りゅうがく

〜〜A small side blog dedicated to my second--and most likely just as splendid--trip to the Land of the Rising Sun〜〜

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Blog Three

In my Pre-Departure essay, I noted that I hoped that the trip to Japan would be a wonderful experience and would help me in studying the language. I also expected that this trip would be more different than my first trip. I can say that all of these expectations were met. I really enjoyed getting to see a couple of the different colleges in the cities where we were staying, and I got a little bit of the feel of the college culture in hanging out with some of the students. I had hoped for these types of experiences since we were going on a more academic trip than my first one. These types of new experiences were enhanced by visiting new places, as well. We, luckily, only revisited a few of the places that I had been before, and even in these familiar places, I was able to have new interactions with people and things that I hadn’t had the first time around. Revisiting the places I had been before actually boosted my confidence in interacting with both Japanese strangers and my new friends I made on the trip.

It was also nice to revisit large areas of Japan. I felt significantly less culture shock than I had on the first trip because I was emotionally prepared for that. What I would have liked to do was experience more of the music culture in Japan. Idol groups were posted everywhere, but I didn’t really get the opportunity to see how smaller groups interact in the culture. So I still have some curious feelings towards the music industry and would love to research that some more. I learned a lot about cooperating in a group and got a lot of practice using my knowledge of the Japanese language. I had a wonderful time on the trip and will cherish the memories I made and the people I made them with.

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Thursday, May 25~

Today is our last day in Japan. We will be leaving at 10:30 to catch up with our bus that will take us back to the Narita (なりた) airport. We take off at 5:50pm Japan time and land in Chicago for our layover at 3:30pm on the same day??? Time zones are so odd hahah. I feel like I am ready to leave and share my adventures, but I also wish I could stay for just a while longer. Worry not Japan, I will be back someday. ✌️

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Wednesday, May 24~

Today was our last full day in Japan. We had a full day of adventuring planned, starting with a trip to the Meiji Jingu shrine. I had been to this shrine on my first trip, but I forgot how peaceful it is surrounded by all the trees. Entering the shrine is like teleporting yourself out of Tokyo. It was a much needed break after the chaos of the past couple of weeks. We also were able to go into the gardens, which I had not seen my first time around! They were so lovely, and some of the flowers were in bloom. We got to watch the gardeners taking care of the flowers, we saw a big crane in the trees overlooking the pond, and we saw so many beautiful carp in the water. It was very serene, and I managed to meditate on it a couple of times. We also walked to Kiyomizu’s Well, what I believe is a naturally pure area of water within the pond. I’m not sure what its significance is, so I would have to look that up. However, it was very tranquil to see. Another interesting thought that I had had was that this garden was very similarly set up like my favorite park back home. I think that and the serenity of the place was why I liked it so much.

Once we finished up at Meiji Jingu, we decided to find some food. We stopped at a restaurant just down the way and had large, satisfying plates of meat. Mine came with tororo, and I discovered very quickly that I was not a fan of its odd gooey yam/egg flavor. Everything else was very good, though! My chicken was seasoned perfectly, like it was literally the best chicken I have ever eaten. Amazing.

Afterwards, we all broke off because we wanted to do separate things. Adam, Brian, and I all went to another cat cafe. This one was like the kind of cat cafe that you see online, like with seating and sleepy cats and cool spaces for the cats to hang out. It was very similar to the cat cafe in Pittsburgh. They were all so cute and happy (except the one that didn’t like me, screw you little smush cat). People bought treats, and the cats lost their minds. It was so funny to watch! We stayed for a full hour and I’m so glad that we did. The time flew by and it was very worth the money we paid. It was another very relaxing time to prepare us for the rest of the day and our impending trip back.

After the cat cafe, we stopped in a few stores down the main drag. Adam and Brian wanted to go to the Adidas flagship store, and we all were disappointed with the lack of selection that we found there. But all of the other stores we stopped in were cool! We saw some cute puppies and some phone cases that were shaped like sushi. We then decided to go up the main drag of Harajuku (はらじゅく), Takeshita Street. We looked at a ton of different stores, most of them being geared towards emo kids. It was interesting to see these stores compared to the hot pink stores that filled this street. I got to actually appreciate my time on Takeshita on this trip because we all took our time looking at things and we weren’t rushed. Some of the other kids hopped on trains to head off to different areas. I kind of wished I had done that, however, I had a really great time just wandering around はらじゅく.

We had our farewell dinner with Yukiko and Darren after exploring. Darren took us to an okonomi-yaki (おこのみやき) place that reminded me vividly of Cafe Coco in Nashville. There was street art all over the inside and outside walls, and artists were selling their art near the register. The food was pretty good, and we will see Darren and Yukiko tomorrow to take us to our meeting point, so it wasn’t quite real yet that we were leaving. It got very real when we got off the train afterwards at our Yotsuya (四ツ谷) 駅, though. We won’t be making a return trip to that station anymore after tonight.

After I got packed up a little bit and wrapped up homework, we all gathered in the lobby to hang out for a while. Most everyone was there until close to 2, and it was a really good way to send off the trip. I feel like a lot of these friendships that I’ve made in the past two weeks are going to be lasting ones. I’m very glad to have come on this trip.

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Tuesday, May 23~

Today was our free day in Tokyo! We had absolutely no structure, and it was so refreshing. I got together with a group of four other people--Kyrah, Allison, Yingting, and Adam--and we decided to go back to あきはばら. We left for the trains around 9:30. Navigating was certainly a group effort, but we got there and made it back safely without getting on any of the wrong trains!

When we got to あきはばら, we went straight to one of the multi-level book stores. I think we spent about an hour and a half in there. There was just so much to look at! The first couple of floors were dedicated to video games and music and the upper 3 floors were for manga and novels. I found a couple of cool CDs that I’m going to give as gifts. I found a Fall Out Boy one that I should have bought for myself but I didn’t, and I have a few regrets haha. Kyrah and I also asked one of the employees where the children’s books were, and we bought a couple of easy reads for ourselves! I can officially say that I speak and read Japanese at a 5-year-old’s level lololol. I’m excited to read mine though! Its about a water nymph, I think.

