Day 41 (S the 11th)

We kind of sat around in the morning until check out at 12, then we went to the airport terminal and sat around for a couple hours waiting for check in to start so we could get rid of our bags. After we ditched the bags we went and used our meal vouchers to get Okinomiyaki and Yakisoba. It wasn't all that good, but it was only 60 cents with the vouchers. 

Our flight was at 5:25 PM and since we were in Business Class, we got to board second! Here are pictures of how awesome our seats were:

I got Filet Mignon for dinner :) The movie selection was disappointing though. I read a book on my iPad and slept. I got a bottle of sake for Myra to try, but she didn't like it at all and we left most of it un-drunk. I did try a sip and as expected it was horrible. But I did try sake (pronounced Sah-Keh)!

In San Fransisco, our flight was delayed and sat around board until we boarded :P I think everyone reading this blog can guess what happened next - the plane arrived safely in Salt Lake, none of our luggage was lost or damaged, and our great adventure

CAME TO AN END!

Thanks for reading and please look forward to blogs of future trips!

PS Since our blog is named 'Are we homesick yet?' I figure it is only fair to report the answer - after 5 weeks in Japan, we did finally get homesick. Myra and Ani had brief spats of homesickness during the first 5 weeks, but it was only in the last week that we all really wanted to go home. Ani suffered less than we did, maybe because she had to do less work during our mighty week of shinkansen travel. I just really wanted my kitten and my kitchen. I really missed both.

Day 40 (Sat. the 10th)

Today is the day! The last day! Japan was great and we loved almost every minute of it, but we aren't at all sorry to be leaving we. We are excited to get home and relax! :) The car to the airport is due at 2, so we pretty much lazed around reading and eating up our food and doing last minute packing. We are proud to say that we actually fit everything without having to leave too much behind. I sacrificed my towels, but I brought them expecting to do so, so no big loss. I finished the book I was supposed to read on the plane, and then had to put it in my carry on bag anyway 'cause it wouldn't fit in the checked luggage. 

We made it to the airport without any problems and then Myra and I discovered that our adventure was not yet over. Apparently, there was some Middle/Jr. High school group that failed to get reservations for 9 of its students. So Myra and I were bribed into staying in Japan for one extra day! Poor Ani had a flight to catch the next day, so she couldn't accept. This was her first time flying alone!

As for Myra and I, the airline got us reservations at the airport hotel (which is like a 5 minute walk or less from the terminal) and Myra and I got a suite (this is roughly what we got). It was really nice I was pretty much bouncing off the walls with excitement. In addition to the hotel the bribe included a partial refund of our ticket, an upgrade to Business class for our flight the next day, a waiver for an extra piece of luggage I had thought I could take on the plane, but couldn't, and finally, a voucher for a meal up to $15 in almost-any-one of the airport terminal's many restaurant. I hope we get bumped off of every return international flight in the future. I plan on scheduling for it anytime I book tickets.

For dinner, we took this unexpected opportunity to finally try eating at an American chain in Japan. Results: Subway in Japan is pretty much the same as in America. There were less options, but then this was the airport. The only real difference is that they offered egg as an add on option. It was yummy. Then we got a Starbucks Frappacino and a banana chocolate crepe for dessert.

After leaving the life of a dorm student (albeit the nice dorm and much better living conditions than any of the other students), it was really nice to be pampered! Also, check out this awesome set of vending machines! 
This is the ONLY SNACK VENDING MACHINE IN ALL OF JAPAN!!!! And below is a meal vending machine (where you could get things like fried chicken and takoyaki).

We watched ice skating on tv and took bubble baths. Life is good.

Day 39 (F the 9th)

Ah! The last day of school! Amazing that it has come.
Mia and I had our normal kanji quiz in the morning, Ani had a couple different tests.

(...more will come later. Boarding soon and computer running out of memory. Wish me and my already sore backside luck :p)

I'm back!

