Tokyo Day 16 - Going Home.

We all checked out the hotel and get ready for a long trip home.



Once at the hotel those with Yen left had to exchange it for US dollars.


The flight to Chicago was 11 hours long and then we had to get our luggage and recheck into customs, immigration, security and then our flight to Savannah was delayed for over 2 hours (after we had already been there 2 hours). We had been up for over 24 hours and Dove and Jason passed out while I kept a lookout for the boarding time.

Now I'm home and will spend the next few days trying to get used to the time change.

Tokyo Day 15 - Takanawadai, The 47 Ronin, Last Full Day in Japan

It was a rainy morning when we gathered early for our last full day in Japan.

We made our way to Takanawadai.




To the graves of the 47 Ronin. The tale of these Samurai is one of most important stories in Japan.











Kevin, Naaman and I wondered around Ginza looking for a few things.



We had a fancy farewell dinner full of crazy sushi (I left my camera at the hotel by accident). Hiroki Mafuyu met with afterwords and we all talked for a while. He is a avid guitar player, so next year he's going to set up some time for he, Dove and I to all play together. How fun will that be?

Naaman and I spend the late night getting lost. We wondered around for a few hour before we had to make our way back to the hotel so we'd be alive the next day.

Tokyo Day 14 - Hiroki Mafuyu

On Wednesday we had manga artist Hiroki Mafuyu visit with the students.


He discussed his process and his thoughts on art and such.






Then we went to the Tokyo Zoo (not the nicest zoo in the world, by any means). Here's Elaine and Disney at the entrance to the zoo. I told them they made a cute couple ("That's not pervy at all, Duncan," said Elaine.)

Brett poses with the pandas.







Lovely signage.

Otter trick tank.

My camera died shortly afterwards.

Tokyo Day 13 - Chiyoda-Ku Park, Edo-Tokyo Museum, Shibuya, Shinjuku

Naaman and had an hour in the morning to walk around (rather than sit and wait around on everyone else) so he took me over to a park (Chiyoda-Ku Park) not to far from the hotel he had been walking around.



We took all the students to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. It houses a fairly extensive history of Tokyo from the Edo period through modern times. It was a pretty fancy building - huge, that is.


They have accurate scale models of the area during the Edo time period.


Keep in mind that it was pretty cold outside and all these school kids had shorts on that were way outside of regulation length when I was in grade school.

Subway signs: Don't let your purse get stolen.
Or put your cigarette into a child's eye.

Naaman and I then took off for Shibuya and walked around in the big intersection there.

There was some pretty neat graffiti around the area.


We then went to Shinjuku to the New York Grill and Bar at the Park Hyatt Tokyo from Lost in Translation.

Later in Shinjuku we wandered around.