Bullet trains, or Shinkansen in Japanese, are a very good way of travel. Sensei always gets us to the train platforms early, always after descending and climbing multiple flights of stairs. This shinkansen ride was our third so far so I'd say we've got experience with these. Everyone had bought breakfast and/or lunch the night before or early in the morning.
Now that I mentioned morning, we had to wake up when the sun came up, which is at about 4:30 in the morning here. The single fact plagues lot of us trouble sleeping past four AM. The train was a grueling 4 hours from Hiroshima to Tokyo. People slept on and off the whole time, while other played on their phones. With crewmembers walking up and down the rows of seats and different jingles playing, it made it very hard to sleep.
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| Himeji castle visible from Shinkansen |
Once we got off the train we headed off to the capsule hotel where we dropped off our bags. We then walked for a bit and saw a store selling items for festivals including drums and portable shrines.
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| This hand-made shrine sells for about $130,000! |
Then we went to the ‘kitchen’ street. We looked at all kinds of different plastic foods and dishes.
Then we split ways with Sensei and Mr. Zurn, and the class headed to the Ghibli museum.
The train ride was smooth on the way to Ghibli museum. We got there an hour early so we hung out at a cafe.
We then explored although out the museum looking at all the cool artworks and animations. There was even a cool 15 minute short film to watch in there. Everything was super cool and I would say it's a must-see if you ever go to Japan.
Jaimy:
The train ride back from the Ghibli museum was.... an adventure. We got on the wrong train for a few stops, and then spent awhile trying to find the RIGHT train, going up and down several flights of stairs in the process. For all that, though, we only got back a little late. Hooray for leaving early!!
Afterward we were treated to dinner by Sensei and Mr. Zurn. We were joined by Hannah D (who took the trip in 2016) and Momo (who helped at Memorial classes for a week earlier this year).
The restaurant was a type where you order a variety of dishes and then all share them; it was really nice, actually! The food was a good balance of familiar and Japanese: cheese curds, French fries, and yakisoba were some that stood out. We discussed how the trip had been thus far, as well as past and future trips.
Finally, karaoke. I don't have words to tell you how fun it was. Most people knew a lot of the songs, and even if they didn't they sang along for the chorus and the verses if they felt daring. Even the shy people came out of their shell a bit, and I know for a fact that everyone got into it, whether they had a mic or not.
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| Group with Hannah D and Momo after karaoke |
All in all, it was an eventful, amazing day ^-^.
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