So after tests, the classes gathered with the teachers and Serina for our speeches. oof. They went pretty well for the most part, it wasn't horrible.

After speeches we milled about and took pictures until the time came when we were to go to the farewell party / graduation ceremony.

At the party some people gave speeches, including our teacher Ebisu-sensei, one of our Japanese friends, Eiki, and Troy had to give an impromptu speech. All in English. We ate food and chatted and took a bunch of pictures with everyone.

Then came the graduation ceremony!!!
The president of the college was there, and we were presented certificates.

Then... more pictures! We got a little tired of smiling, but there were a bunch of great pictures. Like this one: (from Serina, because I figured if 12 other people got the picture, I didn't need to)

Then... more pictures!

And goodbyes. Ani went to hang out with everyone for the last evening, but Mia and I were tired and had to pack and clean up. And frankly we were a little exhausted with small-talk. So we spent the evening stuffing everything into bags and reading.

The last day ends.

Day 38 (TH the 8th)

After class we met Ben and rode to Nanba and Ben showed us the way to DenDen town. It was a little like a mini Akihabara. Lots of electronic, clothes, and anime shops. We went through just about every anime shop we came across, found some fun charms, went through a toy shop and saw really cool models (of castles and ships etc.), it was pretty fun.
We are so done with anime shops though. There's only so much of that we can stand.... (We pray we are all not scarred for life.)

There may be pictures here later.
pic?
pic?

Around 6, Ani and Ben went back, Mia and I tried to go to Shitennoji (temple), only to find they close not only the inner grounds and buildings, but all the grounds. Grr. Oh well. It was a nice walk.

Day 37 (W the 7th)

Gift for Okada-sensei, she is pretty fun and does pictures and flashcards.

After class we went to meet Yoko for karaoke. Ani was late, tsk tsk, but we had to wait a half hour for a room anyway. Apparently it’s a popular time for elderly people to come and do karaoke. We karaoke-ed for 3 hours (forgot to get pictures :( ), which made us very tired, but it was fun. We gave Yoko a crossword puzzle book Mia brought from home.

After karaoke, Yoko had to go home, and we went shopping (oh no!!)...

We had a speech to memorize for Friday, otherwise homework isn’t too bad.

Day 36 (T the 6th)

Gift for Ebisu-sensei. She is our favorite teacher, she is lots of fun, and I feel we get the most speaking practice and grammar lessons during her classes.

Again we went to the English club, gave them some more books, gave Beniko-sensei a gift, talked to Beniko-sensei about the students. She’s worried because she’s offered up this time to teach the students for free, and none of them seem motivated to study at all. I wish I could think of a way to motivate them, especially because English is becoming even more widespread. Beniko-sensei told us that recently 2 large Japanese corporations declared that by 2013 they would be operating in English (speaking English at the office, all documents in English). Apparently this has been happening in places around Europe, especially Germany. 

Later in the evening, we had Kazu, Akiko, and Yuka over for dinner. Mia made Mulagatani which was delicious, and we chatted about Japanese/English, anime, our jobs, I showed them pictures of the family in Italy, it was a lot of fun. And we gave them their presents, look!

It was a great evening.

Day 35 (M the 5th)

Our gift-giving week begins.

First a gift for Takai-sensei. She is the youngest teacher, kind of shy, very nice.

Also we brought back AN (sweet red bean paste) cakes from Shirakawago for the class, and one for the teacher. This is what they look like, mimicking the gassho-zukuri house style:

We finally went to see Akiko and the Kendo club, it was pretty cool. They are fast. Mostly they were doing practice drills, but it was neat and we enjoyed watching. She is the only girl in the club. I gather they are all fairly advanced. Here is a picture:
(neither are Akiko though...)

Later we went to meet Kazu and others at Fujidera station, and Kazu led us to what he called the ‘most delicious okonomiyaki’ restaurant. It was located in Tsuruhashi, the Korean town, so it was a little bit far, but we got to see the Korean town. Unfortunately, not for Korean food, but the okonomiyaki was good. 