After we spent way too much time deciding on childrens’ books, we went down the street a little ways to a Sega arcade. It wasn’t the one that I had gone to earlier in the week, thank god. This one had every type of game imaginable. I started off playing a Final Fantasy battle-type game. All of us who played it couldn’t figure out how it worked, so that one was my least favorite. We then migrated to another floor where we found all of the rhythm games!! I was so excited. They had this one that looked like a piano keyboard and was basically Dance Dance Revolution for your fingers. I really liked that one and wanted to play it more. There was a line of people waiting for that game, though, and they were super hardcore. Like this kid next to me had an over 1000 hit streak on one of the hardest levels. It was like art to watch him play. I also played one of the Taiko (たいこ) drumming games that I had heard so much about before this trip. It too is like DDR, but with hitting drums in various ways. I absolutely loved this game and played it like 3 times hahaha. Once I had my fill of the rhythm games, Allison and I explored the last floor and found a racing game. I played one round of it and got way too aggressively competitive against a CPU and decided I shouldn’t play it again hahaha.

We found lunch after the arcade, stopping in a nice cheap-but-fancy restaurant that we had past earlier in the day. We actually got there just in time, because the place was going to close for dinnertime prep in about 45 minutes. We literally finished as they were closing up the store. It was impressive. But the food was very good, very large, and very cheap! I was glad we were able to stop there.

After eating, we walked around in some shops like we had done earlier in the week. All of us except Allison decided that we wanted to experience an adult store in Japan, so we went to the 5th floor of a building and were greeted by a plethora of boobs. We stayed long enough for Bowling for Soup to finish playing “1985″ on the radio before we had had our fill. They were literally everywhere, like even on the ceiling. So we were quite ready to leave after a couple of minutes hahaha.

We also stopped in a couple of touristy shops on the way back to the 駅. One of them was a weird nicknack store where we found a stress ball that was shaped like a boob and we cried. Our afternoon was filled with boobs, it was a wild day lolol. We also found some old time-y catch-the-ball-on-a-string-in-the-cup type games and we played those for a little bit.

Before we went back to the hotel, I interviewed a maid from the maid cafes for my Japanese language class! She was so sweet and understanding and was super patient with me. She told me my Japanese was good and I was like lol okay its not but thankyousomuchyouresocute!!! But I was really glad to have stopped and talked to her. We also asked her if there was a good dance bar in あきはばら, but I don’t think she quite understood what we were asking. She ended up showing us a maid cafe where the maids do choreographed dances, but we were looking for our own place to dance. That was alright, though, because she was so sweet and nice and I hope she had a great day!!!!

When we got back, we took some time to recharge and get homework done. During this time, we found out that people who were going to hang out with Fumito from ふじさわ decided not to go to a concert with him without telling him, so that turned into a mild shitstorm, and I was v crusty with them. My group from あきはばら ended up deciding to just have dinner in our small group because we were all so frustrated about the situation that we just wanted to isolate ourselves from it for a minute. We needed that time to let the feelings simmer down. The whole group got together again tonight in the lobby of the hotel to do homework, so everything is okay now, and Fumito somehow doesn’t hate us. He is too good for this world, bless him.

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Monday, May 22~

Today was, I think, our last very long day in Japan. We woke up early again so that we could start our travels to Tsukiji (つきじ) to learn about the fish market! I had seen a special on the market on a Food Network show once, so I knew what to expect, but it was going to be a new experience. However, I knew that today was going to be rough as soon as I got out of bed because I was exhausted.

When we got to つきじ, we met up with our three tour guides and headed into the educational center in the market. An older man gave us a lovely and informative session on information regarding the market, but, not gonna lie, I was so tired that I dozed off during his presentation. I felt so bad because I was genuinely interested in what he was telling us, but I just physically couldn’t stay awake. I did, however, catch the hand signals that are used during the fast-paced auctions that take place at the market! They were very similar to American Sign Language signs for numbers, which I thought was interesting. Obviously, the signs weren’t taken explicitly from ASL, but it was still fascinating to see that there were hand signals that translated almost identically between English and Japanese.

We then broke into our groups and headed into the market. I did not realize that the market was as large as it was. There were warehouses everywhere, and some of them were specifically designated for waste products. The market was probably the dirtiest places I had seen in Japan because of this. However, the areas in which fish was being sold was kept immaculately cleanly, and the owners were quick to throw out/put away any fish that had a spoiled smell. The vendors, I found, ride on these weird Zamboni-looking machines to haul fish and supplies back and forth. Our group almost got hit by them at least 3 times. They did not give a diddly darn about running pedestrians over! There were a lot of different fish and snacks at these vendors’ booths, and I got to try bonino flakes, potato chips with fish inside, and mochi (もち) with strawberries (いちご) inside (which I bought!). There were also samples of whale meat, but I didn’t try any since the whaling industry is intensely harmful to the ecosystem. 

After our adventures, we ended up going to lunch at a mall cafe near wherever we were. We ate some quick rice and udon bowls and headed out to look at shopping areas. I bought some gifts for people, so it was a very productive time! We then met up with our whole group at the Tsukiji Honganji Temple. I really enjoyed this temple, even though it wasn’t technically a place that we were scheduled to visit. Rather, it was more of a meeting point that we made into an excursion.

The temple itself was designed to look akin to Buddhist temples in India, and I noticed that its architecture was rounder and its artwork was lighter than that of Buddhist temples in the Japanese style. I found it to be incredibly beautiful. It was a wonderful resting place for us after a long morning of walking around, and I found it interesting that we sought refuge from our travels in the religious space since refuge is an overarching theme of most religious sects. This made me appreciate the space in a more spiritual sense. We also walked in during the middle of a prayer service, so we got to witness people expressing their religion while we also were a part of it. All around, visiting the temple was a very wholesome and engaging experience, and I felt very fortunate to have experienced that.

After we wrapped up our time in the temple, we went to the Ginza shopping district. This area is full of really expensive, high end shops, and I went on a hunt to find some reasonably priced flow-y pants. Luckily, I found them at GU, a department store like H&M, and they weren’t too expensive, so I bought two pairs! I’m very excited to wear them. I think I’m gonna save one of the pairs for the flight home because they are so comfy. Kyrah and Yingting came shopping with me, and though Yingting didn’t find anything she wanted, Kyrah found a cool dressy shirt and a super cute lace cardigan to go over it! We had a successful shopping experience.

We headed out to the Kabuki theater after shopping. We bought some cheap dinner at a 7-11 in the 駅 under the theater since we were anticipating everything in the theater to be crazy expensive (which it was omg but I still bought snacks later). I was very excited to watch the Kabuki since I never had experienced it before. I was told that it was somewhat like a Japanese version of a Shakespearian play, and I definitely understood where that comparison could be made. The first act I found to be somewhat dull, but it was supposed to be a tragedy, so there wasn’t a ton of action in it, anyway. The most exciting thing that happened was that there was some weird love triangle between the good guys and the bad guys and a prostitute and her apprentice and I was confused???? And also everyone died in the end, but they died off-screen, so they didn’t even get cool deaths. Idk it was an interesting way to open the show.

