Author: Megan

The Way Home :)

June 3rd: Finally it’s time to go home. Liam and I were on the same flight so we planned the whole day out. We both checked out around 10:30am and left our luggage at the hotel for a bit to do some final shopping.

We went to BookOff first where Liam got a book for his Mom and I found 2 DS games ( Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers Of Time/Darkness) for like 990 yen!!! In the US these games are worth like $300. Since I’ve come home I have played them and I realized DS games don’t have language options so the whole game is in Japanese… the summer of immersion!


After BookOff we walked to 2 other stores where Liam was looking for gifts. We ended up walking to Ueno and walking through a popular street so that was cool! After shopping it was about 12 and we took the train back to Akihabara. This is where we found out our JR passes as well weren’t working through the scanner.


We also saw some ads for the new Spiderverse movie on the trains! We grabbed our luggage and headed back to the station to head to Narita airport. We took the train to Nippori then transferred to the Skyliner straight to Narita Airport. It was about an hour train ride.

Once we arrived at the airport we took a walk around. This airport is crazy it’s like a mall plus an airport. We saw a Marvel pop up store, Lego store, Gucci, Versace, Chanel, and many other high end stores plus souvenir stores. We went to McDonalds for our last meal in Japan. I got some nuggets and Liam got a shrimp burger.

After eating, we attempted to find where security and bag check was. I was nervous because of my tax free goods but it ended up not mattering in the long run. We checked out bags, saw some Pokémon, went through security ( which was very relaxed compared to the rush in the US with shoes and putting things in Bins), and looked for our gate.

On the way to our gate we saw a store with Pokémon merch, Ghibli merch, some gunpla, and souvenirs. I had some extra yen so I got some sake KitKats, a magnet for my parents, a snow globe for my grandmother, and a crystal puzzle of JiJi from KiKi’s delivery service! We also stopped by a vending machine to get so much apple juice before leaving the country.


We sat at the gate for about an hour before boarding the plane. We were lucky that the storm was south of Narita so we had no delays. I was surprised that the bathroom in the airport ( I only know the women’s room) had a little holder in the stall for a baby and a sink with handrails. It was really interesting to see that.

We got on the plane and while Liam and I weren’t next to each other, we were the same row at least. The flight was about 12 hours so we got a couple meals. Most of the flight I watched movies like Le Mis, Soul, and Spiderverse. Meal 1 was some chicken and rice with chocolate chip mochi as a dessert. I skipped the middle meal as I was trying to nap, and breakfast was an omelet with tomato sauce, a sausage, and hashbrown. Meals were overall ok.

We landed in the states to see Newark NJ, what a grey city. We deplaned and headed to customs with took FOREVER. I don’t understand how you can have 9 booths to move people through and only have 3 open for a couple planes worth of people. It took probably an hour to get through customs and to get our bags. It was about 5pm EST and we left Japan at 5pm JST which was fun.

Liam and I split at baggage check as my parents were in the airport looking for me. I grabbed my bags ( all safe and sound ) and headed to meet my parents. I gave them a hug and we headed back to my hometown.

I got home, had a pork roll and egg on an English muffin, took a quick shower, and passed out. Since then my sleep schedule has been messed up and I’ve been trying to fix it. I’ve also been telling stories of my trip to my friends and parents.

Overall this trip has been a life changing experience for me and I’m so happy to have been able to experience everything with a fantastic group of people. I will always look back on this trip with pride, joy, and happiness. It has even inspired me to apply to the Fullbright program and have to chance to live in Japan for 10 months for research.

Thank you everyone for making this trip amazing. Love you all!!!

Last full day in Japan :(

June 2nd: Today’s the last full day in Japan :(. While I’m sad to be leaving, I’m happy to go be in my own bed and be a hermit for a bit. Our plans for this day were to go to Unreal Fest and visit the CyberConnect2 studio. We all met up around 10am to walk to UnrealFest which was also in Akihabara .