Here is a picture of everyone at the station:

I don't know about the others, but I'm homesick now.

Day 34 (S the 4th) - Inuyama and Gifu

I had some stuff written about Inuyama castle, but when adding pictures I accidentally deleted it. I don't want to rewrite it, so just enjoy the pictures of the oldest castle in Japan.

Myra in the third story of the castle:

After the castle we made our way to the other attractions and managed to arrive at the exhibit hall shortly before a demonstration of the tea serving doll was held. W couldn't understand most of what was said, but we could see the demonstration just fine. It was pretty cool. 

After this we headed to Gifu, where we got lunch on our way walking to the castle. We took a tram to the castle, since it is on top of a mountain. The view wAs excellent and the breeze enjoyable, but the castle itself was a disappointment. It ended up being a reconstruction. At least it didn't cost too much and Myra and I got to walk down the mountain. Ani took the ropeway because of her hip.


Here is a shot of the castle at the bottom of the mountain:

And a view from the top of the castle:

We took the bus back to the station and started back for Osaka. We went to dinner at a yummy Nepalese restaurant, and then returned to our dorms for a good nights sleep.
The end.

Day 33 (S the 3rd) - Shirakawa-go

Early in the morning we checked out of the hostel an walked down to the morning markets, then caught the 8:50 bus into Shirakawa-go. Shirakawa-go is a village of late 1800 farm houses preserved in the gassho-zukuri thatched-roof style, located of course in the Japanese Alps, in a valley. Picturesque. 

From the viewpoint: 

We went into the Nagase House, built in 1890. The roof was re-thatched for the first time in 80 years in 2001, by 500 volunteers from all over Japan. 
(Not the Nagase house. But see the thatched roofs!)

The house is 5 stories tall, we were allowed into the first 4. I believe the family still lives there. 
Nagase house...

1st floor, main living space - tools for ceremonies and festivals that are still used, medical tools, gifts from the Maeda lords, etc.

The mezzanine - employees' bedrooms.

3rd floor, working rooms for raising silkworms (yosan) - house tools used from the old days, etc

4th floor, working rooms for raising silkworms (yosan) - tools for the works in the mountain, tools for yosan, agricultural tools, etc.

5th floor, rooms for medicinal herbs to dry - no access.

The first floor has displays of dishes, the traditional fireplace, 

painted scrolls and screens, and a Buddhist alter. Thought nothing there said anything about it, when we were in the hostel we talked to an Australian Japanese teacher staying there who said the walls of the house were made so that, in case of a fire, the alter could be pulled out. 

Floor 2 was small, floor 3 held a bunch of tools, farming and other, as well as pots and other dishes and more. 

Floor 4 was the best, it held old machines for making straw mats and other things. 

Once we finishes with the house we climbed to the viewpoint where that first picture was taken, then we walked around looking at the houses and cool handcraft souvenirs, and ate lunch at one of the soba shops. Here is what I got, a Chinese yam set. 

After extensive successful shopping we caught the 3:00 bus back to Takayama, from which we took a series of trains to our next stop, Inuyama.   We took a taxi to the hostel, and after we got to our room and ate dinner, Myra and Ani got to try out communal baths. Of course, they waited until they were empty first.

Us happy and ready for bed:

Day 32 (F the 2nd) - Nagoya and Takayama

We ran to the post office to get money only to be thwarted by my withdrawal limit, I am so not happy about that, thankfully Mia also came with her card so we got money, then we ran to the bus stop, then ran some more, and still missed the train which meant missing the first Shinkansen train which meant we had an hour until the next train to Takayama from Nagoya. So we walked around Nagoya a bit, lots of high-class malls, and some fish... 

Then long bumpy train ride to Takayama, walk to the Tenshouji youth hostel, and sleep. Not too exciting for Mia's birthday. The hostel was really nice, though, the room was big, just 3000 yen a person, the bathrooms and temple were great. 

