After waking up from what can only be described as a jet lag-induced hibernation, we drank our oolong tea at our all-you-can-eat breakfast, some highlights from this meal included miso mackerel, traditional Japanese eggs, pudding with fruit jelly, fried noodles, and many more delicious treats. With full bellies and a time of 10 am (JST) and 8 pm (EST) we ventured to Hibiya Park in Ginza District where we gathered as a group to discuss how we can “Adopt, Adapt, and Adept” to the Japanese culture while we learned a few common phrases in Japanese to help us throughout the day. We were told today that we would see why Japan is a UNESCO preserved heritage site. We also discussed the importance of how Japan is taken care of by their citizens. Shortly after we took the shockingly quiet and well-operated transit (subway/train) system. The ease in getting through the hustle, while remaining quiet and respectful of our surroundings. Next, we went to Tokyo’s National Museum to learn more about Japan’s history over the last millennia. Along the way, we visited a local market and our group tried 10 yen coins, crab and roasted pork skewers. With completely stuffed bellies we entered the museum to be amazed by intricate Kimonos, swords, armour pieces, tapestry, and plenty of other historically significant artefacts. 

As a group of 16+ year-old boys we ate another meal, this time at ~1:30 pm we ventured beyond the tourist destinations into the non-English speaking Ame Yayokocho Market where we split into groups to explore different restaurants, stalls and markets. Despite a lack of communication, we all prevailed! …or at least Google Translate did. Students were tasked to explore in small groups to find food. We enjoyed traditional pork cutlet with rice, salmon and roe rice bowls, Japanese salads and boba. One group of students went to a Japanese grill and asked the chef for his favourite dishes, during this process the students observed in astonishment as ingredients they had never seen before were cooked in front of them at their own 5 person table. Ironically enough, the 5 students at this restaurant were caucasian and had very little experience with Japanese-style cuisine. This became very apparent while their meals were cooked and served on the same hot stone and they couldn’t understand the chef telling them to “Eat” or “Don’t eat” the cooked and uncooked food, which created shared laughs between the students and chefs. Japanese food is more than just sushi. Something that a lot of us have learned so far. Still to this day the students don’t know what they ate but say they “Couldn’t have been happier with their selection.” 

The group then took a 45-minute train ride to Yokohama to explore the Ramen Museum. Upon arrival, we were hollered at by an ecstatic man gesturing for our group to enter his museum. Greeted with a Canadian flag and smiles we were excited to learn about the history of Ramen and its significance across various regions. Our museum experience began with a block of dough, an 8 ft x 1ft bamboo roller, a table, and hungry boys so we got to work. Afterwards we began beating the dough with our bamboo rollers in a method that consisted of us lifting one end of the roller and kneading the dough between us and the fulcrum of the unlifted bamboo end. The ecstatic man was disappointed in our arm pumping technique and instead demonstrated the method of putting the bamboo between our legs and sitting on it to efficiently use our body weights to our advantage. 100s of squats later we were ready to cut our dough and deliver it to the chefs for cooking. Between the incredible ramen and tired legs, none of us wanted to leave our seats and explore the rest of the museum. That being said, we’re all glad we did as we found an underground “Mini-market" that had numerous restaurants and was discovered 5 floors underground! We noticed how every inch of space is used to decorate or fit enough chairs for people to sit in these tiny restaurants. All of them with unique characteristics that separate them from any fast-food joint.

To conclude our day we took the train (During this most of us fell asleep, some even while standing up) to an anime district to explore various arcade games. After the day-end debrief we walked back to our hotel and reflected upon our phenomenal day as we nearly fell asleep walking home. Our guides from Envoys have done another wonderful job in supporting us throughout the day. 

• Written by Aidan Simcox and Oscar Yeung

The gang had been fortunate to have two sunny days, bringing a sense of Spring weather in the air. Today was different. We witnessed winds, rain and some snow. All of the seasons.

