And now for the Japan portion!

So after having an amazing time in Taiwan, we left for Japan. We had to meet really early in the lobby and got our McDonald's breakfast, checked out temperature and were on our way. The plane ride wasn't long because we were going from Taipei to Tokyo so that only took a few hours. I was pretty tired so I slept a little on the flight. After getting off the plane, we took a few train rides to get near our hotel. We had to drag our luggage everywhere! That was kind of a pain. So we made it to the Olympic Center, got our keys, and got to our rooms. I loved my room even though it was small. I thought it was perfect and it had an amazing view of the city! That night, Hanol and I decided to explore the surrounding city which was a lot of fun. We ate at a ramen noodle restaurant where you order your food through a vending machine! It was cool! But we explored the city for awhile and came back to the Olympic Center. Then I pretty much crashed after that.

The next day, May 18th, we ate breakfast and I thought it was good. Not many people liked the eggs with the texture of mashed potatos. But they got rice and they were fine. I really liked their orange juice! We got to visit the Meiji Shrine for a few minutes. I decided I would go back again because I wanted to take everything in about the shrine. But anyways, we changed our clothes like three times and headed to Gakushuin Women's College. We met with two Japanese students in their cafeteria and talked for a little bit. It was a lot of fun. And I actually liked the curry! We talked about Japanese music, Utada, Ayumi Hamasaki, how to get to the Ghibli Museum, and some languague. After that, we watched a class do flower arrangement. I got to do it and it was pretty cool. Later that day, we went out to dinner with a girl named Erika and her friends. I loved the restaurant and once again, I ate too much! After that, we explored Shinjuku a bit. After that, we decided to head back to the hotel and we got lost on the train station! Oops! I started freaking out even though I knew it was going to be okay but I couldn't help it. So we got off way too early at this stop and ended up having to walk a few miles back to the hotel! At least we got a workout! Later, Ari and I did laundry. The machines were so small but I didn't have many clothes to wash. I didn't use the dryer because it was too expensive so I just laid out my clothes to dry in my room.

The next day, May 19th, we went to Gakushuin Women's College again and did some calligraphy. Since we did calligraphy in Taiwan, it was only fair if we did Japanese calligraphy. And once again, I was horrible at it! Lol! We got to meet the president and she gave us a speech mostly about swine flu, of course. I was so tired of hearing about it. We felt a little discrimminated because they would make us wash our hands, not everybody could participate in activities with the students, and people would put their masks on when they saw us. So it was a little frustrating. We watched a tea ceremony class later. I wish we could've participated but we weren't allowed. So that put off a lot of people in the group including myself. I felt like they didn't want us there because they thought we were infected. Sorry, had to rant a little there. But that's how I felt. After that we had a class with Dr. Fox and it was entertaining in some ways. He put us into three groups: American boys, American girls, and Japanese girls. He asked us some questions and we compared our answers as groups. It was interesting to see answers from the other groups. I guess American boys and Japanese girls belong together. That's perfectly fine with me because I get tired of American men. Lol! After Gakushuin, we visited Ernst and Young. I paid attention to what they were saying....some of the time. I was mostly trying to catch up in my journal! There is just too much to write about. After Ernst and Young, Thomas and Jessie took us to Roppongi to a restaurant called "Gonpachi". In Kill Bill, this restaurant was what they modeled the fight after!!! I was so thrilled! Kill Bill is one of my favorite movies so I was positively ecstatic!!!! After we ate too much food, we hung out at a bar and I left with a few people early. Then once again, I was dead to the world once we got back.

The next day, May 20th, we had some free time in the morning. A group of us got together and visited the Asakusa Shrine and let me tell you-it was the most gorgeous shrine! It was so crowded but absolutely stunning! I did lots of shopping there! The weather was perfect and the buildings were a dark red with statues and had beautiful structures! I got a few pictures with some statues! After that, a few of us went to the Indian Curry restaurant and then the Yoyogi park. It was such a beautiful park and it felt good to just sit, catch up on my journal, and relax at the park. We were there for awhile. Then we went back to Roppongi and went out to dinner. I don't like feeling rushed all the time and a lot of people didn't feel welcome at the college so a bunch of people didn't show up for the activity with the students. I felt bad for Charlie because he got all the blame for it. Needless to say, Dr. Fox was NOT happy with us one bit. But what's done is done and you can't change it. So that was that day.

