Student Tokyo Takeover

This weekend in Tokyo has been full of exploration, new experiences, and memories! Students enjoyed classes and workshops in the hostel before embarking on their own adventures around Tokyo this weekend.

On Friday, students independently worked on their final projects in the morning. There's only one week until presentations, so we can't wait to see what they're working on!

In the afternoon, students had their final Japanese language class with Ms. Atsuko. They reviewed what they have learned over the past few classes, and wrote their wishes on a piece of paper for Tanabata (七夕) which is a festival coming up on July 7th. Students will hang these papers on a bamboo tree in hopes that their wishes come true! It was a great way to finish off their series of Japanese classes.

After class, students had the chance to make a traditional Japanese craft, tsumami-zaiku. For this craft, students had to fold small squares of cloth using tweezers. It is similar to origami but uses cloth and glue. During the workshop, every student successfully created a cloth flower magnet to take home! Additionally, our teachers wore traditional Yukata during the workshop. It was a great afternoon to learn more about Japanese language and culture.

On Saturday and Sunday, students had free time to explore Tokyo. Here's what they had to say about what they got up to:

Harrison, Jayden, Ghoyah, Chaitanya - "On Saturday, our group decided to travel to Shibuya during our free time. During the morning we went to this cafe known for its amazing latte foam art called Cafe REISSUE. The whole cafe was very homely and comforting and we had an amazing time."

Viv - "My friends and I already planned to go to Shibuya Saturday morning, and then the Sky Tree (or Tokyo Tower) later that afternoon. In Shibuya, we went to the Shonen Jump store, the Nintendo store, and the Pokemon Center. Me personally, I’d already went to the Pokemon Center in Sunshine City and had a shopping spree there— but I just couldn’t help myself! After Shibuya, we went to the Sky Tree. Unfortunately it was a bit foggy, but it cleared up from time to time to reveal the entire city beneath our feet. Heights make me nervous, so I could only check it out for so long."

Klara - “This weekend, I went to Tokyo Sky Tree. There was an amazing aquarium, of which the best part was the fur seals. There were also two observation decks, 350 meters up and 450 meters up, both with amazing and breathtaking views of Tokyo and beyond. Finally, there were some shops that we went to which had some nice character goods. An amazing experience overall, would highly recommend going if you ever get the chance!”

Connie - "Today Klara and I went to the Tokyo Skytree. I bought our tickets and we got to see the aquarium. I really liked it, they even had penguins. We also went shopping in the Jump Store (No Doffy >:( ) and ended up in the observatories. Unfortunately, though, I was completely dead tired due to walking so much, and 30% of the trip ended up being waiting to go home. Despite this, I had fun! I finally saw the outline of Mount Fuji."

Micah - "Today, Ghoyah and I went to Disneyland Tokyo. It was super cool to see our favorite characters speaking in Japanese, as well as compare the differences between the American and Japanese rides. We managed to ride each major ride at least once and were lucky enough to gave a day that wasn't super busy! We had tons of fun and I'm so grateful I got to experience Disney in Tokyo!"

Avery - "Disney Land  in Tokyo is something I have dreamed of exploring since I was little, and the fact that I got to go this weekend was such a dream come true. Hanging with my friends and learning about the cartoons people in Japan grew up with here was educational and fun. My only wish would to be do it all over again, but with more water and less sun!"

Viv - "Sunday was much more relaxed for me than Saturday. I decided to sleep in (waking up at around 6:30AM is the norm, so 9AM was a big difference) and just relax. I drew for a lot of my morning. In the afternoon, I went out with some friends to Harujuku, one of Japan’s famous fashion districts. I bought a pair of cargo pants I was looking for, and some overalls. Last time I went to Harujuku, I got a cute dress and a harness. In the evening, I went out again for karaoke! My weekend was great, personally! "

Nick - "So this weekend, I did the unthinkable, I got incredibly lost. Now this normally doesn't happen, since when by myself traveling I have Google maps up, or just know where I'm going. But, this was caused by me not paying attention to the train stops. That one stop, just one, caused me to have to take 2 hours of maneuvering by train to attempt to get back to my stop, to actually come back from shopping. When I say incredibly lost, I mean I somehow went nearly 1 hour away from Tokyo by train, which was the max distance we were permitted to go. So in a lesson shortly afterwards forgotten, pay a tad more attention to the train stop announcer, or just say "forget this" and walk back."

Thanks for reading about what our students have been doing in Tokyo! Now that they have had some time to rest and explore, they are ready to hit the ground running for our final week together in Japan. See you next blog!