Today was the second day to cram as much of Tokyo as possible into the hours we were awake. That was the plan for yesterday and it seemed to work well. It was kind of tiring though. I got home at about 10:30 and struggled to stay awake. Finally around 11:30 I fell asleep. I was kind of disappointed because the next day I heard there tremors from an earthquake around midnight. I did not feel any of them because I was sound asleep on my futon.

Our plan this morning was to meet at Shibuya station at the statue of Hachi-Ko. I never found out the importance of the statue, but it was a statue of a dog. I got to ride the train all by myself again which was fun. I listened to music on the way, but I didn’t realize how quickly I would get there. I left chidoriocho station at 8:30 and got to to Hachi-Ko 45 minutes before our planned 10:00 am meeting time. So I walked around Shibuya for a little while. It was too early to see any of the people who wear the crazy clothes.

As I walked through the shopping district I noticed how popular BoA, a Korean pop star, was in Japan. On most of the street lamps around Shibuya station I noticed banners advertising the debut of BoA’s new Album. I guess she must sell a lot of records in Japan.

If any of you do not know, Shibuya is a shopping district wear lots and lots of young people go to shop. These young people, mostly girls, wear outrageous styles of clothing. In Shibuya there are even shopping centers strictly devoted to fashion for women between the ages of . This might not sound too odd until you realize that these centers have 5 or 6 floors of shops. Jesse took us into one of these shops and they are almost overpowering on the senses. Each floor has lots of shops which each have their own music blaring. Most of them play American rap music because America is so popular. A lot of the music has explicit lyrics that is not censored. Most of the time it does not matter what is said, just as long as it is American music. On top of all the loud music, which each store plays, there are lots of lights, mirrors and strong perfume smells. For me it made the experience somewhat disorienting. I did, however, feel at home when we passed a small clothing store playing a rap song by Tupac.

A little later in the morning Kumi, Jesse and I, along with another one of Jesse’s friends, Tomoe, met at Hachi-Ko. Afterwards we went to a cafe and had some coffee. I do not want to be an evangelist for Apple, but I have to tell this quick story. The night before Kumi’s memory stick in her camera had an error, so it stopped working. She had two other memory sticks, but they were full, so she could not take any more photos on the trip. Instead of not taking any more photos I was able to import the photos from her good memory sticks into iPhoto. She was able to clear them and start taking more photos and I was able to burn the photos to cds, so she could save them. I was happy that we could do this, so Kumi could have her own photos on the trip.

After we visited Shibuya we made our way to Roppongi HIlls. This is an upscale shopping district with lots of shops and boutiques. It might be like taking Bellevue Square mall and combing it with the park across the street and Galleria, but you would need to add a radio station, tv station, car dealership, a huge hotel and a museum. That pretty much sums it up. We didn’t really plan on staying very long because we needed to go to the Tokyo tower. When we arrived we decided that we would split up since Kumi and Tomoe needed to shop and Jesse and I wanted to look around.

Jesse and I walked around for a while and took photos. Eventually we ended up walking down to the Roppongi Hills Arena which has a small fountain. We noticed that there was a large group of people gathering at the end near the street. We both walked over there and Jesse asked someone what was going on. I kid you not, the response was ‘We don’t know’. I guess people just joined in because other people were waiting. Eventually we figured out that a Japanese pop star named Utada Hikaru was coming. She will be releasing an album in the United States soon and she has been gearing up to go to the U.S. and debut her album. As part of this she had an interview at J-Wave Keyakizaka Station where we were waiting outside. We waited and waited and she finally arrived. After she went into the building everyone started to leave, but since Jesse and I knew she had to come out eventually we went straight to the front. After her interview she came out and we took a couple of good photos even though the security did not want us to. We plan on printing the photos out and sending them to her fan club. Haha, we are such dorks. At the time I did feel like a teenage girl, but man I could not pass up a chance to see a Japanese pop star while I was in Japan.

After all of that hubbub we went to a small vietnamese cafe where we all had some vietnamese coffee. We ended up resting there and charging our camera batteries for a while, so also ate some pho for dinner.

