Monday, May 25th

-met at 5am
-dragged suitcases all the way to the train station, rode long time until airport
-on the 14-hour flight home, Danny and I sat with Charles and Chad
-slept a lot, watched a few movies, and ate lots of food
-arrived in Texas and had to arrange a ride from Charlotte back home to Franklin
-flight from Texas to Charlotte, Danny and I sat next to Jerry; slept a lot
-arrived in Charlotte, sad goodbyes with everyone exchanging phone numbers
-had to wait an hour before my mom got to the airport to pick me up
-slept in the car ride back
-stopped for dinner at my favorite vegetarian restaurant in Asheville-The Laughing Seed
-returned home and slept some more

Sunday, May 24th

-FREE DAY AGAIN!
-Danny and I booked another tour, this time to Nikko, a World Heritage Site
-I bought a big box of mochi and forced Danny to try all the kinds...he didn't like it
-We ate lunch with fellow tourmates who were from England
-drove to a waterfall at the top of a mountain on really long switchback roads that I loved
-got back to Tokyo, found dinner, and returned to Olympic Center
-Danny and I stayed up packing and talking until it was time to "get up" to meet in the morning for the long haul back to the airport
-I got about 2 hours of sleep; Danny got 15 minutes

Saturday, May 23rd

-FREE DAY!
-Danny and I booked a tour to Mt. Fuji and Hakone
-we were almost left by our tourbus for being late a few times
-we ate ice off Mt. Fuji
-at Hakone, took a gondola ride up to the top of the mountain after a ferry ride to the port
-went for a brief trailrun by accident

Friday, May 22nd

-Harley-Davidson Japan...completely awesome!
-wanted to buy a t-shirt for myself and my dad but were $53 USD a piece
-lunch around the train station from 7 Eleven (again) near Sony building
-Sony tour=sooo cool!...but presentation afterwards was pretty boring
-group went out to Red Light District of Shinjuku
-some of the group took a cab back to Olympic Center
-Josh, Mel, Charles, Megan, Danny, and a couple more of us found a bar with glow-in-the-dark lights and waitresses dressed like go-go girls

Thursday, May 21st

-kimono shop with Hiro
-Danny and I got lunch from a hole-in-the-wall back-alley place where we just pointed to some kanji on the menu and lucked out...I got some kind of egg meal and he got pork cutlets
-Edo Museum tour, Danny, Chad, and I stayed together
-Sumo tournament...Tara, Haneul, James, and I sat together and ate snacks
-we tried to go out to dinner and bars in Shinjuku but the group was too big and split up

Wednesday, May 20th

-went to Asakusa Shrine with Yamamoto sensei
-Danny and I got our fortunes-I got lowest good luck and Danny got bad luck...tied our fortunes on a clothesline thing to wish it away
-went into the shrine and got more fortunes-same thing as before
-Danny bought red-bean cakes for us to snack on and for his coworkers to try back home
-Sensei took Chad, Charles, Trey, Emily, Danny, and I to see the Royal Palace and had lunch at a good little cafe
-had an interesting conversation with Sensei about Japanese toilets and the what the various buttons are for
-last day at Gakushuin-half the class didn't show up to say goodbye to the students we met
-we split into groups with the students and my group of girls, along with Danny, decided to go to LaQua, an amusement park
-we rode tons of roller coaster rides and then took pictures at a photo booth with Aya, Yumi, Yuki, Risa, and Ayaka
-we all went to dinner at a sushi restaurant and had sashimi

Tuesday, May 19th

-subway to Gakushuin
-Japanese calligraphy class
-watched tea ceremony
-Dr. Fox led a lecture where we took a survey in groups as American Boys, American Girls, and Japanese Girls and learned there is a huge cultural and gender difference between all of us
-Ernst and Young...a few of us had trouble staying awake during the 3-ish hour long presentation
-Tom from Ernst & Young took us to the Kill Bill restaurant and bought us an amazing dinner
-he ordered us mixed drinks, pitchers of beer, a set-course meal, and sashimi for me
-to repay him we told the waiters it was his birthday and they brought out a huge dessert platter and sang to him