Nara, Japan (by Jacob)

On Thursday, we went to visit Nara. Nara is a city in the countryside of Japan. When we got to Nara we rented bikes because it was a great place to ride bikes. We went to a huge park where there are 1200 deer that just wander around the park and part of the city. When we stopped our bikes the deer came right up to us because they thought we had food. Every few hundred feet there was a person selling deer biscuits where we could buy some. I went up there with my mom and the guy gave the biscuits to my mom.  All of a sudden a swarm of deer came up to my mom but my mom got scared so she gave them to me and the rest to my dad. So my dad just kept on giving them to the deer, but my dad also gave me two so he didn't have to feed them all. One of the deer bit my dad in the butt two times!

Then after the biscuits were all gone we rode to a huge temple. The temple was the biggest wooden building in the world. The building we saw today was only 2/3 the size of the original building. Inside there were three huge Buddhas and a huge sculpture of a warrior. My favorite part of the temple was this little hole you can try to go though. I went through the hole really easily because I'm small. They say that if you can make it through the hole, it will bring you enlightenment.

 For lunch we ate at a really small restaurant in an alley.  It was a really good traditional Japanese meal of soba, okonimyaki (Japanese pancake), and udon.

Hiroshima (by Luke)

    Yesterday we visited Hiroshima. We learned there was a lot of history in that town which was a little weird for me. On August 6th, 1945 at 8:15 a USA fighter plane dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. This was the first ever atomic bomb. It was dropped from 1800 feet in the air and exploded at about 200 feet in the air. It had so much power it burnt down 90% of everything within a 2 kilometer radius. Now known as the A-bomb dome,was the target of the bomb. It was such a powerful structure 2/5 of the building still remains. It was very sad to hear that it had hit innocent people and 2 elementary schools. I was saddened to hear that one of the schools had four-hundred children and only one of them survived.

         I felt really weird going into the museum explaining about the bomb and that day. Because we were some of the only Americans it felt weird because we were the country that had bombed Hiroshima and had put their city into ruins. Because they were in WWII I knew about the Pearl Harbor bombing and how we didn't do this without a purpose but, it still seemed like America was bad. I also realized that it was a normal summer day for them just like any other. At 8:00 all the people in Hiroshima were living their daily life but, at 8:30 the town was in ruins and almost everybody had died. Overall the museum was amazing and full of knowledge but the plan for peace in Hiroshima was amazing. It felt like they had recovered and were tying to practice peace in education. I really liked Hiroshima and learned a lot about our history and how war is just a bad idea.   

Kyoto (by Maggie)

On Monday we went to a castle called Nijo-Jo. The castle was built for the shogun and took 25 years to complete. It was led by a shogun until the late 1800s. One thing that I found interesting was the rooms. They all looked exactly the same because if an enemy came in they would not know where they were. There was also a moat around the whole thing and a wall to help keep the enemies out. There were secret rooms everywhere that had guards to protect the shogun. I might think you are wondering who the shogun is so that's why I will tell you. The shogun was like a king in Japan. A shogun ruled Japan from about 1625 to the mid 1800s.

Feelings of the trip

I can't wait to go on this trip. Even though we all have butterflies in our stomachs we really don't know what we are scared about! We are in complete panic mode right now!!