UnrealFest was a little underwhelming compared to the size of GDC but it was cool. A lot of cool indie games. A small of group of us even went to a panel but it was all inJapanese so we only got the broad strokes.


At about 12:30, the event was kicking people out to go eat lunch. It was pouring rain ( thanks typhoon) so we wanted some warm food. Belle, Skyler, Pavel, Fabian, and I ended up going to this really good wagyu place where you grill your own steak. It was delicious and not too expensive.


We had about an hour before we had to meet up back at the hotel so Skyler and I went back to the arcade. We did not win anything but we did get some yummy taiyaki. So I had a good time.


We met up at the hotel to say goodbye to Toshi sensei and to thank him for joining us on the trip. Afterwards we went to the CyberConnect2 office to tour the studio and see their properties.

I don’t have any photos but the studio was really cool and seems to have some big games in the works. I did get a cool stamp though!!! It was nice to see what studios look like in Japan in comparison to the studios we have in the US. I’m also still surprised how common it is to smoke cigarettes in Japan, the studio had a smoking room for itself!

After our tour we were sent free for dinner. The school trip is officially over. Brody, Vincent, Esther, Maddi, Jas, Jess, and I grabbed dinner at Royal Host. It’s like a family establishment. All of us pretty much got steak and bread.

Here’s some puffy buns.
After dinner I wanted crepes, so I got crepes. It was pouring rain like hard so I ran with my crepe into the station and found my way home. I immediately ate and took a hot shower. I also took my down time to start packing and planning the route to the airport for Liam and I tomorrow.

At around 10pm, most of us gathered to say goodbye, say some nice things, exchange hugs, cry a bit, and finish the DND movie. It was an emotional night but I’m so glad to have made so many friends and memories on this trip. I’ll get emotional in my next post though.

See you later for my last post about going back to NJ. ✌?

Diver City and Team Labs!!!

June 1st: Today we’re going to Diver City! Diver City is an area near the center of Tokyo on and island. It’s very popular as it has the Gundam base ( gundam is a very popular robot franchise). Diver City is also home to the museum of Science and the future which we also went to. It was a cool train ride with some cool sights as well as the walk to the gundam base.


The gundam was really cool and we got to see it transform as well! Behind the gundam is a mall! We went around the mall for a bit, saw some poorly translated shirts in English, and a weird amount of US college merch from like Harvard, Holy Cross, Rutgers, etc.

After grabbing some donuts from Mister Donut ( 7/10 frosting was a bit hard), we all met up and headed to the museum. This museum was a small walk away and discussed the problems we face on this earth and what we should do. However, the museum would not give you any answers you had to come up with it yourself. Personally, I had a bit of a crisis walking through but the big Earth, robots, and the ISS walkthrough.


After the museums we had the very anticipated team labs!!! Team Labs is an art installment where you become part of the art. It’s like, everywhere on social media, and very pretty. The experience has two parts, the water and garden. You start with the water part. The fun thing is that you have to take off your shoes for the whole experience. I really can’t describe how amazing it was. There were so many new and pretty things to see. To make up for my lack of descriptive words, here’s a lot of photos!!

It was truly amazing and I would 100% go back. After team labs we went back to Akihabara where I took a shower and got some chicken for dinner from Lawson.

We also did Karaoke!!! Liam, Skyler, Belle, Fabian, Cam, and I went to do karaoke! It was so much fun and we got snacks while we sang and we tried to do as many Japanese songs as possible. It was rough but I’m happy with how much I’m able to read as quick as I can!!! Liam was super impressive with his fast reading and singing!!

After that a group of us started watching the dnd movie! We made it half way through before a lot of us became sleepy and ready to hit the sack. The movie started really good though!

See you tomorrow blog!!

Shibuya, Harajuku, and Fabian’s birthday celebration!!!

