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11/29 Tokyo

When first landing in Japan, it was truly something wonderful to behold. This was my first time ever out of the country and Japan was certainly a great choice to be the place to go to in order to change that. When getting on the Shinkansen to go to Tokyo I was truly impressed with how superior their train system is to the United states. Everything was so much cleaner and the train so much faster than anything like it in the United States that I know of.

When Finally stepping foot into Tokyo after getting our rail passes, I could not believe how breathtaking it was. Even though there was hundred of people swarming around every which way, it seemed organized still. The buildings were tall in stature (although not like Chicago skyscrapers). The only part that I didn’t like about it was the uphill battle to get to the hotel haha, but you have to give a little to get a lot and this experience I could tell was going to be worth a little uphill battle with my suitcase.

End of day 1

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11/30 Hakodate

When waking up, I new I was most likely not going to be too happy about Hakodate, as it was going to be the coldest place that we would visit. For anyone that does not know, I am a 120 lb man who looks like he’s 16 meaning not much body hair to keep me warm, so I was going to be freezing.

When we first got to Hakodate, I realized that I was right, the cold was a pain. While I did not enjoy the cold, the activities we did on our first day were amazing. We started off by getting lunch in this curry shop, which everyone had to order first and then go back up to pay individually which we thought was a but odd. This was the first experience I ever had with curry, and man did I love it. For anyone in the future years you HAVE to give weird foods there a try before you regret it when leaving!

After this, We got to see the morning market in Hakodate which was full  of unique places and shops, but it was unfortunately closed for us at this time so we just got to see only part of it.

From there We then went to the museum of the northern people which I thought was quite interesting. You always got to hear about people back in the US and wondered how similar or different previous generations were like for Japanese people. It was very interesting to see the similarities they had in their clothing as well as the differences of hat they used to hunt with. The layout of the museum itself was also much different than a lot of US museums which involved entering a lot of individual rooms rather than just big halls to look through

The last thing we did for this day was go up to the top of Hakodate to see the overview. We did this using a gigantic cable car As someone who isn’t the biggest fan of heights, it was not too bad actually. Wen we got up there, it was such a beautiful site. You could see every light on in town and could see across mile of Hakodate.  Truly something that you need to see at least once in your lifetime!

End of Day 2

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12/1 Hakodate

This day was quite an adventure from me. Due to my very odd sleep schedule, I decided to go out around 3 in the morning because that’s when I woke up. When I did, it was honestly something that had turned into my favorite part of the trip. While it still was cold and was snowing, it was so peaceful. Nothing was really open, the streets weren’t packed with people, it was just calm. Being in Japan, it’s usually always teeming with people everywhere. This was one of the very few areas that I got to take in the serenity of silence and peace. I walked around just taking in the sights of places all over town that I could walk to.

When I finally had my fill of Hakodate hours later, I returned to join the rest of the group to depart for the Monkeys! We got to visit the baboon or baboon like creatures while in Hakodate and it was very fun to do so. Some people bought treats to give to them and man were those guys hungry. They would constantly clap for us to give them treats as well as fight for the treats if a baboon didn’t catch one.

But right after the baboons was the best part of Hakodate, the flower garden. The garden was so beautiful and truly a sight to behold. It was also inside and temperature regulated which beat being outside in Hakodate any day haha. Getting the chance to see what the vegetation is like in Japan was so fun and a great place to get in some fantastic pictures as well.

After we left the flower Garden, we set off to go to the warmest place of Hakodate, the foot springs as I liked to call it. But before we did, we stopped to get  a beautiful view of the ocean which was another place that was so calm and peaceful. When arriving to the hot spring, after Professor franks almost slid into the street, and I almost slid into an open manhole, it was definitely worth the wait. putting my feet into something that war, after they had been freeing all day really rejuvenated me. It was also a time where I felt like the group really got time to bond a little more and become better acquainted with one another. After going in the hot springs, and eating a nice meal after, We got to visit a type of samurai museum. Here we got to learn all about the samurai in Hakodate and how their ranking impacted their position in the house and where they would be and what they could use. The area was a defense to prevent the overthrow of Hakodate and was used as a stronghold. the five points was to hopefully make it harder for intruders to get in and sneak up. It would also take the intruders some time to get all the way around if the did infiltrate.

