I was in Japan between the 18th of May and the 25th of May. Eighteen other people went with me, including 11 other students, 5 teachers, our travel agent and a person from PIRA.
The plane ride was a somewhat enjoyable 10 hours, from 2:45pm to . I had some fun, anyhow. Nothing grand happened during the flight.
When we arrived at the Narita-Tokyo International Airport, we took a bus to our four-star hotel, the Takanawa Prince Hotel. Before that my camera fell out of my carry-on and broke. That was depressing. Jessica and I shared a room. Once we got settled in our room, we went to exchange money. One of my $100 bills couldn't be exchanged. That was even more depressing than thge camera. I was still mad when we surveyed our surroundings, but I was O.K. when we ate dinner at McDonalds, and went to bed.
The next day, May 19, was one of the most fun in my life. All of us got up at 3:00 am to got to the Fish Market. We saw many different types of fish, some of them bigger than kids. We also saw shellfish, eels, octopi, and somethings that I have no clue as to what they are. That place was so crammed that you had to constantly watch where you were going, or you could easily get lost or hit by a car.
When that was done we went back to our hotel and took a little rest break. Then we went to breakfast. After breakfast we walked to the Askusa Temple. That place was is so awesome. There is a place to shop for souveniers. Actually, it was a strip of covered road that had shops on each side. I bought a ton of gifts. At the end of the strip was the temple. The temple was fantastic. I've always wanted to visit temples, and I finally got to do that. I was so happy. For lunch we ate at a ramen restaurant, then went shopping some more. Then we rested and went to a college town and walked aroun. I ate green tea ice cream. Again, we went to bed very late.
Leaving Tokyo wasn't a great thing to do, but on May 20th, that's what we did. On bullet trains, no less. They only went up to about 140mph, which is fast, but not when you are on the train. It took us 5 hours to get to a train station and 1 hour on the bus to get to Mutsu.
When we arrived in Mutsu, I recieved one of the warmest welcomes that I have ever had. I was so happy to see Saori, my host student, again, and I like to see all of the other people that I had met in January. Davion, Saori, Keiko and I (my almost pair student) went to Saori's house for the night.
My friends
That next day, May 21st, Davion, Keiko, Saori and I went to the school. It was Mutsu City Jr. High. THe school is three stories jam-packed with students waving and talking to me. Many teachers wanted to talk with me also. I fealt really bad because I was interupting the classes, but the teachers didn't seem to mind if the kids were talking. They didn't seem to mind what the students were doing. In Chorus, the chorus teacher and a student started to wrestle around. The teacher did, however, knock the student on his backside. That day was one of the most interesting I've ever had.
I loved the schools.
That night we had a BBQ. It was mainly to get to know our friends. The adults went on stage for a rice-wine cerimony, and we all went on stage and danced the dance that they taught us when they came over. After it was all over we went shopping then home.
The next day we got up to sightsee Mutsu. We went to a mountian that overlooks Mutsu, then to a science museum that was in the shape of a ship. It had the only nuclear reactore core in the world that civilians could see. When we were through with the musuem we went across the street and saw expiriments done with liqiid nitrogen. After that we went to a nature instituite, were we were going to spend the night. We played a golfing game, made keychains and birdcalls, and mainly had fun all night.
At 5:ooam the next morning I was up. When we got up we went out to the hall were other people were to brush our teeth and face, with everyone there. We cleaned then left. My friends and I went shopping the whole day, then prepared for the farewell dinner.
The farewell dinner was fine untill we had to give a thank you speech. Chelsea started to cry inthe middle of her speach, so we all started to ball. Jennifer never stopped. I wasn't crying that much untill I found out my best pair student was leaving that night and I wouldn't see her again for a long time. That set her and I off again, and we didn't stop for the rest of the night.
Leaving Mutsu was one of the saddest things I've ever done. We left in the morning, with Saori and her parents there to see us off. We were crying on the bus to the train station. Again we rode on the trains to Narita, where we were spending the night.
The hotel was not as fancy, but a day of having our nerves on edge made us hyper, especially Allison. We stayed up until twelve in Chelsea and Allisons room.
Our last day in Japan. We, after a lot of commotion, went to eat breakfast, then we toured old-town Narita, bought some more gifts, went to the airport, then left Japan. It was very sad.
My trip as so cool. I made so many friends. My advice to anyone who wants to travel-do it!