Day Three: Morning at Shin-Osaka Hostel and the Trip to Kyoto

Place: Shin-Osaka Youth Hostel Date: March 23rd Time: 6:20 AM

We made it to our Youth Hostel and I am very impressed by it, it's really cool. I got to call my family and say hi, which was nice. Right now I'm sitting at our little Japanese table in our room and looking out at morning in Osaka, which is really cool looking. I can see across the city to all the sky scrapers in the main part of Osaka.


Last night we stopped at Coco really quick for dinner, well more like a small snack, it was midnight and Coco is a convenience store.

Our rooms are really cool and Japanese style, one half is a tatami room, NO SHOES!, and the other is our bunk beds and table. One floor above us there is a sort of "living room" with a shelf of manga and books and a map with magnets showing where everyone who is staying there came from.

Today we are going to go to Kyoto and our next hostel. I'm really excited, Kyoto is one of the places I wanted to go the most, it has all the old temples and ancient Japanese buildings. Well, my alarm which I woke up before, so I'll talk later.

Place: Hostel Living Room Time: 9:05 Am

Japan is so fun, I'm watching Japanese TV with some other guests and outside I saw the huge shadow of an airplane stretch across a building. It's baseball on TV, Japan vs. US! Awesome!

Place: Kyoto Station Time: 1:30 PM きさってん！！

We're on our way to Kyoto, I'm extremely excited for it, we're gonna see our first temples!

Kyoto has really pretty old houses, we passed a lot on the train. In fact our hostel is a pretty old building too sensei says. Finally we can go somewhere without our suitcases! We've been running around the station shopping for a while, its a massie building, more like a mall than a train station. Amby 'n' I headed to a きさってん, kisatten or sort of coffee shop cafe dealie. We had a little trouble ordering, we didn't really discuss how to do that in class, haha. We shopped around for souvenirs a little which gave me an idea of stuff to get for my family since none of them said what they wanted.

Place: Hostel Hallway Time: 7:30 PM

We explored some more of the shopping districts in Kyoto and got some cool stuff. Amby and I went clothes shopping, yes!!

Chris owes us fries for some unknown reason, and the Coke cans here are cool. Our hostel is even cooler than the last, this time Amby and I used the traditional Japanese bath, its actually not as awkward as one would think after you get used to it. I really love the hostels, its like being in a boarding home and all these cool people pass through and you can talk about where you came from and where you're going, its awesome. =)

Day One-Two, Airplane travels and Long Waits

So I have some free time now I will be posting my journal entries as I wrote them in like a diary format!

Place: SEATAC airport Date: March 21st Time: 9:30 AM

So we're sitting in the airport, most of us have scattered for food already but Amby and I are sitting here with our stuff, she's playing her little Tetris thingie.

We're trying to come up with a team name, it's exciting =) Excitement is building up a lot but I know when I get on the plane I'll miss Washington and my family a little bit. I'm gonna relax for a bit, I'll write later!


Place: Portland Airport Date: March 21st Time: 1:20 PM

We're once again waiting to board an airplane, but this time for Japan!!! Waiting is so boring, uhg. We grabbed some food, Amby convinced me to go to this little resturaunt called Rosie's and we had some awesome--

whoops gotta board the plane.

--Well, we had some awesome French Dips and laughed at some guy who intensely stared at the menu xD

Upon boarding the plane it was a bit overwhelming having everyone around us basically speaking Japanese. The seats have some awesome Tv's in them, I'm ready for this long flight, a bit nervous but excited! The only thing that stinks is the aisle between Amby and I.

Place: Airplane to Tokyo Date: March 21st Time: Sometime around 5:40 PM



We've been on this flight for about 4 hours and I have this sinking realization that THIS FLIGHT IS GOING TO LAST FOREVER! Amby and I have already watched one movie, The Changling, that made her cry, but there is a map on our screens that shows we haven't even passsed ALASKA! *Sigh*....

Place: Airplane to Tokyo Date:March 22nd Time: US-11:30, JP- 3:30

We're about 45 minutes from landing. I'M SO SUPER EXCITED! >w< It's weird, they gave us breakfast but its breakfast in neither Japan nor America, haha.

Colton said something frighteningly true;
"Ready for the biggest Japanese test of your life?"
D= Way to scare us!

Place: Osaka Airport Time: 9:30 PM (JP) Date: March 22nd

I'm so tired. We've arrived in Osaka, but we still have an hour train to catch before we can sleep. Uhg, I'm dying, its around 5AM in Washington so we've been awake for a lonnnnnnnnnnng time.

Japan is so quiet, and its weird being a foreigner for once. Customs was really silent and weird. Lots of Japanese people are wearing masks for colds and stuff, and it makes us Amercians look rude coughing all over the place.

I saw one of the crazy Japanese vending machines. There was some sorta drink in it called "Poca Sweat". Hopefully its not really sweat >>;;

On the plane from Tokyo to Osaka, I fell asleep and when I woke up Amby was passing notes to Japanese students behind us. It helped us brush up a little on Japanese, but its still kinda hard to understand with how fast they talk. Most everyone we've encountered can say at least a few English phrases though.

Before I drop dead I'm gonna go, I need some sleep and food or I'm gonna disinegrate.

Japan Trip Video

Since my journal was due Friday, I won't be able to post much until I get it back, but here is the video I made of our trip. I spent a lot of time on it and I'm very proud of it. =)

There and Back Again

I'm home! I made it to Japan and back again! The trip was a extrodinary experience and once I'm done sorting through my pictures and things I'll start posting stories of my trip. Thank you once again to everyone who helped me, I'm extremely grateful!