After this, we then took the tram that they had there to this other museum that was more french like. In here, we got to learn more about the origin of Hakodate as well as what the timeline was for the people coming there at that time. I did not know that Hakodate was actually a port at one point, but since then, everything has been built over and it a bustling city now.

Lastly, we visited a luxurious home on top of a hill that  gave us insight on how the nicer half of Hakodate would have lived back then. With a beautiful ball room in which I could not resist dancing in. I was very excited to try on a gigantic dress as they would have back then, but we had gotten there just as it was getting ready to close.

End of day 3

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12/2 Tokyo

After our two exciting days in Hakodate, I was excited to leave the cold an return to nice warm Tokyo! While some of the places we wanted to visit were closed, we did get to learn about the history of the train stations in that area and how many of them were reduced to rubble and rebuilt during an earthquake because of their use of brick. The station that we visited was one that had managed to survive and you could see parts of the building that impacted by the earthquake that they decided to show rather than patch up. After learning more about the station, we got to explore the inside of it a bit.

I went with Tess to this lovely crepe shop in which we each got a different crepe. Let me tell you, personally, everything tasted better in Japan. It all seems so much more fresh than in the US I did not hate one thing there! After getting to explore the station a bit, and eat and shop around, we then took off for the reunion that we were having with people who had been on the trip in the past as well as with people who were studying abroad.

It was really nice to get to connect with other students who had spent more time in Japan because they got to tell us what it was like to go beyond just 2 weeks and actually live in Japan. I learned so much from talking to them, and about future opportunities that I may be able to take advantage of!

End of day 4

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12/3 Nagano

When arriving in Nagano, we ran into a very interesting find  in the station. It was the various heights and weights of top tier sumo wrestlers and the winners of the weight classes, I got to find a sumo wrestler who was the same height as me (but easily double my weight) and got to take a picture showing that I was the same height!

After spending some time in the train station, We had another up hill battle through a few shrine like gates. In this time of year, the leaves on the trees were a beautiful orange color which made the path look absolutely stunning, the path led us to the Zenko-ji Museum which featured a lot of various information on how one part of Japan depicted World War II. We had talked a lot about this topic and how this specific museum might differ from others that we would see from other museums in different parts of Japan. It was very interesting though to see this subject from the view of a different country in the war, as to observe what things were left out or added.

Overall the depiction of World War II in this museum was a great eye opener to how little we know about what other countries were doing the war, all of the small details that would be mentioned in Japanese history depicting specific events that I would have never even heard of back in the US because it was not privy to them, or important enough to the US to include.

End of day 5

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12/4 Kanazawa

When we got to Nagasaki, we took off to Dejima to learn more about Buddhism and spiritualism. In this area, we got to observe many customs that were practiced as well as a vast history about Buddhism. We also had the wonderful opportunity to go through a passageway to cleanse ourselves. After doing this, we were able to go outside on the balcony of the temple to look out at the area, While netting was covering and birds from getting in, and from people falling, the sight was still marvelous. With this we also were given information about the place came to be as it first started with Daimyos constructing all of the buildings inside to protect their domain. The one thing that a few of us were surprised by, was how everything was pretty much wooden for their structures. This was not the only place we visited where buildings were pretty much made entirely out of wood, but it was something that was interesting as it is very different from the US where we mainly just use wood as the foundation of homes and plaster concrete and various other elements on to make the house more “modern”.

We then went to another temple in which we learned more about the culture and aspects of Buddhism . When we got there, it was such a beautiful site. I was so happy that I got to see a mandala as it was something I had only ever seen in movies or on TV. Seeing it in real life was truly astounding. To see all of the individual grains of sand put together to create such a beautiful depiction of Buddhism. The mandala was not small either, it was easily the size of a small cafe table. To see something that took people so much time and effort to make was such a unique experience that I could not put a price on. the art and culture that was shown in this temple/museum was such a fun way to gain information to more about the culture. We all had a fun time with Matsubara sensei trying to find the 5 doves in the kenji symbol.

