Last Day in Hawaii... Pictures to enjoy!

Today in Hawaii, we got an early start to go to Washington Place, where the last queen of Hawaii lived. We learned about how Queen Lili'uokalani decorated her household and kept to her Hawaiian traditions. We learned how all the governors lived in this house until this last one. Then we went to the capital and it was interesting because it was very open to the public. Then we went to the Iolani Palace, where the earlier kings and queens lived. The palace had lots of original furniture, and we learned about a lot of traditions about how they lived. We spent the second half of the day at the beach in Waikiki, and had fun riding the waves unsuccessfully. We ended the night with a great dinner at Bubba Gump.

Pictures...Last Day in Tokyo and Hawaii

Enjoy the pictures... subway in Tokyo and then our adventures in Hawaii. Ms. V

Polynesian Culture Center

Today, we went to the PCC (Polynesian Culture Center) which was an awesome experience. We started off waking up around 8 o clock, ate breakfast at 9:15, and hoped on the bus to the PCC around 10.
The bus ride lasted around an hour and 30 min, during which, Cousin Leon gave us commentary on the sights around Hawaii. He told us also what the word Aloha meant besides the English meanings of "hello" and "goodbye", which was "live well" (Alo) and "breath of life" (ha). Once we finally got to the PCC, the sun was bright and the weather was awesome, I could tell it was going to be a good day.
We started off our day at the PCC eating lunch as we had to make sure we had enough room for the Luau dinner later on.
After lunch, we took a canoe ride over to the islands of Fiji, where we learned about how the chief's house and how it is always built with the front entrance facing the East. Next we learned how to play the bamboo sticks of Fiji, which are very fun musical instruments there.
After Fiji, we traveled over to Tahiti, where we learned fun native dances and some of us got fake native tattoos.
We then traveled to the Hawaiian part of the PCC, where we tasted some purple stuff which name escapes me at the moment and practiced Hula steps.
After Hawaii we went to Tonga and watched the guys play on the Tonga drums, then they invited three different audience members up to the stage, all three of which couldn't keep up the the natives, but were definitely funny in their own ways.
Then we went over to the river in the heart of PCC to watch each of the different island natives give a display on different boats which were simply awesome. Each one did their native dances and definitely showed why islanders should be the kings of stepping.
Finally after all of that, we went over to the Alii Luau and had a huge buffet dinner, then around 7:30 we went over to the Pacific theatre to watch a fantastic performance by all the islanders who took the phrase "playing with fire" a little to the extreme side.
All of this with the sun shining bright in the skies of Hawaii (except at night of course).

Signing Off,

-Jim

BEACH BEACH BEACH!

Today was the first day in our journey that the group got to relax on the beach. Before our glorious time on the beach, we went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum which talked about the history of Tokyo. Did you know that the original name of Tokyo was Edo? If you did, then props for you. After the museum, we took an 8 o'clock flight to Honolulu, Hawaii which is approximately a 7 hour flight. The flight seemed short compared to the flight to Japan. The people of Hawaii are very welcoming and we felt apart of the state as soon as touched ground. The gang got swim on the blue Hawaiian waters and/or lay out on the shore to soak up all of the sun's glory. The sun is a terrible thing to waste.