The second act was significantly more interesting. It told the story of a young prince and his wet-nurse’s attempts to save his life and protect the throne. In a quick synopsis, there were evil-doers within the kingdom trying to kill the prince, and he was sent a basket of poisoned cookies. The wet-nurse had trained him and her own son to not eat anything that she hadn’t made for this exact reason. Her son ended up eating one of the cookies, and as he was dying, he was attacked by one of the evil-doers and tortured to death. However, he effectively saved the prince. The wet-nurse killed her son’s murderer, and protected the prince, and a scroll with the names of all the traitors ended up in the hands of a kindly old man, who took it to court and, after a lengthy battle and near-deadly physical battle, proved who was at fault in the kingdom and saved the lineage of the prince. I fell asleep for a little bit during the court case (again, I was literally so exhausted that I thought I would throw up), but the rest of it was wonderful! I really enjoyed the second act.

I also enjoyed the third act, which was a series of dance pieces. One of my favorites was a piece involving two men who became embodiments of good and bad and explained the two forces’ origin stories and how they still affect us today. The other one I enjoyed had to do with lions and their strength. Two of the artists dressed as lions and whipped their hair around and it was lit!! This act was my favorite.

Tonight, I think I’m going to take it easy and get caught up on some homework. With the deadlines for a lot of things coming up, I’m starting to get a little stressed!!!!! Also, I need to soon post up all the pictures from the trip on here. I’ll divvy them out by day/location so they all make sense. That’ll be an adventure.

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Blog Two

From what I have noticed, a lot of Japanese multimedia employs the visual and aural senses to draw in audiences. At the Yakult Swallows baseball game we attended, sound was one of the most prevalent ways that they engaged the crowd. Like most American sports, each team and their respective fans were very vocal in supporting their players. The Swallows and their opposing team, the Tigers, had their own small pep bands which played almost constantly. The pep bands led the cheers as well, and nearly everyone in the crowd knew what cheers they were playing. The stadium announcer was also great at keeping the crowd engaged with cheers and energetic blurbs about the players. What I found to be particularly interesting was that the cheers all had a positive energy to them, and the fans took turns cheering for their teams depending on who was at bat. Stuff like that would never happen at an American game, and I think that experiencing so much positivity really helps to bring in new fans.

The arcades also heavily rely on sound to engage their customers as well. Upon walking into an arcade, you are greeted by a variety of engaging melodies, particularly from the rhythm games. Just by this small marketing ploy, you are already interested in finding a melody (and therefore, a game) that suits you. I believe this works the same way in the Pachinko buildings, but it is mainly drowned out by the sound of metal balls.

The visuals in these scenarios also draw in the customer. At the baseball game, my favorite thing was that people would raise teeny umbrellas--like maybe 1/3 of the size of a regular umbrella--every time the Swallows scored. The motion created a sea of tiny umbrellas and made the stands look like they were turned into celebratory flowers. It was a really pure way to express loyalty for the team, and I grew very fond of it by the end of the game. The arcades and Pachinko buildings, on the other hand, have very aggressive lights visuals on each of the games that are simultaneously off-putting and alluring They are not “pretty” in the sense that the umbrellas were. However, they catch the eye of the customer and draw them in for a closer look. Especially since so many of these games look similar from a distance, using these bright lights allows the customer of inspect what games they think they might like without having to actually spend money to play them.

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Sunday, May 21~

Today was a really cool day. We started out going to see the Edo Tokyo Museum (びじゅつかん), which I was really excited about. We learned about the history of the country from feudal times up until the present time, and there were a lot of hands-on exhibits. One of my favorites was of an old Japanese fire hydrant. It was basically a wooden bell on a post that had--what would be--saturated cloths hanging off of it. You spun the bell around, and it distributed the water to where it needed to go! It seems kind of ineffective but also like a wonderful idea. We had a really great tour guide who explained things to us well. I ended up getting a little separated from him a couple of times because I took too long at the exhibits lolol. However, my pal Brian discovered me and hung out with me while we caught up to the group. We only got to see the permanent display this time around, but I would love to come in the future and see what kind of exhibition displays they have. I would also like to explore the free library that they have there and all of its resources.

After the museum, we hopped on a train to Asakusa (あさくさ) . We were planning on getting lunch there, which worried me a little bit but I didn’t think would be bad. I had gone to あさくさ on my first trip to Japan, so i remembered how busy it was. When we got there, we discovered that we actually showed up during the middle of a festival (まつり)??? To my knowledge, this wasn’t planned, however, it was an amazing spectacle. Finding lunch was a little hard, but after we did, we got to appreciate the まつり for all that it was worth. There were portable shrines being carried around the city buy people of all ages and genders, and they were flanked by crowds of people chanting and ensuring that spectators were not in the way of being trampled. The yelling was all very exciting, and it was abundantly clear that the まつり was one of happiness and spirituality. In total, throughout the city, I probably saw 5 different shrines, but I know were were many others lurking around. Another cool thing was that large stage booths had been set up for people to play traditional Japanese music all throughout the city. I heard many pan flutes today, not that that’s a bad thing!

By the time we were ready to meet up and head off to dinner, I was more than ready to leave. I had wanted to see the temple, but it was way too busy there for me to have been interested. Additionally, it was approximately 23383748 degrees outside, so we were all ready for the air conditioners. After some down time at the hotel, we all met up for our last official group dinner at a shabushabu (しゃぶしゃぶ) restaurant. It was basically like yakiniku, but with a broth instead of a grill to cook the meats. Everything was declicious, eve beggies taht I wouldn’t typically eat! We all got really invested in solving riddles at dinner, as well, and the riddle-solving went well into the night. 

Day 10, we in double digits boiiiiiiiiii

P.S. I have a sinus infection so I successfully bought medicine in Japanese??? I also bought a mask so now I can cough with wreckless abandon~

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Saturday, May 20~

This morning we got up a little early so that we could get to the 東京 Sky Tree. That was a really cool place! It’s the tallest tower in the world, and it has a spectacular view of the city. There were also a million people there yesterday, and we basically got there when it opened. It was wild. Kyrah and I got ice cream at one of the Sky Tree cafes (きっさてん) and looked out over the city as we ate. It was really crazy to be up so high! We then went to explore and somehow Kyrah ended up on the 5th floor lolol. She got in a line and didn’t realize where it was going until she was basically at the bottom of the tower. For context, we were on the 350ish floor! She made it back to us, however, with the help of her limited Japanese knowledge.