May 31st: Woke up this morning around 9 and went to do my laundry. Belle and I headed out around 9:45 and walked to the coin laundry about 6 minutes away. We used this machine that had a machine that washed AND dried. That was cool. Sadly we had to do some extra drying time since our clothes were still damp after the first cycle. Overall that took about an hour in total. We headed back to our hotel and had maybe 20 minutes until the class had to meet.

Our plan for the day was to go see the Imperial Palace in Tokyo and Meiji Jingu in Harajuku. We hopped on the train and went two stops to Tokyo. The station is like grand central in NYC with a lot of art and architecture. Apparently it was designed by a French guy so it looked very European.

From there we walked to the Imperial Palace. Apparently the imperial family was there at the time so it was very busy. We weren’t able to see the Palace but we did see the gardens. They were pretty and had some history to them. There was a koi pond which was my favorite. Here’s some photos as all we did was walk and see.


Afterwards we went back to the station and took the train to Harajuku to see Meiji Jingu ( that’s a shrine btw). We got an hour for lunch so I ran over to the Sailor Moon store to get some merch. This is where I got told the rules of Tex free and I have now found out I’m gonna have to pay tax when I come home! Little frustrated by that since no one told us but whatever.

I did also get food with a third of the class. It took forever to come to us but I got a very yummy omelet.



After some food we met up with the rest of the class for the shrine. It was a beautiful walk with a lot of pretty trees and architecture. Once again here are some photos:


After the shrine we were let free. A lot of us wanted to go to Shibuya for the Nintendo Store, Pokémon store, and Shibuya crossing. This was a really popular area but half of us decided to walk to the mall. On our way we saw the Olympic stadium! That was cool. The Pokémon center in Shibuya had the mewtwo statue!!!! I didn’t get anything from the Pokémon center but I did get stuff from Nintendo.

So we were a bit on a time crunch cause we had reservations at the Monster Hunter cafe for Fabian’s 21st!! On our way to the train station we ran into Shibuya crossing! It was really cool to see such a populated place that we also so popular.


We made it back to Akihabara for the cafe just in time! We all got some themed food from the Monster Hunter series and had some drinks. It was very yummy. I got some strip steak with potatoes, a drink with cotton candy, and dango for dessert! For fabian’s 21st we made him pose with a big thing of beer the size of his face. It was funny.

After dinner we went back to the hotel, watched half of the new dnd movie, and went to bed.

See you later for the next days adventure soon!!


Free day in Tokyo! AND KIRBY

May 30th:

This is it folks, the day I’ve been waiting for. My credit cards are not PREPARED for what I’m about to do to them today. I woke up early at 9am and secured a reservation spot for the Kirby cafe petit on character street. Character Street is an area near the Tokyo station that has all themed shops for different brands like Pokémon, Kirby, Ghibli, Shounen Jump, Snoopy, etc.. I was on a mission for the Kirby cafe petit. I got my reservation for 1:40pm.

To kill time a whole gaggle of us gamers got together to get breakfast and do some light shopping. We went to Starbucks for breakfast 1, I got a pretty good scone. Then we went to get crepes. All of these were sugary crepes but I got a tiramisu crepe. It was yummy and warm :),


After crepes we all split up while others were eating. I took a trip to the Razer store ( like the gaming peripheral brand) to see if I could get a new mouse for cheap. This was an experience to get into the store. It was in the basement ( where true gamers live) and had all green RGB LED lights. It was so funny. Also fun fact! Everything in that store was more expensive than it’s American price point! I thought that was funny.


Once everyone was done eating we starting walking to the train station when we ran into Sten! He was a bit lost and didn’t really know what to do so he tagged along with us to Tokyo station. We got on the trains and headed 2 stops up to Tokyo.

Finding Character street was an adventure in itself as it was hidden from us. I think it took about 15 minutes to find a sign pointing towards it. When we got there though, I saw the promised land. Kirby cafe petit right infront. At this point it was about 12 so we had some time before the reservation. We all split up and went to the themed stores of our choice.

