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Yay! I'm finally going to start a journal. Isn't that amazing!!

Ok, so this a copy of a the letter I wrote to my dad about my trip to Japan, so ignore the personal references. I'm way to lazy to re-write something.

We met at the airport a 9:00 in the morning, which was a few hours before our flight. We all got checked in and said goodbye to everyone, then headed through security. Security wasn't that bad, considering there were 39 kids plus 4 adults. No one had any problems that I know of. Then we sat at our gate for a couple hours, because our flight was delayed. The delay was a huge problem because we only had an hour to make our connecting flight in Detroit to Japan. That was already an issue, and now our flight to Detroit was delayed. However, the leaders called the People to People office, who called the airline, who ended up physically holding our connecting flight until we got there. I was amazed that they were able to do that. So when we arrived in Detroit we literally ran to the next plane, which was one of those huge, double-decker planes. Even more surprisingly was the fact that they got our luggage loaded on. So everything turned out all right in the end. Then we sat down and didn't get up for 13 hours. The flight was pretty grueling. I was stuck between two people folded up like a pocket knife. It was kind of miserable, to tell you the truth. But I got through it. They didn't even show any good movies.

We arrived in Japan at night, their time, and met our Delegation manager, Noriko. She was in charge of everything we did in Japan and was our translator. However, she wasn't terribly fluent in English. She was ok, but she had to think a while before she would speak. So she met us at the airport and we loaded ourselves on a bus. We used lots of different buses throughout the trip, which I thought was kind of interesting. I would have thought it would be easier to use the same bus throughout. Anyways we drove that night to the Grand Prince Hotel in Takanawa. The Grand Prince is a hotel chain in Japan that was much nicer than someplace we would stay. We stayed in an even nicer Grand Prince in Hiroshima later on.

Even though it was pretty late we just dropped our stuff off at the hotel and went to dinner. We walked through downtown Tokyo, which was amazing. Tokyo is unlike any city I have ever been in. The size is unimaginable. It goes on and on. My homestay was in Tokyo, though it took us two hours straight driving (not including traffic light, etc) and it was still in Tokyo. The skyscrapers put ours to shame. They are all huge, but not only that, where ours look like big grey rectangles, all of theirs are beautifully architectured. Each one was different and fancy and most of the time just plain amazing. And everything downtown was crowded and bright and fast paced and sterily clean. You can't even imagine how clean everything was. It was just crazy. I'm not sure a Japanese native has ever seen litter. It just doesn't exist. Not only that, but the Japanese also don't have trash cans. Not sure how they did it. They just don't have them. We would have to actively search for them, and most of the time we would find them. I ended up carrying all my trash all day and throw it all away at the hotel. They did have some recycling cans, but not many. It was so weird. Not only that, but while there were vending machines everywhere, they only really sold drinks. I never saw a straight snack machine. Some drink machine would sell a few snacks, and other than cigarette machines (which were everywhere. Everyone smokes in Japan) I didn't see any machines that sold anything but drinks. However, we didn't really go into the shadier places, I suppose.

Anyways, we went to dinner, then went back to the hotel, where we got some much need rest. We got up early the next day, and went to a Buddhist Temple. We ended up going to a lot of temples and shrines all throughout our trip. The main religions in Japan are Buddhism and Shinto. Most Japanese practice both, and their religion is very important to them. Not only that, but most of the temples and shrines are very old, and had a lot of history. The same day we went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, where we had a tour and learned a little about the governing of Tokyo. We got to see the assembly hall, which is surprisingly used only twice a year. I guess Tokyo doesn't have too many problems. Then we went to the top of the tower were there is an observatory and we got to look down on all of Tokyo. But, it is the rainy season in Japan (which meant drizzles every day and lots and lots of humidity) so the city was pretty foggy and we could see to much. Even so, it was really cool.