After the Sky Tree, we hopped on a train for Akihabara (あきはばら), home of the large electronic shopping center and a thousand anime/manga (アニメとマンガ) stores. We got something to eat at a noodle store, where I helped translate what the foods were and also got to chat with a very nice old lady who worked there. Once we finished up, we went and explored あきはばら, checking out a few shops before we ended up at a Sega arcade. We played Pokemon (ポケモン) and I tried to win prizes out of the claw machines. I was pretty good at the ポケモン game, but I was super bad at the claw machines. The cool thing about Japanese arcades, I noticed, was that for the equivalent of a US dollar, you get to play for quite a while. I think that American arcades would be doing much better if they operated that way. I only spent about 500円, and we were there for probably a half hour, forty-five minutes. But on our free day, we’re thinking about coming back to あきはばら there was so much that we didn’t get to see, and we still had a lot of fun.

We went back to the hotel after あきはばら, and I got some homework done. We went off for dinner in the area around 6:30, and we ended up at an American-style steakhouse. This steak, I kid you not, was some of the best steak I have ever had. It was seasoned and cooked perfectly, and it came with this amazing wasabi mustard??? So good. We were all glad we stopped there.

We went for a walk after dinner and ended up by this park that is behind the nearest train station. An intoxicated guy came up to us and started talking to us about music from the 80s, but he couldn’t remember what any of the song titles or artist were, so he basically was just singing to us. It was a wild time. His English was so clear, too, like I hope that I get to be fluent enough in Japanese that I can still speak it clearly when I’m a little toasty lolol.

But we winded down in the evening with a homework study session in the hotel lobby. It’s hard to believe that the trip is winding down to the end. It still feels like we have so much time here, but realistically, we don’t. I’m just trying to enjoy every minute of it.

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Friday, May 19~

Today, I slept in a little bit. I don’t really have anything to write yet, so stay tuned! We are leaving soon to get on the しんかんせん to 東京!!!

UPDATE TIMES YO: so after the しんかんせん ride brought us into 東京, we dropped our bags off at the hotel and went to get lunch. We discovered a Chinese (ちゅうごくりおり) place just a couple of streets down from where we are staying. The meals were delicious, and thankfully, they were covered in the budget! Not having to pay for food is such a gift wowow. We walked up and down the surrounding street outside of our hotel to explore/find some coffee shops afterwards. This part of 東京 must not be close to downtown and the shopping areas, because traffic, both pedestrian and vehicular, are really subdued! It’s especially nice to have that kind of break from the noise since we didn’t get that kind of a break in 京都.

We looked around at stores along the street that our hotel is on. There’s a lot of restaurants and cafes, so I will have an endless supply of caffeine here, quite unlike my first trip to 東京 when I basically couldn’t read anything quick enough to be useful lolol. When after we got checked in, I really just got caught up on homework while I waited to leave for the baseball (やきゅう) game. I had my reservations about going to the game because I really am not a baseball fan. However, I was determined to go and have a good time at least.

I was pleasantly surprised that I had a wonderful time at the game!! There was a lot of positive energy in the stadium from the fans. A cool thing that happened was that the fans of the defensive team would let the fans of the offensive team cheer when their team was up to bat. It was really respectful and absolutely nothing like an American sporting event. Speaking of American sports, I had a pulled pork sandwich and a beer for dinner and never have I felt so American lol. I also got some cool pictures with the Yakult Swallows’ (the home team) mascot??? OH also another fun thing that happened when the Swallows scored a run--the fans would bust out mini umbrellas, sometimes double-stacked ones, and dance in their chairs with them???? It was such a pleasant experience and I was so confused but I enjoyed it so much???? We ended up leaving during the 8th inning so our tour guide could get home, but we had a wonderful time until then. (The Swallows won, by the way!) Honestly, I thought the やきゅう game was going to be a terrible time, but it was easily one of the highlights of the trip so far. I might actually care about baseball now???

Day 8 was gr8 ✌️

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Thursday, May 18~

I woke up this morning absolutely exhausted from the previous day. I was also dreading today a little bit because it is scheduled to be just as busy as yesterday was, as well. However, I was pleased to find out that there would be more sitting and less rushing today!

We got on a train that took us through the mountains (there were a lot of tunnels wowo) and got outside of 京都 to a lovely little town where they did boat rides on the Hozugawa (ほず川)! Our guides/boat pusher people were super wonderful. They were very humorous and were accommodating to our lack of Japanese. They did their best to explain things in English, and I got to chat with them a little bit about the scenery in Japanese. They seemed to think it was neat that I was learning Japanese as well, and I thought it was great that they were using what English they knew in such a comical way. We didn’t get too wet on the rapids, but the one guy splashed me a bunch! It was really funny and honestly so refreshing. I got super burnt on that boat, as did a majority of our group. But so far, that boat ride was my favorite part of this trip. The guides were wonderful, the scenery was amazing, we got to see monkeys???, and I got to eat chewy rice balls (だんご) from another boat that pulled up to our boat?? Neat?????

We landed at Arashiyama (あらしやま) just in time for lunch. After we got to the main shopping area, we broke off into groups. Most of us went to this place that had owls that you could pet and also a cat cafe! I did the cat cafe, and they were so wonderful. They were all young cats, so they were lively and running around the room playing. Whenever they got tired, they would just walk onto our laps and fall asleep???? So cute??? At basically any given time, there were at least two cats asleep on Adam lol. He had a bunch of them on him at one point (I think there were 5?).

Adam, Brian, and I ended up finding a quick sushi place after for lunch. The chef was learning English and had been making sushi for about 30 years. It was wonderful, and we told him so in English and Japanese. The rolls were huge there! I had 8 and was filled up for the rest of the day. So good, what a gift.

We started our tour of the area after that, visiting the Bamboo Grove and the Tenryuji Temple (てんりゅうじ寺). We also made a quick stop at the Golden Pavilion to visit. The tours were a little rushed again, enough to make me not really feel present at them, but we at least had a little more time to observe. It also didn’t help that it was approximately 121983928408387 degrees and we were all sunburnt and exhausted from the morning. At least it wasn’t as aggressive of a tour as yesterday had been. We got some ice cream at the end of the Golden Pavilion with gold edible paper on it so that was neat-o!

