milo

Hello! My name is Milo, and I'm a junior.

DAY 001

Wow, this first day was really something. Waking up at 2:30 AM was on the easier side of this day believe it or not. It was fun to hang out in the airport. The flight to Dallas went by fine, but the flight to Japan was a different beast. The 11 hours went by pretty slow, I was even able to write a word search free hand in the time. I just kept thinking about how I had very little to expect from Japan! When we eventually landed I saw a sign that caught my eye. I learned the government seized land from farmers in the 70's to build this airport, which is upsetting. They should get their land back!

We had to wait around to get our rail passes, which took a long time too. I like using that time to people watch. Everyone dresses so well! I saw a lot of great outfits. On the train out of the station I noticed how much smoother it felt than trains in Evanston.

Eventually after many train connections we arrived at the youth hostel. The view of the city from my room is awesome, its very nice to look at the buildings. They look a lot different from American office buildings, as they're not all lined with windows. I'm really looking forward to my first day of activities!

Day 002

Its the first full day in Japan, and it was easily one of my favorite experiences ever. Starting with the Teamlab Borderless art museum. It was simply amazing, I really felt like I had been taken into a whole other world. My favorite was the Athletic forest, I was a big fan of the weird sci-fi animals that were projected over all types of weird terrain. I really enjoyed the childrens drawing aquarium portion, in which childrens drawings of fish were projected and animated like real fish. It really just captured the essence of being young which I thought was really wholesome.

Our next main stop after eating the best blueberry pancakes I've ever had was Toshogu shrine, in Ueno park. The shrine was very peaceful and had a lot to offer. I really loved the detailing on the building of the shrine, I'm sure it took a very long time to perfect. There was an orange tree that was bearing fruit in the middle of January! Overall it was great to experience something so tranquil and experience an ancient part of the Japanese history. Its really a surreal feeling to be in a place that has existed through so many time periods.

When we went to Takeshita street, which was a former black market, It felt like I really got to use some of my Japanese! I asked how much items were, and ordered food. Even though those things are just the start it was so exciting to finally fully communicate with Japanese people in a real context.

We finished our day with a beautiful view from the Tokyo Skytree. I truly don't think I've ever been able to see so far before. It sounds silly but I really kept thinking about everything I saw had its own story. The trains looked so small!

Day 003

On this day I experienced things I never thought I would. I'm writing this the day after, and when I tell you I thought it may have been a dream, I'd be telling a complete truth. We started our day by traveling to the Meiji shrine. They day was rather rainy, so I wasn't exactly hyped to walk around in the rain. Despite this I was very excited to see something so historic and meaningful to the Japanese culture. Upon getting there I immediately regretted my thoughts about the rain. Despite being cold and wet, for some reason it felt like the rain was an important part to the experience. Everything was so beautiful at the shrine, but it all had a very distinct purpose. I made an offering of a few yen. When you do this, you must bow twice, clap twice, and then bow once more. The clapping is to alert the gods of your presence there. I just loved how distinct the instructions were, especially the clapping. I wonder where that idea originated, but I think its so cool how it is a perfected norm.

We later went to a samurai museum, it was super interesting to hear about how crazy ancient times were. Imagine having a spear in your home to attack people hiding in your rafters! Imagine having to worry about that!! It was very informative and we even got a fun scene acted out at the end of the tour.

We finished our day going to a place called the Robot Restaurant. Now folks, the only way I can describe this event is like this: Imagine people riding robots, singing, drumming, and acting out insane power ranger like story lines, with metal music, and audio recordings of dialogue and graphics that sound and look like they are ripped out of a free 2005 video game archive. While I was watching this, I couldn't help but wonder, how did I get here? How? It was so fun, I kept laughing and cheering the entire time. It truly was a crazy night. The shrine and this felt like 2 different days, While the show was going on I could barely recall a time before it began. What an amazing day!!!!!

Day 005

Today I started my day by going snowshoeing for 2 hours. Our guide was named かわずい (Kawazui) which means riverside, and he called himself Mr. Riverside! Needless to say hes my hero. We saw a lot of beautiful frozen waterfalls, as we walked along the Oirase river. The snow was insanely high and yet still a record low. Mr. Riverside told us a lot about the moss and the birds that we saw, like the River Crow.

It was a really peaceful experience. I'm a big fan of nature but I feel like I don't get out much in the winter time. This was great because it wasn't too cold at all but was still so snowy and beautiful. At lunch I had an amazing apple curry and some warm tea.

After lunch we went to a ski area, but we ended up having the most exciting snowball fight I've seen in a long time. I happened to take some great battle candids.

Day 006

Today we saw many amazing frozen things. Starting with a quick frozen waterfall tour, we checked out of the Oirase resort and began on a very chilly adventure. We rode a gondola to the top of a mountain, and I have never seen so much snow ever. It felt like a video game where I hadn't unlocked the world yet. Everything was covered. The snow was so high we saw "snow monsters", which were the tops of trees covered in snow and ice. That was about the only thing we could see besides brightly covered coats.