Until next time

Daniel Gray

Tamagawa University and Dreamgirls

Today we visitede Tamagawa University which is a school that goes from Kindergarten all the way through college. Being a private school the atmosphere was a little different than that of Yaei highschool which we visited on the second day. When we first got there we had to walk up a huge hill. Tamagawa was a huge campus and the walk to the main building was super long and tiring, but the walk was worth it because the inside of the highschool building was amazing. It was really nice and surrounded a super huge field with a track surrounding it where kids were practicing softball or baseball. The first class we visited was a dance class for 12th graders where Trish did a demonstration and Ms. O, Trish, Maya, and Dionne taught us a dance to Rude Boy by Rihanna. It was so much fun and some of the girls in the class were better than us bullis studendts in the back who were also trying to learn the dance. The second class we visited was a global studies class where we talked with students about everyday life at school and found out that they barely get homework while some of us at bullis, like myself, stay up until all hours of the night trying to finish homework. They are so lucky. After the global studies class we went to lunch and ate some delicious chicken sandwiches with a group of students. When lunch was over we went to visit some elementary school children in their english classes. First we went to a classroom of children singing a welcome song to us and then we did this game to a song where we paired up with a child. After the music class we went to fourth grade and second grade classes. In the fourth grade class, they were so excited to see us and came up to us talking about their dream houses and their favorite things in english. For some reason the popular color seemed to be light blue, the popular sport was golf and the popular foods were American. After the fourth grade class we went to the second grade class which was extremely excited to see us. They were bouncing off the walls in there while asking us simple questions like "what is your name" and "how old are you". One little boy who was called on to answer a question started talking like a cat and then yelled "i like cats" in japanese which was random and hilarious. After the fun second graders we were supposed to go to the 12th grade english class but there was some sort of miscommunication so it didn't happen and I was a little disappointed. But that disappointment was replaced with excitement as we got to see university students do japanese traditional dance. It was very cool and interesting to see and I wish they would have taught us something. After the dance class we left Tamagawa and went back to the hotel where we got ready for dinner and ate at Torigen, the same place we were at the night before. When dinner was over we rushed back to the hotel because apparently DREAMGIRLS!!! with jennifer hudson and beyonce was onTV in the room in ENGLISH!! with japanese subtitles so we all stayed up and watched it. Then we went to sleep.

-Diona Smith

Pictures from our Visit to Tamagawa K-12 School and University

Enjoy the pictures from our last few days in Japan!

We began the day at the Tokyo fish market, where we experienced early morning fish sales. We then ate a sushi breakfast at one of the many restaurants nearby. After the market, we visited the Ghibli Animation Museum. At Ghibli, we experienced the art behind the Japanese animated film industry. Following our tour of the museum, we spent the remaining afternoon at the shops near the Omotesando shopping district. We ended the day with dinner at a Japanese restaurant.

Winding down in Tokyo

Hello all! Two more days in Japan...now in Tokyo. The students are simply wonderful! They have bonded so well as a group. We had a terrific day, about which Evan Fried will blog later tonight. Tomorrow we head for a full day at Tamagawa K-12/University where we will observe and participate in classes. I tried to load pictures tonight but was not able to do so. I'll try again tomorrow. Ms. V

Sooooo, today we woke up at 5 a.m. today, to take the train to Tokyo. When we finally got their (the train ride was about 5 hours) we met our new tour guide, and got on a bus. We first went up to the Tokyo tower, and then after we ate lunch in the "mall" below. Then after lunch, we took a bus ride throughout Tokyo and at certain times we took stops, like in fashion city (which is equivalent to Rodao dr.) and we went to another temple. At took a 3o min. break to shop through the stores that were near the temple. After shopping we drove to our hotel, and had down time ( hour and a half). After down time we went to Cho-Cho's, for dinner, the place was a curry resturant. It was good. Then we went back to the hotel, and we slept for the next day.
By Trisha Barton

Our first full day in Hiroshima we rode the JR train to Miyajimaguchi and from there we went on a JR ferry boat to Miyajima Island. On the island we visited the Itkushima Shrine and we toured the shrine, Daishon Temple, and saw a japanese style wedding. After leaving the shrine we went to the Peace Memorial Museum and toured the unforgettable A-bomb dropping on the city of Hiroshima. There we experienced the destruction that the A-bomb caused for the people of Hiroshima. We viewed pictures, artifacts, and burnt clothes. Also we saw the building that was near to the dropping of the bomb, and the many memorials dedicated to the lives that were lost on that day. After leaving the museum we went to a self-cook restaurant and made our food and then topped it off with a ice cream cone from Mcdonalds YUM!