Snakes and Eathquakes

If I was sleeping in a bed I would have fallen out, but luckily I was sleeping on a futon....early this morning there was a rather sizeable (I thought) earthquake.  I saw the whole house sway, and it felt like a large truck had driven into the side of the house such was the jolt.

Then...to top it all off....this is what I encountered when  I left the house this morning.  Just sitting on the street minding its own business, but really scary! - Ms Semple

Day Nine - Tea Ceremony, Calligraphy Class, Tataki making and.....Sayonara Party

Today was our final day in Kuroshio-Cho and we are being given a sayonara party.  We are going to try and give our speeches in Japanese to thank our homestay families.  We will make a fish dish for them and also give them a present of our best calligraphy.  Today we had a TV camera following us around all day - Wade

Today we did calligraphy classes and it was really fun.  The we gutted a frozen bonito fish.  I went quite pale and felt really sick - Bailey

Today we did calligraphy.  We had to draw the mountain symbol and our name using Japanese writing.  Aftger that we had to cook fish.  We invited all outr homestay families to a dinner with our cooked fish, and we presented them with our calligraphy.  It was really fun! - Ari

Day Eight - Looking Around Kuroshio-Cho

Today we made salt.  We went to a salt making place.  It was fun because we had to scrape salt and mix in around. We then had to make a little pile of the salt crystals and pick out all the black spots.  Then we rubbeed the leftover salt mixture on our hands and face to make it soft.  Later we went to a museum with wooden statues....they were really creepy - Kaitlin

Today we went to this salt place where we created natural salt from the sea.  After that we went to a hobby museum where there was a really cool collection of toys and action figures - Dan

Day Seven - Saga School

The music class was fun today.  I really enjoyed the activities in the gym and made many new friends - Bailey

Today we played musical instruments to the song "Its a small world".  We also did activities in the gym.  There were spinning tops, juggling, origami, quizzes and games - Wade

Fun day today - we did PE and had a great time doing classroom activities - Harrison

Day Six - Ogata Junior High School

At Ogata School we learnt a Japanese game called Kendo.  You have a whole lot of armour and a sword and you pretty much just have to whack each other with the sword and try to be a NINJA.  Then we played gold with some children from the primary school - Daniel

Today was really exciting because we went to Ogata.  It was fun because we did some Kendo fighting.  After that we went to cooking class.  We were put into groups with the Japanese students and made these watery dough things ewwww!  The mini glof and the beach was the hioghlight for me because it was fun hitting the ball randomly and feeling the Japanese water for the first time - Ari 

Day Five - Bus trip to Kuroshio and meeting our homestay families

Today in the middle of nowhere we were all grouped with our bags when suddenly alot of Japanese people showed up and we realised that they were our homestay families.  When I got to their house I gave them a whole lot a random NZ things.  Then we just tried to talk to each other, but it was pretty awkward - Dan

Today we met our homestay families.  I was SO HAPPY to see Yuuka and her family.  When we got to their house they showed me around and introduced me to their cute dog called Hannah.  I met Yuukas grandparents and friends.  Later that night we had a huge gathering and had dinner.  It was fun - Kaitlin

Day Four - Universal Studios

 

Today we went to a very famous amusement park - Universal Studios in Osake, Japan.  Tonight was Horror Night, where there were heaps of zombies - Troy

Today we went to Universal Studios, Japan.  We met Yuki´s friend Mareno and ate heaps of caramel popcorn AND we were in the middle of a Zombie Invasion.  It was AWESOME! - Rewi

Today we went to USJ.  It was Zombie Horror Night and i got such a fright when a mummy jumped out at Troy and I.  It was such an awesome day - Jonty

Today we went to USJ and we got to go on heaps of rides.  When it got dark there were heaps of Zombies running up to us and trying to scare us.  It was lots of fun and we all enjoyed it - Dan

At the end of the day we said goodbye to Yuki which was sad.  10 seconds after that we got lost without him and luckily he came walking past again.  He took us back to our hotel and we had to say goodbye again - Dwight

