Saturday, July 7, 2012

Day 7


Amy Hung, Amy Luong, Kelly Zhen, and Malgosia Sikorski reporting in for the days event. This is our first day back in Tokyo after spending three nights and 4 days in Ibaraki. At 7 AM, everyone received a wake up call from the hotel. Since buffet style breakfast started at 7:30 AM, we were left with only 30 minutes to get dressed and pretty up ourselves for this exciting day. It was quite disappointing to have woken up to gray sky, but it still turned out to be a really warm day. Japans weather is quite amazing if I may say. After breakfast, we got on the bus and started heading to a Shinto/Buddhist Temple. Since the bus ride was over 40 minutes long, some slept while others had a fun time playing cards and other games. As we arrived at the temple gate, the size of the shrine had us in awe. After making our wish at the shrine and getting our written fortune, we headed in the directions of the mini shops. Amy Huang drew a Excellent Fortune stick by the way. She was very delighted. As we walked through the crowded street where the mini shops are located, we discovered many fascinating items.

 After an hour of shopping, we met up with the other schools for lunch. It was a buffet style restaurant with BBQ!!!! YUMMY! But since we were somewhat behind schedule, we didn’t have much time to enjoy the food to the fullest. As we waited for the bus to pick us up to go to our next location, students from Moss Point High School joined in on our game of “Hanky Panky.” The next location was to Tachikawa Bousai-Kan (Life Safety Learning Center) where we were able to experience the dramatic shake of a magnitude of 7 and the fire escape through their Earthquake and fire stimulation. We learned about what we should do in life threatening situations of earthquakes and fire. Though we’ve done Earthquake drills at school many times, this stimulation actually let us experience the shake which led to a deeper understanding of the pain the local people had experienced last year. And for the fire stimulation we were able to learn that we must stay as low as possible for avoid breathing in the dangerous chemicals. Though the instructor specifically said the smoke in the stimulation was not dangerous at all compared to the real thing, it still got our hearts racing. Though we were scared, we had an amazing time. The Edo Tokyo Museum was next on the schedule. We had to take the escalator all the way to the 6th floor where we started the tour. The first thing we saw as we went in the door was a Edo period bridge. As everyone rushed to take his or her own pictures, sensei stopped us for a group picture on the bridge. As we finished, some went their own ways as some stayed with sensei as he explained to us the significance of the artifacts. At the beginning of the museum, it depicted the Edo period’s life style and with each step we took, we were taken to a more modern and advanced period in Tokyo. Seeing the advancement from Edo to the present Tokyo was an unforgettable event. Not to forget the photographic memories we now have to share with all of you! After a long and enlightening day, we joined Abraham Lincoln and Moss Point High School for a delicious, traditional dinner with tempura.

Right as we left the restaurant, the slight drizzle quickly transitioned to pouring rain. However, no need to fright, convenient stores were around every corner! As we battled through rain, we finally found ourselves at the Tokyo Train Station. All of us were quite surprised at how similar their transportation system was to ours. The train got crowded very quickly. We got off at the last stop and arrived at Shibuya. This is where we began out shopping session, or at least tried. It was very big and different from our American malls. Shibuya has streets with shops next to each other along the long streets, so it was easy to get lost. Before leaving for our shopping, sensei told us about walking back down the hill to get back to our meeting spot, so we didn’t worry too much. Some shops had the cutest things, but were very expensive! Some of us wandered around looking for things we liked, but ended up buying nothing, while others decided to save up. By this time, the rain had subsided and at 10:00 p.m., we met at our meeting spot and took the train back to our hotel. We were even at the world’s biggest train station in Tokyo! After that, we went back to our rooms and that is the wrap up of our exciting day! By the way, Malgosia, Amy L., Amy H., and Kelly would like to say that we are having a great time and that we miss you Family and Friends!!


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