The morning started off as a dark, gloomy, and rainy day, and yet the boys had to face another adventure in the deep depths of Japan. We are all still a little bit jet lagged, but ready to face the massive rainfall ahead of us. We started off with a trip to the Tokyo Tower in Minato district. The day was windy and rainy and we didn't have much umbrellas, but our faces were held high and we made our way over. We could see for the first time how commuters hustle to work through the subway station, even through the wet conditions. Umbrellas are their natural weapons to deflect their common conditions. At the Red Tower we spent the first couple of hours playing in Japan's largest virtual amusement park. This consisted of roller coaster, boat and car simulators, virtual bocce ball, soccer, dodgeball, and many others. A lot of tech and digital advances in their gaming industry was pretty interesting. After the fun in the amusement park, we were all exhausted and starving, so we took a trip downstairs to the underground food court where we all ate our own different Japanese traditional meals. During lunch time, a group of us decided to go to the top of the Tokyo Tower. They bought their tickets and decided to head up 200m high. When they got up, they immediately explored the 360-degree view of the skyline. Although it was cloudy, the city still looked spectacular. While walking around the top of the tower, they noticed that there were glass floors, illustrating how high they really were. Some of us tried our luck and started jumping up and down on the floors. 

After 11 purchased umbrellas, we started our journey to the Meiji Jingu Shrine, the largest shrine in Japan. This shrine was created in 1920 for the Emperor Meihi and Emperor Shoken, who were the primary reasons for Japan's modernism. We also learned that there are 120,000 trees in the Shrine, all different types to illustrate how Meihi and Shoken brought more people into Japan, including Western countries. A sign of respect for modernizing traditional Japan. We learned the difference between Japan's 2 largest religions, Shintoism and Buddhism. For those who don’t know, Shintoism is all about belief and respect for living things, while Buddhism is about meditation to achieve inner wisdom, nature, and compassion. As we were walking up the long pristine path to the shrine, we stopped to view a wall of wine barrels donated by the French to show their appreciation to the emperor due to how much he imported and enjoyed their wine. Here is where we also took a group photo while it was snowing. That’s right, the rain that was falling on us turned to snow. Did we also mentioned that most of us had our first Starbucks or Krispy Kreme donuts in the subway station? 

Then we got to the shrine itself. The area itself is protected and you can imagine the nature is well kept and serene. As we walked to the main building, we did a ritual which was done to show respect for the gods. The ritual starts off with throwing a small amount of coin of any amount into a box, then performing 2 bows. After that, you clap twice to wake up the gods, make a wish or fortune, and then bow once more. After we gave our wishes to do the shrine, we continued our journey back down the long path. During this walk down we took a pit stop at a washroom/cafe where each of us ordered either a drink or snack that we enjoyed in the warm, dry hut. After this pitstop, we continued to the subway to re-enter the Akihabara district where they have stores ranging from arcades to department stores that carried any little unnecessary item possible. We split into 2 groups where we had to choice to go into a hobby store (cards, mini figures, collectibles) or a department store (morning routine necessities, clothes, stuffies, action figures, groceries, and many more) where we spent around 2 hours until we decided that are stomachs were looking for something to fill them with. At this time it was dinner time and we all met up in front of a couple restaurants. This is here we split up again to either choose a So Ba restaurant or a western decorated, Japanese cuisine restaurant. About 12 of us opted for the SoBa where we got to enjoy their homemade buckwheat noodles with many options of either vegetables or beef with our broth and noodles. Then for the restaurant guys were saying that they enjoyed a spread of delicious traidtional Japanese cuisine. After that activity that satisfied our stomachs we headed back to subway station where we looked around another department store as we we waited for the other group to return from dinner. This department store was 8 levels filled with everything you could imagine, multiplied by the sounds, amount of items, colours and lights in every inch of the space. It was extremely overwhelming for some of us, but obviously normal for locals to hang out there to grab the things they want. As they met back up with us we hoped on the subway to head back to the hotel where we relaxed and got ready for the next big adventures tomorrow in Tokyo before we head off to Kyoto.

Written by: Simopoulos and Zach Smith

Welcome to day four of our time here in Japan. After the past two amazing days of sights and experiences, we dove even deeper into the vibrant heart of this incredible city. Today, we also got to immerse ourselves in one of the three lenses of this trip, which is Manga! 

  After fueling up on noodles and miso soup for breakfast, we took to the subway once again to Suginami City, a nice suburb of Tokyo where we visited the Suginami Anime Museum. At the Museum, the boys dove deep into the history of Manga throughout the years. The museum set us up for the class we took in the afternoon, but we also got to explore the library in the museum, draw mini manga photos in the drawing room, and participate in a fun activity where we voiced acted over anime cartoons.

