Oliver in Japan

It’s been a week, and I still can’t believe I went to Japan. I remember writing my application thinking there was no way I would get accepted. But I did, and I’m so incredibly grateful to Paul Jaeger and Juana Arias not only for creating this incredible opportunity for the students of MNCS, but also for picking me. And there is no way planning a SCHOOL TRIP TO JAPAN is an easy task so I’m very appreciative of the hard work and dedication they put into making this possible for us.

Compare + Contrast → What was the most striking difference between American culture and Japanese culture? What was the most obvious similarity between the two cultures? 

There are many differences I observed. Some of these differences were, difference in language, different food, and bowing. I enjoyed these differences, especially the food. Also in Japan they drive on the opposite side of the road and the passenger and driver’s seats are swapped.

Pre-trip → What was most helpful for you in preparing for this trip? Is there anything you / we didn’t do before the trip that you wish you / we would have done? 

The things I found most helpful were spending a lot of time on language learning apps. I also spent a lot of time on social media finding good food/restaurants and better sources for language help. Another thing I found helpful was researching the money conversion rate and customs and luggage rules. Also I found the Experience Fridays helped me get to know the others going on the trip better and was necessary for the trip. Otherwise I feel like I was pretty well prepared and during this trip I didn’t run into any serious issues.  

Curiosity → What are you feeling curious about regarding Japan now that you are home?

I am curious about our Japanese sister school. I wonder about the similarities and differences and if it is possible to be a foreign exchange student in Japan. I want to learn more about Buddhism and the other religions of Japan. I found the temples fascinating, and I would like to learn more about them.

Challenges → In what ways were you tested on this expedition? How did you navigate those challenges in real time?

I feel like this trip went well, and we didn’t run into many difficult situations. For me the hardest parts of the trip were the long flights, and jet lag. To help with the long flight I watched movies, moved around, and drank lots of water. I tried to sleep on the plane, but I think the noise from the plane was too loud. For the jet lag I drank stuff like coffee and caffeinated milk tea, and I tried not to take naps so I could adjust more easily to the time difference. I feel like the language barrier was not as big a problem as I thought. Because a lot of the people we did talk to spoke pretty good english.

Personal Growth → After completing this trip, is there something you no longer believe about yourself to be true? Is there something about yourself that you now believe to be true?

At many points during this trip I had to leave my comfort zone. As an example, I was nervous to travel without my family and to fly in a plane for the first time. At certain points I had to part from the group, adventure alone, and make my own decisions. I also faced some language type fears regarding small social interactions. but I found it really exciting and fun to adventure, explore by myself, and face my fears. After this trip I feel more confident in myself and my ability to be independent and find my own way.

Haiku’s

Tokyo, Japan to home.

Today was our last day of the trip, and I really didn’t want to leave. For breakfast, we went to the same restaurant as the night before and got breakfast. I got a panini, and I’d tell you what was in it, but I don’t remember what was in it. After breakfast, we got our luggage together and loaded it into an Uber and went to a beach.

This was the last thing we did before leaving, and it was very special for me because I had never seen the ocean before. And while we were there we had to get rid of the leftover money (on our Pasmo cards) so we spent a bunch at the beach vending machines buying drinks. We also found an ice cream vending machine. It was really exciting to dip my feet in the ocean for the first time. But all of a sudden — boom — Jellyfish!

I’m lucky I didn’t get stung because I just noticed him after I had gotten out of the water.

We went straight to the airport after the beach and going through security went fine. It was late when the plane took off and the view of Tokyo at night was amazing. But after that it was just another long painful flight. When we started descending my ears wouldn’t pop, and it was really painful and it was about half an hour after landing that my ears finally popped. Customs was also really sucky, but in the end it was all worth it. I felt overjoyed to see my family again.

3/26/25 Kyoto to Tokyo Japan.

It was sad leaving Kyoto, not only because of how much I liked it there, but because I knew that the trip was almost over. We took another bullet train; this time to Tokyo, and on the train we had bento boxes for lunch.

When we got to Tokyo and checked in at the micro hotel, it was about three o’clock and we had a couple of hours to do some last minute shopping. I was behind on souvenirs and gifts, so I spent this time looking for some shops. I started by going to a souvenir store that Paul had recommended, but when I got there the store was closed. And since I didn’t know of any other stores to get stuff from, I just wandered around. I didn’t end up finding a store, but I did stumble upon the Shibuya Scramble, which was cool to see the most busy pedestrian crossing in the world!

For our last dinner in Japan, we went to a really cool pizza restaurant named GOOD CHEESE GOOD PIZZA Shibuya. It was on the second floor of the building that the micro hotel was in. At the restaurant they make their own cheese, and I wanted to try some new toppings so I got half of a shrimp, lemon pizza and half of their Italian sausage. Both had a white sauce and were really good.

That night we had a reservation at the Karaoke Rainbow Shibuya, and we got back to the hotel at around 10:45. We had a blast and almost everyone sang at least once.

3/25/25 Kyoto, Japan

This morning I woke up and everyone was missing. It turns out that they went to the flea market that happened to be right outside of our door. I ate some onigiri that was left in the fridge and headed out to look for some souvenirs. We had plans for lunch, but we decided to cancel them because people wanted to look around more and because there were food vendors at the market. There were a lot of good options for lunch. I tried a lot of good stuff, but my favorites were the Takoyaki, and the Tanghulu grapes. The rest of the day was pretty chill and we just hung out.

3/24/25, Japan, Hakone to Kyoto.

