Here is the link.

You can now see all the photos that I took and all the photos that were taken of me.

After we met our sensei back at the train station, we headed back to Shinjuku for dinner at an incredibly nice hotel. It was 47+ stories tall with a viewing window on the 47th floor that looks out onto the rest of Tokyo and the view was absolutely breath taking. Up that high I'm usually a little apprehensive about standing right next to the window to look out and down, but I wanted to actually be able to walk out past the window and look at the view of Tokyo it's just that amazing. The dinner was a cool buffet full of interesting Japanese/French food that consisted mainly of seafood and I was happy. Since I've come to Japan I've acclimated more to the taste of seafood then I ever would have in the states. Dinner was a mix of conversation in English and Japanese about everything that we've done in Japan and things we want to do, tomorrow, in Japan, and in the future. Yuri's aunt kept most of talking in Japanese for the entirety of the meal and it was great to hear some people that just started learning the language realize how they have to start thinking when speaking the language. Devin said it best, "You have to train your mind to start thinking about how you want to form your sentences as you are speaking and think of the verb you want to use ahead of time, in the cases you do want to use one." You really don't have time to sit around and think about what you want to say before you say it, everything is all on the fly.

Moving along, after dinner every one that wasn't Sean, Sam, and I went to the hotel and the three of us went back to Akihabara for another round of beating in Guilty Gear. They were glorious beatings let me tell you. When it comes to that game, the kids here just have skills that can rock your socks off from across the room. I gave one guy a "run for his money" when I had to step up and defend the honor of Sam and Sean and took a first to 3 match to round 4 and lost the next one... but hey, it's just a game and this is just the greatest learning experience I've ever had the ability to take part in.

Peace!

５月２４日　木曜日　
京都から東京まで新幹線に乗りました。お茶の水のホテルへ帰りました。つぎにションさんとサムさんと「パンちゃん」とＧｈｉｂｌｉの博物館へ行きました。この博物館はとてもきれいでした。とてもくらかったです。たくさん茶色と白とオレンジのいろがありました。たくさんの映画の電磁を見ました。特にたくさんトトロとナウシカのてんじがありました。後できれいな新宿のホテルへ行きました。皆さんとゆりさんのおばさんと晩御飯を食べました。

Monday Travis and I slept in, to take a most needed day off and just relax. I think we finally made it out of the hotel around 4 pm to get something to eat and ran into Devin at the corner store. We talked for a bit and then came back to the hotel to chill a bit more and watch a movie while we waited for every one else to come back from the Temples. When the rest of the troup arrived at the hotel, we found out that they had reservations for a cool Kyoto restaurant so Travis snagged Yuri and the four of us (Travis, Yuri, Devin, and myself) went to downtown Kyoto and cruised around there and ate at a Yoshinoya because it was quick and cheap! We hit up an icre cream parlor on the way back and ended up at the hotel around 9ish.

We got back to the hotel and like 30 minutes later I was back on the streets of Kyoto with Sam, Sean, and Alex to look for either a place to go bowl or an arcade. I found out not 45 minutes earlier where these places were located, so we headed to downtown Kyoto. We didn't find a place to bowl, but we found Tower Namco and headed in there because it had everything we wanted to do except bowl. Sam, Sean, and I headed up to the top floor to play a few fighter games and Alex sayed on the floor below that to play Pachinko because he wanted to see what all the fuss was about. So we hung out there until midnight and then headed back to the hotel.

Today Travis and I were up bright and early at 9 am and beat every one down to the lobby, had some coffee, went back upstairs and then met all the kids to go to Osaka. I've compared a few cityies here in Japan to the likes of NYC and San Fran, but I was completely wrong in those comparisons. Osaka is such a better example of a Japanese NYC because of it's stratification. There was an elecronic distric, a "Time Square" type district, American Town, etc. I don't think I've ever felt more at home in a foreign counry as I did today in Osaka. We walked around there for most of the day and then headed back towards the hotel, but on the way stopped for dinner. The night before Yuri spotted a Shyabu Shyabu restaurant on the main drag in Kyoto and we decided to eat there tonight. Shyabu Shyabu is an onomatopoeia for the sound the food makes in the water as you are cooking it; dipping it into boiling water, turning it over and repeating until the meat browns. The atmosphere of the restaurant is amazing, they have 4 or 5 rooms all set up like traditional Japanese dining rooms where you put your feet under the table and the walls are made of the cool rice paper that is really expensive. Knowing that, you could have probably guessed that the meal was pretty expensive, $45 per person, and really tasty.

