Persuasion - Go to Japan!

Japan is a country filled with many beautiful sights and places to visit but why should you, a person enjoying the comfort of your home, decide to go visit there? Japan is a country with such an amazing culture and background and being able to visit this country is just an amazing experience to go through and will be a permanent mark in your life if you decided to go visit this country. Last year a record of 19.7 million overseas visits were recorded last year which is a massive number and just goes to show that Japan is truly remarkable and that it isn't uncommon for people wanting to go travel there to gaze upon the sights this country holds. Have you ever just went outside and just marveled at a beautiful garden you saw or even just a single flower you saw in your yard? Well, imagine seeing a country where everywhere you turned was a beautiful garden with beautiful trees like the Sakura Tree (Cherry Blossom Tree) with petals that floated in the wind just giving off a sense of belonging and that that's where you are supposed to be. Maybe you don't care much for flowers or trees and the beauty but Japan is also highly advanced in technology also. Japan has been making a lot of prototypes for robots and artificial intelligence which is something amazing to just experience and see. The technology in Japan is one of the most iconic things about Japan so if you are into computers and technology that is years ahead and only seen in the comic books then you should go to Japan to make what you believed to be unreal actually real.  Japan isn't just a country or just an island, it is a stunning world beauty that can only be experienced first hand and not by some pictures on the internet so if you are planning to go somewhere where the culture is booming and filled with many vivid colors and technology you could only imagine to be real that will make your eyes swell up with tears of just pure beauty and leave you in a state of just pure awe then Japan is the place to be.

August 15th - Fly back to USA - Travel

On the morning of August 15th everyone woke up and decided to pack up immediately (except for Zuhare because he was too busy looking at how to be a Genji main because he's bad). As we finished packing up we decided to just chill for the rest of the day because our days in Japan were coming to an end so we decided to just chill this day and enjoy the scenery of Japan near our hotel room. Chase proceeds to go to the bathroom (which takes him about 30min) and we decide to go and grab some breakfast. As we come back with some breakfast Chase is finally out of the bathroom and as we finish eating breakfast we put on our fire Js and head out. It was a hot day at around 90 degrees Fahrenheit but it was still a beautiful day nonetheless. Everyone wore shorts and short sleeve shirts (except for zuhare who wore some baggy skinny jeans) and we just walked around admiring all the sights around our hotel that we stayed at, The trees were a vibrant green and just reminded us of how amazing this whole experience in Japan has been with all the beautiful flowers and gardens around with all of the diverse culture we have experienced with the businessmen all around the streets and the women in the kimonos walking along with them showing just how the culture is in the new age as well as keeping the traditional Japanese culture with it. We decided to go into a Japanese souvenir shop to get a piece of the culture to take home with us. Chase decided to get a Mt. Fuji snow glove, Shamyl decided to get a Japanese lantern, Kush decided to get a Japanese sweatshirt with the Japanese flag on it, Zuhare decided to get a Genji bobble head, and I decided to get a cool pen. We headed back to our hotel room to finish packing and to add our souvenirs to our suitcases and bags while Chase left to go get our rental car back. As we waited for Chase to get back we decided to share our favorite moments in Japan. Shamyls favorite part was the Awa Odori Dance festival because he really enjoyed all the dancing and music involved, Zuhares favorite part was visiting Edo Castle because he really enjoyed the beauty o fit and all the segments in it, Kush's favorite part was the Rakuten Tennis Tournament because he really enjoys tennis and his favorite player was Kei Nishikori who participated in the event, Chases favorite part was the Tokyo Tower because it was just a beautiful sight to see at night, and my favorite part was visiting the Ueno Zoo because of the Giant Panda and the wide variety of animals to see inside. After we recapped our favorite events in Japan it was finally time to leave this amazing country so we got our bags and loaded them in the SUV and drove to the airport. In the airport we got a final glimpse of this amazing culture we have been surrounded by for two weeks and have indulged ourselves in. We finally boarded the plane and all agreed that Japan was the most amazing and beautiful country we have visited. Goodbye Japan, till next time.