When we were done eating we went rode the train to Tokyo tower. Jesse said it was a lot better at night. At first I was a little skeptical, but I am glad we went at night. I thought that taking pictures during the day from the top would have been nicer, but now I think they all would have ended up looking the same and anyways, the tower looked a lot nicer at night. The tower is more like the Eiffel Tower than the space needle and it is colored orange and white. With all of the lights shining on it from the base it really contrasted with the dark night sky. The tower has two observation decks. One is at 150 meters, which is still shorter than the space which is 200 meters tall. However, the second observation deck, where we also went, is at 250 meters. The view at 250 meters was really nice and we were able to pick out all the places we had gone before like Ropponghi hills and Akihabara and Odaiba. An interesting fact about the tower is that at 333 meters tall it is 13 meters taller than the Eiffel Tower, making it the tallest self supporting steel tower in the world. Also, at 4,600 tons is weighs 2,400 tons less than the Eiffel Tower.

We walked around the tower for a while and took a bunch of photos. We even stood above a piece of glass that looks straight down to the ground. It was not too scary after a while, but the first I stood on it my stomach did a couple turns. When I put my first foot on it was ok because my other foot was on solid ground. As soon I would lift up my second foot to put it on the glass I would get a little scared, but then after having both my feet on it I was ok. Kumi felt the same way, but the whole time Jesse had no problem, so he kept stepping on and off to see what our problem was. I thought it was funny.

After seeing the tower we all went to our respective homes. This time Jesse was able to not worry so much since I knew how to get to my hostel and I had his phone number, unlike the night before.

Last night was the last night at Mr. Miwa’s home. This morning I packed up all my stuff and headed for the Ryokan Kangetsu. This is a small hotel in Tokyo. Jesse was able to book me a room in it for three nights, so that we would be able to explore Tokyo together this weekend. The Miwa’s drove to the company where Jesse works and then we picked him up. Then they drove us to Ichikawa station. From the station this is how we got to my hotel:

1. From Ichikawa station to Tokyo station on the Sobu line.

2. From Tokyo station to Gotanda station on the Yamanote line.

3. From Gotando station to Chidoriocho station on the Ikegami line.

My hotel is about half a block from the station. When I exit the station I just walk to the other end of the station and turn right. After I walk half a block the hotel is on the left hand side. It is a nice and small little place. There are a lot of trees between buildings, so it is nice. Jesse was able to help me check in and everything. My room is very simple. When I open the door and step inside there is a sink to my left and a shelf above the air conditioner to my right. On the opposite wall is a cabinet for clothes. There is also a low shelf with a small tv. The floor is covered in mats except for the small portion in front of the door and under the sink. The futon that I sleep covers about half the floor. I think the room is about 7 ft x 10 ft. Since I am only going to be sleeping while I am in the room it seems suitable.

After I got settled Jesse and I hopped back on the train to meet one of his friends that he met from the UW. Her name is Kumi. She is really nice and friendly. Before she came to Tokyo she was in Osaka. Osaka is her home town, so she spent time visiting her family.

The first stop of the tour of Tokyo was the Hamarikyu Gardens. This garden was originally owned by many different shoguns starting from the mid 1600′s. After earthquakes and wars the garden was still in the same spot. In 1946 the imperial family, who owned the garden at the time, gave it to the city of Tokyo. The city then opened it to the public and in 1952 it was designated as a site with historical significance. The park is very close to Tokyo bay and the lake within the park is the only saltwater lake within Tokyo, it is named Shioiri-no-ike. There are gates in the park which regulate the water level according to the tide. Within the lake there are many different types of saltwater fish including sea bass and eels.