Getting back from the Pavilion was such a process. We decided to wait for a half hour in the sun in hopes of getting a bus that wasn’t packed like sardines, and our bus that came totally was just that. But we pushed our way on and got back to the hotel. It was suggested that we visit Fushimi Inari (ふしみいなり), another one of my favorite shrines, after dinner, but after waiting for that bus, we were all way too exhausted. We ended up finding a nice okonomi-yaki (おこのみやき) place just down from the hotel, so we went there for food! After we ate, we went to the observation deck of the Kyoto Tower where our hotel is. The Tower is the tallest point in 京都 because of the city’s building permits, so we were able to see the whole city lit up for the night in all its twinkling glory. It was a really nice experience, and there was also a shrine set up for the tower’s rice ball character??? Japan is a weird place.

Tomorrow we go to Tokyo (東京)! I’m excited to get to experience the city again. Day 7 done??? already??? 

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Wednesday, May 17~

Today was our first day in Kyoto (京都), and I must say it was a very frustrating day. We left ひろしま bright and early to get on another しんかんせん, and this time, we got there rather on time, so we didn’t have to wait around much. That was pretty nice, considering that I was very ready to write my journal and nap on the train! It was a smooth ride into 京都, and we got to our hotel with no problems. What I didn’t realize was that, when we got to our hotel in 京都, we would be dropping off our bags with the hotel staff since our rooms were not yet ready to check into. This made me mega stressed because I brought along nice things like my laptop and I had gifts basically just laying out, plus I was unable to lighten my travel backpack in time, so it just stayed at the hotel. Had I known that this would be the case, I would have packed differently, but it’s a moot point now, at any rate.

So we left the hotel and our abandoned luggage and began what would turn into the longest day thus far on this trip. We met up with Tomoko, our 京都 tour guide, at the Heianjingu Shinto Shrine. With her, we visited Heianjingu, Kenninji, and, my favorite of the temples, Kiyomizu. Although it was great to have seen all of these places, everything we did felt incredibly rushed. Being an agnostic person, I like to take time to understand and fully appreciate spiritual areas when I am visiting them. I really didn’t get the chance to do that, and it especially bothered me at Kiyomizu. With our previous guides, they were very apt to let us learn and explore at our own pace, within reason, and I was really receptive to that. With Tomoko, though, it felt as though we were just getting through temples as fast as we could. I really didn’t get to take in the majesty of everything that I was seeing, and that took away from my appreciation of the religious spaces. I don’t know, I just felt much less present today.

For dinner, some of us ended up finding a cheap Italian version of Denny’s. Honestly, we all just wanted something quick and easy and reasonably priced (because everything here is so expensive???????). One nice thing that came out of today, however, was that I chatted with my 京都 roommate Allison for like two whole hours when I got back lolol so that was a really nice bonding experience.

But I am overwhelmingly exhausted so I must now sleep. Day six is finished bless up 

[pacific-bound-blog]

Tuesday, May 16~

Well, today was a very eventful day!! We woke up early again, this time so that we could visit Miyajima (みやじま), which is a nice island town with a beautiful じんじゃ, Itsukushima (いつくしま) Shrine. There are also a ton of deer (しか) in みやじま!! Getting to pet the しか in Nara during my last visit was the highlight of that trip, so I was really excited to see them again. We rode a ferry over to みやじま, and I hadn’t been on a ferry in quite some time! There’s a bunch of tour ferries in Pittsburgh, but it had been a while since the last time I had been on a boat.

When we got to みやじま, we were greeted by some rather aggressive しか. They were waiting for unsuspecting tourists coming from port, and they were very eager to eat our maps and guidebooks!! One of the しか ripped Murata-Soraci sensei’s papers out of her hands. Not gonna lie, it was pretty funny to watch! We then made our way to the じんじゃ, petting the nicer しか along the way, and we walked through the beachfront じんじゃ. The large torii (とりい) on the bay was especially beautiful. The tide was coming in, so it was beginning to look like it was floating. By the time we had left for the day, the tide was back out, and people were able to walk up to the とりい.

We went to get lunch in smaller groups after we finished the tour. I ended up going with some people to a small udon (うどん) shop near the じんじゃ. The food was really good, and the guy running the shop was very patient. The more that we get exposed with the culture, though, the more I feel like I don’t know Japanese well. It is very rewarding when I do get something right and can briefly converse with the native people, but a lot of my knowledge so far is ill-suited to help me through the specifics of a partially-independent trip. However, the positivity is definitely still a large driving factor in why I want to continue to become proficient at Japanese. 

After lunch, a group of us decided we wanted to climb the mountains and find one of the other shrines on the island. It was quite a hike to get there! We went through a nice forested park to buy tickets for the cable cars that would take us to the beginnings of the shrine complex. When we got to the restaurant that was selling tickets, we ended up leaving Adam behind, since he didn’t really want to pay for the expensive cable car rides up and down the mountain. So, we went up as far as the gondolas would take us, and then we decided to continue on to one of the closer じんじゃ. From the gondola stations and the gondolas themselves, we had beautiful panoramic views of the island and the bay surrounding it. It was breathtaking. 

Another thing that was breathtaking, both figuratively and literally, was the hike to the first じんじゃ. We had to trek through the mountainside to get there! It was amazing and difficult, but I think the struggle made it all the more worth it when we got to the じんじゃ. Along with the じんじゃ, there was a large incense room called the “Lovers’ Sanctuary” where couples can light candles together as symbols of their love. I got my girlfriend some trinkets from this spot since she couldn’t join me to light real candles, but I know that she will really like them.

We were only able to spend a few minutes at the じんじゃ before we needed to leave. In our haste back down to the port, we totally passed by Adam! We didn’t see him where we had left him, so we assumed that he had already gone to the port. Looking for him turned into a huge ordeal in which we called the police and ended up making an island-wide announcement telling him where to go, and the whole time, he was just sitting in an area that we couldn’t see from where we were walking! He was totally fine and just thought it would be better to stay put until we got back for him, but he gave us quite the spook! Looking back on it knowing what we know now, the situation is fairly humorous! In the moment, though, we were all just trying to keep our spirits up and not worry about the worst-case scenarios.

For dinner, all the kiddos got together to go to this nice noodle shop and get drinks. A couple of guys gave up their large table for us, and they were so nice! To be fair, they were a little toasty lolol but the one guy spoke some English and was helping us decide what to order. We asked his friend what his drink recommendations were, and he very jovially told us that all of the sakes were his recommendation! He was a funny guy, and we were all glad to have met the two of them.