The next day we climbed Mt. Fuji, we was about the coolest thing I have ever done. We drove to the 5th station, which is the highest you can go by car. Then we all got out and met our guide. He was very nice and spoke excellent English. He did a foreign exchange program at William & Mary, which is probably why. We hiked up to the 6th station, which was very difficult. The climb itself would have been easy, except for the altitude. I've never really felt altitude like that before. It was a really strange feeling. I was gasping for breath after just a couple minutes, even though I wasn't tired or sore at all. We all felt like that. The climb was great because all of us really pulled together. Everyone was really helpful and encouraging and no one gave up. We all made it. We climbed up to the 6th station, where we all rested. Then we hiked up to the crater. The crater isn't the summit, but on one of the sides. We climbed to the base of the crater, which was so awesome. The view was spectacular. We could see the summit, but it was an incredibly steep climb, and we didn't have the time or the energy. In the crater we all relaxed and took photos and had a great time. Then we headed down, which was much easier than going up. Then we got back on the bus and headed to our new hotel. The new hotel was a small, traditional Japanese style inn, or guest house as they call it. It was actually two buildings, one for the girls and one for the boys. It had the traditional tatami mats and paper doors and hot springs and an hd wide screen tv and internet. We all decided it was the best place we had stayed. We had the whole place two ourselves, with a couple girls to each room. The beds are so comfortable. They are basically fluffy clouds that you sleep on that lie on the floor. They are called tatami mat beds. We all assumed that tatami mats meant you sleep on the tatami mats, but they are these very fluffy comfortor looking things that you sleep on top of on the tatami mats. They were amazing. Of course all of the doorways were too short for me, I named them the evil doorway of decapitation. However, from then on most of the places we went to had doorways that were too short for me. I got used to ducking. Anyways, the inn also had a hot springs bath, which was an interesting experience. Nothing like having to bath naked with your roomates. However, we all got over it, and were able to enjoy the bath. Of course by hot, they mean basically boiling. We didn't stay in too long. Apparently your only supposed to stay in for a few minutes anyways. It was hotter than any hot tub I've ever been in.

But we only stayed one night in the tradition hotel, before me moved on. The next day we drove to an herb festival near Mt. Fuji which Grandma would have loved. They were selling dried flowers everywhere. However, we all knew we could never take them through customs. That's one of those big no-no's. Even though Grandma smuggles plants across the border....

After that we drove back to Tokyo, where we would meet with our homestay families. My family was a mother, Mrs. Kamemura, and her 14 year old daughter, Yuko. Of course I got the stomach flu and was sick the entire stay. Another girl also got the stomack flu and spent the weekend in the hospital due to dehydration. Luckily I wasn't so bad. I've been yelled at way too many times by you guys to drink no matter how sick I feel.

Anyways, we spent three nights and two full days with our homestays. I was on my own, which didn't end up to be too bad. The first day Yuko went to school, even though it was a Saturday. They go to year-round school and only get Sundays off. That's probably why they are so smart. Mrs. Kamemura didn't really speak any English, but we had about 5 books between the two of us so we got on alright. The first day we met up with a friend of Mrs. Kamemura and her 10 year-old daughter. We went to a small zoo near their house, which was a lot of fun. It was like a small childrens museum with lots of animals. I, of course enjoyed it. Then, after lunch we went to Yuko's school to see a band concert. It was just like being in the US. A bunch of folding chairs in a school cafeteria with a ton of proud parents with video cameras. And band directors act exactly the same everywhere, all overly dramatic and in to the music. It was pretty funny being in Japan and listening to school band play songs from The Lion Kind and Mission: Impossible.

The next day was fantastic. We all went to Ueno Zoo, which is a huge zoo in downtown Tokyo. It is an internationally famous zoo that has just about everything. I even got to see pandas. We spent almost all day there and I think I used up about half my memory card on pictures. They probably think I was weird, being so excited over seeing a zoo. But, you know me. Then, afterwards we went back to the house, where we played some pretty competitive card games. I taught them "go fish", which they loved. It's funny, we learn "go fish" when we are so little and just call it a kids game, but it can actually get pretty competitive. Not only that, but they have never even heard of it before. It was really weird. After that I taught them "crazy 8's", and then we all played "b.s", which they call "doubt". They said it's a game that has been in Japan forever, so it was cool to play a game that we all knew. Then they taught we some new games. They entire time, Yuko, who could speak ok English, had out an electronic translated and was looking up trash talk in English. It was really funny and so much fun. We all had a great time.