We trudged slowly back to the hotel and Travis and I just kinda hung around in the room showing eachother the DJ programs we have on our laptops until about 11:30 when I went down to the onsen (but not quite) with Alex. The onsen in the hotel closes around midnight and apparently the best thing to do before you go to bed is to go and relax in there, and I have to admit that while I'm writing this I feel pretty good; nice and relaxed. Tomorrow is another long day of travel from Kyoto to Tokyo on the shinkansen, but I get to see the Ghibli museum!

５月２１日　日曜日　
先生の家族とパチンコセンターへ行きました。そのセンターの中でたくさんの人がタバコをすっていました。センターの隣にあるビデオゲームセンターへ行きたかったです。たばこの煙のアルギーがありますので、１５分間ぐらいだけパチンコを見ました。何人かの学生は”これはつまらない”と思いましたので、ビデオゲームセンターへ行きました。つぎに先生の家族とかいてんずしへ行きました。これはすごい！いろいろなすしを見て、いろいろな食べ物を食べました。それから、新幹線の駅へ行って、豊川から京都まで乗りました。京都で皆さんとPig＋WhistleのIrishパブへ行きました。イギリスの食べ物がありました。Pubは変でした。ウェイターはイギリス人でした。でもシェフは日本人でした。

５月２２日　月曜日　
私ののどと鼻が痛かったから、あまり何もしませんでした。

５月２３日　火曜日
大阪へ行きました。たくさん歩きました。そして店へ行きました。アメリカの町や電気街へ行きました。アメリカの町は変でした。そこのアメリカの文化はラっプの文化です。どの店も服とブーツをうっています。京都へ帰って、しゃぶしゃぶのレストランへ行きました。しゃぶしゃぶは ぎおんご（onomatopoeia）です。水の中で肉とやさいをゆでました。おいしかったです。

Part 1) I got up at like 7 or something early like that to get ready to go to the school. I got my supplies from my senei for the presentation, and went over a few things with my partner. Breakfast came and went and then we were wisked away to the school.

Part 2) We got to the school, got our slippers and were debriefed about the days activities in the principles office. We heard about how long the school had been around, a bit of its history and what the focus of the school was. The main focus of the school for the past 20 or so years was music, mainly vocal but there were a few other options.

Part 3) We left the principles office and headed upstairs to the welcome ceremony where the kids sang the school song for us, and "Puff the Magic Dragon," they introduced their school briefly in English, then it was our turn. We introduced ourselves and the school. We fielded questions for the next 10 or 15 minutes ranging from "What do you do in your free time at The University of Vermont?" to "What is your favorte word?"

Part 4) The period ended and the students split into their pairs and gave their presentations. Our presentation was on the differences between Japanese and American Elementary Schools and I don't think it could have been any more boring for the students. A couple of times I saw a few drift in and out and almost fall asleep. After we gave our presentation, we yet again fielded questions and gave out stickers to the kids as rewards for having questions to keep them asking things. They had so many questions that we couldn't actually get around to start the English lesson.

Part 5) After the presentations the students split again and worked with a grade of their own. I have 8 3rd graders and we talked about a lot of things about what I did at UVM and in Elementary School. After that I had lunch with the students which reminded me of being back in first and second grade where everything was so daunting. After lunch I helped clean a little bit and before the class headed to the gym for their next class, we had free time. That consisted mainly of the Japanese students and the American students chased each other around a portion of the school and played volley ball.

Part 6) I went with the class to the gym where they danced a bit to warm up, "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes" style of dance not interperative... after that we jumped a pummel hourse turned length ways, and later we did something kind of jump rope thing. The teacher pulled out a double dutch length rope and the kids one by one ran into the center and jumped the rope once and jumped out and ran to the other side. If a child stopped the roation of the rope, they went to the other side and the game started up again. Apparently the goal was to get every one through the rope in one go.