Weather: 82 degrees

August 14th - Awa Odori Dance Festival - Culture

It was 10:00 at night we had just arrived in Tokushima and took a cab from the Awa Odori Airport to our hotel, we were all exhausted. Kush and Zuhare were sleeping, Chase was quite drowsy, and Mohir, as usual, was busy watching YouTube. We were all quite excited about our next day in Japan, the day almost all of us, especially me were waiting diligently for, attending the world renown Japanese Awa Odori Festival. We slept as soon as we stepped foot into our hotel room which as any other hotel in Japan was utmost comforting and relaxing, almost everyone other than Mohir slept at the same time, we all wanted to wake up early so that we could get up early have a good breakfast and leave for the festival which normally isn't that crowded in the mornings as the main events are always held during the evening from 6 all the way to midnight. We all woke up at 6 o clock in the morning, Zuhare like always didn't have a shower as he likes to have them at night, while Chase took nearly 30 mins in the bathroom, even Mohir who slept way later than us took only 10 mins to take a shower. Kush also had a shower at night so he didn't feel like taking it in the morning. As soon as we got out of the hotel, we all asked Kush to find a good restaurant that all of us could eat in. He found an Indian Restaurant in Minamishowacho which was like a downtown suburb or county of Tokushima. The food was great, and it felt really good to eat another countries food in Japan.


While throughout the day many small dance events took place, we were preparing more for the big event that would take place at 6:00 and were starting to learn more about what we were going to be getting tonight. We learned through some research that the festival basically in English translates to a fools dance, as according to the legend and facts, in 1587 when the Feudal lord Hachisuka Lamesa in celebration of his newly built Tokushima palace, offered sake a Japanese rice wine to all his people, and his citizens got so drunk at night that started dancing in an unregular and unsteady gait. So we figured out that this dance isn't some practiced dance that took months in preparation, but an every day drunk dance that the Japanese people and over 1.6 million tourists have celebrated yearly. Once the clock hit 6 in Tokushima, the entire city became a massive dance battleground as the city got divided into 6 different stages that were showing both the free dances and the paid dances. For the most part we weren't very worried about our seats, as we had booked our seats for the paid dances nearly a month ago, but we were in a hurry to get good seats for the free performances that took place at 6, because as a lot of Japanese citizens told us that if we didn't arrive at least 1 hr or 2 before the performance started then you wouldn't have any good seats or even any seats left, especially if you're here with 5 of your friends. So we did arrive at 5 and even then we had to look at least 2 rounds before we could find 5 seats for all of us.


The time during dance was honestly both one of the frustrated and exciting parts of the day, as you couldn't even hear or see the folk song and dance clearly, because of the fact that we had to stand up through the nearly ecstatic and exuberant crowd that wouldn't stop cheering and clapping for at least 2 to 3 hrs, but at the same time the dresses and the unique yet common method of dancing that the locals had managed so well made even the free dances completely worth the watch. Once the dance ended, we were really tired and wanted to do something else that didn't involve dance, so we started to go on the lookout for the food and game stalls present in the festival. We could spend enough time playing in the game stalls because our next show would not start until about half an hour later, so we had time to play some of the card and arcade games present during the half time break we had. Once our break time was about to get over, we started to rush towards our paid performance which was about to start in a moment.


The Paid dance that takes place at 10:30 at night was the one we were all looking forward to, all that tension, discipline, and trouble we went through all that day was completely worth it for this performance and the others that took place that night, it was almost jaw dropping as you could literally see Japan's rich culture and history right before your eyes through these simple yet memorable performances of all sorts of demographics in the population, the old, young, middle-aged and the woman. The preparation and dedication that the dance members had to go through was clearly evident by how much me, chase, zuhare and mohir enjoyed it, You would have to see it in order to believe how these absolutely stunning performances have made Awa Odori become one of the most visited festivals in the entire world.