There is a small island on the lake which has a small tea house. This tea house was built in 1704 and is called Nakajima-no-ochaya. All three of us went to the tea house and had a traditional tea ceremony. The atmosphere was very peaceful and the view of the lake was nice as well. There is a special process that everything must be done when participating in the tea ceremony. First you are given a small piece of ‘cake’. It is made of rice, so that is the best way I can describe it even though it is the wrong way to describe it. In any case, it is a sweet piece of food which is suppsed to compliment the slight bitterness of the tea. After you eat the cake then you can drink the tea. If there are multiple people doing this at the same then the person furthest to the right starts. The person to their left cannot begin eating until the person to the right has started. This is true for each part of the process. After the cake has been finished then you may start drinking tea. You have to grab the bowl of tea with both hands. Then you rotate the bowl two or three times. Man, I already forgot. Anyways, each time you rotate it a little bit in the clockwise direction. Then you can drink the tea. The tea is suppsed to be dranken in three sips. On the third sip you are supposed to finish the tea and make a sipping sound while doing it. Then you are suppsed to wipe the lip of the bowl and inspect the beauty of the bowl. Then you can place the bowl down and you are done. The tea ceremony was a really peaceful and fun experience and I would recommend that anyone going to Tokyo should do it.

After we finished the ceremony we walked around the lake and then left the park. On the way back to the train station we went to the top of a skyscraper which overlooked Hamarikyu Gardens. We took a few photos and looked around, but since the weather was overcast we did not spend too much time there. Afterwards Jesse took us to Starbucks to get matcha cream frappucinos (greeb tea frappucino) and curry doughnuts (like jelly filled doughnut, but there is curry not jelly). I am going to see if I can find these when I get back to Seattle.

After the small snack at starbucks we headed to Akihabara, or Electric Town. This place was definitely interesting. Imagine a bunch of shops right next to each other with lots of bright lights and flashing signs. Then think of almost anything you would want to buy related to cameras, computers and other electical things. Then multiply that times ten and then you have Akihabara. In Akihabara we went to a used cd store where you could buy all sorts of music. Jesse found one cd he wanted for fifty cents. We left the cd store and then headed to a computer store that also sold books. Jesse asked a clerk where the 3D Animation books were and he guided us to them. Within seconds I was able to find ‘Softimage 3D Fundamentals’, a book written by Anthony Rossano, my boss at Mesmer! We sneakily took a picture, so I could send it to him.

We planned to head to Odaiba after Akihabara and ride the ferris wheel. We still went to Odaiba, but we could not ride the ferris wheel because it was pourind down rain. We still took the monorail over the Rainbow Bridge to Odaiba to have fun. Odaiba has what is called Tokyo Disney Land. There are a lot of amusements rides and shopping centers for tourists. We went to one of the large shopping centers to eat dinner. We found a Soba restaurant and we ate some soba for dinner. I was kind of disappointed when Jesse told me that he did not know where any soba restaurants in Seattle were.

After we ate it was still raining and the ferris wheel was closed, so we went to Joypolis. This is sega’s version of gameworks because apparently sega is still really big in Japan. The inside was very similar to gameworks in Seattle, but the games were different and they had attractions for movies. We spent some time walking around and looking at things, but we did not ride anything big because it was expensive to ride anything and we were all pretty tired. However, we did play a fun arcade game. It was a game where you played the Taiko drum. It was like DDR for the Taiko drum. We had a blast doing this.

Once we were done having fun it was time to head home. After we got off the monorail we went different directions and I took the train home by myself. Even though it was my first time riding the train by myself it was not too bad since I had travelled the route before and had been riding the trains for a couple days.

Now I am about ready to head to bed because I am exhausted. Jet lag has caused me to wake up at about 5:30 in the morning each day since i have arrived.

Tonight Jesse and Hiroko came over to the Miwa house to eat Maki Sushi. Maki means hand, so we ate hand rolled sushi. All of the ingredients were on the table with a big bowl of rice in the middle. We got to choose what we wanted to eat and rolled everything ourself. Mr. Miwa made me a couple rolls with lots of wasabi to see if I could handle it. It wasn’t too bad. I also got to try nato beans. These are fermented soy beans. I ate them in a roll. They tasted kind of sour, but it was alright. If given the choice I would not have eaten it on my own.