I went to the Shounen Jump store first since I like their anime’s currently. I got a sticker of one of my favorite characters and some candy. After, I went to the Ghibli store and got some really heavy books, a sun catcher, and paper ball theater that I will have to build back home. My shopping bags were pretty heavy at this point so I walked around a bit with Sten and Skyler for their shopping and killed off some time. There was a Pokémon store but the line was astronomically long for check out so we left.

The time has come, Kirby Cafe time. I was ready, so ready. With the reservation we get to choose 4 sweets from the bakery, 2 take out items, and all the merch one could ever want or need. Jess and I were on one ticket so I got 3 desserts and she got 1 ( we agreed on this it’s ok). We also both got a star bread (it’s a big, like thick white bread). After we ordered our sweet we perused the store. I knew exactly what I wanted to I filled our basket pretty quick. I won’t bore you with words but I have many many photos I will show instead of the haul. Here ya go:

I felt at this moment, a tear shedding from my eye. A single tear, it has been my moment. We all exited the Kirby store and went home to eat our sweets. It was so yummy. The cheesecake was delicious and had cheese on it. The tiramisu was creamy and smooth. The Kirby car cake. Oh my. A dream come true. He was a sponge cake with some jelly and this soft pudding/jello like strawberry substance on top. It was amazing.

After consuming we went out again to Uniqlo, Muji, and other stores. I ended up at the Square Enid cafe ( creators of Kingdom hearts) and got some merch. I was so happy and I refuse to look at my credit card bills as of right now.


After shopping a bit, Cam, Liam, Belle, and I got dinner at this place our professor recommended. The food was good but the servers forgot about us. Would not go back. We also then got some donuts as a little treat. That was yummy.


After donuts we all went home and rested for a bit before movie night!!!! In Skyler and Liam’s room we watched Bullet Train ( surprisingly not available in Japan we had to VPN to America). It was a really funny movie and I would watch it again! After the movie it was about 12:30am so I went back to my room, took a shower, and went to sleep.

This was a whole day and oh my am I ready to just exist with my items. I went a bit crazy but I’m happy for it. Come back tomorrow blog for another crazy adventure. Peace ✌?

From Kyoto to Akihabara!!! (Oooo aaaaa)

After a week in Kyoto, it was time to leave our quaint and oddly artistic hotel and go back to Tokyo for the last leg of our trip. We had a decently early wake up of around 9 and loaded into the bus. We had two buses, one for our suitcases and one for the people. The guy was lifting suitcases all by himself, it was really impressive.

We got to Kyoto station with little time to spare for a real breakfast so good thing I grabbed some bread from our hotel beforehand. Our train came and we all piled on. I spent the whole 2hr ride playing Zelda. This is the first time I’ve touched Zelda in like a week so I was happy.

The Shinkansen ride is about 2 hours between Kyoto and Tokyo. So two hours passed and we got to Tokyo. When we got out of the train it was really really humid and raining. Kinda uncomfortable. To get go Akihabara we had to take 2 stops on a local train line. Toshi sensei helped us out with that.

Arriving in Akihabara was amazing, we got off the train to see anime, everywhere. Quite literally everywhere. Our hotel was right next to the station which was great for my aching shoulders. You know the deal, get the key cards and go up to your rooms. We had an hour of free time before meeting back up. Our rooms are nice, smaller than Kyoto but we have a massage chair! I tried it but the back was kinda hard for me.

Jas and I unpacked, relaxed for a bit, and headed back downstairs to meet everyone. Our classes walked around the city to see the sights and visit some old retro game stores like Mandarake. It was really expensive.


Afterwards we all split up to check out some stores and grab food. As prof Jacobs put it – “You’re free beings until Tuesday at noon”. So we all scattered with some going to animate, book off, and other second hand stores for games. There were a lot of really cool items in all the stores but my wallet was to be saved for the next day. Except for 1 event.