In the morning we departed from Hakone after packing and saying goodbye to Kana. We took our first bullet train of the trip. But luckily for us we didn’t see any assassins while we were on board. We got to Kyoto at about one thirty and dropped off our luggage at our Airbnb and took a nice stroll around town. The town we were staying at had very beautiful streets. That night we went to the Stardust cafe for some tea and soup. The cafe had a calm atmosphere and really cool decorations. We met a couple of Paul’s friends there and had a nice walk back to the Airbnb.

Hakone, Japan 3/23/25

Today I woke up, and I knew that breakfast was going to be very different. For breakfast today we had a meal made by a real Buddhist monk! The meal had three courses. The appetizer was good. My favorite part was the asparagus spring roll. There was a lot of different items in the second course, and in the second courses there was a pickled plum, and it was so sour that your face would instantly scrunch up. It was impossible to not make a sour face when you ate it. Then for dessert the monk brought us a banana cake drizzled with honey, and it was absolutely delightful. All the food was so good and the mindful, slow eating aspect of the meal made it so satisfying and peaceful. And everyone there was so kind, and it was truly an amazing experience.

We stoped at the Naraya Cafe for some coffee before getting on a train and going to the Hakone open air museum. There were a lot of cool sculptures, and I enjoyed seeing them and there were some very inspiring art pieces. After that we hopped back on the train and went to the gondola and rode it to the top of a mountain. At the top of the top of the mountain, they sold hot spring eggs and the sky was clear so we got an amazing view of Mount Fuji. Then we traveled to the dock and got on a Pirate Ship! But the sad part was it wasn’t a real pirate ship. And it used motors instead of sails.
It was a busy day, but we did a lot of cool things.

3/22/25

Tokyo to Hakone

Today we got up early and ate another delicious convenience store breakfast. Then we packed everything up and headed for the train station. Before the train got to the station, a group went to get some box lunches for everyone. But we couldn’t find the place that sold the box lunches until it was too late to order them. So while we were hurrying to get back to the train before it left, we stopped at a place that had some food, bought some meals, and quickly rushed back to the train. Luckily we got to the train with our food in time and everyone boarded and took off for Hakone. And on the train, we were lucky enough to see Mount Fuji! The train took us to Odawara and then we got on the bus that would take us to the hostel that we were staying at in Hakone. When we got to the hostel, we were greeted by Kana, the keeper of the hostel. We unpacked and had some free time before we went to the Naraya Cafe, where we got to sit back, relax, and eat dinner. The cafe was cool because we got to soak our feet while we ate.

Tokyo, Japan 3/21/25

Today started off in a way I wasn’t expecting. We took a bus for the first time this trip, but the bus was so packed. The bus took us to a train station and the train to the fish market. And then boom: Wagyu beef! For breakfast!

After the fish market, everybody split into two groups. One option was to go to a corner where the two streets were full of kitchen stores. And I don’t remember the other option because I was so dead set on going to the stores and getting two Japanese Santoku knife’s. One for myself and one for my dad. We had forty five minutes to look through the stores and I immediately went to the knife stores. I looked around for a while and decided what I wanted the knife to look like, but I ran into a problem. Most of the knives I wanted were really expensive. So by the time I figured out what to do we had to leave and I didn’t get any knifes.

Then the groups met back up at Sushiro (conveyor belt sushi restaurant). I wanted to try some new foods so in my first order I got raw and cooked salmon, and octopus nigiri. The octopus was tough and I didn’t really like the flavor either. I also tried Nato (fermented soy beans) and the flavor was fine but the texture was horrible and If you chewed it for too long it would make the saliva in your mouth turn into slime.

We went to a Gachapon store after. We looked around for a bit, then me, Ava, and Juana split from the others and went to Costco. We went to Costco because we were going to make dinner that night and because Costco is awesome.

For dinner, me and Ava made bulgogi beef over rice with a side of green beans and for dessert a fruit parfait made with fruits that you wouldn’t find in an American Costco.

Tokyo, Japan 3/20/25

Today was awesome. For breakfast we went the convenience store again, but right after we went to the most beautiful Japanese garden I have ever seen. It was so peaceful and definitely refreshing from the stress of the last two days. And if that wasn’t cool enough, after we went to a place where they sold parfaits made with perfect fruits!

After we had an option to go to a print shop or a zoo, and I chose the zoo because I wanted to see the panda bears.

The Tokyo sky tree was the next stop after the zoo, and it would have been a lot more enjoyable if it wasn’t so crowded.

We had another convenience store meal and a quick meeting and called it a night.

In the morning of Tuesday everbody met at the school and loaded everything into the bus. Then we took a bus to the airport. When we got to the airport, we went through security. Security was a lot less stressful than I thought it would be. I thought they were going to dump out everything that was in my bag but we just put our bags through a metal detector and that was it. After security we got to the gates and we learned that our flight was delayed an hour!

My first ever flight (13 hours) went well. I just watched a couple of movies and I tried to sleep but I couldn’t. It was a really long flight, but before I knew it we landed in Tokyo!

Going through customs in Japan was really awful, though. The line was a hour long, and it was packed with hundreds of people. It was also really hot due to the large crowd. The security in Minneapolis went easier than I thought. I thought if security at the airport didn’t go through my bags, surely customs will. But instead I just handed the people behind the counter a peace of paper and my passport and they let me right in.

It was late when we got to our Airbnb, but we checked in put our bags in our rooms and headed right to Teamlabs borderless. That night we had a convenience store dinner and a quick meeting and we were off to bed after a long day of flying.