I am exhausted now and am very excited to head to Kyoto in the morning. Kyoto was one of my favorite stops on my first trip, so I hope it is as exciting this time around!

Day 5 complete ⛰

[pacific-bound-blog]

Monday, May 15~

This morning was bound to be a busy one. We were catching the Bullet Train (しんかんせん) for Hiroshima (ひろしま) bright and early today. I was really bummed to be leaving ふじさわ. It was kind of ironic to me that I had just started feeling comfortable and at home in the city when we were moving to another one. However, I was very excited to be visiting ひろしま and to be able to pay my respects at the Peace Park. I had never been to ひろしま before either, so this trip so far has been full of new experiences!

Getting ready was probably the most painless part of the day. I had packed almost everything last night, so I only had to throw last minute things into my bag. Unsurprisingly, my gifts (おみやげ) that I have bought for people had to go in their own little bag. Hopefully I’m able to remember that bag when I’m traveling! I might actually end up getting another small bag somewhere for carrying things like that. Stay tuned!

We got to the しんかんせん駅 fairly early, which was good because we were able to a.) not miss our train!!!!!!!!! and b.) get some breakfast and look around at the stores. I ended up buying a small sandwich (サンドッウィチ) for lunch (ひるごはん) and melon bread (メロンパン), which might be my new favorite thing in the whole world bless. Our tour guide Yukiko bought us some メロンパン to try the other day, and it was wonderful. Its really just bread with a sweet sugar on top that also looks like a sliced up melon. The one I got was unique though in that it also had a melon flavoring in it! I thought this was amazing, and I let the group all have a piece to try.

When we actually got on the しんかんせん, we just ended up hanging out for about 4 hours. Nothing really eventful happened, but being on the しんかんせん was a really exciting experience for those who had never been on it before!

When we got to ひろしま, I was pleased to find out that our hotel was maybe a couple of blocks over from the train station. After we got checked in and settled in, we started our adventure to the Peace Park and the Memorial Museum. I was particularly excited about this experience. I had never been to ひろしま, so everything was a new experience. I was looking forward to taking in this one in particular, but I am not entirely sure that it lived up to my expectations. I had anticipated the tour to be an emotional experience, but after hearing a survivor’s daughter’s firsthand account and actually learning about the details of the ひろしま bombing, everything took on an even more solemn tone. The people of ひろしま suffered so much loss and had to rebuild their entire home from the ground up, but they still harbor no ill will towards the United States, and they just passionately want to work towards world peace. I really wanted to pay my respects to those who had died or had had family and friends who died in the bombing, but we seemed to be very rushed in our travels. I didn’t think I got to really appreciate that spiritual aspect of the city.

After dinner, though, I went to walk around the city with a few of the other Belmont kids, and I made peace with my frustrations of the day. I decided that I was going to make the most of my limited time in ひろしま for those who couldn’t enjoy their home city anymore. This brought me some closure with respects to not being able to honor the dead of the city in the way that I would have liked to.

Anyhow, day 4 complete!

[pacific-bound-blog]

Sunday, May 14~

We woke up this morning very early for breakfast again. We were heading to Kamakura (かまくら) this morning to visit the Engakuji shrine (えんがくじじんじゃ) and the Daibutsu (だいぶつ)! I was very excited since I had been to the だいぶつ on my first trip to Japan and I loved visiting it. I was also excited to visit えんがくじ for the first time.

When we got to えんがくじ, I was amazed by the sheer beauty of the place. The atmosphere was very solemn, but also very happy, like people were praying responsibly while also enjoying their visit. The shrine was set in a heavily forested area and had many elaborately decorated buildings. Each building, I found out, was there for some kind of specific purpose. I ended up visiting the main じんじゃ and one of the rooms reserved for the monks’ prayer services. The landscapes and artwork of the じんじゃ were breathtaking, and my favorite thing was a small labyrinth that was established outside one of the secondary じんじゃ. It was very peaceful being able to walk on the stones and look at the protector spirits and pray with others.

Visiting the だいぶつ again was less emotional than visiting えんがくじ. I was struck by how large the Buddha was though! I guess I had forgotten what a large presence it was in that small space! Kyrah and I got to go inside the だいぶつ and touch the Buddha’s belly. That was a little stressful, since there were so many people inside. Also the stairs are super steep even though there’s like 10 of them??? But it was a really enjoyable experience nonetheless, and I was glad to have gotten to visit the inside. 

Once we were done, we all went to get lunch at a local restaurant that served different types of soba (そば) bowls. The noodles were homemade, and they were amazing. I got a curry bowl and basically licked the bowl clean. The waitress was incredibly patient with us as well--yet another experience of how kind the native Japanese people are.

After lunch, we all got to explore かまくら, and that was quite a time. When we got out of the train station from Kita-Kamakura (きたかまくら), the upper part of the city, Kyrah, Allison, and I ended up breaking off from the group to find an ice cream store. Unfortunately, we ended up getting ourselves a little lost! We got kind of turned around in the outskirts of a residential area. While we were trying to figure out where to go, these ladies stopped us on the corner to give us papers. I wanted to be polite, so I took them, but they were filled with kanji (かんじ) that I couldn't read. They also kept talking to us, and all I could pick up was that they were talking about Christianity?? Kyrah and I tried to tell them many times that we couldn't understand what they were saying, but they just kept talking??? It was an experience omg. We finally found an opportunity to skoot away, and the one lady gave me another newspaper?? I couldn't read that one either?? But when we finally got away, we walked down the road a little while, thinking we were headed in the right direction.

We stopped at a store, and I was able to ask them if they had green tea (まちゃ) ice cream--the flavor that our search had been centered around. They did not, but it was cool to get to ask in Japanese! I ended up getting a lot of practice asking questions in Japanese because after a few more minutes, we realized that we were really misplaced. I stopped a young couple to ask them where the train station (電車駅) was so that we could get back to a centralized location, and they seemed a little flustered that Kyrah and I could speak Japanese! Another couple saw that were struggling a little, and the man came over to help us. He spoke English well, and he was able to point us in the right direction. With his help, we finally got back to かまくら駅, and we found the one street where the main shopping district was, finally!

After our super happy fun lost times, we ended up going to a Baskin Robbins for the まちゃ ice cream. That was another exciting experience, because I understood everything the waitress was saying! She gave us a sample of a strawberry pop rocks ice cream as well. She was so nice, and we finally got our ice cream. After we ate, we stopped in a Studio Ghibli store! It was so cute, and I got a few presents for people. I also met a guy from Western Pennsylvania while I was there?? His family owns this huge popular farm that has festivals and markets?? That was a really cool freak thing to experience. He too was on a trip for school. After we spent some time in the Ghibli store, we walked up the street until we had to head back to the 駅 and return to ふじさわ.