Weather 87

August 13th - Island Shrine of Itsukushima - Culture

When we woke up from the hotel in Hiroshima we had already visited the memorial so we then needed to know if we should go back to Tokyo or go to another place in Hiroshima. Shamyl started to look for places on his phone when he woke up and found a place called Itsukushima Island. The website said that this was a very significant place for the Shinto religion which is a religion in Japan that believes in the worship of ancestors and that life is all around us in everything. It is a Shinto shrine on the island of Isukushima which is why the name is why it is. It's best known for its "floating" torii gate which is in the water and coming out from it. During ancient times many people thought that it  was impossible to build things up from the sea so that's why it is deemed floating. The island is located in the city of Hatsukaichi in the Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. That was all that the site said and so Shamyl went and woke us all up. Mohir was to tired to get up so Shamyl woke him up with a water bottle by pouring it on him. It didn't take us long to get ready and it didn't take long till we were in the car. We googled the directions and we were on our way. Once we arrived at Hatsukaichi we took a boat tp the shrine and got on Itsukushima Island it was a very congested with trees and so we had to ask the man who took us to the island to help us. He accepted and we were on our way, Once we arrived the man said that he had to go because his boat was still on the island and that someone else could have helped us. The new man that we found told us more about it like how the shrine was designed and built on pier like structures over the bay so that it would appear to be floating on the water separate from the sacred island which could be approached by the devout. This fascinated all of us except for Mohir who was playing Clash Royal on his phone the whole time. When we followed the man to the sacred chief shrine for the Shinto religion it kept getting more and more crowded. Mohir ended up bumping into someone which made him ask why it got so populated all of a sudden to which the man answered that the shrine is one of Japan's most popular tourist attractions and is classified as one of the 3 views of Japan. We then finally got to the edge of the building and probably for 10 minutes looked around,even Mohir. Chase asked if we could get a boat ride so we could get even closer but the man said that since we were just tourists and didn't even practice the Shinto religion that we couldn't since it was a sacred sight. Later we were getting tired and decided to go home, when we were on the boat on the way back we saw a fish after Kush turned on the flashlight on his phone. We eventually got back to the car and had to drive all the way to Awa to get there in time for the Awa Odori festival. We all took turns driving like always and that was the end of our day.

August 12th - Hiroshima Peace Memorial - History

It was an over 8 hr drive from Mt Fuji all the way to Hiroshima, we were all utterly exhausted and tired. We hadn't had sleep for over a day, as all 5 of us kept switching gears in order to reach our destination faster. Zuhare and Chase were arguing about how choosing to drive in Japan was of utter waste, and that the decision made couldn't have been worse. Me, Mohir and Kush said that through driving we could explore so many more aspects of Japan that we couldn't explore through Bullet trains or even Planes. Overall even though the car trip was long and tiring, we were witnessing Japan at an eye to eye level that we couldn't have seen from any other means of transportation.

After leaving from Mt Fuji at about 3 am, we drove directly with only 2 short breaks to Hiroshima which was about 443 miles to the west of Japan. The two breaks we took were in the city of Kyoto and Osaka which were two big cities that we absolutely needed to see in order to fully experience  Japan as a whole rather than just some parts. Once we had arrived in Hiroshima it had already become about 11:30 and we desperately needed to find a hotel just to rest in and we found the Hotel Sunroute Hiroshima to rest in for a couple of hours and booked it for the night. After spending some hours sleeping, we started our preparations for leaving for what we had come all the way to Hiroshima for in the first place; the Hiroshima Peace Memorial.

The Hiroshima Peace Memorial was one our most awaited sites during our entire trip, because ever since we were young in school we had been taught about the Atomic Bomb that landed on Hiroshima, and the destruction and mayhem that it had caused for not only the surrounding areas beyond Hiroshima but the entire Japan. The Memorial is the only structure in Hiroshima that was left standing after the onslaught of the Nuclear Bomb. Ever since the attack, on 1949 with the enactment of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial City Construction Law, the new Japanese government decided that the entire district surrounding the memorial would be devoted to peace, and would later on become known as the Peace Memorial Park.

The Park or the Memorial, in general, was quite haunting to look at for all of us in our group, whenever I looked anywhere in that city all I could think of was the destruction and atrocities of World War II both in and out of Japan. There were actually times where I felt like we were in some sort of horror movie environment, with the kind of dark and grayish visuals that was present throughout the memorial. The memorial as said by the UN was retained in order to help cut down nuclear weapons in the world, by reminding us about the horrors that this deadly human weapon could cause any day to day citizen in life.