Then lunchtime rolled around, and the boys were hungry, but time was relative. The boys decided to split up with one group going to McDonald’s where we experienced the Japanese McDonald’s which had interesting items like the Samurai Burger, and the Bai Teriyaki Burger (which Mr. Lorenz was quite fond of). However, a few boys lucked out and found some authentic Japanese sushi, and baguette in a grocery store across the street, which might have been the superior option for lunch. Then, we had to rush to our Manga drawing workshop, because we were running a little behind schedule. We journeyed through many side residential streets and noticed how interesting the houses looked, and once again how clean, quiet and organized everything appeared. Locals rode their bicycles passed us and we were again welcomed by local waste/city workers in that area. 

We arrived at the Manga workshop and we all took our seats. Here, we learned the fascinating art and techniques of drawing manga characters. Our three Sensei’s (teachers) walked us through the lesson. Some of us, really excelled at drawing Manga characters, and others could not even manage to draw a face (we’re talking about you Nicholas Ho). The technique was very intricate. We began, dividing the page into 6 sections by drawing 4-centimetre ovals along the left side. Then we received directions on how to structure the various parts of the characters, like the head, neck, body, and limbs. It was particularly interesting about how the configuration of a female Manga character, and a male character had such different drawing techniques. Then, after, we made our final touches like adding clothing, and underlining it in thin black markers. We have some real talented artists in the group here as some of us had impressed our Sensei’s, while others drew nice shoes. Then we put our drawings in envelopes and made our way to a famous shopping area in Tokyo, Harajuku. 

We hopped on the train, to Harakuju and then had some fun shopping. A group of boys found this awesome store called Jeansmate where the boys bought things from jeans, to chains, to belts, and even underwear. We walked through Harakuju and we also found a place called Pig Cafe. We did not have time to walk in, but it was a pretty cool thing to see. Maybe next time. After that, we made our way, too the busiest intersection in the world, the Shibuya crossing. On average 2.4 million people cross that street every day, which is insane. We felt the rush of people there, regardless of the rain/snow that was constantly falling on us. After the boys made their way to the infamous Tokyo Skytree. 

The last destination of the day was Japan’s tallest tower, the Tokyo Skytree. This is a pretty remarkable structure. Given an hour to free roam the boys found an eclectic variety of restaurants and stores to choose from with the shopping centre attached to it. A group of boys found a Korean place, where they got to experience some amazing Korean cuisine (which was also quite spicy). With are bellies stuffed and are bags a little bit heavier we ventured 450 meters up in the key to the observation deck. Unfortunately, cloudy conditions made visibility poor up at the top however nevertheless watching the winter storm pass by and seeing parts of the city below made it a cool experience. 

Day four of this adventure in Japan was truly unforgettable. Whether it was drawing Manga characters to shopping in the Tokyo Skytree, the boys had a blast. This was our final day in Tokyo, and I think I could speak for everyone that this is a city we all would love to come back to one day, but our sights are set on Kyoto and eventually Osaka. So far, this trip has been nothing short of incredible, and we cannot wait for what lies ahead. 

Written By: John Marshall, Gregory Mavroudis

Andrew Guo - write up on Bento

Bento boxes may come off as a simple meal — a commonplace you’d usually skip your eyes over most times you see it, despite being a japanese trademark. While it may be a part of everyday life for the citizens of Japan, the work put in behind the scenes is undeniable! During our bento box cooking class, our 3 lovely instructors guided us through every step of the process behind these boxes. They started out by having us all see where the famous dashi stock comes from; showing us the dried smoky fish they use to make the bonito flakes along with the kombu kelp which brought out the umami flavour everyone is familiar with. We’d then make rolled eggs to use as a ingredient in our sushi, accompanied by others such as the sushi rice, imitation crab, and sheet of nori that brought it all together. For the next dish, we learned how to make a traditional teriyaki chicken, using sake to take out some unwanted flavours before using a Japanese sweet wine called mirin, and mixing it with soy sauce to complete the iconic dish. It’s fair to say that this definitely had some empty stomachs tempted to take a bite! After this, our instructors showed us how to create a special spinach salad with a crushed sesame dressing. Though Mr. Donahue may have had some complications during the process, we all got through it and it looked delicious. Last but not least, we covered some shrimp, green bean and pumpkin in a batter before deep frying it to make some delicious tempura. After assembling all four of these dishes, the instructors prepared a miso soup using a light miso (very popular in the Kyoto area) in order to finish it off. Finally, we were left with a delicious Bento Box in front of hungry students who couldn’t wait to take a bite. Before we ate, we said itadakimasu which is a phrase often said before a meal in Japan, then finally dug in. From going to this class, we learned how much effort goes into even the little things in the life of Japanese citizens. We saw how much care and delicacy they put into these simple bentos and we all hope to take some of those qualities home with us.