Part 7) After we cleaned up the gym, we went back to the class room and exchanged gifts, the class gave me a really nice origami lei and I gave them a bunch of pictures if the Power Puf girls to color, a few boxes of snaks from the US, a bunch of sheets of stickers, and some pencils. Around 2:45 all the UVM students gathered in the principles office to talk in Japanese about what they learned during the day and how they felt about the entire experience. I don't think I've ever learned more in a day then at the school; I learned mainly about the differences between Japanese schools and school children and those in the US and that the differences in childhood make huge differences in the actions of the children later in life, like real tangible changes.

Part 8) The UVM students left the school and made our way to the classroom of the English class that had been escorting us around all day, as well as helping with translations. All the UVM students introduced themsevles in Japanese and then fielded a few questions about their presentation early in the day. Then the students of the English class introduced themselves in English and told us a little about their lives, it was really neat to see how people in their 30s, 40s, and a few in their 50s have taken not only such an interest in English, but for having class once a week, have excelled so much in such a little time!

Part 9) After the introductions, every one walked across the street to the cafe that had been rented out for us where for the next few hours it was a blur of conversation, people were talking in English and Japanese about everything and anything. I can't really say more then that because things passed by so fast, but two of the main topics for most of the converstaions I had was a comparison between certain products in Japan and the US, the other topic was the views that foreigners had about Japan and vice versa.

I don't think I've ever had as much fun on a school trip as I did this night, nor did I ever learn as much as I did during the day with the students. This experience made me think about the JET program and that it might be the right thing for me to do after college. Teachers in Japan are highly respected and apparently the life offered to you by the JET program is also a rather nice one, where stipends help you pay for most things so you can live rather comfortably off of a teachers salary.

５月１９日　金曜日　
庭野小学校へ行きました。１１時から３時まで三年生の学生を教えました。アメリカと日本の小学校について発表しました。私のプレゼンテーションはつまら なかったです。でもあとで学生はたくさん質問しました。ノートにトトロの絵をかきました。がくせいは私のトトロの絵を見ましたから、学生は絵がほしくなりました。体育館に行く前に５つ絵を書きました。学生と体育館へいってから、ダンスをして、大きななわとびをしました。あとで２つ絵を書きました。学生と先生と話して、写真を撮って、プレゼントを交換しました。私はたくさん習いました。庭野の学生はとても元気で好奇心が強いです。
あとでプレゼンテーションのために先生の英語のクラスへ行きました。英語のクラスとレストランへ行きました。歯医者の先生と話しました。彼はとてもおもしろいです。彼の英語がじょすです。いろいろなことを話しました。

The trip to Akihabara wasn't that bad because it was just one stop over, but when I decided to go back to Harijuku things got a little hairy because I had to ask which train took me to the station and I was told about the fee and the transfer at the Ochyanomizu station, but didn't realize what he said until it was too late. I hopped on the right train and noticed right away that it wasn't heading to Harijuku, so I got off at Akihabara which is on the way to Harijuku and asked some one at the ticket office there. He told me about the transfer again and which platform I needed to get to take the right train. Shoubu Line / Chuuo Line if I remember correctly to the Yoyogi Station and then take the train one more stop on the Yamynote Line to Harijuku station. On the train to Yoyogi I had to ask about the transfer again because I didn't understand more then the train number and platform that I had to be on from the previous conversation. I was really hesitant to ask the man closest to me because I always feel weird taking to strangers in places like trains and elevators in the US, let alone foreign countries...

I made it to Harijuku and waited for my friend from home Katy to make it. When she found me, we walked along Harijuku and into the surrounding areas for an hour or so and then I had to brave the ride back to Ochinomizu to meet up with every one and take the train yet again, but this time to the Tokyo station. This was our second trip to Tokyo station and aside from it being pristinely white and very well kept, had a Penn Station/Boston North End station feel to it. It seems that no matter how you do it, mass transit is really all the same, the novelty of the place you are in comes from the language being spoken over the PA systems. We made it to the Shinkansen and rode about and hour and a half to Toyohashi station to transfer to a train that would take us to Toyokawa where we are staying for the next few days. I swear that the people in Japan are always running from something, maybe it's the people with the masks on signifying they are sick... trying to dodge disease or maybe it's fear of getting left behind but they never stop.

