back to SF

helloooooooooo its toyomi!
i know our trip is over, but i just wanted to upload some pictures we took for the last few days!
ive been to japan at least 5 times, but this trip has been the most memoriable and the best trip ive had!
thank you sensei for taking us everywhere and planning this whole trip.
and thanks to everyone who went on this trip!
this trip would have not been this great if you guys werent there.

RINAAAAAA i know youre reading this.
ahahahaha thank you for spending time with us!
it was soooooo fun seeing you!
disneyland was a funnnn!!!
weeeeeeeeeee


sensei! thank you for letting rina and rie stay with us for the last 3 days!!
osewa ni narimashita


i know this is a random post, but yeah enjoy hahaha

FINAL DAY

Hello all, this is Hadrian. Sadly our time in Japan is drawing close to an end. Honestly, the feeling didn't hit me until I had started packing for tomorrow's flight back to San Francisco. Everyday was surprising and entertaining. There was so much one could possibly do on this trip, and only two and a half weeks to do it.

Everyday I learned something new about this country and myself. Everyday I had fun and garnered memories. Everyday I was shocked, surprised and astounded at what this tiny island nation had to offer to a tourist [sorry miami]. Everyday I got lost, only barely managing to make it back to my nights accommodations through a bizarre mix of luck, and my embarrassingly broken japanese.

From the mean streets of Asakusa to the quiet countryside of Miyazaki, there was so much to see, do and experience. One things for sure, the experience of trying to translate the song "Bohemian Rhapsody" into japanese for a middle-aged housewife is one I'll never forget. And this is just my own experience. When you next see whoever you've been following this blog for, be sure to ask them as much about this trip as you can.

And so, with a suitcase full of gifts and souvenirs, and exactly 390 yen to my name, I bid good night to Japan one last time.

Roppongi hills and our penultimate day

Hello all you blog followers [or at least followers of this blog], this is Hadrian talking about how everyone spent what is close to our final day here in japan.

Because of the freedom many people went to see different parts of Tokyo today. One of the reasons we had today free of itinerary was that Steven was staying with his uncle overnight and couldn't join us for most of the day. And he wasn't the only meeting up with friends in japan. Today, many of the girls went out and had lots of fun Karoke-ing with new or old friends who they will have difficulty seeing again very soon. Although apparently close to each other on a map, the U.S. and Japan are separated by an ocean which is much vaster than you'd expect. Especially when it is keeping us from loved ones.

I also met with close Japanese tomodachi [friends], and we had a great time. My old friend Toshifumi and his mother, having lived their lives in Mito found Tokyo as new to them as it was to me. However that didn't stop us from seeing as much as we could. We revisited old spots that our group had seen earlier [Shibuya, Akihabara] to give them a more thorough tourist investigation.

Finally, when the stars came out, the whole group met up again to gaze at the view from beautiful Roppongi Hills. A mixed media/residential shopping area, Roppongi Hills is reminiscent of San Francisco's Sea Cliff-an escape from the bustle of the city for the wealthy and well-off.

In Roppongi Hills we went to the top of the Mori Tower on the 52nd floor to get a sky-side view of Tokyo. Tokyo at night, from that height, was breath-taking, wondrous, and captivating to say the least. Although photos were difficult in the dim lighting, the memories of that view will easily last me a lifetime. A fitting end to one of our last days on this amazing trip.

The Nakahara Experience

Hello again everyone! This is Steven Ichikawa here again to give a rundown on our Japan trip! Today I am going to talk about my stay with the Nakahara Family (Mom, Dad, Ryosuke, Sayo, Daichi, and Naoto). First of all I wanna say that I am glad to write this blog because I had a really great time and if anyone else had half the experience I did then they would be elated.

Okay so after I went home to their home, I was welcomed with open arms and full plates of food. It was my first time eating Shabu Shabu and it was delicious. After we watched Tonari no Totoro which is a pretty popular anime movie. To wrap up the night we had cake bought from Chopin Patisserie. Best blueberry cheescake in awhile.

In the morning we had a pretty traditional Japanese breakfast consisting of rice, miso shiro, bacon, fish, and salad. Nothing beats homemade haha. During the early afternoon I attended Ryosuke, Sayo, Daichi, and Naoto`s gymnastics practice. I was really amazed at how athletic they are. The flipping, rolling, jumping they were doing is like stuff you see on TV. Very impressive, really. After, we had Ramen at Jyuu Hachi Ban. It was also delicious. Notice a pattern with the delicious foods here haha? Afterwards, we went to a few malls to spend quality time and well, buy stuff. Upon returning home I had a warm bath and intend to fall asleep rather quickly.

Now that I gave a quick breakdown of the weekend, I wanna talk about how surprised I was at how nice and awesome this family is and how beautiful Miyazaki really is. When i heard we were visiting the countryside the firzt thing I thought was `Red Necks.` I was completely wrong. The area is surrounded by beautiful nature everywhere. It wasn`t just flat plains, there are mountains, waterfalls, forests, etc. Like Japanese Lord of the Rings, yeah? Anyway about the Nakahara family, everyone is THE BESSSSTTTTTT. Mommy and Daddy are definitely parents of the year material and mu little siblings are so cute OY MHY GOD! And then Ryosuke is chill too plus he can flip and stuff and he`s ripped as hell, no joke. Definitely a great and memorable time. The family paid my way for basically everything and they loaded me with gifts. Words really can`t express what a great and close knit family they are.

To conclude I just wanna talk about the impact of Japanese pop culture. Some of you may have heard of Arashi, a popular Japanese singing group. Now I like Arashi, but I didn`t realize how much of an impact they had on the youth and even the older generations here. You know if you can make a 7 year old boy cry and have a whole family know lyrics to your songs that you are really really really famous haha.

Okay that`s all for now, just wanna give a quick shoutout to the Nakahara family, I love you guys and THANNKS FOR EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yeah. Till next time, be easy people!

-Steven.