Day 7- Hiroshima

This morning, we woke up to the beautiful view of Miyajima. Miyajima, in Japanese stands for the Shrine Island. We all started our day with a wonderful breakfast buffet, then we headed out to see the Itsukushima Shrine. Shortly after, we caught the ferry back to Hiroshima and visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The class as a whole realized the devastation that occurred 70 years ago.

We then caught both the bus and the bullet train to Fukuoka. We are currently staying at the Station Hotel Kokura which is part of the train station. Our rooms have a very eye-opening view which overlooks the city of Fukuoka. 

Later, at night, we roamed around Kokura Station for dinner. Some of us also shopped around looking for omiyage to give to our friends and families. 

Bloggers: Emily and Margaux

Itsukushima Shrine

Breakfast at the Miyajima Inn

Selfie on the Ferry

Hiroshima Peace Memorial

Sadako's statue

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

About to get on the bullet train!

Hiroshima Peace Memorial

Day 6 - Kyoto, Hiroshima and Miyajima

This morning, we went to the Nishi Hongwanji temple in Kyoto. We took a tour of the whole area. This temple is also the head temple and is called Ryukoku-zan Hongwanji. It is the mother temple and headquarters of Judo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha. The Judo Shinshu teachings were established by Shinran Shonin. We took a tour of the Amidado (Hall of Amida Buddha),Goeido (Founder's Hall) ,Ryukoden (Confirmation Ceremony) and the Karamon (National Treasure) buildings. Our tour guide taught us that Buddha is leaning forward because he/she is compassionate and always wants to help. Inside, we saw many rooms like guest and special rooms just for meetings. The interesting part of the tour was seeing the paintings on the walls and the rock garden. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures of the garden. Outside, we went to see the national treasure which is called Karamon. Overall, visiting the Nishi Hongwanji temple and learning the history of it, was a great experience.

The next half of the day was even more exciting. We headed out onto the bullet train to Hiroshima. The ride was 1 hour and 40 minutes long, and was filled with lots of good sleep. When we woke up, our journey continued with an hour long bus ride to the ferry that would take us to the very sacred island of Miyajima. Here, we were able to explore the beautiful town. It was filled with many shops, that carried a variety of items. Everyone seemed to have a good time, but some of us left to go back to the hotel early. After all of this, we had a very filling Japanese style meal with sashimi, meat, oysters and many more delectable foods. This hotel houses an onsen (hot spring bath), and some of us went into it. The ones that did, experienced a much needed relaxing soak. It felt cleansing and we left with a smile on our faces. :) Last but not least, there was an exciting taiko show. Not only was it free, but it was really loud. The taiko players were workers at the hotel. It was exhilarating and fun to watch.

By Tevan and Nicholas

"Picture time"

Nishi Hongwanji

On the ferry to Miyajima Island

Dinner :)

Haley, Margaux, and Kaci

Akira, Jakob, Tevan, and Cole in their yukatas

Day 5 - Kyoto

Today we woke up at 5:30 in the morning....We were able to attend a 6:30 temple service. It lasted way too long, so we left a little early. It was very interesting, but it felt like it lasted forever. Everyone said that they were tired and wanted to leave...I couldn't blame them though. There was a lot of chanting and I did not understand any of it because it was all in Japanese. Since it was early in the morning, it was hard to stay awake. I hope I never have to do that again!

After the service, we walked to the "Royal Host Restaurant" to have breakfast. It was a very yummy breakfast with a lot of variety. I had the French toast...very modern but very yummy(:

Breakfast

After breakfast we headed over to the Heian Junior and High school. We took a tour of the school and made new friends. Some of us went to a calligraphy class, while others went to learn a card game. We even went to their classes. (Social Studies and Science). During the cultural exchange assembly, we danced the hula for the Heian students. In return, they performed their version of the Nan-chu Soran Dance and an animation performance/show. After lunch, we had to say goodbye to all of our new friends at Heian and drive to the amusement park of Uzumasa Studio.

Calligraphy Class

This studio park was filled with many attractions, varying from haunted houses to learning the tricks of being a ninja! Almost all of us went into the haunted house, and I'm pretty sure that most of us will never go to another one again because of the pure scariness of it. In the end though, we all had a lot of fun. We then met back up to leave the studio...it was a blast and I'm glad we went.

By Karissa Racoma and Malia Leong

Temple at Honzan

Day 4 - Nara and Kyoto

Today we started out by leaving the small-roomed Osaka Shin Hankyu Hotel. We got onto the nicest bus of the trip so far. It had a bathroom and outlets next to every seat. Our next destination was Kyoto, but first, we decided to stop off at Nara. Nara is a smaller town that was once the capital city of Japan.