On May 21st, we visited Hiro's kimono shop, the Edo-Tokyo Museum, and went to a sumo wrestling tournament!!! It was so much fun! After getting scolded at our meeting, we headed over to Nakano for the kimono shop. There was a big shopping center and I bought a cute dress for only like four US dollars! Great deal! I got to try on a real kimono. Everyone else in our group was trying on summer yukatas but I saw the graduation kimono and I said, "I want that one" lol! I wanted to real deal. And it was very expensive too. I didn't buy it though-I couldn't afford it! The inner layer was pink and silky and the outer layer was blue with pink flowers and a yellow obi. Then they put on a deep purple skirt over the obi because it was a graduation kimono. So that was tons of fun! Then I got some sushi and shopped around a bit. After that, we went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum and it was probably the best museum I've ever been too! It was an explosion of Japanese history and culture! They had statues, miniature models of what Edo used to look like, a Kabuki section, a traditional Japanese house, wood block paintings, scrolls, etc. There was so much to see in the museum! I loved it! But we had to go, unfortunately. At least it was to the sumo wrestling tournament. That was interesting to watch. The matches themselves weren't very long and the events that took place in between the matches took awhile so I didn't stay very long but I had a pretty good idea how they run them. Some of the matches would last more than 20 seconds which was exciting! After sumo, a few of us went to Shinjuku and ate dinner. The food was once again, very good! Then we went back to the Olympic Center and to bed! Yay, sleep!

On May 22nd, we visited our last two companies: Harley Davidson and Sony. And they were a lot of fun! I liked Harley Davidson's presentation! It was really interesting and they gave us a lot of gifts! The gift shop was cool but extremely expensive. I was going to get a tank top but it was like sixty US dollars...so yeah, too much. Sony was really interesting! We got to see all kinds of cool things in their show room and of course, we couldn't take pictures. But they showed us all kinds of cool things like the dancing music player and the incredibly clear speakers! That was such a cool company visit! Afterwards, we explored the Shinjuku red light district. It was...interesting. Our group went out for awhile and then we went back. Fun day!!!

The next day, May 23rd. was our free day!!! I had a ticket to go to the Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka! I was so incredibly excited! Kyle decided to go with me and I'm glad he did. We got directions from Yamamoto-sensei and we found it! I was so happy! We got breakfast at McDonalds and got to Mitaka. Then we walked through this huge park and finally found the museum! We had to wait around a bit because the museum opened later than it usually does. Kyle got a ticket! Definitely lucky! But anyways, the museum was so cool! We got to see a short little film, went to the gift shop, saw all the cool animation exhibits, and saw that they were coming out with a new film. But later we went out with some Japanese people. They were Miki and Sachiko. They were so nice and Miki and I are great friends now! We went to a restaurant called "Wasabi" and they had real wasabi so that made sense. And it's way better than the stuff they have back at home. So after that we went to a club called "Womb" and it was amazing! It's one of the top ten clubs in Tokyo and it cost like forty US dollars just to get in! But it was worth it!!! So anyways, that was pretty much what happened that day.

On May 24th, we had some free time in the morning and Miki and I decided to go to the Meiji Shrine. It was raining but the shrine was still absolutely gorgeous! I had to wash my hands and mouth before going in. And we got to see a wedding procession!!! It was the coolest thing I'd ever seen! I took many pictures! I also got to see where people pray and pay money. I bought an arrow (it doesn't have an arrowhead) so that was cool! After that, we went to Harajuku and got some sushi! So that made me happy! And it was good! Then we went to a photobooth where it screams at you in Japanese! Lol! I didn't know what was going on. Afterwards, we hurried back to the hotel and went with the group to Navin Gupta's penthouse and had a business session with him. It was neat! And we got food! Yay! He is in charge of a division of HSBC-the largest bank in the world so he has money. That night, we tried to go back to Harajuku again but we got rained on. So that was our last night in Japan! So sad!

In the morning, we got all our stuff together and went off to the airport. We met so freakin' early! I think we met at like 5:30 am! I was going to stay up all night and pack but I fell asleep and woke up at 4:12 am and had to pack extremely fast!!! Frantic morning, I know. So we made it to the train station, got breakfast, and before I knew it, we were on the plane. The flight back to Dallas was shorter than on the way over. But we made it to Dallas, got on the flight to Charlotte, and I finished Twilight. So it all worked out! We got back to Charlotte and they had a bus for us to get back to Boone. I slept pretty much the whole way. We got back to Boone and one of my friends drove me back to my apartment. I had so much fun on this trip! Best three weeks of my life!!! It took me about a week to get over the jet lag though. But anyways, thanks mom and dad and thanks App for giving me the opportunity to go on this trip! ^_^ Sayonara!!!!