We got to see Fumito again that night for dinner! We went out with him to a Japanese-Italian fusion restaurant and got dinner and drinks. Again, he was immensely helpful in helping us order! He also told us about the different Japanese alcoholic drinks, and we all got one to try. I got a type of sweet rice wine which I can't exactly remember the name of right now and mixed it with ginger ale and lemon. It was really tasty! It was also really strong, though, so I was feeling it lolol. It was a cool experience though! Some of the other people got this drink that was served in a wine glass that was served in a box, which was a traditional samurai practice, I believe. Those were really pretty to look at while being served. They were like little bubbly waterfalls! But we all had a nice time, and we are hoping to hang out with Fumito when we get to Tokyo. He wants to take us to a concert, which would be so cool!!! He told us that he works for a small venue, so he knows all the cool underground spots. I'm very excited for Tokyo, but honestly I think I could stay in ふじさわ for a while. I really like it here. Tomorrow we leave for Hiroshima (ひろしま)! Day 3 complete 🍾

[pacific-bound-blog]

Blog One

In my short time here so far, I feel like I have not really changed, but I know that I definitely have, just in a nearly imperceptible fashion. If there is one thing that I can, at this point in time, say that has changed is my self-confidence. Being in a foreign, non-English-speaking country is exhausting. Having to constantly confront language barriers really can make or break your experience. Since I am studying Japanese, I feel as though I have an advantage in this case. However, my knowledge, however limited, has also contributed to feelings of stress and anxiety over making myself look unintelligent to my peers and to the native speakers of the country. It is overcoming these obstacles that is shaping me to be a better, more confident person.

One experience that comes to mind in particular is my time getting lost with Kyrah and Allison in Kamakura. The three of us were originally looking for an ice cream store when we got a little turned around and ended up in what looked like a suburban area of the city. We figured we weren’t more than a couple blocks away from Kamakura station, where we were using as a reference point, but we still were in an unfamiliar place nonetheless. We tried using our phones and maps to figure out where should be going, but it ended up just making us more confused. Back home, if this had happened, I probably would have gone into full-panic mode. However, I recognized that we would need my knowledge of Japanese to help get us back to where we needed to be. I pulled aside a young couple and asked where the station was. They seemed to be mostly surprised by the fact that I was asking them something in Japanese, and another couple came over to help. The second couple spoke English fairly well, so our shared understanding of each others’ native tongues helped to fill in the blanks, and he gave us very thorough instructions of how to return to the station.

Being able to handle such a stressful situation with relatively little issue was really affirming to me that I was growing as a person. I was able to help get us out of a sticky situation by remaining calm and trusting myself to do what needed to be done. If my self-confidence had not been improved by our first few days in Japan, I do not think I would have been able to think as clearly as I had when it became necessary.

[pacific-bound-blog]

Saturday, May 13~

Today was the first official day of doing exciting things!! We woke up bright and early to meet at 8:45. It was the first day that we got to eat the hotel’s buffet breakfast, and it was very good today. I had bread with strawberry jam, eggs and sausage, a strange type of yogurt that tasted curiously like cottage cheese???, coffee with gum syrup (I wish we had gum syrup back in the States, it makes coffee taste so good with just a little bit in it), and some beef curry with rice. I noticed that everything about eating is smaller--the servings, the plates and bowls, the cups, the silverware, everything! It’s quite interesting to see since we have such massive servings of everything in the US. I also thought it was interesting that they had beef curry out so early in the morning, but I greatly enjoyed having it for breakfast! I hope that they have it in the buffet again tomorrow. The hotel staff is also very friendly and chatted briefly with us about the breakfast options.

After eating breakfast, I finished getting ready for the day and headed down to the lobby. It was forecasted to rain today, but I thought I would be okay with a light cardigan. It turns out that it was actually raining fairly heavily! So that sucked a little bit! Dr. Overall, one of the professors on the trip, let me borrow his umbrella, though.

We walked through the rain to Tama University (たま大学), a local school with a global studies program that we are interacting with during our stay in ふじさわ. On the way, we ended up bumping into a couple of girls who were part of the group that we were meeting with! They were super nice and took pictures with us before we went into the school.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect with our trip to たま大学. I only really knew that a couple of their students would be giving us a presentation in English (えい語). One of the other students, Kyrah, and I were also going to be giving a presentation in Japanese (日本語), so everyone was going to be practicing their language skills. For my 日本語 class, I also needed to interview some of the students, but we did not have enough time, so I ended up becoming Facebook friends with some of them to finish their interviews later. All of the たま students (大学生) were incredibly welcoming and excited to meet us! Their dean gave us a presentation on what たま was doing to help out with the sailing portion of the upcoming Olympics. It sounds like the students will all be super busy with helping to run the preliminary events and help host the events over the next few years! When he was finished, four 大学生 gave us presentations on website projects that they have been working on. All of these sites will in some way help to make ふじさわ more accessible to tourists from all over the world. One of them was working on an online website for local restaurants to post menus, another was working on a website with places to visit--they all obviously had been working really hard and were proud of their products.

When they had finished, Kyrah and I got ready to present. Kyrah’s presentation was really good, and she had sounded great! I was super intimidated to go after her. I was also worried that my project hadn’t saved correctly to my flash drive (which, spoiler alert, it hadn’t). That ended up not being too much of an issue, though, because I was able to quickly pull up an older version of my presentation that I had saved. The たま大学生 were all pleased with both of our presentations, as they told us after we had finished!

We got to talk to the 大学生 a little bit afterwards, and they gave us a tour of their school! I loved getting to experience a little bit of a Japanese university. Their particular college, which focuses on global studies, has only about 200 people in the programs, but this is a large class size for the school! I thought that was insane. I thought Belmont was fairly small, but たま大学 proved me wrong!

Super cool side story: whenever we were coming back from the tour, one of the students who had presented from the school came to chat briefly with me. I had put in a short blurb about my girlfriend, complete with pictures of us with a rainbow flag, into my presentation. This nice guy (whose name was George) asked me if I was LGBT because he had seen the rainbow in one of the pictures. I, of course, told him yes, that I am pansexual, and he excitedly told me that his girlfriend is bisexual! I was so excited to meet another queer person--albeit vicariously through her boyfriend lol. I know that the community in Japan is not quite as vocal as it is in the United States, which is interesting to me due to the traditional reverence for transgender people in theatre. I was really glad that George had told me about his girlfriend, and I told him to give her a big gay hug from me. I friend-requested him on Facebook, so hopefully he and I become pals. I would love to talk to his girlfriend about her coming out experiences in a country that isn’t the United States (not to insinuate that coming out in America is easy!! bc Trump seems to be making sure that it isn’t!!!). This short exchange was honestly one of my favorite parts of the day, though.