12 days and counting!

There is 12 days until my trip! Can you believe it? I am so excited! It feels like just a short while ago I wasn't even sure I'd even be going.



There are some things I still need to buy, and I'm working things out about going with our friends the Zimmers to Yokohama on our optional day in Tokyo, so there is still lots to do beforehand.



In class right now, we're folding cranes to bring to the Hiroshima Children's Peace memorial. We are bring 2000 because it is tradition to bring at least 1000 paper cranes to the memorial. The story behind this is the story of Sadako.



When Sadako was two years old, she was exposed to the A-bomb. She had no apparent injuries and grew to be a healthy girl.However, nine years later in the fall when she was in the six grade of elementary school (1954), she suddenly developed signs of an illness. In February the following year she was diagnosed with leukemia and was admitted to the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital.



In Japan, it is tradition to make 1000 paper cranes for someone who is sick, it is thought to bring one wish for the person. Sadako began making paper cranes to wish herself better, only completing 644 before she died. Her classmates finished the rest of the 1000 and she was buried with them, and the Hiroshima Childeren's Peace Memorial was built, along with a statue of Sadako and a paper crane.

Right now we have about 1000 made, almost there!


As for the rest of my trip, here's an itinerary of whats happening while I'm there.

March 21st - Flight to Japan! The flight carries on into March 22nd because Japan is 17 hours ahead of us

March 22nd - Train to Shinosaka, check into dorm, pay laundry. We get here late so there will be just traveling on this day.

March 23rd - Train to Kyoto, Kinkakuji, Ryoanji, Nijo Castle or Kiyomizu temple sight-seeing

March 24th - Sight-seeing in Kyoto and Nara

March 25th - Train to Himeji, Tour Himeji castle
Train to Nishinomiya, Homestay Welcome. This will be our first day with our
Japanese host families.

March 26th - Train to Ikeda, Cup Noodle Factory Museum
Train to Kobe, Sight-seeing in Kobe

March 27-28th - Activities with homestay family

March 29th - Bullet train Hikari, Train to Hiroshima
Okonomiyaki dinner

March 30th - Train to Kure, Sight-seeing in Kure
Train back to Hiroshima, Ramen lunch

March 31st - Walk to Hiroshima Peace Park & Museum
Two bullet trains to Nagano
Group Tonkatsu dinner

April 1st - Sight-seeing Nagano area, Zenkoji Temple/Olympic, Hot Spring bathing

April 2nd - Bullet train to Tokyo, drop off suitcases at Tokyo Youth hostel
Ghibli museum, Sight-seeing Tokyo

April 3rd - Bullet train to Shizuoka, Sight-seeing in Shizuoka
Train to Bandai Gundam Factory Museum

April 4th - Tokyo Optional Day, I will be hanging out with the Zimmers this day! :) It'll fun to
see you guys again!

April 5th - Flight home

Ghibli Museum

Since I haven't posted in a while, since there hasn't really been anything new to tell you about the trip, I've decided to make a little post about one of the places we'll be visiting; the Ghibli Museum.

Ghibli Studio is a company that makes animated films. Their movies are widely known, even here in America. Hayao Miyazaki, a co-founder of the company, has directed most of the films made by Studio Ghibli.

Miyazaki's films are very beautiful and have moral stories in each. I would say they are children's films, but they are all so deep that I can't do that. There are some, like "My Neighbor Totoro", a film about two girls meeting the spirits of the woods, spirits that take on the look of giant teddy-bear like creatures, and "My Neighbors the Yamadas", a short film about a Japanese family the Yamadas and their crazy and funny lives. Other than those there are always sincere meanings in Studio Ghibli's films. Usually, you find stories about

I've seen many films by Miyazaki, including "Spirited Away", one of my favorites out of the many. The story of "Spirited Away" is one of his more serious ones. The story is of Chihiro, a small girl moving away from home. In the car, her parents decide to take a detour down a tunnel, despite Chihiro's protests, into an empty pasture with a small ghost town on the horizon. Chihiro wanders through the pretty town with her parents, wondering how such a town got abandoned without anyone's knowledge.

Chihiro's parents find a mound of fresh food, seemingly abandoned. They dig in, Chihiro continuing to wander. After getting bad feelings from the town, she rushes back, only to find that they have literally become pigs. Chihiro has now become lost in a new strange world, her parents pigs, a strange bathhouse owner hiring her, a mysterious boy who knew her name before she told him, and the chance of her never getting home if she forgets her name after recieving a new one, which she is on the verge of doing.

I'm excited to be able to go to the museum, I've heard they've designed every room to be part of one of the movies, the garden in back made to look overgrown like the land in "Castle in the Sky" or the forest that Totoro lives in. They also show a short extra to "My Neighbor Totoro" they don't show anywhere else.

Some other movies by him include "Princess Mononoke", a story about a girl living with wolves who protects the forest and a boy who is cursed by the woods and tries to make peace between humans and nature, "Howl's Moving Castle", a book by an English author, the movie is about Sophie, a girl who unknowingly is a bit rude to The Witch of the Waste, who in turn curses her, making her an old woman. She goes to work for the wizard Howl as a cleaning lady, trying to figure out how to get him to help break her curse when part of it that she cannot talk about it.

Right now in Japanese we are watching these films and if you get the chance I highly recommend them! Though some of them are for older viewers as a side note, "Princess Mononoke" being one of them.