After a couple of hours of chatting, eating sushi and drinking it was time to head to bed. Before everyone left Hiroko and Jesse and I went downstairs to chat.

It was a great evening. I had a lot of fun eating the sushi which tasted very good because the ingredients were so fresh. Also I think that practicing English with Hiroko and Mr. Miwa was a lot of fun. They asked me some questions about English which were very hard to answer. Now Jesse and I want to have a make sushi party in Seattle. I think it will be a lot of fun.

Today was another day spent touring Japan with Mr. Miwa. Instead of using bicycles, today we used the trains. Rather than staying in Chiba area we went further into Tokyo.

Our day started out pretty early like yesterday. After breakfast we walked through Mr. Miwa’s neighborhood and down to Yagiri bus station. Along the way we chatted about the differences between Japan and America, like how street signs are cooler in Japan because they have cartoons on them. Also we talked about building roads is different because the homes are built first and then the roads are built, so in more rural areas the roads are not on a grid system and they are very narrow.

We rode the bus to Ichikawa train station on the same bus line that I rode from Ichikawa station the Mr. Miwa’s house before. When we got to the station we rode the train to Ryogoku station and got off.

Right outside the station is a Kokugikan. Kokugikan is translated as ‘national game center’. Kokugi means ‘national game’ and kan means ‘center’. The national game that has competitions in this stadium is sumo wrestling. It was neat to see a sumo stadium. The stadium is a lot like Key Arena in Seattle. It was probably a little smaller. In the center of the floor was a raised area where the ring was. Around the ring is where people sit in chairs. Around the floor is the ‘luxury’ seating. This is simply a small fenced off area where fans and their families can kneel down or sit to watch the matches and eat food. This was the first deck of seating. The second deck was where the cheaper seats were and these are the same as seating you would find a baseball stadium. In the entrance to the stadium their is a display of famous sumo wrestlers and their sumo wrestling outfits. It is the sumo equivalent of hanging NBA jerseys in the rafters. Just outside the stadium is a tower where during each day of the 15 day sumo tournaments traditional sumo music is played on a taiko drum to signify the opening of the matches.

After visiting the Kokugikan Mr. Miwa and I went to the Edo Museum which was right nearby. We visited two exhibitions. The first was ‘The Hermitage’. This was an exhibition about Catherine the Great and her dynasty. The paintings were very nice. I really liked the painting titled ‘Mary Magedellina going to Heaven’. I thought it was odd because it depicted Mary rising to heaven with some angels. What stood out was that some of the angels were only heads with wings. I am not famililar with art or religion during that period, so I can not tell whether it was normal to paint such things when dealing with heaven, or was this painting odd at that time too. Besides the painting I also liked the detailed porcelain work and Catherine the Great’s golden carriage.

After viewing this exhibit we went upstairs to see the exhibit on Edo, Old Tokyo. This was very interesting because there were a lot of life-size replicas side by side with many miniature models. The museum had built a life size model of the Nihombashi Bridge and Mr. Nakamura’s Kabuki. Most of the exhibits in the Edo section of the museum dealt with the social systems of Old Tokyo and how they changed over time. Unfortunately a lot of the descriptions were in Japanese, so I did not get to read all of them, but I did get to read about the governmental structures in neighborhoods. It was very similar to how a city is run today, but it was on a smaller scale. You would have a neighborhood of a few square blocks. Each of these would be responsible for fire prevention and policing. Each of these little districts would have their own governor as well. All of these governors would individually meet with their district then meet with the others, much like all other town meetings.

When we were done visiting the museum we took one train and one subway to get to Asakusa. Asakusa is a place for tourists to go and it has a lot of temples and shrines, as well as many many little shops. Today was a Friday, so their were not too many people, but still there were a lot. Jesse told me that when he went people were bumping into people all over the place. After walking down the road leading straight to the temple we went inside. Inside the temple I got a fortune. The way it works is that you pay 100 yen to shake a metal container. On one end there is a small hole. After you shake the container for a while you tip it so a wooden stick comes out of the end. The stick has a number on it. This number is on one of the drawers in a big cabinet in front of you. When you find your drawer you open it and take your fortune. If it is good you have to keep it with you all the time. If it is bad you tie it to a rack in the temple. Luckily I did not have to tie mine to the rack.

