Mairead

Japan Journal

Day 1

We got to the airport at about 6:50, and once we got through security, we walked around international terminal at O'Hare.

We got off the plane in Toronto and went through customs and walked toward our next gate (there were no bathrooms for BLOCKS. It was awful. The food was really expensive!

There were a bunch of Canadian rugby players at the airport and they sat near me and my friends on the plane. Apparently they were heading to their last game in a tournament.

There wer a bunch if movies we could watch, so I watched "The Princess and the Frog", "Bridge to Terebithia" (it was really sad but also really sweet!) and "Bourne Legacy". 

We got off  the plane and went through customs and got our bags and exchanged our money. 

We waited for Mr. Vankrey to get our rail passes and then got on the train, which was very quiet and had a really smooth ride!

The architecture in Japan is a bit different and the ads are a LOT different (more more text than American ads and m eore colorful in general). 

We switched trains twice and made it to the youth hostel in Tokyo. It's really hot and humid here!

We all dropped off our stuff and went to this restaurant/fast food place called Mos Burger. I had a really delicious fish burger and melon flavored soda!

After that, we went back to our rooms and went to bed!

Day 2

Woke up, got dressed, and had breakfast (which was very interesting and delicious!)

We took the train to Meiji Shrine and saw the iris fields and wheere the azalea trees would have been (they weren't in bloom) in a little forest near the shrine. 

We also saw a lucky well and a raccoon ( it was much smaller than the ones we have at home and didn't have a tail. 

Saw a raccoon (it was much smaller and didn't have a tail)

W made our way to the actual Meiji Shrine and and looked around a bit. I really have no words to describe how beautiful it was! 

There were a bunch of plaques people could write on for their hopes and one of them was "I want to be the pirate king". The plaques were in so many different languages. I saw Thai, French, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, German, English, and I'm sure there were many more!

Ater that, we went to Harajuku and strolled along the street. We were able to see a lot of interesting fashion and stores ( there were a lot of different styles). I got a crepe and inari for lunch. 

 We went back tot the train and went to the Hachigo Statue and Scrable Kosaten (which is the crossing you think of when you think of Tokyo. 

We then went to Asakusa and saw a huge lantern and gate from the 700s. I walked around to different shops and ended up at the shrine at the back of the shopping area (there was an area to burn incense in). 

I met the rest of the group and went to Denkiya (electronics town, basically) and looked around a small store for 15 minutes

We got back to the train and took it to the hostel (we got a bit lost on the way, though) and ate dinner at the hostel. We went out to a tall building (45 stories) and looked at Tokyo (which was really pretty and took up a much larger area than I expected!

We got back to the hostel and I blogged a bit and now it's time for bed!

Day 3

Today, we woke up, left the hostel, and went to the national museum in Ueno park and saw a lot of really cool artifacts and paintings. Taking Art History this year really helped me gain an appreciation for the art of long ago and the methods by which it was created. In the museum there was a computer area where you could find out more information on all the art they had in the museum. We left the museum and walked through Ueno park to go get lunch.

After lunch, we went to Ueno Zoo and saw lots of cute animals and walked around a lot!

We went back to the youth hostel for dinner and went the Tokyo Sjy Tree, which was incredible! Tokyo consists if so many buildings and it goes on for ages!

We met up with Barnes sempai at the Sky Tree and got to hang out with her a bit. Once we were done there, we were super tired and went back to the hostel and slept!

Day 4

We woke up and ate breakfast at the hostel and got on the train to Nikko. We got to our hotel and dropped off our stuff, then went to a convenience store for lunch. I had a pack of three different sandwiches and they were all really strange but delicious!

We all went back to the hotel to eat, and when we were done, we went to a bus stop to catch the bus that took us to the heritage sites. All of the building were gorgeous, and the fog created by the light rain was so eerily beautiful and enriched the spiritual experience. I got a ton of great pictures!

We came back into town and went to a restaurant that served "American" food (it didn't taste like anything we have here, but it was still pretty good. We took a nice late-night stroll and finally, after a long day of walking, we went back to the hotel and went to bed! 

Day 5

I woke up and had breakfast, then we all went to this amazing place called Edo Wonderland! It was like the Renaissance Faire, but based in the Edo period of Japan, which was in the 1800s. I had some fantastic dango and got to go through a ninja maze and a tilted house, which was reallly cool but also very disorienting. We also got to see an amazing ninja battle show!

After Edo Wonderland, we went to Tobu world square, where we got to see many incredibly detailed miniatures of major world landmarks. 

We went to an onsen and then took the train back to Nikko, where we went to a really good ramen restaurant, then went to bed. 

Day 6

We took a bus to the top of a mountain and took a gondola to s lookout point, from which we could see Chuzenji, the town we would be in later. We got some awesome pictures! We took the bus into Chuzenji and went to an amazing waterfall, then went back into town for lunch. We missed the bus, so we ment to the lobby of a natural museum to kill some time. Eventually, the bus came and we went to a hiking path. We hiked for a really long time, but it was so pleasantly cool, it was easy to do. There was, however, a massive flight of stairs on our way back up the mountain.

We managed to all make it up the stairs in one piece and we walked over to a foot soaking area (the water was really hot!!!)

We took the bus back to Nikko and dropped our stuff at the hotel before going to a supermarket to get our dinner. We got to eat out in the square in Nikko and try lots of different delicious foods. After that, we went back to the hotel and packed for our travel the next day, then went to bed!

Day 7

We left the hotel after breakfast and took a train to the Shinkansen, which we took for two hours and then took another train the short distance to Hiraizumi. We walked to the onsen we're staying at and dropped off our stuff, then we went to a peaceful area called Motsuji and I got to practice my landscape drawing. It was so nice and relaxing!

After that, we walked back over to the train station and got different flavored shaved ice from a store nextdoor. We msde wur way back to the hotel and went t the onsen, then wore our yukatas to dinner. Everything tasted so much different than what we would have in the US, and though I didnt like all of it, I tried and finished everything!

I sat and watched TV while I blogged, and now it's time to hit the hay!