We got a little bit of time after to relax and shop which was a good thing too! One of my favorite parts of this trip is that usually from 6:30 pm and onward, you were given time to explore the city that you were in, This allowed me some time to go out and really get to love the cities that we were in for more than just their historical value. Since I am a nerd, I decided to also play Pokemon go while I was there, just for about half an hour to an hour so I could enjoy the rest of the city, but I wanted to experience the atmosphere of the Pokemon community in Japan and how different it is from the US which I plan to do more in Kyoto!

End of Day 6

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12/5 Nagasaki

Unfortunately, my love for trains in Japan was not happening as we traveled pretty much the whole day to Nagasaki. After 8 or so hours moving from train to train, it was a time in which the group had another really good chance to bond. As stated in my previous post, I am a lover of Pokemon, and was not the only one in my group! A few of us started to plan for times to go to the Pokemon stores in other cities and map out more of our future visits to maximize out time spent in Japan so we could see as much as possible!

When we finally arrived in Nagasaki, it was pretty much time to check into our hotel and have dinner. The one thing that I pretty much did not like about Japan involved their hotels. They would give the 2 members of the room just one key for the both of them, and let me tell you, my roommate and I had very different sleep schedules. The issue with only having one key is that you needed to have the key placed inside of a certain switch to power the lights, so you really couldn’t leave the room with the key if your roommate was inside. SO trying to figure out who would take the key when was not easy as he liked to stay out late and I liked leaving very early in the morning for adventures.

After figuring whether or not he was going out that night, all of us went out to dinner where I got the chance to try Japan’s version of lemonade vodka, which was DELICIOUS. The group of 4 that I was with all ordered different meals see we all agreed to share so we could try a little bit of everything. I am so glad I was able to go with a group who was willing to be so open to make sure that each and every one of us could try something to make sure we did not miss out on any experiences.

End of Day 7

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12/6 Nagasaki

So This was the first real day that we got to explore Nagasaki, and boy did we learn a lot. Obviously, this was one of the 2 places that an atomic bomb was dropped by the US during World War II, so it was very humbling for our group to see the exact opposite side of the war and the aftermath the people of Japan were left with. It started off by us looking at all of the different statues/monuments in Peace Park that were donated from various countries in remembrance of the bombing of World War II and to pay their respects showing that that day of tragedy will not be forgotten. The goal was/is to show that there is unity with one another in the hopes of never having to see another atomic bomb dropped again in order to avoid any devastation like anyone has seen since those bombings. We also got to see the areas underneath hills in which people dug themselves shelters to hide during the bombings. Seeing this was such an eye opening experience as you started to learn about the terror that these people faced when hearing about these bombs.

We were also fortunate enough to have gone during  school field trip day for Japanese classes, so we got to see a ceremony that was held by the school and their top 4 officers of the class. They were all facing the peace statue which was this beautiful blue statue which had been crafted to show the unity that we all must take to make sure destruction does not occur again. During this ceremony, a speak was read by what appeared to be the class president, afterwards, a class handmade piece of origami was hung in a  shrine to pay respect. Then, flowers were place in front of the pond that was in front of the statue, while the last classmate wrapped up the ceremony. To see all of these students, who were probably 13-15 years old do this ceremony was quite experience as for a lot of the, this was their first time really learning about what happened during these bombings. While you may see some kids in the US talking in the back or giggling during a ceremony like this, all of the students in the Japan class were dead silent and focused on the ceremony. You could tell this was something that they took very seriously.

After doing this. we went into the Nagasaki museum that they had. Before we went in though, we were walking on a pathway that was just absolutely beautiful and I could not resist taking a picture of it. All of the leaves on the trees were different colors and just perfectly aligned. The nature in Japan was probably my favorite part of the whole trip.

When going into the museum, We got to see much more of the aftermath of the bombings than you would ever see in the US. I was not aware of how much energy the bombs gave off just besides the initial blast and radiation. Another thing I was talking with Matsubara Sensei was that The US originally had 7 choices of where they wanted to drop the bomb, by the time they got down to 3 places they were thinking about dropping the bomb, the only one that wasn’t bombed was not even on the original list, yet some how was almost bombed. I asked why this third site popped up when it was not on the original list, and she had told me that it was probably because they wanted to target places that were not close to each other, but still had high volumes of traffic.  

