Our Last Evening in Kyoto

After another hot day, everyone is wandering up and down the four-story hostel in their lounging clothes, debating whether or not they want to go to Kyoto's huge summer festival, which takes place tonight in Gion Corner. Normally, there would be no hesitation, but we have all suffered through a long, sweaty day and only the naturally present energy of traveling is keeping us going now... Still, no one really wants to miss the colorful crowds and lit up streets and so most likely we will all get ready and be out the door in the next hour.

Today was our last day in Kyoto; tomorrow we leave to Hiroshima and there begins the countdown toward the day when we meet our host families... Everyone is more than excited to meet their Japanese parents ａｎｄ　ｓｉｂｌｉｎｇｓ. Ｗｅ all mailed postcards to our families this morning...

Since it was our last day here, we had a free day, and everyone split up to see various sites of interest. Some went shopping, others touring... Maggie met up with an old-time friend who toured with her through the city... Vanessa and I visted the Golden Pavillion, which was even more gorgeous in the strong afternoon sun than we had anticipated. (We had actually expected to end up at the zen gardens in the same area, but we apparently haven't quite mastered our skills at reading Japanese yet...)

Being in this country can make you feel like a celebrity; school girls touring the Pavillion asked to take pictures with us, and in total we took about seven different pictures, one each with everyone's camera...

Even though our stay in Kyoto has been short, we have been able to see many more things than we could have hoped for... Midori took us to Gion Corner last night for a performance which demonstrated various Japanese arts, among them tea ceremony, flower arangement, koto playing, dance, puppet theater, and more... We also took a bus tour through Kyoto which took us to see a shrine and two temples... While the tour was enlightening, everyone was unbelievably dehydrated and so coming back to the hostel to take cool showers was, quite frankly, very blissful...

Now as we leave this beautifully preserved city, we move to a new phase in our travels... One which we have been warned will be a very heavy and saddening experience...

Hopefully we will find computers and phones in Hiroshima; most of us have been able to call our loved ones only due to the fact that Tacey has a very useful phone card and is generous enough to let us all make use of it when needed...

Enjoy the heat (I heard it reached 105 in Sonoma today... My, my...)

'Peace out,' says Alan...

In Kyoto, Japan's Ancient Capital...

The first thing we noticed when we stepped off the bullet train was that somehow the heat had increased incredibly during our three-hour travel to Kyoto. Much more humid here...

This city is very different from Tokyo. When Sasha and Meesha crossed the street to go to the convenience store to get ice cream at 8 pm, they came back and commented that there was absolutely no night life. Kyoto is certainly much more quiet and calm than the flashy city of Tokyo, yet it is also much more beautiful and less crowded. Every street is lined with little sweet shops and ornamental stores, and our hostel is very close to the picturesque Heian shrine. We strolled with Midori around the streets nearby, waiting for the hostel to open, and spent an hour looking around at the seven story Handy Crafts Center. Nearly everyone walked out with several shopping bags...

Whereas we each had seperate rooms at the Yoyogi Youth Hostel, here all the girls share bunk-beds in a single room and the boys share another. Everyone agrees this is much more fun...! However, we were all awoken at 6:30 to a loudspeaker announcement that breakfast was served...

We have a long day ahead - tours and concerts and such - and we will be kicked out of the hostel in half an hour.

Hope everything is well back home! The time is absolutely flying by and we are already dreading how hard it will be to end this amazing experience...

Here We Are: In Tokyo!!

Well, these past five days have been utterly insane. Finding internet has been a most difficult adventure; we are now at the Apple store, where everybody is emailing their family and friends...

We have been nearly everywhere in this gigantic city... The first morning, everyone awoke sometime close to 4 am... Our first day consisted of a visit to Jim Hunter with Midori, where we learned about his company, PM Global, and enjoyed traditional Bento Box lunches. We were given some free time then, before we traveled to the Ghibli museum. Everyone enjoyed the time but most of us couldn't help but feel slightly jet-lagged.

Our second two days consisted of Hako Bus Tours; the first took us all throughout Tokyo. We drove through the city and visited the most popular sight-seeing spots (it was nice to get that all out of the way so that we could use our free time to explore more remote spots of Tokyo), we took a cruise through Tokyo harbor which was an unexpected surprise and a huge hit, and enjoyed lunch on the top floor of an Italian restaurant overlooking the river. We were also able to visit the Royal Gardens around the Emperor's palace. Most of all, though, everyone enjoyed the air-conditioned bus. This heat can be stifling and nearly unbearable at times. The second tour took us on a long trip through the country to the Nikko temples and shrines, and from there we ventured up to a waterfall high up in the mountains where we were able to escape the city heat.

We have been enjoying free time now: we have had today and yesterday off to go on our own excursions. We've begun to master the subways and a lot of us hit the popular sites and districts. I'm sure all of the families will hear many stories upon our return as well as receive some pretty awesome gifts. We are all pretty crazy shoppers here, it appears...

Tomorrow we take the bullet train to Kyoto.

Hopefully everything back home is fine; just know that everyone is having a blast and the time will pass by in a flash.

We are scouting for internet and phones at every turn. Who knew that being able to communicate would be so difficult in this presumably tech-savvy country?

Our love to you all... Everyone sends their greetings!

One Week Until Takeoff!

Well, here we are on the homestretch of preparation for our trip... Our final meeting and potluck was yesterday, when everyone began to feel the jitters. We found out about our host families (although attempting to read the spread sheet was somewhat difficult) and also found out that Maggie's bag was a bit too small... (Packing, as we are probably all learning, is much more difficult than you'd think...)

The food was great; thanks to everyone who contributed! And a huge thanks also to Steve, Claudette, and Tess for joining us to help us understand what to expect of Japanese culture.

I, for one, cannot believe how quickly the time has passed. I am frantically trying to get my summer homework done before we leave...

Good luck packing everyone!!