The entire memorial was overall an absolute marvel to look at, behind all that darkness and destruction that the memorial represented we could peek at the small tiny message hidden beneath all the layers of the memorial, that of world peace and an end to nuclear proliferation. Zuhare was the one who noticed the subtext of why the memorial was retained for so long, before Chase and the others caught on to the message that was so blatantly obvious but we could not see it. Hopefully, no one country has to ever witness the horrors of a nuclear bomb ever again, and just like what the memorial represents can finally achieve world peace. 

August 11th - Mt. Fuji/Mountain Day - Natural Environment/Celebration

Cloudy picture from Mt. Fuji

Natural Environment: As we woke up for an early start at 6 am we already ran into trouble. We only had 1 shower at the hotel and all of us wanted to shower before we left. Only Mohir and Zuhare got to shower because of the amount of time we spend arguing about who got to shower. We should have just played rock paper scissors... We had to be at the base of Mt. Fuji to start the tour by 7:00 so we didn't have much time. We raced into a taxi and told the driver to book it. As we arrived we saw the crowd starting to march off without us so we hurried out the taxi throwing the money we owed at him. We caught up to our travel guide a few short seconds later and asked him what we missed. He introduced himself as Mr. Tanaka and that the tour would take us all day and end around 5 pm. The tour was $154.90 so it better be worth it. As we started our climb I peered over a rock and saw these little lift carts going really far off into the distance... Odd. As we went we walked for about 2 hours with the tour guide explaining the history of the mountain as well as the nearby city of Tokyo as if we hadn't heard it a thousand times already. Everyone took pictures on the way except for poor Shamyl who forgot his phone and camera at the hotel. He remembered putting it on his nightstand and i guess he never got it as we were booking out the door. He kept asking me (Chase) to take a picture of this and that.... it was really annoying after a while but i felt bad for him so i did as he asked. We got told early on that we weren't going to be able to go to the very top because the air was so thin up there and they didn't have enough air masks for everyone. So that was a bummer but at least we got to say that we were on Mt. Fuji. At around 12:30 everyone agreed that they were hungry and the guide knew this from his past expeditions so they purposefully but a classic restaurant right when we got hungry. Guess what it was... McDonald's... great... out of all places or restaurants they put a freaking McDonald's there... like really! Come on! So we sadly ate our McDoubles... each of us got 2 because we were starving. They gave us an hour to eat and so we set off on our journey once again at around 1:30. To be honest i was really disappointed with the rest of the way. The travel guide didn't say much and the scenery was fine but it was cloudy up above so there weren't a lot of good pictures to take. O i almost forgot, you know how i mentioned the lift carts in the distance up above? Yea... well we got to ride one of those! That was my favorite part about the trip because nothing else could really compare. We ended early around 4 oclock because this fantastic tour couldn't get any worse... We called a taxi and on the way back no one really said anything... Except for the fact that that tour sucked. If i ever go again i will make sure to book with a better tour company than JapanICan. Once we got back to the hotel Shamyl even said "I'm glad i didn't take my phone. I wouldn't have used it much. Still though, send me a photo or 2 for memories." We were all exhausted by the time we got back so we just grabbed an early dinner at some Japanese restaurant. I don't remember the name because the food there was ehhh. After our dreadful day we all pretty much shut up and watched TV. We watched some Japanese TV game show but i clocked out in the middle of it and i didn't know what time i fell asleep. I want to say somewhere around 9 but I'm not sure. That was the worst day of our trip, thankfully. We had just gotten started!

Celebration: That day we decided to go to Mt. Fuji because it was Mountain Day. It is a celebration that occurs every August 11th and it started its first celebration in 2016. It is a day for people to celebrate and appreciate mountains and how and why they are there.

It was 86 degrees that day so trekking up Mt. Fuji was fantastic weather, it was a bit foggy as we got higher however. It felt nice that the temperature was getting cooler as we got higher. It probably dropped 5 degrees or something as we got higher so it was really nice. The only downside was that it was humid but that's the only thing that bugged me.