The next we all met back up together again as a delegation. It was surprisingly sad to leave our homestays. After the homestays we all began to feel homesick, and a lot of us were tired and starting to get crabby. But we still had half a trip to go. We all got on a bus and headed to Gifu, which was about 5 hours away. On the way we stopped at a tea growing farm, where we got to pick tea leaves. It was really cool, though none of us wanted to drink any of the tea. Even so, I bought a bunch for Grandma. Then we got back on the bus and drove the rest of the way to Gifu. That night we got to see Cormorant Fishing. Which is a very traditional practice done only in Gifu. The fisherman tie these duck like fish to leashes and head out on the water at night. Then they hang torches over the water to attract the fish. The birds swallow massive amount of fish whole, then later throw all the fish up. The fisherman collect the thrown up fish and sell them. Apparently they are a delecacy. Who know why the Japanese enjoy puke fish. That night we stayed at a sport complex, which was interesting. We had large tatami mat rooms, with about 10 kids a room. There were community bathroom/showers and a laundry room. Of course there were only 5 washer and 5 dryers, which was not nearly enough. Everyone was fighting to use them. I chose to quickly handwash my stuff, then use the dryers while everyone was using the washers. But, naturally someone dumped my stuff out halfway through drying, so some stuff never really dried. It was pretty disgusting.

The next day we went to a museum where we saw a bunch of famous, very old, very intricate, hugely large festival floats. The floats are about two stories tall and a couple tons. They were used in parades which occured only twice a year. Now they are on display and only a few are used anymore. They were amazinly huge, you couldn't even imagine. Then we went to Takayama Jinya Palace, which was an beautiful traditional Japanese palace. It was pretty much everything steryotypical about ancient Japanese architecture, at least for me. It was all tatami mats and wood and paper screens. It was very large and confusing. We kept getting lost. Everything was open air with most rooms wrapped around different gardens. Of course all the gardens and most of the rooms looked the same, so we just wandered around trying to read the Japanese signs. However it was very beautiful. However, I think I don't think I would want to live in a house with only a piece of paper between me and the world. I bet it's like living in a paper latern.

That night we stayed in the sports complex again, where a bunch of kids got caught in each other rooms at night. Luckily, no one in my room was in trouble. Mostly because at about 2 in the morning I woke up to a bunch of girls having a pillow fight, I got up and screamed at them to shut up and go to bed. They all glared daggers at me but went to bed. I sort of dreaded the next morning, becuase I figured everyone would hate me. Imagine my surprise when they all thanked me in the morning because just a few minutes later they were planning on leaving the room to go see everyone else, but instead the went to bed. Then the leaders came by in a towering temper after catching a bunch of kids, but our room was nice and quiet, and they thought everyone was asleep. So I basically saved most of the girls in my room from major trouble. Who knew my obnoxious crankyness and lack of sleep would actually pay off?

The next day all the kids that got in trouble had to "shadow" the leaders, basically follow the leaders at all times. We took the bullet train to Hiroshima, which was a lot of fun (for those of us not in trouble) The bullet train is like a plane, except like first class. The seats are big and comfortable, with tons of leg rooms, and they actually recline. There is a lady with a drink cart and everything. And the train travels at over 300 km/h. It was really cool. Of course it was the first truly comfortable mode of transportation we had been on, and we only got to ride for 2 1/2 hours. It just figures. Anyways, we got to Hiroshima, where we walked around the Hiroshima Peace Park. We saw all of the different monuments and the only remaining building standing, an old government building. It was really cool, I was surprised that it was still standing, though it's pretty much in ruins. Then we went to the museum, which you should never go to. It was, understandibly, the Japanese point of view, which would have sent you over the edge. The museum itself was pretty sickening. They had photos and artifacts and preserved body parts from the effects of the bomb. I think we all didn't realize just how horrible the bomb was until we saw everything. None of us felt very good afterwards. We were all pretty somber the rest of the day. Not only that, but it was the 4th of July. It was very sad all together.

That night we spent at the Grand Prince Hotel Hiroshima, which was way out of our price range. I was nervous to touch anything. Luckily nobody broke anything. The next day we took a ferry to Miyajima island, which is famous for it's shrine, and it's deer. The deer walk around like they own the place and are completely content to be pet. But we didn't go to there go to see the deer. We went to the Itsukushima shrine. The shrine has the very famous red Torii gate out in the water, which usually used for pictures about Japan. The shrine itself is built on the water, but it was low tide, so it wasn't all that impressive. It just looked like a shrine on stilts. After we saw the shrine we got on a different ferry and went back to the mainland. There we got on a bus and drove to Himeji Shrine. Himeji Shrine was an old castle that was built on the top of a very steep hill. Not only that, but its about 6 floors tall, and all of the staircases are really more like ladders. And because it's a shrine, you can't were shoes, so you're trying to climb these very steep, very smooth wooden stairs. It was borderline terryifying to climb.