After Belle and I got dinner at this Karaage place ( karaage is like fried chicken) we headed to an arcade. Skyler ended up joining us later on. This was a 7 floor arcade with crane machines, video games, rhythm games, etc,etc. We spent ALOT of time there trying to win prizes but only Skyler came out with 2 prizes. We did, however, okay a lot of video games as well. The atmosphere for those floors were no windows only game. So it was lit up with LEDs.


I also ended up getting a really good score on one of the games. It was very fun.


After spending too much money there we went home for the night. I was able to get some really cool photos of the city at night. It was raining so things are a bit blurry but it was really pretty.

After getting home we basically went to sleep, I literally was out cold 2 minutes into laying on my bed. So I’ll catch ya later for tomorrrow, it’s gonna be a big one.

Game Jam… but day 2! Plus Osaka!!!

For day 2 of the game jam, I work up at a decent time and grabbed some breakfast. Got my carbs for the day. After eating, the RIT students packed onto the bus and headed to KCG. For the final day of the jam we only had 3 more hours of work. I was done with my portion for the jam and helped Fabian with GitHub stuff. We did some pair git hub work and finished out our side of the project. Around noon we had omurice for lunch! Omurice is a Japanese dish that has typically fried rice topped with an omelet and maybe curry sauce. It was quite yummy in my tummy.

Once our 3 hours of time was up, we did presentations of our games. I think everyone did really well and a lot of interesting ideas came out of the theme. To reiterate, the theme was collaboration across cultures. Our game was about 2 aliens that meet on a deserted planet and had to work together to survive. One character was strong and one was smart. It was a 2D coop puzzle game.

Once our presentations ended everyone got a big round of applause and we cleaned up. After some time of socializing with the students and eating snacks, we left KCG. We didn’t have a bus back to our hotel so we had to figure that part out. We took the weirdest way to our hotel through many trains and stops. Thanks to Toshi sensei for dealing with us!

After having some time to relax, a large group of us went to Osaka! Osaka is another large city about 30 minutes by bullet train from Kyoto. We walked to Kyoto station, got out tickets, and headed to Osaka. Our plan was to go to all the character shops in this mall since it had a Pokémon center, nintendo store, capcom store, one piece store, etc etc. Osaka was described to us as the closest to NYC that Japan can get. It was weird but if you removed all the Japanese from signs and told me I was in NYC I’d believe you. However, there was this really pretty building with greenery.

Across that little bridge was this giant mall that had all our stores on the 13th floor. Once we got up there it was insanity. Literally crazy. I went to the Nintendo Store first and got some Kirby merch and some Zelda candy. They had some really cool statues in the store though!


After walking around like a bewildered child, I checked out the Pokémon center! This must be a new one cause the statue was of the new legendaries in the series. I didn’t plan on getting anything but I found these really cute stickers and they had pins of my favorite Pokémon so I had to.

I checked out and the gang walked around for a bit waiting for all of us to quench the thirst for merchandise. We gathered everyone and split up again for food! I wasn’t super hungry so I opted for a fancy cake. I was so excited to eat it but they didn’t give me any utensils and I couldn’t find them anywhere. So I sadly had to carry my delicious snack home to wait.
While waiting for people, I did get this eclair knockoff from 7-11. It was the size of a breadstick that had a chocolate covering and a single bit of whipped cream inside. 6/10 tasted like an ok Swiss roll.

After everyone finished eating we headed back to Osaka main station to head home for our last night in Kyoto. We got on the bullet train and headed back. The ride was once again uneventful.

We got off the train and walked to a family mart so I could buy an ice cream to get a wooden spoon to use for my dessert that I still have not eaten. I got my wooden spoon and we went to the hotel to pack then hang out. I also ate my dessert! It was really really yummy. It was like a tiramisu layered cake. It had a lot of cocoa powder on top though. 8/10


As a greater group, we decided to get some sake and have all of us ( who are legal to) have a shot and try it. We’re in Japan anyway! Honestly it wasn’t too bad in my opinion, kinda good actually.

we played some games and around 1 we all went to sleep to get ready for the next days adventure.