August 10th - Nara City - History

Today we went to Nara City. It is about 5 hour long trip however the beauty of Nara city's ancient ruins like the ones in Todaiji Temple are astounding.  We luckily got a rental car from the airport that was a SUV and so we were not crowded. We took turns driving after we left out hotel at around 6am to reach Nara city by around 11am and since there were 5 of us decided to trade every hour. Unluckily we got to Nara city at 12am instead due to the many bathroom breaks we had to do because of Shamyl and the many food breaks we had to do because of Chase. It was hot that day as well, probably around 88 degrees Fahrenheit, nevertheless once we reached Nara city we went to Todaiji temple straight away which houses the world's largest bronze gilded Buddha. The temple used to be near the Ancient capital of Japan. Although none of us were Buddhists we still admired the craftsmanship that was needed to create the Buddha. We found out that the Buddha was 15 meters which is 49 feet high. Also we didn't know this when we were coming to Nara city but the world's largest bronze gilded Buddha is also housed inside of the world's largest wooden building, it is 48 meters in height which is 157 feet. This made Todaiji Temple even more remarkable. The pillars showed that this place is very old but still standing as even the paint was staring to wear off of the building. We all wondered how the Japanese made such a big building with wood and such a long time ago. Besides the Buddha however there were also many more beautiful statues of what seemed to us were demons or characters of Japanese tales. These statues to were made out of wood and were still very tall. The time then started to get late and it was eventually 6pm which might not seem long but the thing was since we were to busy touring the Temple we lost tack of time and since it took 5 hours to five back to Tokyo we needed to leave. Then to everyone's shock Chase said he was hungry and wouldn't leave till we had some food. So we started to look at nearby restaurant and we found a place that served authentic Japanese sushi and we all went. The place was really cheap and we also got a good meal so for anyone that visits to see the largest bronze gilded Buddha in the world or the worlds largest wooden building I would recommend that you eat at Maguro Koya because the experience was truly magnificent. Kush and Mohir went to sleep during the car ride and so Zuhare,Chase, and Shamyl had to drive on our way back to Tokyo. Once we got home it was around midnight and so we went straight to bed without eating any dinner because of the fact that we were really late and also that we were late and tired from driving, or atleast some of us were unlike Kush and Mohir.

August 9th - Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Tournament - Sport

The Rakuten open tennis tournament is the biggest tennis tournament held in Asia, and has been going on since 1972 and is held in the Ariake Colosseum. When we got there first we were so confused since we woke up and jumped in the car to get to the tournament on time we at first were so confused by all the courts (and later saw on the sign there were 48) we finally located our seats we all took turns taking pictures on our phones except Chase who was complaining the whole time about how his phones camera was so bad. It was 87 degrees that day... we were going to be outside all day and were going to be sweating like crazy because of the intense sun beating down on us. Mohir was complaining also about how he didn't have time to go to the bathroom and didn't want to miss out on the matches also so he didn't go to the bathroom for the rest of the matches we mainly cheered on Kei Nishikori even when he went against Andy Murray. Who was born in Scotland but lives in England, the game went with Kei getting a few point ahead of Andy but then Andy coming back and winning, but we kept supporting Kei because we are loyal. Andy was the closest we had to America since to be honest were pretty bad and we all had no high expectations for them. The heat was so hot that they had to put the retractable roof up which made things ten times better and made us feel way better. When the game was finally over we hoped in out rental car and had to navigate the tons of traffic to finally go back to the nice and cool hotel to get out of 89 degree weather we ate a sushi dinner and then all passed out with Mohir finally going to the bathroom and Zuhare going to bed first.