When we were done visiting the temple we did some more walking around the area. There were a lot of little shops where people sold all sorts of things from kitchen wares to shoes to food. There were even a few places to play pachinko.

Once we had our fill of walking we got on the subway again and we went to Ueno park. This was a very big park with a lake, a bunch of museums and a zoo. I guess I could liken the park to central park in New York or maybe Golden Gate park in San Fransisco. We walked around and took some photos. We passed the lake which had lotus plants growing on it. They stood a couple feet off of the water, but there were no blossoms because it was too late in the summer.

Finally it was time to head home on the train. It was a nice ride because of all the walking we did. Mr. Miwa said it was more than a few miles according to his pedometer. Right now we are relaxing and getting ready for the sushi dinner we are going to have tonight.

Last night I slept on a futon on the third floor of Miwa-san’s home. I was a little worried about jet lag making me want to sleep for a really long time. I was also worried about the heat disrupting my sleep. It must have been the futon I slept on because I slept really well and I woke up 5:30 am this morning.

Mr. and Mrs Miwa are the people I am staying with. Jesse did a really great job finding them for me to stay with. Jesse works in the same research company as Mrs. Miwa. They were kind enough to let one of Jesse’s friends stay with them. Mr. Miwa is a retired business man who used to work for Unisys, a maker of large computers (second only to IBM). Mr. Miwa also worked for Yahoo! BB in Japan after he worked for Unisys. Now he is retired and he is able to show me around the Chiba prefecture in Japan.

Today I got to do something really fun with Mr. Miwa. Mr. Miwa took me on a tour on bicycles. I thought it was a really fun and authentic way to see the area.

During the first half of the bike ride we went to a few parks in his neighborhood. The parks were really nice and peaceful. The first park had a nice long lake with a path around it, so we walked from one end of the park to another. I liked the pond because it had a bunch of turtles in it. After walking to the other end of the park we rode our bikes to another park and took a few photos. I really liked the parks because they had buildings with traditional style architecture. After seeing these parks and a few museums in the area I was really impressed with how perservation of older society and culture is widespread. It is probably similar to America, but I probably do not notice historical preservation signs when I am in Seattle parks. I think I will try to do that more when I get back to Seattle. Also, the number of shrines and temples still standing might be because this area has been inhabited for a much much longer period of time than Seattle or many places in America.

Anyways, back to the fun we had. After visiting the parks on the hill we rode them down to the Edo river. Edo is the old name for Tokyo. On the Edo river there is a small boat which ferries people across the river for 100 yen or one american dollar. I was impressed by the boat master’s ability to steer the boat. He used what seemed to be a large rudder to paddle and steer at the same time. This might be something easy to people who paddle the boats, but I am used to row boats, which don’t have rudders, and other small boats that only use rudders to steer and not to propel itself.

On the other side of the river Mr. Miwa and I were going to Shibamata, Tokyo. Our first stop was Tai Shak Ten. It is a Bhuddist temple open to visitors. After I washed my hands and cleaned myself with incense smoke we walked around the temple. This template had lots of ornate wood carving and one section of the building has been enclosed in glass. I think it is for two reasons, one to help preserve the carvings and, two, to make it easy to charge money. After walking around and appreciating the temple, the detailed carvings and the cleanliness of the temple we went to eat lunch. Directly opposite to the entrance of the temple is an old stone street with lots of little shops. Mr. Miwa chose a nice little restaurant where we ate tendon. Tendon is tempura with rice.