It was very interesting to see the ways Japan enacted in this war. In the US, you of course hear about all of the little things we did behind the scenes in the war that don’t always make the big picture or get talked about. It was really insightful to see what Japan did behind the scenes that you definitely would not hear about in the US. We also got to see stories from survivors of the blasts and heard about their own experience with what happened when the bomb went off. Seeing all of the devastation was one thing, but hearing these stories really opened my eyes to how this was something that was not just in the past for some people.

After we finished the museum, we ran into a bunch of Japanese school kids who became very fascinated with Audrey, Robert, and I. Apparently they really liked that Audrey and I has small faces/heads. It was quite a fun encounter as they kept asking us random questions about the US which we thought was fun. We ended up getting some pictures with them and having a great time after going through such a serious piece of history.

We then left to get some food! we were able to go around the you me mall and I ended up caving and finally trying Japanese McDonalds, and Oh..my.gosh… it was amazing. Everything was so fresh and the chicken nuggets actually tasted like real fresh chicken!

After an amazing meal, we went to see the history of the Dejima and the samurai. Here, we got to see how the people of Dejima lives. It was another area that was pretty much completely wooden. When walking around, we got to see interesting characters, including people that were samurais, and people dressed in beautiful garments. We learned a lot about their water systems and how it flowed through their city! When we went into their garden, there was a miniature layout of the Dejima in which you could try to flip yen into. So naturally I aimed for the small miniature pond, and to my surprise, I sunk my coin right in on the first shot in which I was truly surprised at my coin flicking prowess haha.

After I time at the Dejima, we went to the Oura Catholic Church in which we got to see one of the first catholic churches created after Japan ended, or at least minimized their seclusion laws which were basically persecuting any Catholics in Japan who practiced their faith. The thing I was most excited about this visit though was the Glover Garden though. As I have said before, the nature was probably my favorite part about this trip and the Glover Garden did not disappoint! the scenery was so beautiful and truly something that I never wanted to leave. Every step I took was like walking through a forest. I even was able to find some Pokemon stuff there which made it even cooler! We ended up that day by learning more about the floats that the Japanese use for their parades.

End of Day 8

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12/7 Osaka

When heading to Osaka, it was sadly a short lived day for me. I was able to make it to the Osaka Museum of History, in which we learned a lot of how Osaka came to be and how it was considered a sister city of Chicago which I found very interesting and never knew of before until today. Here we got to look at a lot of the origin and buildings that were first created in Osaka. The museum had several floors in which the top floor that you start at started at the Origin of Osaka while the lower floors slowly started getting closer and closer to modern Osaka history. We got to visit the Nara period which I was really happy about because that and the Meiji era were two Japanese topics that I knew very well. It was nice to go into the museum being able to recognize some pieces of history.

Unfortunately, after the museum, I realized that a certain pain that I had was actually an infection which caused me to have to spend the rest of the day in the hotel in a bath trying to keep the infection warm to ease the pain.

End of day 9

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12/8 Homestay!

This was probably one of my favorite places due to the fact that this was the home stay! I was honestly not sure what to expect, so naturally I was terrified when we got there and that I learned that the family I would be living with knew absolutely no English. But before we went with the families, we first learned more about the history of where they live. The area is up the mountains away from the city life and the residents were mainly farmers. It was raining that day, which did not help some of us as it was quite muddy and sometimes difficult to go on certain paths. Luckily the families were prepared and nice enough to offer us umbrellas while we walked around. We got to pray at their groups temple which I took as a very humbling experience. After doing this, we got to eat lunch that we brought with the families, and this was probably my most embarrassing moment on the trip. Matsubara Sensei’s sister had decided to visit her at the home stay and eat lunch with us. Now when we all started eating lunch, I had brought a grape soda for me to drink with my meal. Little did I know that the grape soda wasn’t just soda, but alcohol as well. I was unaware of this fact until after I had chugged all of it down and finished lunch when one of the people from the home stay asked me why I was drinking at noon basically.