We slept well.

Day 31 (TH the 1st) - Tokyo

And you though we weren't going to Tokyo, ha. Well, neither did we until the day before, when Mia found out that by Shinkansen we could get there in about 4 hours. So we left class early, after getting scolded by Ani's teacher after we told our teachers (so advice, don't tell them, just go), ran and rode and ran, then sat for a lovely 3-hour Shinkansen ride to Tokyo. 
Here is a picture of our seats on the Shinkansen:

And of my lovely bento :) (before I ate it all)

With only 2.5 hours to wander, we had to be quick. No getting back too late because trains only run so late. So we went to see Tokyo Tower, 

walked to it though a temple, then away from it (until next time), then went to Akihabara, a big shopping district for mainly electronics that has lately also become known as an Otaku location. 
Doll shop...

Now understand that the 3 of us like anime, but we are far from being Otaku, mega-obsessed-anime-fans. Still, it was fun wandering around the stores and maid cafes, lots of cosplay, lots of manga, lots of random electronics, most things not exactly expensive but more than we were willing to spend, so we bought keychains, hehehe.   

Then we had to go home. Not much of Tokyo, but kind of fun to say we've been. 

Day 30 (W) - Himeji

A shorter travel time (meaning the ordinary hour to Shin-Osaka to get the Shinkansen, but the Shinkansen ride was less than an hour), meaning more time at the city itself. The main attraction is Himeji Castle (used as the 'Osaka castle' in the movie Shogun),

which sadly started undergoing reconstruction this year, so we couldn't go inside the main keep. But we got to go around the walls and through the West Bailey, which was cool in both senses of the word. 

We also saw the location of the origin of one of Japan's most famous ghost stories, Okiku's Well. According to the story, she was a maid at the castle, and heard of a plot against her Lord by one of his retainers. She warned her lord, and the plotters we caught. When they found out who told on them, however, one of them stole one of the family's 10 great treasures, a gold plate or something, and put the blame on Okiku. She was killed, and her body thrown in the well, where it was said for long after she could be heard (and seen) counting plates, 1, 2, 3.... 

Also cool was a display of the kamon, the house symbols of the families who had lorded over Himeji.

After the castle, we went to a park nearby, where we only had a half hour. But it was worth it, made up of several different gardens, 

and a special display of Kirigami, cut paper glued on plain backgrounds. 

Great day, and we didn't get home too late. 

Day 29 (T) - Hiroshima

Following the awesome 2-hour Shinkansen ride, where Ani learned how wonderful Shinkansen are -- smooth, spacious, and most importantly, fast -- we arrived in the city of Hiroshima, literally 'spacious island'. As you probably know, Hiroshima was bombed by nuclear 'Little Boy' during WWll and almost totally destroyed. 

Here is the city before:

And after:

Fires from the blast burned for three days after, and many thousands of people who managed to survive the incident later died from radiation poisoning. Hiroshima is now a big, bustling city, and the main attraction for tourists is Heiwakinenkoen, Peace Memorial Park. 

We walked from the station to the park and arrived with a half hour to spend in the Peace Memorial Museum. The entry fee was a whole 50 yen, so we went in. Most of it was pretty disturbing, but it was interesting. 

Here is a picture of the ?? Clock which keeps track of nuclear testing. Supposedly if the bottom gear turns, the world is in danger, and the clock will explode. 

We read about Sadako, the little girl who died of cancer after the bombing, who heard that if you folded a thousand paper cranes your wish would be granted. She folded the cranes until she died, and some are in the museum, 

 some are surrounding the Children's Peace Memorial which was built because of her. 

These are all made of cranes:

The park was nice, we saw frog sitting on lily pads, 

the A-Bomb Dome, which used to be the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall and was kept in memorial where all the other building ruins were cleared, 

and the mound where the ashes of the bomb victims are gathered. 

Depressing. But neat. 
After that we had to wander ourselves back to the station and go home. Much more successful day trip than Monday!