After eating we headed back across the river because it was starting to sprinkle. When it rains the boat master stops running his ferry. We did not want to be stuck in Shibamata because we would have had to walk a couple of miles to get back the other side by crossing the closest bridge. When we reached the dock it looked like the boat master was gone, but the flag was still up, so Mr. Miwa had another man yell across the river. Luckily the boat was still there, so he heard the yelling and came across the river to pick us up. I really liked taking the ferry because I don’t think I would have taken the ferry if I had not been staying with the Miwa family.

After crossing the river we rode our bikes to the company where Jesse works. It seems like a pretty discrete location. After talking with Jesse I know that they do some pretty interesting and cutting edge research. If I was to see the company without knowing this I would not have guessed because it looks like a pretty normal office compound in a residential neighborhood.

The next stop was the local supermarket because it is the Izakaya (pub) where I will be practicing English with Jesse’s coworkers tonight. After a short walk in the store it was time to head back home and relax and share the photos we took that day.

This summer Jesse has been working at a research company where he does reseaarch half of the time, but the other half of the time he teach business communications to people in his department. Jesse has shared stories with his students about his friends, so naturally they knew who I was and that I was coming to Japan. Jesse was going to try and have me come to class at work, but that was too difficult. However, Jesse’s coworker came up with a great idea. Rather than me going to where they work, instead, I would join them at the local Izakaya where the usually eat and drink and practice their conversational english.

We all had a great time together at the Izakaya. We ordered dishes of food, like yakitori, ngiri and some dishes I have never tried before. The atmosphere was really nice because we had our own tatame room, so we were able to be laugh and be loud. I felt like I was back in Seattle having dinner with all my friends.

After a couple hours of sharing stories it was time to head home because it was alreaady past my curfew. I have to thank Jesse for calling Mrs. Miwa to let her know. After we said goodbyes we walked backed to the Miwa house. Mr. Miwa and I had travelled the route from the top of the hill near the Izakaya to his home three times that day, so I was able to remember it. This was good because Jesse or Hiroko did not know where we were going. Earlier in the day I found all sorts of landmarks on the way to remember the path back. Since I did not know street names these were the directions I made:

1. Walk behind the Izakaya, turn left where you see the clinic and the McDonald’s.

2. Go down the hill until the lot where the kids were fighting with rocks and plastic swords.

3. Turn right at the park.

4. Go a block and turn towards the vending machines.

5. Walk until I see a poster of the prime minister and turn left. He looks kind of like Richard Gere, so you can’t miss him.

6. Walk up the road until you see a blue wall and turn right at the end.

Somehome, this managed to work in the dark and we got home safely. Now it is time to go to bed since I need to get rest for our trip to Tokyo tomorrow.

Well last night did not go as planned. I guess I can also procrastinate in packing just like I can in school. Because it was my last night in the United States I called up Sandra to talk. She and my mom also had a nice long conversation about my visit in Florida. They got along real well. After talking on the phone for a while I also cleaned the kitchen floor because I know it would be hard on my mom’s back and I can do it much faster. Then I had to pack a box of stuff to send to Seattle and anyways, I didn’t get to bed until 4:00 am. That was not very good since I needed to wake up at 5:00 am to get ready to leave.

Getting to Miami Airport was not very hard at all. It only took about an hour to get to the airport and parked. Check in was easier this week than last. Because of my experience at Sea-Tac I had the foresight to take my new skateboard apart and put it inside my backpack. Since we were a little early my mom and I went to Starbucks and bought coffee. We sat down for a while and chatted about the trip and where I would be stying in Japan. My mom thought it was bad for me to go to Japan and taking the train by myself without knowing Japanese. I said goodbye to my mom and went through security. The security seemed to be extra rigorous at Miami International Airport, but I think it was only because there were no other passengers and security was bored. One lady looked at my camera and had to open it twice just so she could check it out. Then I overheard her and a coworker talking about pot.

When I was waiting at my gate for the plane to arrive I was surprised to see Sug Knight, president and CEO of Death Row Records come to wait for the same plane. He is actually a pretty big person, but he is not really tall. Before the flight he bought some food at Burger King for him and his friend.