While in Nara, we went to a park and got to feed deer. Some of the deer were very aggressive and tried to bite us. We got to feed them crackers that were made just for them. Their main diet consists of grass, paper and the crackers that people feed them. After we saw the deer we went to a temple that had a giant Buddha. In the temple there was a pillar with a hole in it. If you were able to crawl through the hole, you would be blessed with good luck, health, and fortune.

Huge statue of Buddha at the Todai Temple

When we arrived in Kyoto, the first thing we did was visit a temple that looked like it was made out of gold.  While we were there, it was raining really hard. We only stayed at the temple for about 30 minutes. By the time we made it back to the bus, everyone was soaked. Due to the terrible weather and most of us being tired, our tour guide decided to have us skip our next scheduled stop, and head to our hotel instead.

Rokuon-Ji Temple in Kyoto

When we arrived at the Kyoto New Miyako Hotel, we unpacked and had time to relax. We then walked over to the Aeon Mall to have dinner. There was a food court and an arcade there. We are definitely not looking forward to waking up at 5:30 tomorrow.

By: Cole and Kai

Day 3 - Osaka

Soai Betsuin

Lunch at Soai's cafeteria

Osaka Castle

View from the 8th floor of the Osaka Castle

A part of Osaka's history

Mount Fuji

We started off the day by catching the Shinkansen from Shinagawa Station to the Osaka Station. The train ride was about two and a half hours long. The train went about 174 mph today. On the way to Osaka we briefly caught a glimpse of the beautiful Mount Fuji.

When we finally arrived in Osaka, we took the bus to Soai Middle School, which is an all girls school. First, we went to their temple to offer incense. Then, we headed to their cafeteria to have a yummy lunch. We then met up with Soai's 8th grade girls and were put into groups with the Soai students. They took us on a train ride to the Osaka Castle where we spent a few hours learning about the history of Osaka.

After our trip to the Osaka Castle, we hopped on the bus to finally go to the hotel (Hotel New Hankyu Osaka), where we will be staying for only one night. The hotel room was pretty small, but we managed to make it all work out. Then, when we got settled in, we went to the Osaka Train Station. There were many floors of department stores. A few of us found the stores Uniqlo, GU, and a huge book store. At that time, all the businessmen and students were heading back home, so it was pretty crowded.

We were all very tired at the end of the day, but we had a lot of fun during our short stay in Osaka.

By: Jocelyn and Minami

Wrapping up our Tokyo stay

Hello everyone... just wanted to check in with all of you and let you know that we are having a terrific time. The students have been well-behaved and punctual. They have also been very good about looking after each other.

The girls have been very excited about shopping most of yesterday, while most of the boys enjoyed looking at all of the Japanese girls walking around. I guess that's what teenage boys do. Actually, as I remember way, way back, it IS what teenage boys do.

The food is excellent here. We have especially loved the breakfast buffet in our hotel. We will soon be off on the Bullet Train to visit Soai Gakuen. We'll be checking in later. Sayoonara

Day 2 - All Day Sightseeing and Shopping

Today, we went sightseeing all over Tokyo. We visited Asakusa, Akihabara, Harajuku, and Shibuya. We had a lot of fun. We traveled from Harajuku to Shibuya by train. In Asakusa, we saw a temple and many shops. In Akihabara, we visited a 5 story high arcade. We also saw an anime store, and a bunch of vending machines everywhere. In Harajuku, we ate lunch.  We also shopped in a store named Daiso, where almost everything in there cost one hundred yen. I spent about 1620 yen there on snacks. The last location that we visited was Shibuya. In Shibuya, there were so many people there, that I got lost for 5 minutes in a crosswalk. Well, it sure felt like 5 minutes. Lol

When we were riding in our tour bus, it almost felt as if I was in heaven. The cool AC blowing in my face, and the opportunity to sit down and enjoy the beautiful scenery of Tokyo was heavenly. In the crowded shopping areas, I had fun navigating around congested areas, trying to find faster ways to get to certain shops. Eating lunch with my friends at 711 and spending only 500 yen would make you think that we were poor, but we had more important things to do than waiting in a long line at a lunch stand. When we arrived in Shibuya, I went to a store called the Loft, which is basically the Ikea of Japan. This store had pencils, clothing, furniture... you name it, and they had it. I bought 2 pencils for my mom that ended up costing 1500 yen. (Yes, I paid more for pencils than for my own meal, but I figured that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, not to mention, it was for my mom. :)

By Jakob Kimura and Justin Holmberg

Mr Holmberg, Ms Yamato, Muraki Sensei, Mr Miyamura, Ms Osumi

Statue of the famous dog, Hachi in the back

The Gang in Asakusa