All's smooth so far. There's another sister city group heading to Japan on the same flight (they're from Longmont, and heading to Chino Japan). Flight to LA leaving a little late, but should be OK.

Arrive in LAX early and we only had 10 yards to walk to our next gate - no shuttle to the international terminal! Really convenient!

Arrive in NRT a little early; plane was very cold; food was mediocre.

Went through Narita pretty quickly; checked bag came through fine. Exchange currency, ship bag to Takayama; connect with Moe who brought us our rental phones and helped us activate JR passes and get tickets for our trip to Kyoto.

Arrived safely at our hotel. Exhausted and hot, but in good spirits. Tomorrow we explore

Busy, rainy day:

Subway to Kyoto station. Train to Araishiyama; walk through the bamboo forest, over to the local river, down to the Togetsu bridge, around the town. - Rains when we get to town. Buckets!

Rain stops. We are joined by Kitty's nephew Chris and his girlfriend Sofia. Lunch together.

Take two local trains and a bus to get to Kinkaku-ji (the golden pavillion). Rain. Buckets.

Taxi to Pontocho street (where Geisha and Meiko train); see one Meiko. Rain. Buckets.

Bus to Kiyomizudera temple. Rain stops. Then light sprinkle.

Taxis to Kyoto station: make seat reservations for tomorrow's train to Hiroshima. Rain has stopped.

Group dinner at local Izakaya (small plates grill); back to hotel via subway. End of day.

Busy, hot humid day:

Awakened by 3:15 a.m. email (these rental phones must be on in order to take voice mails / texts. Caller doesn't know that however).

Twelve people have been killed and over 50 wounded in a movie theatre in Aurora Mall.

We let the kids sleep. But we're up, check the news sources and emails. Four people have already sent emails. We decide to wake the kids up a little early and talk about this.

No one freaks out: after all, no one they know has been hurt or killed and its 7000 miles away. Still, good to know up front, so no surprises.

Back on track (two meanings) take shinkansen from Kyoto to Hiroshima, arriving at hotel around 10:30; can't check in until 2:00; we head on out to Miyajima island, getting back around 3:00 (couple of hot hours of site seeing; very hot today); check in, head out to the A-bomb dome and the Peace museum; stay until closing.

Find underground shopping mall, and a place to have okonomiake for dinner. (Max stays behind: migrane.) Kitty and Steve return to hotel around 8:30; Chris, Kaylin, Liz, and Ais do some shopping before returning home.

Four very busy days so far: two traveling, one in Kyoto and one in Hiroshima.

Good travelin' day:

Check out of hotel and schlepp bags to the train station. Get reserved seats on shinkansen (bullet train) to Nagoya and on regular train from Nagoya to Takayama.

Change trains in Shin-Osaka for second half of journey to Nagoya.

We have over two and a half hours to kill; first we have ramen lunch. Then the kids explore while Kitty and I watch the bags.

Finally we're on our way to Takayama. Past the city and we enter the countryside and then the mountains. The air is cooler and a relief, but things are cloudy / overcast.

Safe arrival in Takayama, nice welcoming committee. Met host families - all really good matches for students and Kitty and I.

Wonderful day in Takayama.

Everyone arrived at City Hall and before the day began they all exchanged experiences they had with their host families.

Visited a zazen temple. (Zazen is just one sect of zen Buddhism.) We took short instruction from a monk: meditation for 15 minutes (instead of the usual 40 minutes). Enlightening but no one reached nirvana (that I know of).

Then back to city hall for a meeting with the Mayor. He was very gracious and gave us 20 minutes of his time. He asked each student to give their name, school, and their impression of Takayama so far. He seemed impressed by those who used Japanese to communicate, and everyone did a little Japanese.

Next down to the basement of city hall to meet with about 15 junior high school students who will be going to Denver next month for a few days. This was actually nicely structured:

* Each student (Japanese and American) introduced themselves to the group

* The students were grouped at five separate tables, one for each American student.