It's probably about time I mention the hotel rooms. while I am used to the size of the rooms, a lot of the people on the trip don't seem to be and were quite taken back. The rooms are really basic, bed, bathroom, television, AC unit, desk, a little nook for your jackets, and a few lights. The rooms can't be more then a ten foot by seven foot rectangle which shocked a lot of the people. I'm not a very worldy person, at least I don't thinkg so, but I've experienced the same style of hotel room when I was in London and you learn to appreciate that space, it teaches you to pack wisely among other things. Another thing that kinda threw every one was that to opperate the lights and AC units in the room, you have to insert your key into the slot on the wall, that was a new kind of fun... walking into my room, flipping the light switch, not getting any power, and then realizing what the kana on the wall that were illuminated said. Also another thing that we've all been chuckeling about are the toilets. There is so much functionality programmed into them that it just blows my mind. There are two bidets, a heater for the seat, and sometimes... it's rare, but they'll tell you about your health.

５月１８日　木曜日　
秋葉原へ行ってからSEGA　GIGOを見ました。これは小さいSEGAゲームセンターでしたが、７階もありました。後で、友達とあそびました。Katyさん と原宿とコンドメニアとキデスーランドへ行きました。コンドメニアは１階のコンドーム屋です。中にコンドームとおもしろいキャンデイーをうっています。キデスーランドは子供のおもちゃをうっています。５時にホテルへ帰ってから、新幹線駅へいかなければなりませんでした。それからとよかわへ行きました。

Akihabara was also entertaining, but for different reasons. While I like technology and video games, going there gave me the chance to speak Japanese a little more then some of the other places we'd been. I had a goal when I got there, to get a shoulder bag with a SEGA character on it and I had put that off for the majority of the time there until we were about to head back so there was an influx of people. We wound up back tracking to the SEGA Club and walked down to the basement floor, played a round of Guilty Gear XX Slash, had our butts kicked thoroughly, and left. I got to actually speak Japanese to one of the people that worked at the SEGA Club and asked him where I could go to buy SEGA apparel. However in the conversation between him and two of the other workers that he had to consult because he actually didn't know of any place, the question got changed to where I could just buy video game apparel, and because the question had changed he directed me to a neat little set of stores that sold a lot of cool little video game and movie trinkets, t-shirts, movies, figures, etc.

I say that I got the chance to speak Japanese in Akihabara because while I could have spoken it in Harijuku and a few other places, they just catered to the fact that I was a Gaijin and spoke to me in English, I had to bank on the fact that the guys in the electronic district for the most part either wouldn't know English or just wouldn't be ready to answer a question in English that I had asked in Japanese. I also learned that there is a big difference in the communications between the customer and a clerk and then the clerk to another clerk and then the second clerk to the customer. When I talked to the first clerk at the SEGA Club I told him that I was looking for a store that sold SEGA apparel and then when he got the second clerk and gave him the synopsis of what I said he left out a part and I filled it in. I said I was looking for various SEGA apparel, t-shirts, bags, etc and that turned into various video game apparel so when the third clerk got involved and I got left out of the conversation, I was given directions to a place that sold various video game t-shirts and a lot of Anime apparel. I have to start picking my words a little more carefully next time...

In Harijuku, I talked to one of the clerks at an underground punk shop where I bought a bracelet and I noticed when he was helping a friend of mine that his English was just as broken as my Japanese was at some times so I catered to him and spoke to him in Japanese, filling in English with hand gestures (for things like shoulders because my friend was trying on a shirt for his brother and we were worried that his brothers shoulders might be too broad for the shirt). When I bought my bracelet, I talked to him for a little bit about why I wanted it, why I liked that kind of bracelet, which ones he wore, and how the previous bracelets of that type that I owned just fell apart because they were made poorly. In that store I was looked at as almost an equal because I catered to the clerks instead of the other way around and did a decent job of it. No where else in Harijuku was I given the chance...

