Day 17 Free day with #1 Showa Hostfamily

Keith:

Well, after we got back from Tokyo my family and Zach's family had another BBQ. My host mom's sister, husband, and daughter also came. Twas a lot of fun! 

The next day we had lots of different bread for breakfast. Apparently they were from famous shops. 

After that we had たけのこごはん. I helped carve the bamboo stocks so that we could set them up in a way that noodles (somen ramen etc) could run down it with water. It was fun and delicious. 

After that we went to Aeon mall and I shopped for souvenirs. Then, we ate at Kushimiya Monogattari. It was some of the best food I have ever had. You sit down and serve yourself buffet style a bunch of skewered ingredients such as takoyaki, taiyaki, various meats, veggies, etc. Then you deep fry them at your table. It was amazing. And then on our last free day after a day in Tokyo we ate salmon and rice for dinner, and of course miso soup and beef with potatoes. 

After that was fireworks and saying goodbye to the neighbors. 😢

Diane:

After coming back from Tokyo, I went to a traditional candy store called a dagashiya in the morning with my sisters. 

After lunch we went to Aeon mall and took purikura before shopping and buying fireworks, which we set off that night.

Day 18 Tokyo Skytree, River Cruise and Akihabara again!

Our last full day in Japan! 

Tokyo Skytree:

Diane, Hannah, Cory and Jack went up the Tokyo Skytree and had amazing views.

Ryan met his penpal that he was looking forward to meeting. 

Keith, Zach and Dayne were interviewed for a Japanese TV program! the program teaches English, so they were asked 4 questions ("Who is your favorite Japanese sports star?" and Keith answered "Ichiro"). They even signed releases so they might be on Japanese TV soon!

In the afternoon, Hannah, Diane, Cory and Pierson team went on the Sumida river cruise. 

We got off the river cruise at Hama-rikyu Garden with a famous, relaxing Japanese garden.

At the garden we saw a pine tree that was over 300 years old! It was planted in 1709.

Then we all met up again back in Akihabara. Everyone did a great job navigating the trains on their own to get where they wanted!

Day 15 & 16 Back to Tokyo, Capsule Hotel, Asakusa, Ueno, Cat Cafe

We came back from Hiroshima on the bullet train to Tokyo, it took about 5 hours. We checked in our big luggage at the hotel. 

Then we went to dinner at a Japanese-style Izakaya restaurant. It was great and lots of food to share!

Then we did Karaoke and had a lot of fun when everyone joined in.

Hannah:

Last night we spent the night at a capsule hotel [Khaosan Samurai Capsule Hotel]. Each person gets their own capsule that is basically just a bed. It's really small, dark and quiet, but the bed is actually quite comfortable. It was one of the best mattresses I've slept on this entire trip.

We met everyone at Mister Donut for breakfast. After the big gate at Asakusa, we went to Ueno which is an outdoor shopping street [America-cho]. There were a lot of stores with name brand athletic clothing, but still in the street shop style. I bought some flavored KitKats while I was there. 

From there Diane, Zach and I went to Shinjuku to go to a cat cafe. There were a lot of cats, we got to feed them and pet them and just generally be around a lot of cats.  Afterwards we went to an Udon shop and had some really good udon noodles. Mine had udon green onions and a egg with a very runny yoke. It was delicious!

[We met Sharla in Akihabara, she made some videos of Japan that we shared in our emails!]

Day 14 Hiroshima & Miyajima

Zach:

Woke up and ate two tuna and mayonnaise onigiri. My fellow roommates, Cory and Dayne, also ate two of the same flavor. Met up at 8:30 to take a city monorail train/bus to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. The park is dedicated to the victims of the first ever nuclear weapon used in war, and is not only a remembrance of the destruction suffered by the people of Hiroshima on August 5th, 1945, but also a grim reminder of the grave danger nuclear armaments pose to the world today. The group explored many different locations of importance, beginning with the A-Dome, the ruins of the former Hiroshima Prefecture Industrial Promotion Hall. The dome's significance lies in it's history, as it is the closest building to the hypocenter of the blast to remain standing. The A-Dome is registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is visible from many different points throughout the city. We traveled further into the park. We together rang one of three peace bells located throughout the park, in hopes of world peace. We viewed the Children's Peace Monument, dedicated to the innocent children lost in war, depicting Sadako Sasaki, an innocent victim of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima. Additionally, we visited the Memorial Tower to the Mobilized Students, a monument to over 10,000 students mobilized to support the war effort.

