5/13/15: The day we landed in Japan. We had to go through customs and immigration where they took a picture of us and scanned our fingerprints. We picked up our luggage and headed to the train station. We took our very first Japanese train. We were there for 30 minutes until we reached our home basis Kameoka. Kameoka is a small town in the Kyoto Prefecture.
When we got to Kameoka we met Ei-chan for the first time. She is our “Japanese mother”. We also met Nobuyoshi, her husband, and Nagata-san. They all helped us get our luggage to our hotel, Pony Hotel.
Many streets in Japan do ot have names. The Japanese give directions based on landmarks and buildings. Some signs in this town were written in English but most of is in Japanese.
For the first few nights I roomed with Hallie and Julianne. We ended up going to bed at 11pm Japan time, 4am Hawaii time, and 9am Arkansas time. My mind and body where in completely different time zones.
5/14/15: Today was acclimation day. We were shown how to us the ATM machines and the laundry washing machines. We were shown two suppermarkets, Seiyou and Eon. Seiyou is currently owned by Wal-Mart.
We headed to a town called Saga-Arashiyama. We rode bikes around a Bamboo Forest. I was a little crowded so riding was difficult. We grabbed some ice cream afterward. Black sesame ice cream was delicious.
For dinner we went to Nagata-san’s restaurant in Kameoka. We cooked for us a huge dinner. There were so many different kinds of food. By the end we were all so full. But everything was so delicious.
5/15/15: Today we went to Kiyogakko High School. The students were amazing. They taught us how to play taiko drums. I was pretty terrible at it but the students were so helpful. This experience was great. We learned a lot from and how they did as well from us.
5/16/15: we went to a pottery shop where we met Sensei, a top 500 Potter in the nation. He gave us so much pottery it was unbelievable. His generosity was huge. I had never done any pottery before. It was very fun.
Later in the day we went to the Golden Pavilion. This temple is built entirely out of gold. It was very pretty to see.
At night we had free time, so a couple of us girls went to Gion and went on a Geisha hunt. We succeeded. We saw like 10 geisha walking in the streets.
5/17/15: First free day. We went to an onsen which is a hot springs bath house. I was a lot of fun. At first I was very awkward because I have never been to one. But it was very relaxing. It helped to release stress from the first week in Japan.
We then went to Saga Arashiyama to a boat festival. In the afternoon, some of us went to the Torii Gates. There are close to 10,000 torii gates lined up, up a mountain.
5/18/15: Our first company visit was to Oyatsu. The ride there was little long. We took several trains and a taxi. Oyatsu is a famous snack company in Japan. They are mostly known for their snack Baby Star. We toured the facility and factory. Oyatsu focused on being environmentally friendly and reducing any waste
5/19/15: We went to Nara for a second company visit. This time to Sharp. Sharp provide most of the electronics sold in Japan. The tour focused on the history of Sharp and the different products it produces. Some of the new technology being made had not reached the US yet. It all looks so cool.
-Paulina Moya
Japan Study Abroad Program 2015 