Japan 2002

Well, I guess this is my first post! Hello, my name is Stacy, and I am starting my first blog. Why am I doing this? Well, let me be perfectly honest with you. My friend online placed a link on her facebook page last night. It looks something a little like this:


http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/lifestyle/2011/10/10000-free-round-trip-tickets-to-japan/


Now, I'm sure this isn't very luckily. But it doesn't hurt to try, right? Lets be honest... And I know you don't know me yet, but, I cannot afford a vacation, let alone one like that! Japan is a beautiful country. I've actually been once before in 2002 with my high school (I was actually a chaperone. And a lot skinnier!). We went to Kiba, Tokyo, and Kyoto. I will never forget the experience.


There were four of us. My sister, Daniele, and two good friends, Ruth and Brandon. We did a lot of exploring.. Specially every Sega arcade we passed. The bullet train was really fun to ride (not going to lie). We went to Akihabara twice, thank goodness we went to Gamers before they shut down. We also went to a ton of shrines.

We started the week at a place called 'Weekly Mansion'. Kids, these things are amazing! So comfortable for a large group. This was the week our kids we were watching through the school went to their host families for the week. My friends and I ended up staying with my penpal, Kumiko, and her friend, Satsuki. Kumiko is such a sweetheart in general, and it was great to stay a week with her in her home country. Anyway, my favorite part of staying there? The bathroom. I know this sounds weird but... Japanese bath tubs are epic. If I can find a way to put one in my future home, i will gosh darn it.


We did a lot of exploring. Tokyo Tower, Akihabara, Shibuya, random mall hopping. We really went everywhere. We also got stuck in Nagoya one night. My sister, who had gone two years before with our school, wanted to visit her host sister. We all (sans Brandon, he didn't feel well) decided we wanted to meet her. Well, off we go, had a great time. Went to get back on the train... AND STARTING GOING THE WRONG DIRECTION. Yes friends, thats right, we got on the wrong train. In fact, my sisters friend put us on the wrong train. So we got stuck in Nagoya, no trains running, they tell us to get out of the train station. Fun right? We walk out to see homeless men on folded out cardboard boxes, their shoes stuck neatly next to said box. There was a pee puddle next to a fountain.


Luckily, there happened to be a hotel connected to the station. Unluckily for us, it was pretty expensive. The people, however, were very friendly. One of the men from the hotel had helped us call for a cheaper hotel down the street and then walked us there, because it was dark. Thank you nice hotel man! When we get there I am not going to lie, we were a bit scared. I'm sure there was no reason to be, but we still kept a DS on to light up the hotel while we slept (you had to pay for EVERYTHING in that room. Yep.).


The second week we stayed in Kyoto. By that time we had gotten use to using the trains (my sister guiding us, since she had used them before) so our adventure wasn't as scary as waiting for our friends to pick us up at the train station. I remember being amused that I was reading the 'Love Hina' manga where Keitaro and Naru end up going to Kyoto from Tokyo. When we left the Kyoto station we were instantly amazed. It was beautiful (as were the trains), and we even got to see people wearing kimono!

However, we also didn't know where we were going. Luckily a nice homeless man with a sake juice box lead us to our hotel. After getting to our hotel things went pretty smoothly. From there we visited a lot of shrines (my favorite being the love shrine), went to a castle, ate mochi, and visited the deer park. My teacher also ate a deer cracker in front of the vendor, stating after she hoped her future children didn't have antlers. He had the best face ever!

We also had an engrish contest while in Kyoto because my teacher was awesome like that. My sister ended up winning off a small restaurants menu.


We also went with our group to Hiroshima. When we were eating our bentos it was adorable, because a bunch of kids were going to on a field trip the same day. They kept making us little cranes and putting them next to us, running away. We ended up going to the peace memorial and the museum. We also got to see the last standing building. Honestly i think everyone who visits Japan should visit this place, just to get a feel of all of our intertwined history.


It was a beautiful trip and honestly I would dive at the chance to do it again. This time I'd love more okonomiyaki, go to a hot spring, and just more exploring!