Day 1 - Saturday, July 17

In Tokyo they have modern food like in North America as for breakfast they eat food like we eat here such as mini pizzas and cereal. In order to get around Tokyo the cheapest way is to take the subway and get a one-day pass. In Japan we visited a school that was an all-girls school and they wore uniforms to school. Also, the school had many ads for Universities in Tokyo. Then I went with my homestay family to The Yasukuni Shrine. It was a nice shrine; it was small and had trees in it. Also, there were animals guarding the gates and three main entrance torii gates. At the shrine there was a statue of the general who built the temple during the Meiji period. The Yasukuni Shrine is quite small.

Next, we went to the Meiji Shrine. It has a nice long park with huge tall trees. There is a garden and a few restaurants inside the Meiji Shrine Park. The Meiji Shrine had  a place to ceremonially wash before entering the main part of the  Meiji Shrine and  a place to write wishes and hang them up so they come true; these are key features of every shrine. The park surrounding the Meiji Shrine is quite large and beautiful with tall trees and gravel walkways. At the Meiji Shine they have ice cream and the tofu flavored ice cream is delicious. The ice cream is not too sweet but exactly right.  

Then we went to the Shinjuku district. It had nice cheap shops on Harajuku Takeshita street. Everywhere shopkeepers were holding up signs and yelling at people passing by in order to have them buy their stuff. Then we had lunch at a nice restaurant in the area. The restaurant had a nice buffet at lunch that had interesting and simple Japanese cuisine. After lunch we went to the Tokyo Central United Church, a church where international foreigners can attend. They were having a special outreach to people who were less fortunate in giving them a free meal and a concert. Then we went back to the Shinjuku district. It is more crowded there as packed with people and shops. Then we saw the Nihonbashi Bridge that was quite small from the Edo period.  There were monks on the bridge trying to get people to give them money. I then went to a Kimono Store and saw many beautiful kimonos.  The kimono designs were incredibly unique, but they were awfully expensive as much as wedding dresses or grad dresses in North America. After the Kimono Store, we went to the Ginza district where there are many American stores such as Forever 21, Starbucks, Gucci, Lactose, and Adidas.  The Ginza district has many foreign European shops; the prices are very comparable to North American prices.  We had Japanese curry for supper. It is a sweet and not very spicy curry that is quite different from other curries.