I didnt know what he was talking about so I asked him and he showed me the label on the can showing that there was alcohol inside and I was so embarrassed. Here I am enjoying a meal with all of these families meeting me for the first time and now all of them and Matsubara Sensi’s sister probably think I’m some American drunk. SO, I spent the rest of the day apologizing and trying to convince them that I wasn’t an alcoholic.

After this though, we did get to visit participate in a ceremony and see all of the shrines that they had. There was 4 but they did mention a little but about a 5th shrine. We also got to look at a few artifacts that the group had from the past.

We then got to go watch a master swordsman start the crafting of a sword. Since I am fascinated with swords, I was able to ask the swordsman a lot of questions about what he does. He told me one sword talked bout 4-6 months to make and that he has been learning for about 12 years. Unfortunately the swords that he makes of course costs thousands of dollars which is just a wee bit out of my price range (by a lot). It was really cool to see how traditional the sword making was and the materials that go into making a sword. We only got to see one of the many parts of sword making, but man was it awesome.

The next thing we got to do was go into a garden/greenhouse. The owner was nice enough to let us pick some of the flowers off that they would not sell anyways as they only used flowers from stems that grew straight up. I was so excited to see all of the various types of flowers that they had and it was so generous of them to let us keep the ones that we picked.

Now for the part that I was somewhat scared of, the home stay. It was terrifying because the other two students staying with me did speak Japanese so I was very afraid of being left out of the conversation. I was surprised at  myself of how much I could understand of what they were saying. While I may not have caught everything, or know how to respond to them in Japanese, I was able to follow most of the conversations that they had without any assistance. The food that they gave us was like nothing I had ever tasted before. The intricacy that they took into making the dishes showed as they prepared a lot of it in front of us. Continuously frothing the broth to make sure that everything that as fat was taken out. It was truly one of the best dishes that I ever had. We then got to have apples and persimmons for a treat after.  After this we got to show the family the pictures that we had taken so far into the trip and they identified some of the places that we had been.

We then went to take a bath and use their shower which was a unique experience as the prepared a bath in which we used all of the same water.

When we woke up in the morning, we got to make mochi with all of the families together. It was such a fun experience to actually get to pound the mochi ourselves for a bit. Definitely something that I could use some more practice in haha.

End of day 10

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12/9 Kyoto

Sadly, today was another day that tragedy struck. In the morning, after leaving the home stay, we traveled to Kyoto. While in Kyoto, we got to go through the beautiful bamboo forest which just  highlighted another astounding piece of nature that was in Japan. The bamboo in the forest grew just as high as any regular tree that you would see in the forest. The ability to get through it kind of like a maze was something that I got to really enjoy.

After this, we got to walk around for a bit which was nice. We got to see the layout of the buildings in Kyoto which were actually somewhat Chicago like by being placed right next to each other with virtually no space in between. During our walk, one of the students got lost, which turned into quite an amazing surprise. The reason I say this is because the professors allowed us to have some free time in the area we were in while they find the other student. During this time, Kat, Angie, and I tried these disgusting dough balls drizzled in what we though was a bitter teriyaki sauce. It was by far my least favorite food in Japan. But after that, I had the best drink in my life, hot chocolate. While it may seem like something simple, we went to this little hot chocolate shop that handmade the hot chocolate o front of you. They melted the chocolate mixed in the ingredients, and even made their own whipped cream to go on top, and let me tell you, it was stupendous. I would probably go back just for that drink alone and I really wish I would have looked at the name of the place.

After they finally found the missing student, it was time to walk back to the train to go to a reunion. This is when tragedy struck. When we first arrived in the station, I had missed a large step leaving the station and when I did, I messed something up in my hip-flexer. At first it was fine for a but, but as we kept waling, it got worse and worse. Due to the pain, I unfortunately had to skip the reunion and went straight to bed.

End of day 11

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12/10 Kyoto

Due to my injury not being better in the morning, I pretty much spent the whole day recovering. However, I did try and test to see how my leg was feeling by getting up and walking about a minute away to do a raid for Pokemon. And the raid battles in the US are much different than in Japan. When I did a raid abroad, no one really talked to one another, everyone just showed up, did the raid, and left without saying a word. In the US everyone would make conversation and talk to one another while doing the raid. It definitely was a much different experience.

