Hello all!
Thank you for your patience in waiting for our latest updates! We lost about 16 hours when we flew across the Pacific, and have been really jet lagged, so finding time to tell you about what we’ve been up to has been challenging!
On Tuesday morning our class all got back together again, after a 3 day break, at the Portland Airport. We then flew a 10 1/2 hour flight to Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan. It was a really long flight, but we got to enjoy a broad assortment of entertainment including many movies, tv shows, games and music. I made the most of it and caught up on some newer movies I have been too busy to see. I managed to fit in 4 movies: Into the Woods (which Holly also watched and has been singing snipets from since we got here), The Maze Runner, Cinderella (the new live action version), and Big Hero 6 (which I am pretty sure is in my top movies of all time list). We also figured out how to utilize the game system so that we could play trivia against each other and had a digital Texas Hold ’em Poker game between Maya, Christian, Ryoko, and I. We also got served Dinner, Ice Cream, and Breakfast on the plane, which were all surprisingly delicious for airplane food.
We finally landed in Tokyo on Wednesday afternoon (most of us didn’t really sleep on the plane, so we have been a little confused as to which day it is). We caught a bus from the airport that took us through Tokyo to our hotel.
After we got all checked in (it was a really nice hotel in Shinagawa) we ventured out on the subway system to Shibuya where Ryoko took us to a traditional Japanese restaurant, and ordered a variety of different dishes for us to try. It was an interesting experience. We had sushi, a cooked open face fish, some yummy potsticker things called gyoza (don’t quote me on the spelling, but I think that’s what they’re called) and some little crunchy shrimp that you eat whole that were salty and were kind of like potato chips.
After we left the restaurant, we went to Shibuya crossing to see all the lights and people. It was a fun experience, but we were so tired from travelling (and the fact that it was 4 am back home) that we didn’t stay very long. We did get to see the famous Hachiko dog statue at the train station though!
The next morning we had breakfast at our hotel. It was one of the nicest hotel restaurants I have ever seen. They had a buffet style breakfast, full of a wide variety to foods, most of which I had never seen before. We tried a little bit of a lot of different things, but the best part was the view. The entire restaurant was surrounded by a beautiful garden. The part we sat in was right up against a pond where we could see Koi fish and a Heron landed there during our meal too.
After breakfast we went back to Shinagawa station and took a train to the Haneda Airport, and then flew to Akita airport. Akita International University sent a bus to pick us up at the airport and bring us back to the school. When we arrived at the school, we were given our room assignments in Komachi Hall, a freshman residence hall, where we are each staying with a Japanese student studying at AIU. My roommate is Tomomi and she is really nice.
A big thanks to Holly for letting me utilize her pictures!