That’s about it for this one but I’ll catch ya soon! Bye bye!

May 27th: Game Jamming!!!!

Today was the big day, the game jam! For me it started off pretty rough, I woke up a bit late and had to rush downstairs. I also found out my laptop decided not to download the engine I needed because my graphics drivers weren’t good! It was so so so fun to uninstall and reinstall all my graphics drivers and unreal itself for a couple hours ( this is sarcasm). Once I got past the pain that I downloading, I got to work. I was put on UI art which isn’t my thing but I tried my best anyway. I like design for UI but more on the technical side.

We spent the day snacking, sitting, coding, and helping each other. The LCG students were familiar with Unreal when a lot of RIT students were not. At RIT we typically use Unity which is entirely different. The day was pretty quiet overall with just a lot of head down let’s get this done energy.

we got some rice balls (onigiri) for lunch and a really nice bento box for dinner ( I forgot to take a photo). The bento box had some white rice, bamboo shoots, a meatball steak, tempura, some fried chicken, a lot of greens, and a sweet waffle for dessert. It was quite yummy. Our jamming lasted from 9:30am to 8pm so basically all day. The Japanese students on my team were very quiet other than when they needed something done or had updates for us so it was pretty quiet. I enjoyed just sitting and listening to music for a day since we have walked like 15 to 18 thousand steps everyday. Literally it’s crazy here’s a screenshot of my steps. The most being from kimono day surprisingly.


That’s a lot of steps. That’s basically it for the day. I took a nice shower and played this game I downloaded called Colorful stage ( it’s a rhythm game). Tomorrow we have to get up at around the same time (7am) and have 3 hours to finish up our games. Well then, see ya later blog!!

May 26th: Kimono Day!!!!!!!!!

Todays the day!!! The day of wearing Kimonos!! I was so excited since I made the reservation two days in advance and I even woke up buzzing with excitement. At around 7:05am, Belle, Chloe, and I headed out to the Kiyomizu-dera area ( this is the place with the old looking pretty streets and temple that looks over Kyoto). Our reservation was at 8am and we ended up getting there at around 7:45am. We walked around for a bit then headed in. We were greeting by this middle aged Japanese lady that spoke pretty good English! Being the try hard student I am, I tried to speak Japanese the entire time we were there, the women there said I had a good accent!

We all chose our kimonos, belts, and accessories and the women there got to work. I never realized how many layers a kimono had but there was alot. There was a white under cover, a lot of straps to tie it together, towels to keep the shape firm, the actual designed kimono cover, the belt, and accessories. Overall it took 30 minutes to get dressed and about 15 minutes for them to do our hair. It was a really fun experience as I tried to speak through it.

Once we got out we headed towards Kiyomizu-dera to take so many photos. The plan was to go early to miss the crowds but the crowd was still there. We took some photos at the top then headed down the hill. A lot of other foreigners asked to take photos with us which was kinda weird but we said no. Here’s some photos though of the temple with us in it!


We headed down the hill to the shopping area. Belle and Chloe got some goods from the stores and we took photos along the way as we could. It did get crowded fast but we managed. The worst part of the kimonos were the shoes. The shoes are basically wedged flip flops that were a little too small and you had to wear socks with a little cut for the flip flop. Here’s a photo of what it kind of looked like.


We walked around a while. I headed to the Ghibli and freaked out for a bit ( as in I bought a cute mug with Spirited Away and sat next to JiJi from Kiki’s Delivery Service). After our shopping was over we went to a couple other area for photos then headed back to the kimono shop to get undressed. We were lucky it was cloudy in the morning but the afternoon started to get really warm, especially in all those layers.



