May 9: U of C Field Trip #1 Exploring Tokyo!

Although we just arrived yesterday (after 11 hour flight), everyone was very GENKI and excited again today!  A lot of them told me about their exciting meeting with their Japanese roommates on the previous night.  I am looking forward to see how much they improve in communicating in Japanese after sharing the room with a Japanese roommate for a month.  Unfortunately some students share with another U of C student or don't have a roommate, but I am sure they will have a plenty of opportunity to mingle with Japanese people such as conversation partners and host families during the program! Try to speak in Japanese even when you are with other U of C students!  Immersion setting is the best way to improve your listening, speaking, and communication skill!

We met at 9:40 at the dorm and left for Meiju Jinguu (Meiji Shrine).
Wow!   As soon as we arrived there, we were welcomed by an old but beautiful and majestic-looking gate and a lot of big tall trees with beautiful green leaves, which reminded us of Hayao Miyazaki's movie "Totoro".  It was breathtaking and "YES, I am in JAPAN now" moment!



Purifying sinful hands before going into the main area...




How do they shape these big trees!! (Gigantic Bonsai trees!)

Wishing for a good luck...


We encountered a wedding!


Baiking for lunch! ("Baiking" in Japanese means "All you can eat buffet" not "biking" or "viking"!!)
So many varieties and all "oishii"!!   Thank you, Yang-sensei to tell us about this place!



Japan has cool things!


Some people went to an animation theme cafe for their cultural research and (I am SURE) for their own passion!!  Some people continued on exploring Shinjuku area and went to the Neko(Cats) cafe.  I went back to Mukoogaoka-Yuen station (the station nearest to our dorm), did my grocery shopping, and went back to my room.  8 littles of juice, tea, and milk in my backpack and some more groceries in both of my hands gave me a good sweat from walking on the steep slopes back to the dorm.  I think I had an enough exercise for the day!

After I went back, I went to the International Centre to meet Takahashi-san, Yazawa-san, Matsunobu-san, Norimatsu-san, and two Japanese teachers, Sasaki-sensei and Akagi-sensei.  They all welcomed me with smile and kind words, and I finally understood why this program is so well-organized and all of our students who has participated before fell in love with it!