* The Japanese students asked questions from the American students, and after a few minutes the American students rotated to a different table, until each American had visited each table.

* Next a card game where a "hint-giver" tried to give clues to the others at their table to guess what word was on the card

* Finally everyone practiced singing "Country Roads", since the Japanese students will be singing that at their farewell party in Denver.

Everyone had a great time, the Japanese students and the American students. Everyone relaxed with the fun they were having. Then we moved on ...

Lunch in the city hall dining room.

Then up to the fourth floor of city hall for kimono fitting for all the students and Steve and Kitty. The women all looked gorgeous and the men all looked handsome and virile. Wait until you see the pictures.

Then we walked to the yatai museum: the place where parade floats are stored when there is no festival going on. Interesting insights into local culture.

Finally, we walked through part of the old town, did a little shopping on our way to the Takayama Jinya - a classic old private house that has been maintained the way it was hundreds of years ago.

Then back to city hall to be picked up by the host families. Tomorrow will be another adventure.

An observation: you can tell the impact on shutting down most nuclear energy plants. In Takayama City Hall, the air conditioning is not turned on unless the temperature is in the mid-90's; lights in offices are turned off during the lunch hour - even if someone is working; men are not wearing jackets nor ties; use of the elevator is discouraged.

A little rougher day today. Very hot, lots of walking.

Start with visiting the bank for those who need to exchange currency. Also disbursed 6000 yen to each traveler from their share of the money pool.

[As a quick report on the money, so far the pool money has paid for:

  * Taxis in Kyoto (to hotel from train station, between sites, and from hotel to train station)

  * Local trains in Kyoto

  * Admissions to kinkakuji (golden pavillion) and kiyomizu-dera (temple of pure water: largest wooden temple in the world built without nails) in Kyoto

  * Dinners in Kyoto and Hiroshima

  * Lunch in Nagoya

We are on track to cover all expected expenses and still disburse a bit more money to each traveler.]

 

Rest of morning is free time. For a while we wander with the group to help them find the morning market and old town and then we let them wander on their own.

The visit to the old people's home was interesting. I'm sure it was not at all what the kids expected. The residents asked questions of the students in front of the group and then the students were seated in the group. There were several activities (games such as passing a ball on certain syllables of a song that everyone sang, moving pom poms to the beat of another song, and so on). I found it interesting to see the kinds of things the Japanese do to help keep their elderly alert and healthy as possible. Haven't had a chance to get feedback from the kids.

Then a drive to a furniture making factory outside of town, which I'm pretty sure the students will recommend dropping from future itineraries.

Although the events of the day did shed some light on life in small city Japan, I feel this day was not the highlight of the trip. I'll find out on Wednesday.

A day of surprises.

We began the day by surprising Liz with a small celebration for her 15th birthday: a card, signed by all of us, a small gift, and singing happy birthday right in the middle of Takayama City Hall.

To pick up on the other surprises we need to give you a little background. Back on Monday when we visited the Mayor, he happened to mention we might like to get in a boat on a lake near Shirakawa-go, since we were going to be at Shirakawa-go anyway. (I think one of his constituents was promoting their business and the Mayor just happened to have the brochure in his hand at the time he was speaking.)

Then Tuesday while we were going over Wednesday's itinerary, the Japanese folks kept talking about a construction visit - and the English schedule never mentioned anything like that. Surprise.

Also, our schedule mentioned a "hot spring experience". Our host families had been told we would need our own towels, so they made sure we had them with us.

But our Tuesday evening discussion with the Takayama city people mentioned Shirakawa-go and a boat ride; Surprise. nothing about a hot spring experience. Surprise.

So now, back to the day's unfolding.

After we celebrate Liz's fifteenth birthday, we gather our stuff and head up to Shirakawa-go. Another hot day for walking around, but not unbearable. Had a nice lunch (hoba-miso for those who know).