I was also able to make it to the Fushimi Shrine though at the end of the day, and I was so glad that I did not miss it. The nature and architecture there was just truly something to admire. While I was not feeling bold enough to go up the whole mountain with my bum hip, I was still able to walk through a lot of the passageways and see just how spread out the area was. I truly enjoyed the food that the vendors were selling there as well. Pretty much all Japanese food is amazing, just so you know/ After that, since I still wasn’t feeling fantastic, I decided to go back and prepare for my last two days in Tokyo.

End of day 12

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12/11 Tokyo!

This was the last planned out day of our trip, and the day that I had been waiting for, because we got to finally visit a bonsai museum!!! While I did find out I’ve been pronouncing bonsai incorrectly now for a majority of my life, it did not stop me from learning more about something that I a so passionate about. Since I own a bonsai, I understood and was not surprised by how much time it took for the bonsai’s on exhibit to grow. Some have been grow for centuries while other have been growing for just decades. I think the rest of the class though was surprised at how long it takes for them to grow to what we would consider a small size. One thing that I was surprised by was that there are different types of bonsai for different types of room set ups. Some bonsai were used for a more professional setting while other were more for a home setting. Regardless, bonsai were used as a way to set the tone and mood of a room that it was placed in.

The other place that we visited was the train museum. While I may not be the most fascinated with trains, I thoroughly enjoyed the time that I spent in the museum. I got to learn a lot about how the first trains were made, how the Shinkansen has developed over the years, and I got to see Professor Franks beaming with joy in the museum like a kid in a candy store. I can say that the train systems in Japan are far superior to that of any train system we have in the United States. I really wish that we would actually focus on our train system more as I am a person that takes the train pretty much daily.

Even though I didn’t understand most of the train explanation/demonstration at the end, it w still cool to see all of these miniature model train going all around Tokyo. They even put lights in the miniature stadium screen display.

After this, we had dinner together, and started preparing for our last day of fun and adventure!

End of day 13

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12/12 Tokyo

Here it is, the last full day in Japan. We were for some reason given the permission to go wild and do everything our self the last day. I paired up with Meghan, Aric, and Shelby to go on an adventure. We decided to use the train station to visit a lot of the places that we felt we did not have enough time to go through or visit. We started off by going back to the Tokyo train station where all of the shops were to hit up the kit kat store and then do a little more shopping for some gifts for friends and family.

After visiting the station, we then went onward to Akihabara to do the bulk of our shopping. We spent so much time in there due to all the anime stores and the cat cafe. We decided to go into an anime store that had 10 levels….needless to say we made a mistake as we ended up buying something from every floor. We probably spent a good 3 hours or so just in that store haha. Afterwards, we went to the cafe which was probably the second most relaxing thing I did in all of Japan (first being that 3 am stroll in Hakodate).

We then got to wrap it up by dropping our stuff off at the hotel and meeting everyone in Shibuya for our final meal together. It was such a bittersweet dinner as it just brought everyone back to the reality that we were going to be leaving Japan in pretty much 12 hours. It was so nice to just be together again at the very end and just laugh, crack a whole bunch of jokes, and drink.

Afterwards, I had some yen to burn and Tess was nice enough to accompany me to forever 21 for some deal shopping. I was able to get a whole new wardrobe pretty much for 6,000 yen. It was so much fun to try everything on and see how much better clothing deals are in Japan compared to America. Where else could you find nice clothing for only 2 bucks??? Plus, as a side note, Japanese fashion is so much better than American fashion.

After literally shopping till dropped, I was ready to go to bed and get ready to depart in the morning.

End of day 14

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12/13 America :/

When waking up in the morning, I realized the time had come. it was time to go back to the states, and I was not having it. I almost started bursting into tears because after 2 weeks, I had fallen in love with Japan. There was not one moment that I regret. The experiences that I gained in Japan were so invaluable, and I will never forget my time here. I cannot wait to return one day. I know my story has not closed itself on Japan yet, there is still much more to come. I also just wanted to thank both professor Franks and Professor Matsubara for guiding us in Japan and for taking care of us. You two really helped make the experience fantastic and I cannot thank you enough for introducing us to all aspects of Japan!

The end, for now.