, is a district in central Tokyo that is famous for its many electronics shops. In more recent years, Akihabara has gained recognition as the center of Japan's otaku (diehard fan) culture, and many shops and establishments devoted to anime and manga are now dispersed among the electronic stores in the district.

AkihabaraGirls visited Cat Cafe and Shibuya district. 

Shibuya is a center for youth fashion and culture, and its streets are the birthplace to many of Japan's fashion and entertainment trends. A cat café is a theme café whose attraction is cats that can be watched and played with. Patrons pay a cover fee generally hourly, and thus cat cafés can be seen as a form of supervised indoor pet rental . 

The famous crossing in front of Shibuya Station

Our group dinner is at Izkaya Restaurant. We had Gyoza, Mochi Cheese pizza, Japanese Style Fried Chicken, Salad and more... Then we sang lots of American songs at Karaoke together. It was very fun!

After Karaoke. Asakusa! Tokyo Skytree visible in background

Day 13 Hiroshima and Miyajima

Today we visited the Peace Park in Hiroshima. This is the A-bomb dome, which has been preserved.

Then we had a nice Japanese set lunch, everyone had something different but good!

After lunch, we took the ferry to Miyajima island, which has a famous gate (torii) which looks like it is floating on the water at high tide. We went at low tide, so we could walk up and touch the gate. It's huge!

Even the chaperones can finally get in a picture! ;)

The gate in the bay at Miyajima island, low tide. See the woman at the base?

Then we went uphill to an interesting temple called Daisho-in. This one has many beautiful gardens, lots of tiny statues, and things to do like a dark pathway and a catwalk at the top of one of the temple buildings for a great view of the gate below.

Now we can get dinner in downtown Hiroshima. We had Okonomiyaki, which is a sort of savory pancake with lots of good thing, cabbage and a smashed egg on top. It was delicious!

Day 12 Kyoto Free Day

A free day in Kyoto. These reports are how students spent the day.

From Athena:

So Leah, Gina and I decided the day before that we wanted to go to an Onsen (hot springs bath). We headed out and took a train to a station not too far from Kyoto. 

We asked directions from the people at the station and got pointed in a general direction. Let me tell you that the map [wasn't good]. Eventually we realized it was the wrong direction and tried another way. Two hours later we had asked 5 different people and got three distinctly different directions. By that point we [disliked] each other, and just went to Starbucks. We walked for 2 hours for a Starbucks.

We were too tired for anything really exciting so we went to a movie theater. Leah and I saw Frozen, Leah for the second time and me for the first. Gina saw Noah in English.

All in all, I thought today was all right.


From John:

Got breakfast at a café in Kyoto station, went with guys to the mall. 

Looked at anime merchandise for about an hour. We went to Big Echo for karaoke and sang rap songs and J-Pop (Japanese pop music) for another hour. 

After that, I went out on my own for a few hours walking around Kyoto Station, which was huge by the way, and eventually sat reading up at the top. There was a nice little park up there, but it was right in the sun, so I came back to the hotel and read there for an hour and a half.

If you have a lot of money, or even no money at all, you can kill a lot of time at Kyoto station.


From Parthan:

This morning, we went to an anime store but it was closed. So we walked around for a while. Once it opened, we spent an hour there and bought lots of things.

Then we went for lunch at a soba noodle shop. I had a large plate of cold soba and it was very tasty. 

After lunch we went to karaoke. Then we went to a mall and went to an arcade. I lost at the claw (again). We then went to a currency exchange and waited for an hour in line. We then walked around for 2 hours and I bought dinner.

Kyoto was fun because the temples were so elaborate and big. There was also a lot of tech stores.


From Blake:

Started with the group of 5 guys, walking around for an hour, and then an anime store for an hour (sitting down and playing games waiting for them).

After that I broke off from the group. Started with walking around for an hour. Went to Bic Camera store and looked around. Went to a mall and ate lunch. Walked around a while.

Took a train to Zeze (ぜぜ) and walked around for about an hour and a half, then came back to the hotel and ate dinner. Now I'm writing this letter.

Sensei:

We had a long day, but a good day! Now we are on the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Hiroshima. The bullet train ride is amazingly comfortable.

At Japanese Inn (Nihonkan, Kyoto)

Day 11 Kyoto: Kyomizu Temple, Fushimi Inari Shrine and Meditation

Greetings from Sunny and warm weather from Kyoto, Japan! This year it has been very nice weather. We have had only one rainy day out of 11 days our trip. We are very lucky!

In front of Kyoto Tower

Our first visit in kyoto is Kyomizu Temple. We made it !! We climbed up the mountain. 

Kyomizu Temple is located halfway up Otowa Mountain in the eastern part of Kyoto City, Kiyomizu-dera is a historic temple that was established in 778, even before Kyoto became the capital of Japan. In 1994, it was registered on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List as one of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto.

In a Kyoto temple there is one called "Enmusubi no Kami". This is a shrine dedicated to the deity of love and matchmaking. We prayed for meeting a wonderful person someday in our life. 

A great view of Kyoto City in the background

 John Got his fortune by doing "Omikuji" (luck teller)

This is called "love stones" if you can make it one stone to other one, you will find a partner in your life. Will Leah find a significant person in her life? Well, let's walk between stones and find out! 

The Otowa Waterfall is located at the base of Kiyomizudera's main hall. Its waters are divided into three separate streams, and visitors use cups attached to long poles to drink from them. Each stream's water is said to have a different benefit, namely to cause longevity, success at school and a fortunate love life.

Fushimi-Inari shrine: The second most popular place to visit in Japan according to <www.tripadvisor.jp>.

The shrine sits at the base of a mountain also named Inari (the Shinto god of rice) which is 233 meters above sea level, and includes trails up the mountain to many smaller shrines which span 4 kilometers and takes approximately 2 hours to walk up.

We tried to walk up. And up! And up!!

Meditation at Manpuku-ji (temple)

Kyoto station is huge, and the big stairs are lit up at night with a moving light display.

A  night great view for Kyoto Tower!