Turns out we are going for a boat ride (the Mayor's casual suggestions carry a lot of weight). Surprise. This will replace the construction site visite we hadn't been informed about anyway.

So we trek over to this lake and find a couple of inflatable boats. We are told to leave our shoes and socks on shore. We put on life vests, and push off.

There are two boats. The first has the five students, the lead helmsmen, and two photographers from the city. The second boat carries me, Kitty, two local girls who have been going around with us every day, and three Takayama city employees.

When our (second) boat catches up to the first boat, we see that three of the students have jumped into the lake! Surprise! Soon, all five of them are swimming in the lake, with their clothes on and wearing life jackets! (The lead boatman was a real pro and he had his eye on everything, took it all with sense of humor (he's a kiwi [New Zealander] after all).)

When we leave the lake, the five students are put into one car and the other people (with dry clothes) into the second car for the ride to hot springs. Yes, there will be a hot springs experience. Surprise! But, no, you don't need to have your own towels: the hot springs (onsen) provides those. Surprise. (Not too much of a surprise because in our experience onsen usually provides towels; just surprise that the Takayama people told us we needed to bring our own, like they didn't know.)

We can only spend half an hour at the hot springs because we have to get back to the train station to meet the students who are coming in from the disaster area (the 3/11/2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown). Surprise! No one told us we were going to be doing that.

After we meet our guest students, we end the day as usual as our host parents come and take us home. No surprise.

A most excellent day.

We meet at City Hall, as usual, but this time we are joined by our four guest students from Otsuchi (in the disaster area).

First we visit a day nursery and spend time with a class of five year old children. All adorable. We dance with them and play and pose for a group picture. They give us paper chains they made themselves for omiyage (gifts).

Next we visit the Nishi [private] high school. After introductions, the students from Otsuchi tell their story. At first it is pretty plain / innocuous / statistic-y ("xx% of homes destroyed" kind of thing). Then it is opened up for questions and I ask them to tell us how they were affected personally. All four had had their houses destroyed, one had also lost her grandfather, another a best friend. Those stories made it more personal and immediate to the other students.

Then, as with the junior high school students, tables were set up with our students and the Nishi High students for close up questions and answers. Everyone seemed to enjoy this immensely. Near the end, Chris and a Nishi student ended up arm-wrestling (Chris won, but it was close).

Time for lunch. Our cars take us to the Takayama Green Hotel, one of the top hotels in Takayama, for a buffet lunch - a terrific spread!

Next we head to "Hida no Sato", otherwise known as the Hida folk village. This is a collection of old farmhouses moved here from all over Japan, a variety of acrchitectures and artifacts from various eras. But it is also a pleasant setting as well as demonstrations of traditional folk skills such as rice cracker cooking and straw sandal making, and some simple games (ring toss, top spinning, etc.)

After a pleasant hour or two, we made a short drive to the City of Denver Park, which is very small, but with a terrific view. Really just stopped long enough for a photo opportunity then we moved on to the important stuff: shopping at the hyaku en (100 yen) store: sort of a Japanese dollar store, but more fun.

Finally we returned to City Hall and then took a bus to the "Welcome and Farewell Barbecue". Everyone sits around grills and food is brought out to cook on them. Beef, fish, sausages, vegetables, and lots more. Tons of food.

Speeches and gifts and a lot of farewells, even though we have one more day and night here. Very touching.

Tomorrow a visit to Mt. Norikura where we hope to find some cool air.

 

Our last full day in Takayama.

We meet earlier than usual at the City Hall, so we could go over to the train station to see the students from Otsuchi off on their train ride home. Then off to visit Mt. Norikura.

We are traveling, as we have done all week, in two Takayama city cars, accompanied by a translator and our two young friends, Rei Hirakawa (daughter of Osamu and Keikyo Hirakawa who own the Open Heart Pension; Rei will be attending Metro State College in Denver this year) and Airi Natumushi (daughter of one of our host families, long time friend of Rei's; she is going to University in Las Vegas, NM).