August 8th - Edo Castle - History

We started the day very anxious since the zoo was a great time we wanted to see more of Tokyo and see what was in store for us in Tokyo. It took Shamyl forever in the bathroom and we missed breakfast because of it so we ate at KFC instead which was near our hotel. Once we got outside the warm summer day in Japan was feeling like heaven and our walk to KFC couldn't have gotten any better. It was a cool windy day of about 80 degrees Fahrenheit, while Mohir was on Instagram looking at cool places nearby in Tokyo he found a place called Edo Castle which used to be the home to one of the greatest emperors in Japan which was Tokugawa Ieyasu and home to the rest of Tokugawa emperors during the time of Great Peace. It has a 8 km inner component and a 16 km outer component and a 51.5 meter wall. We instantly decided that it would be the best place to spend the day and so we did. Once we got there the sight of it was truly indescribable, it was definitely the most beautiful thing that we had seen during the trip so far. Once we finally got inside it was really nice and the interior was just as good as the outside and really showed the greatness of Ancient Japan. The tour guide in my opinion really deserves a raise because she showed us everything that we could've wanted.When Shamyl asked about a samurai armor and what it was made out of and  the tour guide knew that it was made out of various sheets of metal that were layered and how it took months to finish them. The guide told us that the castle was made from simple materials since it was first made in 1603 but these were strong enough to make it last all of the way to today. The rooms were quite remarkable and we took many pictures. The guide told us about how these rooms were filled with many great paintings from the Edo period also known as the Great Peace. Our favorite thing in the whole experience however was when we first arrived and started to look at the castle. We felt that it was just so majestic and the colors and material and texture all pleased your 5 senses. The day was becoming late however and we were getting hungry too.We drove back and while having food from a Japanese food chain called MOS Burger, which is a Japanese food chain. Kush made a joke and said "MOS Burger more like Microsoft Operating System Burger" and we all laughed. After we got to the hotel and just chilled and watched Japanese Anime shows till it was time to sleep. 

Our Map!

What an Amazing View!

August 7th - National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation - Technology

On the next day of our trip we went to the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation which is in Tokyo. That day it was 87 degrees Fahrenheit so it was really hot so it was good to be inside for most of the day with air conditioning. When we were going there it seemed to us that it would be a normal museum where we just walk and look around but, once we got there we saw how interactive the museum was. The first thing was that we had to pay 210 yen to enter since we were all under 18 which is about $1.85. This was very cheap but Shamyl kindly decided to handle the full bill. Once we got inside we didn't know where to start and just followed where our eyes led us to. We went to this one place called the frontiers where we could explore space, the solar system, and all life there on a wide variety of scales. It was super cool to observe the neutrino's in our universe.We skipped the part where we could learn about elementary particles and the universe with a particle accelerator and went to the partial replica of the ISS which we could go inside where we were shown how some of the devices looked and it also had the signatures from astronauts who visited the museum. Then came Mission Survival: 10 Billion where we were given a model representation of the dynamic Earth systems and rapidly changing human society and then on the map it had red balls which represented disasters threatening modern society and we had to think about how we should deal with them and this taught us more about preventing these disasters and about the previous ones so that we could learn from it. We then went to an exhibit where we could see cells in progress through recreated life size cell models of a fertilized human egg and see then observe  3 stem cells that hold the key to regenerative medicine. We were starting to get hungry now and went to the 7th floor restaurant that was self serving and it had a really nice view of Tokyo including the Tokyo Tower from before. After lunch went to the Create your Future section where we tried answering the question of how humans should apply and evolve sustainable prosperity. It allowed us to put our ideas of a future society into action. A part of the section was what drives the force of innovation and here we learned about the creativity that is the basis for the revolutionary technologies that are changing the future. Next cam a simulation of what WE want earth to look like 50 years from now and how we can achieve it. Then lastly for that section we went to see robots in the museum and they were really cool, one of the robots was a humanoid named ASIMO and he was really cool also there were robots their that were designed solely to provide healing and enjoyment which i didn't know were reasons that people made robots. Next we saw the "symbol exhibit of Miraikan" which is another name for the museum and it was a rendition of how Earth looks like from space in a super high precision of  10 million pixels making it the worlds first globe like display using organic LED panels. After all of that it was getting late and we decided to go back to the hotel and sleep. 