After we got back in our regular clothes, we took a walk to the Pokémon Center of Kyoto. I already went earlier in the week so I won’t go into much detail there. And No I didn’t spend more money at the center this time I held back. After the Pokémon center we went exploring near Nishiki market and all it’s cool stores. We went to the otter café but it was full sadly but we explored instead! We saw a sticker store that was really cool. It kind of reminded me of Zumiez at home. We also went through some anime stores with many many figures and a thrift store that was too expensive to be thrift. We had to be back to our hotel at 4pm for our next schedule event so I grabbed a cream puff ( shuu-cream in Japanese) and we all headed to the station.

We made it home just in time for our class time and got on the bus to KCG. We were going to a pizza party and meeting the student we were going to be working with! We arrived at the school and got a tour of the grad program and meet our teammates.

Tangent time: we got pizza from a popular chain around here called pizza-la. To be honest it was really sweet and didn’t sit well in my tummy but it’s ok. There was only 1 plain pizza though the others were overly topped for my taste. There was chicken nuggets though! Ok tangent over.

We met with our groups, hung out for a bit, then headed home. We got a nice group pic on the bus ride home though!


After wards us RIT kids went to family mart for some snacks and drinks and played jackbox party pack together since it was an early night. That was pretty much my free day! I keep forgetting to take pictures of my merch but think of it as a surprise for my last post when I show everything I’ve gotten ( cause I’m not done yet we have a whole week in the anime fans center of the world Akihabara)

See you next time blog!

An emotional day

Today was our trip to Hiroshima. Obviously it is a very sobering and educational experience but it was such an interesting day overall.

We started the day early with breakfast at 7am and being on the skinkansen around 8:30. The ride to Hiroshima was about a 2 hour ride on the bullet train. I spent the time confirming our kimono appointments for tomorrow.

Once we got off the train, we got some food. I got a cookies and cream cake and vanilla Frappuccino from Starbucks. After food we headed over to see the dome. The dome is a still standing building from before the A bomb fell. It was incredible to see, especially the before and after.


After that we walked around the Peace Memorial Park. There were many flowers and school children going on a trip to see Hiroshima. We also then learned about the legend of the paper cranes. There’s a statue representing a school girl that got leukemia from the bomb and how she made paper cranes to wish for her health. The story goes that she died before she could finish all the cranes to grant her wish ( you need 1001) but her classmates finished it for her. We saw a group of school children bow and say thank you to the statue in the park.

After that we headed towards the actual museum. I didn’t take many photos since this was a very personal experience and it felt wrong to really take photos of such a thing.

The museum itself was wonderfully put together. The story of the bombing was extremely well told and made me cry at one point. I think the most impactful thing for me was seeing the clothes of the children that died from the bomb and reading the stories of the people who came home covered in burns and radioactive energy. The destruction was everyone and was really emotional.

The whole museum was a very emotionally strong experience for me that I don’t think I could put into words all that well. It really is something you have to see for yourself.

After the museum we sat outside for a bit. Some school children ( like 8 or 10 years old) came up to us and said hello. I responded in Japanese and the kids literally jumped back in shock. It was so cute!

Afterwards we went on an adventure to find Hiroshima Castle. It was so hot outside and I was in jeans so I wasn’t doing that hot. We eventually made it to the adjoining shrine and relaxed there for a bit. It was pretty with the guardian there being koi fish.

After that we headed to dinner. We got okonomiyaki ( Japanese pizza but instead of crust it’s cabbage). I tried it but wasn’t a fan. The meat and mochi in it was good though.

Afterwards, a small group broke off to run to the Pokémon center! I was in that group haha. We took a taxi over to the center, ran up the stairs and got in. I got some cookies while everyone else shopped. The reason we rushed was because we had to meet back up with the rest of the group to make our train back to Kyoto. We had 20 minutes to meet up with everyone and we were 30 minutes out of the station. We literally speed walked back to the station and made it just in time! We got on our train and I took a little nap. From here we just got back to the hotel and got ready for bed.

See ya next time blog for our very special Kimono edition!