Day 4 - Toyohashi

Today we took our first Shinkansen (bullet train) to Toyohashi. I had Jake take a picture of the train as it came into the station so Evan could see how cool they look! They travel about 190 mph but it didn't really feel much different then the regular trains. The speed was the most noticeable when we passed other trains - the whole train rocked - and it was amazing how long they were. We were in car number 14 and there were still more cars behind us, makes Charlotte's two car light rails look pretty small.

We went to Toyohashi to see Paris. Paris is a CMS high school student who won a national scholarship to live and go to school in Japan for one year. When I first saw the aricle about Paris on the CMS website I knew I wanted to meet her and talk with her about her experience. After going there and seeing her in person, she is my idol. I can't believe how brave, beautiful, and smart she is to take on such an adventure at her age. And she sounds like she is having a great time. It was very interesting to talk with her about school, friends, culture and family life here in Japan. She has such a fun personality, it will be interesting to see what comes next for her, she is going to have lots of exciting experiences with the attitude she has to take on life! I had to post a picture so her mom can see how great she looks!

Paris showed us her notebook of purikura, which is a favorite pastime of Japanese teenagers. It's modern twist on the old 4-frame photobooths - you can digitally add clip art, borders and self-drawn graffiti and it prints on a sticker or beams via infrared to your cell phone as a jpeg image. Has this caught on in America yet?

There were some other fun pictures I wanted to show to Addie from our travels. Yesterday we went to Roppongi, where Cricket's used to live so we could show it to Jake. Since I was here last they completed Tokyo Midtown, a huge Ritz Carlton Hotel and Galleria of shops. The grounds outside include modern art scuptures, a beautiful pond, a fountain, and a children's playground. This was certainly a playgound I haven't seen before, check out the swing set! I also took the picture of Jake at the pond, such a beautiful place - notice the sign says "do not enter the pond" only in English, I guess they think we are the only ones who will want to take a swim!

Roppongi is also known as the Entertainment District. I took the other pictures of the spider and us at with the view of Tokyo Tower at Roppongi Hills, a large shopping area.