Today was the best day of my life because we went to Universal Studios.  It was so so so much fun!  We went on a roller coaster,spider man ride, back to the future ride, jurassic park ride and more.  The cool bit was at night becvause there was a show and there were zombies, monsters and devil dogs. The best best best bit was the 4D spiderman ride ...SO FUN! - Kaitlin

Today was the best day ever!  FUN FUN FUN!  Such amazing rides.  I really enjoyed the zombies...they are everywhere her - Bailey

Day Three - Osaka Castle, Floating Garden

The floating garden was really cool.  It was dodgy going up the neverending elevator - Jake

I loved the floating garden but was a bit scared because it was soooooo tall! - Jonty

Today we went to the Floating Garden which is 173m high and has an overview of Osaka.  It was awesome.  The landscape on the top was so pretty...I wonder what it would like at night - Ari    

 

Day Two in Kyoto - Nijo Castle, Golden Pavillion, Kiyomizu Temple, Ryokan

WOW! The one word that comes to mind when I saw that Golden Pavillion.  It was so beautiful, even though there were millions of big spiders hanging off the trees - Ari

It was amazing when I saw that Golden Pavillion.  I cant believe that it is actually made out of gold.  The worst thing was the spiders. I swear they were the same size as my hand.  It´s really hot! - Kaitlin

When I saw the golden pavillion the first thing I thought was where did they get all that gold.  It was really shiny.  Too many spiders for me though - Bailey

The temples were pretty cool.  I liked the Nijo Castle and all of its defence system - Jake

I was very sore today and almost died of rigormortis of the legs.  We saws some cool stuff - Oliver

The Temples were awesome.  I liked learning about Shogun - Jonty

I had a great day today seeing temples and enjoying their culture.  The best part was meeting Yuki - Rewi

I had an awesome day today going to the temples and buying souveniers.  What made it even better was meeting Yuki - Troy

Today was awesome because we went to a lot of temple and we met Yuki.  Yuki was awesome - Dwight

Words fail me....the splendour and surprise of the golden pavillion was breathtaking to say the least.  A real spectacle.  Also the Nijo Castle was brilliant....2000 statues greeted us.  Eash one handmade and ever so slightly different.  Between each of the 33 pillars were symbolic shoguns.  Really interesting! - Ms Semple

   

Day One

Well, we had problems logging on in Japan, so we kept a book and now all comments are going to be added.

On the plane flying to Osaka, Japan....

I thought today was cool because we saw a lot of little islands when we were in the plane - Dwight

Today was a very slow day, and a slow flight.  Can not wait for what Japan holds for us - Oliver

I so did not want to get up this morning but as the day went on I picked up energy and got active - Rewi

Waking up this morning was probably the most dreaded thing, but it was worth it - Troy

We went so slow today.  The flight is taking forever, but we had gaming chairs with music.

The plane flight felt long but exciting.  There was movies and a great view outside.  Itr was fun - Jonty

I liked the TV seats - Wade

SLOW - the one word that describes today, but we are only 4 hours away now - Jake

10 hours in a plane OMG so glad theres only 4 hours left - Kaitlin

OMG the hardest 10 hours of my life.  Oh well, only 4 more hours to go - Ari

10 hours! Thats so long.  Hopefully it will be worth it!- Bailey

Had to wake at 5am to get to the airport.  Been waiting on the plane for 10 hours and I am still excited about going to another country - Daniel

Such a hard thing to do ... sitting in a plane for 10 and a half hours.  AND having to wake up at 4.15am.  But at least we got TVs on the back of the seats - Harrison

Of all the days to be late - last one to arrive at the airport.  Yep, got a round of applause.  Anyway, ebverything went smoothly.  Like its already been mentioned...only 4 hours to go. Cant wait!  - Whaea Ra

This is a great flight.  Loads of empty seats so managed to get a row of three to myself for a while and have a bit of a lie down - Ms Semple