Memories of Japan

By Kate Bowman

I never thought that I would ever have the chance to travel halfway across the world to a Country extremely different to the one I have grown up and lived in my entire life. Other than Florida I have never been anywhere else than Canada.

Japan is a wonderful country, and I would definitely go there again if given the chance. The people in Japan are all so kind and caring; I was more than happy to talk to anybody. The plane ride down was a good 13 or 14 hours but it was most certainly worth it for all the fantastic things I experienced while I was a guest in this country. After the plane ride we got on one train that was about a 45 minutes and than got off of it to another train, which was another 3 hours to our hotel.

The hotel we stayed in the first couple of nights had the girls stay on the first floor and the guys stay on the second floor. The rooms had futons, which were on the floor, 2 separate rooms, our own bathroom and toilet, which was nice, and a television and porch. It was very nice.

I got up around 6:30 am every morning in order to go down to the baths. The baths were like having a shower, but it was like a big shower room with five different hot tub looking baths and a little pail which you sat on in front of a mirror with your own personal shower head that was hand held. There was a girl bathing room and a boy bathing room which were separated by a big wall but you could still hear the people on the other side in the other baths. After getting out of the baths, I ate breakfast, which was at 8:00 am each morning in a private room in the hotel. We always had good talks in the morning at breakfast. It was nice, we always had a few laughs, and usually Morri's story always followed at the end. After breakfast we had a good half an hour usually to get ready for our long and exciting days in Japan.

Our bus left around 9:00 am and we met Tanaka and Natalie our translator in the front foyer and then we were off to explore things we had never ever thought we would see in our lives.

We visited so many places that were absolutely amazing and miraculous like the Mogami River, the marvelous mountains, some of which a couple of us climbed fairly close to the top, the Rose Garden, temples, and I definitely can't complain about the company I had while I was there.

The beautiful river was located behind our hotel. I remember going out there sometimes before going to bed or just before breakfast and it was so astounding. It would just make me feel I was in such a beautiful and peaceful country, I think that it is one of the things I remember the best and the most clearly. Also seeing the mountains some mornings with the fog on the top was almost like a picture out of a magazine or from a movie, it was all just so astonishing and beautiful. The most breathtaking experience of the trip though was the Tokani dancing and festival. The people were dancing for so long and seemed like they were enjoying every second of it. I stood and danced along on the float where I could see my group dancing. I can't describe how staggering and mind blowing it was, it's like you had to be there to experience it to understand. Just the matching, colorful and detailed costumes, the way everyone was included no matter what the age or size, how much work they put into the floats, and especially the music and what the music was played on.

Our third or fourth day into our trip we met our home stay families. Everyone was scared and nervous at first but I really enjoyed myself. They took me to this mountain that had a hot spring. It was so amazing, the water was so clear and warm, pretty much perfect. My family was so fantastic and accommodating, I had no problem being away from the group. Also leaving my Japanese family and saying the speech in front of everyone at the goodbye party was very sad and hard. Probably the worst was leaving Muryama City on the train, even though I was happy to be going home to see all of my family, friends, boyfriend, home, pets, basically everything that I didn't have in Japan.

I am so happy that I went to Japan it was an incredible experience for me and I'm sure I will be telling stories for the rest of my life about my adventure. I've already started. It is one of the best things I think anyone can experience and I encourage anybody to go if the chance arises.