My flight to Los Angeles was really boring. I had a window seat so I took a few photos along the way. Check them out, here. I spent a bit of time trying to nap. The only exciting thing was the amount of smog in Los Angeles. After landing I got some quarters and called my brother to tell him that I was going to fly to Japan. After our conversation I boarded to plane and took off for Japan. There are also pictures of my flight into Japan in the gallery.

My flight to Japan was a lot more exciting even though at 11 hours, it was 6 hours longer than the 5 hour flight to Los Angeles. On the flight I did a lot of readin and I almost finished Fellowship of the Ring. I also met a nice girl from Korea. We sat next to each other on the flight. Her name was Hae Lee and she was returning home. This summer she had an internship in Sacremento for something related to dentistry. I think she liked talking with me because she was learning English. To make more conversation with her I showed her pictures of my friends. She said that my girl friends are beautiful. After I showed her photos I let her listen to my Korean music. I think she was really surprised that I had Korean music. When we landed in Japan she told me ‘Good luck in Japan’ and I told her ‘Have a nice flight home’.

The Narita Airport is a really nice airport and I think it is one of the nicer airports I have been in on this trip. The top 3 airports would be Sea-Tac, Narita and the new terminal in Detroit. Ft Lauderdale is not too bad, but I think that Miami International Airport and LAX are not very nice airports. It was very easy to go through customs and get my baggage. I think that the customs official did not want to deal with me very much since I did not speak any Japanese. As soon as he said I could go I went to buy a train ticket.

Riding the train was a little scary for me since I am not familiar with the train lines and I don’t know any Japanese. Jesse had given me instructions to take the Sobu Sen line to Ichikawa. I was able to find the JR Line to Ichikawa right away so I bought a ticket. Afterwards I was worried that these two lines were different lines and that they would go in different directions. Fortunately when I got downstairs I was able to read that they were the same line. Later Jesse told me that JR is the name of the company and Sobu Sen is the name of the route. The train ride was pleasant and it gave me a chance to sit down. I also got to see a lot of the country side near Tokyo. Looking out of the train windows reminded me of when Sen rode the train in Spirited Away.

I got to Ichikawa station successfully, but this is where a small detail in Jesse and I’s plans to meet was forgotten. I knew which station to meet Jesse at, but the station had many exits, so I did not know where to meet Jesse. I went out of an exit that I chose randomly since I did not know where any of them went to. I went outside and then walked towards the bus depot because I thought Jesse might be waiting there. … but he wasn’t. I saw a pay phone and since i knew Jesse’s cell phone number I decided to try and call him. Unfortunately I got a crash course in how to attempt and fail to make a local phone call from an international pay phone. Apparently in Japan there are two types of pay phones, one for local calls and one for international calls. After this didn’t work is when I started to really worry about what I would do if I could not find Jesse. The thought of being in Japan by myself was a little scary. I decided to relax a little and try looking for him again. I went back into the station through another entrance and I was able to spot Jesse leaning against a pole really quickly. I don’t think I have ever been so relieved to see Jesse before.

After we met he took me to a nice little restaurant where we ate pork tonkatsu and had a beer. I did not drink much since I was very tired. At this point I had been awake for almost 40 hours with only a few naps that didn’t last longer than an hour each. After dinner Jesse showed me how to use the phone. Then we bought some cake for my host family, the Miwa family. That night I also got a crash course on how to ride the bus in Japan. It is really similar to Seattle except you always pay when you get off. Also the layout of the seats is different on the bus. The biggest difference is that people are charged by how far they go. There is an electronic sign on the inside of the bus which tells how much people have to pay based upon a number they pick up when they get on the bus. The bus is also more expensive than in Seattle. It costs about $3 to go from my host families home to the Ichikawa station and the ride is only about 15-20 minutes. On second thought, the bus systems are pretty different.

I met with the Miwa family and we talked about how long I would stay and what we would do. We also talked about the curfew and when I would wakeup and shower and eat breakfast. I was pretty tired because of the layover and walking around, so I went to bed a little early and Jesse walked home to his dormitories from Miwa-san’s home.