That night we stayed at a nice hotel in Kyoto, which was very nice, but not as nice as the one in Hiroshima. The next day was the last full day in Japan. The next day we went to Nijo Castle, which was the home of the Shoguns, who ruled Japan for a while, until the power went back to the Emperors. There they had the famous "Nightengale" floors, which are wooden floors that make a chirping noise when you step on them, to warn the castle against intruders. The castle also had some absolutely beautiful original murals that were still on the walls. It was amazing to see someting that had been painted so long ago. Of course all of the boys were jealous of the Shoguns, who had hundreds of concubines. Apparently they find that appealing. After touring the castle we went into downtown Kyoto, where we took some "culture classes". We went to a studio where student stay for 6-8 months for intensive training in the four traditional arts of Japan: tea ceremony, calligraphy, theater, and martial arts. The program is designed to keep the traditional alive and to teach students from other cultures about Japan. They also teach one day classes for people like us. We learned about tea ceremonies and calligraphy. I really enjoyed the calligraphy, though I thought it was much more like painting then writing, but of course the symbols don't mean anything to me. We got to make our ink and everything. It was a lot of fun.
I wasn't so enthusiatic about the tea ceremony. While it was interesting, there are about a thousand rules, which they showed us, but thankfully didn't make us necessarly follow. Though I think the "tea" they gave us was actually pureed lawn I swear there was grass in there. But everyone there was very nice, about half were Japanese and the rest were from different countries. One of the men there was actually from the Czech Rebulic. He was very funny, he was studying ancient Japanese comedy theater. He said that that kind of theater is very popular in California right now, and that in some cities you can go and see them in translated in English. He gave us a demenstration and is was hilarious. The style is that of over exagerated movements and emotions, so that even though we didn't understand the language, we still found it to be very funny.

The next day we all got up very early and drove to Osaka, to the airport. Though we were all really ready to go home, it was very sad. We had a nice, long miserable flight back to Detroit, though I was able to get an aisle seat, which was so much better. When we got back to Detroit and cleared customs we all ran to McDonalds. While a lot of the food in Japan was really good, we had all being dreaming about American food. Finally, a meal with chopsticks!!!

Actually, speaking of food, I guess I should talk about it. The program was very good about balancing traditional Japanese food with more Americanized food. I think for at least one meal a day you had a more American food, whether it be at breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Sometimes we had a truly Japanese meal where most of us ate just the rice and sometimes, like at Hard Rock cafe, we got a completely American meal, but still with chopsticks. Though one of the common practices by the Japanese is to cook their own food. We went to a lot of places where there would be either a grill or boiling water or something else in which you would cook your own food, and then you would get platters of meat and vegetable and other foods that you could then cook yourself. It was actually a lot of fun, and since some places were sort of buffet style were you went and picked what raw food you wanted to cook it allowed kids to choose what they wanted to eat. That way you didn't have to eat the nasty fish if you didn't want, instead you could have beef or chicken, and those who wanted the fish could have. I thought it was a great balance. Though on the way home we had to wear our khakis and People to People shirts, and my khaki's didn't fit any more. Whiltlie, the other girl who had the stomach flu, called it the "Japan diet". Two weeks of intense excercise, strange food, and the stomach flu and the weight just drops right off! It was pretty funny.

It was actually really sad to go home. Sure we were all crabby and tired of each other but we had really made some good friends that we were going to miss. I was really shocked that they took 39 kids who didn't really know each other, stick them together for 2 weeks, and didn't have any major conflicts. Of course we had lots of minor drama, which is to be expected, but nothing close to major drama. I've seen more drama a Winter Cel than we had on this trip. I don't think there was anyone who could room together or couldn't sit next to each other on the bus. I've seen a lot of trips where you simply can't put two people next to each other and not have problems. But not on this trip. Sure there were some kids who disliked each other, or would prefer to sit by there friends, but nobody who would be outright mean about. They might have been unhappy, but it would have been fine. It was really great overall. It turned out to be a really awesome experience. Of course now I heard that there is a trip going to Antarctica, but Mom just glared at me when I brought it up. But wouldn't it being amazing to go to Antartica. I know, I know, not unless we win the lottery....