Isaac Jansen - write up on Wood Block

The wood block carving was a very unique and fun experience. After walking through the neighborhoods of the city, we arrived at the woodworking shop, where we were welcomed with open arms. We all had no idea what to expect, but immediately were intrigued by the art and designs we saw. We gathered around the large table, where we were presented with all the different materials and tools we would need to create a wood carving of our own. Our incredibly kind and welcoming teacher walked us through the process of wood block carving, which consisted of tracing our chosen design, etching it into a wood board, and carving out the surrounding wood. This was a very challenging and unique task, but we eventually all completed our designs. After carving, we then printed our designs onto post cards, by brushing glue and paint into our wood carving, and then pressing down a post card into the design. Overall, the wood block carving workshop was an enriching experience, that provided us with valuable insight into the traditional Japanese ways of designing and printing.

Oscar Benitah - write up on Dessert

On Day 5, we had the opportunity to attend a class on making traditional Japanese sweets known as nerikiri. A type of the seasonal desserts known as wakashi, nerikiri are a decorative confectionery used for tea ceremonies. Upon arriving at the class, we were warmly greeted by our instructor who gave us a quick lesson on nerikeri’s use in modern day Japan. Then, the real fun began. The first step was to mix shiroan (white bean paste) with mochi flour - a type of glutinous, sticky rice flour - to make a simple dough. After heating the dough, we repeated the same process for a red bean paste, after which we combined the red and white doughs to produce a pink one. Now, we were ready to decorate. The process for decorating the first nerikeri began by wrapping the pink dough around a ball of red bean. Then, using a wooden tool and a particular technique, we formed a pattern resembling flower petals around the surface. To finish, we pressed a small ball of yellow dough on top to make a bud. The second dessert began much the same way by surrounding the red bean ball with the pink dough. However, instead of making petals, we grated the remaining pink dough into small, stringy pieces. Next, carefully using a pair of chopsticks, we picked up each individual piece and added them to the surface of the ball - completely covering the surface. Lastly, we repeated the bud technique mentioned above. With the confectionery designed, it was time to dig in. Although the texture was off putting to some, we thoroughly enjoyed our sweet nerikeri, especially when paired with green tea. After taking a group picture, we said our goodbyes, leaving the class with full bellies and improved artistic ability.

Daniel O - Bullet Train 

The bullet train consisted of a calm yet enthralling experience. With the boys waking up early in the morning, everyone was fairly tired and running on autopilot. However, once we got a glimpse of a previous bullet train leaving the station, we all marvelled at it. From the speed, to the well dressed train conductor, we all concluded that this train was a gem of human ingenuity. After boarding the train, the tiredness once again took over and most ended up sleeping or watching a show. However, Throughout the ride, we all took occasional glances outside to see the surroundings jetting by. Overall, the ride was very calm, being yet just another experience that contributed to our awe at Japanese culture and brilliance.

The boys had a culminating activity in Osaka that would challenge them with everything they had learned. Adopt, Adept and Adapt. 

They were broken up into teams of 5, 5, 5 and 6 and brought to a market in Osaka. Here, they were challenged to take photos and videos (as evidence) in order to complete various tasks. They included tasks to eat and try different foods, order in Japanese, meet locals and converse with them, grab lunch and complete this all within 1.5 hours. This area included various shopping stall, wet markets, restaurants, souvenir shops, games and many dessert stalls. 

And that’s a wrap! さようなら (Sayōnara) Japan—it has truly been a joy. Words can hardly capture how this trip has deepened our understanding of respect and responsibility. As Canadian students, we’ve gained a unique perspective on the countless wonderful aspects we’ve experienced in a country so different from our own, yet equally developed. The warmth of the people, the beauty of the language, and the sense of unity for the greater good have been inspiring. We felt it everywhere we went. Japan is a special place, and it's clear why UNESCO is committed to preserving its rich history for generations to come. As foreigners, we are incredibly fortunate to have been welcomed with such kindness and to have witnessed their way of life up close. Thank you to our wonderful new friends, Austin, Sebastian and Kazuyoshi for your hospitality, expertise and guidance. This experience would never be the same.