Weather: 86

August 6th - Ueno Zoo - Ecosystems

Ueno Zoo is such an amzing zoo and is thte oldest zoo in Japan dating all the way back to 1882 when it was built. Ueno zoo is pretty big with a size of 35 acres and a monorail inside of the zoo to get from the east side to the west side of the zoo or vice versa. The Ueno zoo holds a total of about 2600 animals in which 464 of them are all different species which is an insane amount of animals to hold in a zoo in which we got lucky enough to go inside and actually see these animals. The main animal we saw and the main animal of the zoo was the Giant Panda. The Giant Panda has an exhibit which has a theme of Chinese Bamboo to give it that natural feel as if the panda was actually in its natural habitat. All the exhibits we saw had some type of theme to it to make it more realistic for the visitors and for the animals themselves. When we went to go see the Gorilla exhibit we realized that the theme for this exhibit was a Jungle theme with large trees for the Gorilla to climb and alot of space for the gorilla to move around in. Watching the gorilla was amazing seeing how it moved about and how closely related it is to humans having fingers and toes and how we were like the gorilla way back in time when we shared a common ancestor. Watching the Giant Panda was also amazing even though the panda isnt much of an active animal it is still a marvelous sight to behold because it just looks so nice and just seems like a really chill creature just sitting around and eating all day and when the panda actually did become active it is one of the best things you will ever see because seeing such a giant creature move is very interesting to see how its able to get its big body around and the activities it can do with such a massive body. After we watched all the animals we decided to ride the monorail back to the exit because it is a much quicker way of transportation in the zoo and we were able to see more animals on our way to the exit. As we were leaving we met a Japanese man telling us to come visit again sometime for they are always improving the zoo and next time we go he can help us around easier and give us an even more enjoyable time in the zoo. If we ever decide to come back to Japan visiting the Ueno zoo will be defiantly be on my go to list and im sure my group members would agree with me also (especially Kush who enjoyed the Giant Panda and how fluffy it was).

August 5th - Tokyo Tower - Technology

Technology: The next day we woke up really late because we were still tired from the Museum the previous day and we were only doing 1 thing today so we didn't have a set time of waking up. The last person to wake up that day was probably Kush because he went to bed pretty late last night staying up watching TV. He woke up at around 11:00 am and so when we all awoke we agreed that we would get some lunch before going to Tokyo Tower which was what we were going to do that day. That day it was 82 degrees Fahrenheit so it was pretty hot so we all went in a T-shirt and shorts. We drove over to an Italian Restaurant in Japan, I know crazy... The restaurant was called Papa's Pizza, we walked in and split 3 large 2 topping pizzas because none of us had breakfast so we were starving. We devoured most of the pizza except for 2 slices left, we got a pepperoni and sausage, cheese, and vegetarian pizza. The 2 slices of vegetarian pizza were left. We left the money for the check and left in our rental car to our hotel because Shamyl forgot his Camera. He ran up, grabbed it and sprinted back down. We left for Tokyo Tower which was only 9 minutes away from our hotel. When we arrived we went into the lobby below it to purchase tickets to go up to the observatory room, the tickets in total cost $40 to got to the main observatory room at 492 feet. We rode the slow elevator up and walked onto the observatory room.

 You could see the entire city! We thought that we might have been able to see our hotel but weren't sure. If it wasn't it looked very similar. We took lots of pictures and selfies as we were up there because it was pretty much a once in a lifetime experience. We stayed up there talking for about an hour or so i can't remember but we ended around 3 o'clock. Lunch took a long time. We took the elevator back down and went into the gift shop and bought these little miniature Tokyo Tower souvenirs, kind of like the ones they have at the Eiffel Tower, they both looked quite similar to one another I will say. They were each like 5 US dollars so they were pretty expensive but that's how they make money. I shouldn't have been surprised. We waited in the lobby talking about what we wanted to do next today but we were all pretty comfy with our phones there and such so we stayed there until about 5 o'clock. We then decided to walk around the place and take some outside shots... Duh, why didn't we think about that sooner! We walked around the perimeter only on a couple of sides because one of them there was a building blocking the front so we wouldn't have been able to take any good pictures anyway. We got in our car because we were getting to become pretty hungry and we drove to a restaurant, I forgot the name but it was another Japanese place. I got some more Sushi because it's so good in Japan, and the rest of them got some kind of curry with shrimp in it. I had a bite of Shamyl's and it was pretty good. It had a weird sweet taste to it. The Sushi was good as usual! We got some waters as our drink with it and ate and left the place after paying for our check and leaving the tip. It was around 30 dollars i think for all of us not including the tip. It was a nice restaraunt! After, we got in our SUV we drove back to our hotel and for the rest of the night we just chilled playing Kings in the Corner or another card game to waste the time. Today was an okay day, I hope tomorrow will be a little more entertaining.