The weather is perfect and on Mt. Norikura we finally get some cool air. After a hike and lunch, we move on to another onsen for an hour.

At my request we visit a nearby waterfall (Choshi no taki) for a brief but very pleasant stop.

Then on to Senko-ji, a Buddhist temple with famous Buddha sculptures; Back to city hall just in time for our host families to pick us up.

Every day in Takayama (well, every day on this trip) has been full and loaded with new sites and experiences. Now it is time to move on to the final stay: Tokyo!

 

Takayama to Tokyo and Kamakura.

Note: my computer died in Tokyo, so from here to the end is being written from Denver after returning home. So I may have already forgotten some details.

We gather at the bus station around 7:45, say our goodbyes to our host families and friends then get on the 8:00 bus to Tokyo.

Tip for future trips: the bus makes two rest stops; the second has a better selection of food, if you're planning to get a snack or meal to eat on the bus.

Bus arrives in Tokyo a little early. It is hot and humid again. We make the six-block 20 minute walk to our hotel, arriving about 1:40, with check in time being 2:00; we hang out in the lobby until we can check in, then gather in the lobby to head on out to Kamakura.

There is an underground walkway to Shinjuku station where we catch the train to Kamakura. Note: once in Kamakura, it is best to transfer to the local train to get near the daibutsu ("big Buddha statue"). We get to the daibutsu just 15 minutes before closing (also, they close the part where you can walk into the statue half an hour before closing time!).

Dinner in Kamakura (Chinese food; then a stop at a local creperie for those who crave a sweet), then back to Tokyo.

Kitty and I retire for the evening, while the kids go out for a while; we give them one of our cell phones so they can call if they need to.

 

Tokyo adventures.

Up early to get to Tsukiji market. Straight shot on the Oedo line. Breakfast at the market. But we can't get into the actual inner market because that is closed on Sundays!

Walk to Hama-Rikyu gardens - a large park in the middle of the worlds biggest city. This is also where we catch the boat for trip up the Sumida river.

Take the boat up the river (catch several views of the new Skytree radio / TV / cell broadcast tower) to Asakusa.

Time to explore Asakusa, and lunch.

Subway to Harajuku to check out the youth counter-culture and shopping. (Personally, I was disappointed; perhaps the youth have already found that location too trendy and moved on to some other part of the city; perhaps we were there at the wrong time of day; perhaps the heat was too much. Who knows?)

Note: in the papers we read that this has been a record-setting heat wave for Japan. Last week there were over 5000 people sent to hospital for heat-related maladies, and 13 deaths, across the country. So it has really been exceptionally hot and humid this trip.

Free time until dinner, our last evening in Japan. The girls show up each wearing new outfits they purchased in Harajuku. (Max bought a new hat, but didn't wear it to dinner.)

 

Homeward bound.

This is a long day. Early in the morning Kitty and I find the path and purchase our Narita Express tickets then back to the hotel until the kids are ready to check out and head out.

We walk to area of Shinjuku where we can get refund for PASMO card balance (the term the Japanese recognize is 'payback'), then on to the JR lines, track 5 to catch the Narita Express.

All goes smoothly. We're able to check in at Narita right away (everyone but Max checks one bag) and we still have a couple of hours until take off. Time for lunch, last minute purchases, and currency exchange.

I get called up to the counter - part of a random selection for final security check; they swab parts of my clothing and run the swab through a machine that checks for telltale chemicals. None found, of course, but I'm not allowed to go back to the group. Instead I'm "allowed" to pre-board, with no way to tell the rest of the group what's happened. Not very user friendly.

The flight is uneventful, although we have a little late departure we still arrive in SFO with plenty of time to make our connection. Flight from SFO is also uneventful and we arrive back in Denver on time! The end to a wonderful trip.