When we got settled in, I got some of the 大学生 to help me out with an interview project that I have to do for my language course. One of them, whose name was Fumito, had mentioned that he too likes Green Day, so he asked if he could hang out with us later today! Those plans ended up working out well--see further down in this post~

But once we made it back to our hotel, with the companionship of a few of the たま大学生, we headed out to get yakiniku (やきにく). This was another highlight of my day! I really enjoyed getting やきにくon my first trip, so I knew that I would enjoy it. We started out with servings of beef tongues, which were incredibly good! They were a little chewy, but otherwise I enjoyed them a lot. We then ordered some servings of pork and beef, which were also great. Everything was seasoned so well, it was incredible. Our table, which was comprised of myself, Kyrah, David, and Dr. Overall, ended up getting three or four more servings of the beef. It was so good and I had no regrets a few regrets. The first time that we were ordering more beef, though I accidentally asked for gyuunyuu (ぎゅうにゅう), which is milk, instead of gyuuniku (ぎゅうにく), which is beef! The waiter was very confused initially, but after some clarification between myself and our tour guide Darren, I realized what I had said and corrected myself.

The rest of the afternoon got weird and confusing because of the rain. We were supposed to visit the home of the author Shimazaki Tozon, but those plans were cancelled because of the rain. We were in the area of Enoshima, though, where the sailing portion of the 2020 Olympics will be held, so we tried to visit there! Again, though, because of the weather, those plans had to be cancelled. I think the ferries weren’t operating, or we would have had to wait a while for one--something to that effect. So we decided to just go back to the hotel, and I was not disappointed with that. It had been a long day of walking.

That evening, we ended up meeting Fumito to hang out and go to karaoke (カラオケ). We went to one of the places near Shonandai Station (しょなんだい駅), where we had met up with him. He was incredibly helpful with setting us up for カラオケ. Basically, what happens at real カラオケ is that your group is given a room where there are a few couches and tables and a television equipped with the カラオケ machine. You have to buy a package with drinks (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) for each person in each room. We didn’t realize this going into the カラオケ experience, so Fumito acted as our translator during that process. He was so helpful, and he really went out of his way to do everything that he could for us. It was like he was acting as a host, even though we weren’t in his home. I’ve gotten the same feelings from most of the people we have talked to, that they are acting as gracious hosts while in their country, particularly the 大学生. We had a really fun time once we got started with the actual カラオケ fun times! We were there for quite some time, and we all really enjoyed ourselves. I felt a little bad for Fumito because he was the newest member of our friend group. He had wanted to bring some friends, but it was too last minute for them to join. I tried to include him in some songs and sang some emo classics with him, as did some of the other kiddos in the groups, and he did seem to have a really good time. He must have, at least, because he wanted to make plans with us again before we left for Hiroshima!

All in all, being the first full day of our excursions, I haven’t really yet experienced culture shock, and I’m very honored by the way that we have been received by the people in Fujisawa. I’m really looking forward to our next day in Fujisawa and our subsequent days in the rest of Honshu!!

Day Two complete 🇯🇵

[pacific-bound-blog]

Friday, May 12~

Today was an eventful day, but mostly in the form of travel. We finally landed in Japan at Tokyo Narita (東京なりた) airport. Immigrations and customs took less time than I had remembered from my first trip! It was also interesting that, since it was the middle of the day, there were more people waiting in immigrations and customs, and there were so many different languages being spoken in that room. There were people in front of us speaking what sounded like Russian, people all around us speaking Vietnamese and Tai, and of course, there were us--the English speakers--and the native Japanese speakers. I had been trying to read the signs in the airport, but there is a LOT of kanji! Most of them are translated into English as well, but I want to practice my reading skills.

I bought some snacks before we left なりた--some much-needed coffee (コーヒー) for myself, and some Japanese-inspired Kit Kats for my girlfriend! I might break into the green tea (macha/まちゃ) ones for myself, though...

The rest of the day was just as eventful! We left the airport and rode on a bus (バスでのります) to our first stop, the Shonandai (しょなんだい) station region of Fujisawa (ふじさわ). It took us a little over 3 hours to get here. Before we got on the bus, I tried to practice my Japanese with the bus driver, and he was very apt to help! However, I did not understand what he was trying to ask (spoiler alert--he was making sure that I wanted both of my bags put under the bus, our tour guide translated for me lol). The exciting thing about practicing Japanese, at least what I have noticed, is that Japanese people are typically very receptive to those who are learning the language and usually will try to help. It’s a refreshing change from America where we basically berate those trying to learn English, but that’s a rant for another post.

After we got settled into our hotels, (my room has a lovely view of the city and I’m very excited about it!!) the 8 other students and I headed out to find some food and explore the city. ふじさわ is a very easy-to-navigate city, and there are a lot of small restaurants. Some interesting things that I’ve noticed about the city is that 1.) there are not a ton of cars, and 2.) the cars are all very rectangularly shaped??? Interesting (おもしろい)... Anyway, we were planning on finding a restaurant that served sushi (すし). We made a large loop and ended up back on the street that our hotel is on, and we found a small store that looked like it would serve fish dishes. When we got in there, the shop owner was a little flustered, and, with some translation struggles, he informed us that he was out of rice. We decided to go to another place that was beside our hotel, but that first shop was quite an experience! The owner was very nice, and his chef thought it was really funny that a ton of American kids just walked into their store. To be fair, I would have probably found that really amusing as well lol

But once we finally settled on a restaurant, we were seated by a lovely human who was to be our waitress for the evening. She mostly talked through me as a translator, which was a little stressful, but she was incredibly patient and very understanding of my limitations in speaking Japanese. I wished that tipping was a regular thing in Japanese culture, because I wanted to give her a huge tip. She was wonderful and so patient with us. But most of us got some form of すし, and everything was delicious (おいしかった)! We also got a 5% discount because we were staying at the hotel next door, so that was really nice.

I somehow managed to keep myself caffeinated enough to stay up for roughly 30 hours, so hopefully I get a long restful sleep that breaks the jet lag.

Day One complete!