Last day in Tokyo - University of Tokyo, Calligraphy lesson, and Ginza

Rachel's Blog Post 2/17

I would like to start off by saying Happy Birthday Sean! I hope you have a wonderful day! I also hope Mom shows you this so you can know that I embarrassed you on a school blog. I spent your birthday in Tokyo, for the second of the 3 (and a half if you count the travel day on Sunday) days we will be here. We started our day in a part of Tokyo called Akihabara.

It’s the central place for everything electronic and anime related. The streets are lined with department stores, little shops, and arcades. We walked around a bit, going into some department stores and carefully avoiding the *adult* stores that unapologetically graced the sides of the streets.

Due to the fact that I don’t really watch anime, read manga, or listen to Japanese music (sometimes I ask myself what I’m even doing taking this language), I didn’t exactly find much to buy here. But many other people on the trip loved this place, and bought many things.

I wish I took a picture of this to show you guys just to prove that I’m not lying, but I didn’t think to. We were in a department store that advertised a sporting goods section. I went there, just to look and see what they have (maybe buy a Japanese baseball or something, who knows). I looked all around the advertised floor for the sporting section, and found a single shelf with two baseball gloves and a badminton racket. I’m not even exaggerating. There’s more of a selection at the dollar store near my house.

We found lunch in Akihabara, then went to God knows where in Tokyo (maybe even the outskirts of Tokyo? It was a pretty long train ride) to go to the Ghibli Museum. Ghibli studios created Tonari no Totoro and Howl’s Moving Castle, along with many other popular animated movies that I haven’t watched.

(sorry for the blurry photo. I don’t have a reason for this being so bad other than I’m just bad at taking photos). The museum was filled with statues and exhibits honoring the movies Ghibli Studios has made. Unfortunately, the museum did not allow photos to be taken inside. But, it was filled with cute scenes from movies I probably should have watched like this one.

And there was this guy on the roof. (never mind the strangers who happened to be taking a nice picture while I was getting this shot). All in all, I thought today was exciting. Akihabara had so many things branded with anime characters, and in the Ghibli museum we saw some of those characters come to life. I can only imagine what today was like for those on this trip who knew what they were looking at.

Claire's Blog Post 2/16

Tokyo Tower isn't easy to miss. Towering above the other buildings, Tokyo Tower is a staple of the city. It has become world-famous, attracting tourists from all continents.
Tokyo Tower has 2 floors inside tourists can visit. Each is covered 360 degrees in windows, allowing a view of the entire city of Tokyo. The floors were only about half-way up the tower, but it was still a stellar view.
Perhaps the scariest part of the experience was standing on the glass floor. It gives a perfect look beneath to the ground below. It look me a solid 3 minutes just to muster up the courage to put a single toe on it. It was terrifying, but in an amazing way. It feels like you're flying over the city - you can see everything!

Tokyo Tower, Zojoji-Temple, and Harajuku vis Meiji Shrine

Tai's Blog Post 2/14 - Kurashiki

This morning we said an emotional goodbye to our bunny friends (as well as a few nice old ladies) at Okunoshima and took a few different trains to arrive in Kurashiki. Today was a free day, so we split into groups to get lunch and do some sightseeing. My group (Lisa, Corey, Will, and Lindsey) got a bit turned around looking for somewhere to eat, but we eventually found this really good sukiyaki place and we ate three pots of delicious meat and vegetables. Will might have cried a bit.

We decided to just walk around and look for interesting things instead of going anywhere specific and so we headed to the historical district. There was a really nice store that sold traditional paper goods like origami, notepads, and artwork, and the women who worked there were so nice. They asked us where we were from and how we learned Japanese and seemed pretty impressed when we told them we have been learning since freshman year. As we left they gave us each an origami person and told us to study hard, and it had a similar feeling to leaving your grandmother's house. The older ladies I've spoken to these past few weeks have been so incredibly nice.

We passed through the historical district into the shopping arcade, and somewhere in the process we entered the twilight zone of bargains. There was a shop that sold fried food for less than 100 yen, and needless to say we went a bit wild. Besides that there were tons of unique shops and we joked about how we came close to eating the entirety of Japan.

Our last stop was the department store, where we picked up Valentine's Day chocolate to exchange over dinner. We ended up doing more shopping than sightseeing, but we got to interact with so many different people that it was really worth it. At dinner we all sat down for a feast of traditional Japanese foods and got ready to get going the next day. I'm looking forward to Himeji castle and Tokyo!

Madchen's Blog Post 2/15

Today we went to Himeji Castle. As soon as we stepped off the train, its exterior was already in our view. It took us about a 20 minute walk from the station until we were met with the nice trees and the moat surrounding the very tall castle. I admired the wide open surroundings that lead to the castle, as it provided me with a lot of time to wander and take pictures of the buildings and shops that bordered the premises. 

Himeji was the site of the Harima Province in ancient times. Himeji Castle started out as a fortress built in the town during this time. Later, during the Middle Ages, the town became the seat of the shugo (provincial governor). While some theories hold that the castle's construction dates back to the 14th century, it's generally considered to have been built by Kuroda Shigetaka and his son Mototaka, who began construction of a branch fortress of Gochaku Castle in the mid-16th century. 

Himeji Castle