A very moving piece was the Piece Flame, a fiery monument that is not only beautiful, but symbolizes the world under threat of nuclear annihilation, and will only be put out when the last nuclear armaments are finally done away with. The most picturesque moment was found at the Memorial Cenotaph, which features a view of the Peace Flame and the A-Dome through its arch. (This is the very same monument President Obama visited in his recent travel to Japan!)

We also had the opportunity to explore the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum from 10:00 to 11:00, which explores in depth the effects of the bomb on the people of Japan, along with the science and politics behind all of it. Truly an eye opening experience into the horrors of war.

After the Museum, we traveled to a huge mall complex for lunch, at Ootaya restaurant. After eating as a whole group, we went our separate ways to shop, go to arcades, etc. 

Until meeting up around 12:30 to travel to Miyajima.

Miyajima was beautiful. Arriving by ferry, we made a beeline through various landmarks on the island. We had the opportunity to explore various temples across the island, including a site where Dalai Lama visited before [Daishouin Temple]. The site featured two hand-made mandalas. We spent time there until 5, at which point we traveled back to the mainland. 

We spent supper together, eating famous Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, not unlike Wisconsin cheese. It was one of the best meals I've enjoyed since the beginning of my stay here. 

We had a small bit of free time after dinner. Some people went shopping, some went to arcades. Dayne won a huge stuffed animal prize in a claw game in one try ($1). 

Turned in for the night, and got ready for a great day tomorrow.

Day 13 Kyoto Free day

Dayne:

For the first part of our free day in Kyoto, Ryan, Cory, and I (Dayne), hopped on one of the many busses in the city. We were joined by Keith, Jack, and Zach, but our two groups split up after our stop. Our destination was the golden temple, Kinkakuji. 

We walked around the packed paths at the temple with swarms of elementary kids on field trips. It seems like the Golden Temple is a popular tourist spot. We can't go into the temple itself, but we can view it and it had a beautiful reflection in the lake. 

After finishing walking around the site we attempted to get on a bus that would take us to the Ninnaji Temple. However we got on a bus that went the wrong way, so Cory and Ryan got off at the first stop. I had a different story: I wasn't quick enough to get my pass out of my pocket, so I had to wait till the next stop to get off and walk back. I didn't know if they would wait for me and was a bit scared, but thankfully they did. We then managed to get on the right bus and visit the Ninnaji Temple. 

Cory and I went in and visited the garden which cost 500 yen while Ryan stayed behind. The garden was very beautiful and the buildings had roughly 100-year-old paintings to add to the beauty. We walked around different pathways and saw traditional Japanese gardens and a little waterfall. We walked around the rest of the temple and saw other cool buildings including a 400-year-old 5-story pagoda. Walking back to meet up with Ryan we saw more of the Temple grounds and a temple which was under renovation. 

After meeting back up with Ryan we got on yet another bus and went to the Bamboo forest where Ryan will pick up the story.

Ryan:

We visited the bamboo forest in Kyoto, it was just bamboo as far as you could see. 

They also had a lot of temples and nice japanese food places. 

Then we took a bus to downtown Kyoto and ate and looked around the shops.

Diane:

This morning Sensei gave everyone suggestions for what to do in our free day in Kyoto before we all set off. Hannah and I chose to go to Kinkakuji (the golden palace) first, but we ended up taking a different bus from everyone else going there too, because we ran back into our hotel to get a fan and sunglasses. The palace was super cool, and very shiny.

After we went to Nijo castle, which is an old one you can actually walk around in but aren't allowed to take pictures in. 

[Not sure what this guy is waiting for, but he looks ready!]

After we went to Gion, which is a district in Kyoto where you can sometimes see Geisha walking around. We were out of luck in that department today, but we spent an hour in a karaoke place where we also had lunch. 

We looked around Gion for a bit too, and then headed back to Kyoto station where we met up with some others and shopped a little in the mall nearby. 

We got dinner to go in a convenience store, and then everyone met back at the hotel to take the bullet train to Hiroshima's Hana hostel.