Konichiwa!

We made it to Tokyo, Japan now, so I will have to recap some. Also, bear with me as I am typing on a Japanese keyboard, and I only just figured out how to get it to type in English. Also the spacebar is slowing me down since I can only use my left thumb. If I use my right thumb, it starts changing everything to Japanese again. When I figure out how to type an apostrophe I will work some conjunctions into my writing too. :) Here goes...

We exchanged our money over from yuan to yen before we got on the plane in Shanghai, and the exchange rate in Japan is making it a lot easier to figure out how much we are spending than using the 6.8 figure in China. Here it is about $1US = $104yen. They do not deal in cents, so basically 1 yen is 1 penny. It was fun thinking about having $1000yen bills in my pocket, but really...that is about $10US.

Our first impression of Japan walking out of the train station (after our plane and standing in the Customs line for 2 hours) was of how CLEAN it is here! We passed an auto mechanic shop that looked more like a display or big toy station than a working car shop. The roads were clean and most importantly the air is clean! Even the water was good enough in our hostel in Kyoto to drink after running it through a simple water filter. That was such a great relief, and we have agreed along the way that we are so glad things are improving as we go instead of declining so we can appreciate things so much more. K's House Hostel was so nice, and everyone was so friendly. This was our first hostel to stay in, and I didn't know what to expect, but the community feel to it was really nice. There were nice kitchens stocked with dishes to use as long as you cleaned up after yourself, and the computers and laundry facilities were cheap and easy to use. I finally got to do laundry in a washer and dryer! Haha, of course, I also forgot and threw in a brand new red shirt which dyed all my white stuff a nice shade of pink, but at least it's clean!

Sunday we started to head to Hiroshima, but several people in our group were feeling sick including me, so we decided to try again the next day instead. That ended up being for the best since Skyler, one of our guys, ended up going to the hospital later in the day with Pancreatitis. He has had it before, so his family is not too scared because they know what is going on. Currently, they are expecting him to be released tomorrow (Friday) and he will probably meet up with us in Ibaraki. The rest of our group either went exploring in small groups or caught up on some rest to avoid getting any more sick.

Monday, Ryan still wasn't feeling up to leading us, so he gave Joel and Josh the directions for the day and let them lead us to Hiroshima. We got there with no problems and were excited to be met as we got off our bus by a free tour guide! She said she was leading for free as she practiced, and if we would like her to guide us, it would take about 10-15 minutes of our time. She led us around the Dome that is still standing as a reminder and memorial of the attack at Hiroshima, and there her boss met up with us. He was a survivor and told us about his family and how they were affected. He was actually not even born yet; he was in the womb, but because his mother was exposed to the radiation, he is considered a survivor and has had plenty of medical problems in his youth that were caused by his weak immune system. His grandfather died very shortly after the attacks from internal rupturing from the exposure. Next we went to the museum and saw all the pictures and articles damaged in the explosion.

Tuesday we left our hostel and made our way to TOKYO! Our group got a little split up at the train station, but we all made it there fine. Tammy stayed behind in Kyoto with Skyler in the hospital as they try to sort things out.

Wednesday...yesterday, we got up early and ran all over Tokyo taking the subway all over the place trying to get downtown. Their subway system here has many, many more lines than the DC metro does, but the 24 of us made it through just fine. We got to the Imperial Palace in time for our tour, which is only offered in Japanese. They did give us English translation headsets, so we were able to understand what we were looking at during our 2.2 km tour. It was interesting comparing it in my head to the Summer Palace and Buckingham Palace. The different cultures definitely put an emphasis on different things. Here, the size of the gardens and the huge moat around the entire grounds is what makes it stand out as quite amazing in the middle of Tokyo. After that, I went with a group to Hard Rock Cafe Tokyo and then on to Tokyo Tower. They are very proud of Tokyo Tower here because it is 333 meters tall. (The Eiffel Tower is only 320 meters) For those of you that may be worried that we've been eating too much American food, you'll be happy to know that for dinner a group of us found a GREAT sushi place close to our hostel. The prices seemed reasonable when we went in, and indeed it was well worth it. It was a sushi bar that rotates the plates of freshly made sushi around, and you are free to grab whatever dish you like. The plates tell you the price, and each plate was about $130yen for 2-4 pieces of sushi. I splurged on one plate for some really good tuna, and the rest was just as good. The chef was fun too telling us that one dish was "Anaconda...SNAKE!" We must have looked shocked because he laughed and told us, "I'm JOKING!" He started showing off making all kinds of dishes for us to try including octopus and baby squid, and he even made one dish that he made a big show out of. He put the rice and wasabi down then put a nice piece of tuna on top. He put some kind of sauce on it and used a torch to actually cook the top some. He repeated it then put it on plates for us to try. We all did even though we were SO full, and it was delicious! He told us it was American style, not Japanese style, and that it was his own creation -- not on the menu, and usually $399yen but for us he discounted it to the $130yen plate. We tipped him well, even though that is also an American thing and we are told not to. He was so nice to us we felt he deserved it though. Plus, our totals were so cheap! I ended up paying $1040 for my six plates of sushi, and I was so full.

Today one group went off to climb Mt. Fuji and another went to Disneyland Tokyo, but Macy and I stayed behind to catch up on our journals and do some laundry. It was a good day of rest so we can keep up on our big days of adventure.

Sorry this post is so long, I just don't want to skip anything (even though I am definitely leaving pieces out to tell later). We're moving on to Ibaraki on Saturday, so I'm looking forward to meeting my host family and having the experience of living on my own with a Japanese family! I'll update again later and let you know how things are going!

I miss you all!
Amy