August 4th - Tokyo National Museum - History

It was our first sightseeing place in our long list of places we wanted to travel to, in Japan. We had just woken up from our hotel at about 6:30 in the morning and almost all of us were quite exhausted, we were suffering from jet lag for quite some time, still being to used to the American clock. Kush got everyone up, by pouring water on Zuhare and Mohir who were dead sleepy, and wanted to delay our first trip to the next day, but as sleepy as I was, I still really wanted to go and not delay our first sightseeing place in Japan. We all had gotten ready by about 8:00, and started heading downstairs to the lobby to have our breakfast, which would be served in the dining area. We had a good lunch and spent about 1 hr in the lunchroom, as we were talking for most of our eating time. We each spoke about how excited and what did we want to see in the first part of our trip to Japan, the Tokyo National Museum. That day is was 79 degrees Fahrenheit, but Mohir and Kush weren't that interested as always, none of them have ever even been slightly interested in museums as they only wanted to play the video games, that they had brought from the United States. Zuhare wanted to see what exactly was special about the place, and Chase was quite interested in the Buddhist artifacts and history that they had in the museum. As we took a taxi to go to our location, we talked about the museum and about how they were six buildings in the museum that each represented and showed different types of artifacts and artwork related to Japan. The Honkan building featured a variety of Japanese artwork from ancient times to the 19th century including antique Buddhist statues, painted sliding doors, scrolls, and maps in addition to cultural items such as masks, costume, armor and the weapons. To the left was the Hyokeikan building which was basically built as a representation of Western Style architecture during the Meiji period in Japanese history. The Toyokan building, which was to the right of the Honkan building featured galleries and displays of Asian Art and artifacts from China, Korea, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, India and Egypt. The other buildings house paintings that were donated and were preserved from Ancient Japan, some of those paintings were donated by private donors who had bought the ancient paintings from auctions and other places. Since we didn't really have that much time and were still suffering from Jet Lag we decided to only go check out the Honakan, Hyokeikan, and Toyokan buildings, as they were the better renown exhibits and had more items and artifacts in store. We first went to the Honkan building which was quite crowded and featured some of the many ancient paintings that Japan had, each one felt so unique and raw, completely reflecting the immersive and rich cultural history that Japan has. Even the likes of Mohir who didn't care much about paintings who he deemed boring, started to get awed by the sheer brilliance of the paintings. Then we moved on to the Hyokeikan building on the left, where we explored the impact the Western government had on the Japanese when the first contact was established between the societies during the Meiji Period. The architectural change that occurred in Japan after western contact was established was utterly fascinating to watch, as you could clearly tell that by the items shown the Japanese government had learned that they were much behind the Westerners and wanted to bring out real change. I and Zuhare who were history buffs were really fascinated by the cultural and governmental change that occurred in Japan after the first contact with the Westerners. Kush, Chase, and Mohir were far more interested in the Toyokan building because even though they appreciated the change Japan made, they were far more curious about the arts and crafts of other countries that were present in the museum. Once we completely finished exploring the Hyokeikanbuilding in the museum we wanted to go see the last exhibit of our day, the Toyokan building which featured arts and crafts of other countries such as India, China, Egypt, Korea and other Asian countries. The Exhibit was very beautifully decorated and the lighting in there was quite dark in comparison to the other buildings as the museum we supposed wanted to emphasize more on the awe and stunning visuals of the artifacts so that they could catch our attention a lot better. Guess they were right, cause overall that was the best building and experience we could have ever thought of having in our first exploration day in Japan. The artifacts and the history behind them were so fascinating, that I, to be honest, completely regretted not going to this exhibit in the morning. Almost everyone in our group absolutely loved every minute of our time that we spent marveling at these prehistoric works of pure gold. But once it 5 the museum closed and we were required to go back to the hotel, on the way back all of us were talking so ecstatically about the experience we just had during our day. For all I knew, this was the absolute perfect way to start off our long trip by exploring the history and culture that has built and sustained Japan for centuries.




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