５月１７日　水曜日　
渋谷と新宿と秋葉原と原宿へいきました。渋谷はちょっと忙しくて、２時間ぐらい歩き回りました。コンビとSEGAゲームセンターへ行きました。天気が悪かったからコンビにでサムさんと「パンちゃん」がかさをかいました。SEGAゲームセンターへいって１時、大きい三角のコーンをみました。三角コーンの 中に小さい人を入れたくなりました。三角コーンで遊んだら面白いと思います。渋谷のSEGAゲームセンターは５階もありました。どのSEGAゲームセン ターにも１階にはUFOゲームがあります。でも、どのSEGAゲームセンターのゲームもおなじですけど、いろいろなゲームはちがう階にあります。後で、新宿へ行きました。渋谷駅と原宿駅のあいだに新宿駅がありよす。いろいろな店がありました。新宿駅におきなわの市場があって、いろいろなへびのはいっているウイスキーにはびっくりしました。でも、おいしかったです。それから原宿へ行きました。原宿はちょっと変で、ちょっとつまらないから全部の店が同じに見えました。次に秋葉原へ行きました。秋葉原 はとてもあかるくておもしろかったです。メイドカフェをさがしました。でも、どのメイドカフェもとても忙しかったからExcelsior　Cafeへいきました、あとでSEGA CLUBへ行ってから私はSEGAの店に行きました。よっつの店へ行って、カクトーのぬいぐるみを買いました。最後にお茶の水駅へ帰りました。先生と友達とご飯を食べました。

We landed in Chicago and transfered flights to JAL flight 003 nonstop from Chicago to Tokyo, finding terminal 5 where the JAL planes left from took a lot longer then I expected, but the walk was nice.... There's Brontosaurus skeleton in the O'Hare, that blew my mind. We went through the same security dance that we did before in Burlington and waited to board our flight to Tokyo, as we were waiting we went over the days itinerary. The plane itself was a standard 747 but it had external cameras that kept me captivated as we took of and started flying as well as when we were landing. I've always watched the take off and landing via the windows, but I've never seend it from the pilot's perspective.

I don't have much to say for the flight except that I slept for a lot of it and woke up to a few different things; one was my hands kept going numb in my lap so I had to shake them a bit, another was when the flight attendants were hading anything out- i guess they must have hit me in the face or something- and the last was when I started to fidget in the direction of my friend Sam and lean on him. Other then that it was a standard international flight, cramped leg room, little kids crying, and a lot of people taking advantage of the free alcohol that was being served.

When we touched down in Narita airport and disembarked from the plane, we noticed that everyhing was kept immaculately clean, it was kind of weird. I'm used to flying into Newark Int'l and JFK and there is always some kind of garbage on the ground, but there was nothing. We passed though customs and started to change over money and I was asked by my sensei to ask the people at the information counter where we could rent cellphones and I thought to myself that this would be the perfect time to start speaking Japanese, because I had just finished talking about cellphones in my Japanese conversation classes. I walked up to the counter and was about to ask about the phones when I was greated with a "Yes?" It didn't phase me it just disappointed me and reminded me of my trips to France in highschool when I took French. The natives can tell when a foreigner is going to talk to them and they default to your native tongue, which in my mind defeats the purpose of studying a foreign language. So I asked about the phones and then realized that when I write in my blog I probably wasn't going to be putting a lot of new grammer in it because I've been studying the language for five years now and the classes have always been structured towards helping you be a better tourist or exchange student and get you by on the basics, however there should be a few new words or phrases that accompany these entries every day.

We left the airport and headed towards the train/subway system and they look and feel exactly like the subway systems in New York City... well not look like the subways in NYC, things are much cleaner in Japan and every other city in the world. We train hopped for the next hour or so and walked 10 minutes towards the hotel, got settled and then a few of us headed out to get dinner, which leads me to the highlight of day 1. Ramen ya's are pretty neat little places to go when you want good, cheap food. Now I'm going to fall over and go to sleep.

火曜日　５－１６
シカゴから東京までのびんは１３時間くらいでそれはとてもつまらなかったです。飛行機の席が小さいのでいろいろな事ができませんでした。映画を見て、寝て、友達と話しましたけど、そのあとでも６時間ぐらいひまがあります。

お茶の水について、ホテルまであるいて端をわたりました。端にのむうに秋葉原が見えました。私の部屋は小さいかったです。去年の夏休みロンドンへ行きました。ロンドンのホテルの部屋も小さいかったです。東京の部屋はよかったです。火曜日の晩にらーめん屋へ行って、ぴりかららーめんを注文しました。ぴりかららーめんはこうしんりょうがきいていました。友達と日本の文化について話しました。そして、皆さんは何をしたいか話しました。私は秋葉原を見て、二人の友達を遊びた買ったので秋葉原に行って、友達に会いました。