The time before the trip quickly shrunk even with the many meetings and preparations. Going with us would be Jason Holt, Jason Bowers, and another Westmont teacher, Lauryn Lewis. And then it was the day; tears, luggage, and sun were all there the morning we departed from our families into the unknown.

As someone who’s used to international travel- family in the USA doesn’t wait for anybody – it wasn’t anything unfamiliar. However, it was a new experience for many of my classmates, but we all battled through the 40-hour day and made it out on the other side, jet lagged, but relieved.

This other side was Tokyo, the big mikan, the capital, the city of 808 villagers. We got our first taste of Japanese food, culture, and washlets. We started off our first day with a walking tour, the walk to kick off miles of hiking. We strolled and shopped around Asakusa after a very authentic Japanese breakfast at a Denny’s. We visited a Buddhist Shrine, Sensō-ji, built in 1649 during Japan’s Edo period. Made to honour the bodhisattva of compassion, Kannon, and is one of the most famous shrines in the city. There, we absorbed wisps of blessed smoke and saw the worshipers donating their yen.

Throughout the four days that we spent in Tokyo we saw many sights, heard thousands of sounds, and enjoyed new tastes. We wandered the imperial palace with its quiet plants and gentle weather. Compared to the storm and bustle of the fish market, with huge crabs, shouting vendors, and steam spreading scents. We would’ve gotten lost on our first day out without Jason Holt. He led us around and toured us through but still gave us free roam to explore and learn ourselves. Throughout the trip we often split into smaller groups and discovered on our own. And there was always something to discover.

Every time, everywhere.

The next day we traveled to a cold, cozy, quiet town called Nozawa Onsen. Where Jason Holt and his family live. The place to offer us our first soba.

Up the hill that the town is settled on was the Base Camp; our lodgings. If you had the right room, then you could see the far mountains and stacked houses trailing all the way down to the bottom.

We spent our first morning in Nozawa Onsen 101. Listening to the elders and leaders of the community speak with pride about their town and the inner workings and traditions of it. One special tradition of theirs is the fire festival which takes place every winter on January 15. Where the villagers, especially the men aged 42 and 25, participate in bringing together everyone to burn a temporary shrine for good luck. They dry out the wooden shrine all year round, and you can eat next to it at a little restaurant down the hill where we had our first dinner.

One way to have an internal GPS of the town is to play the stamp scavenger hunt game. Without knowing that this is what we were doing, the teachers led us to the tourist information center and bought paper booklets for all of us. Each of these booklets had a blank sheet of paper with a number and a green page next to it. They then told us the purpose of this. We had to find the wooden posts with metal stamps on top, use the wood pestle to rub in the design (the green paper left the mark on the white page), and return with at least ten of these out of the 20 in the entire town within an hour to get a prize. While we were running around like chickens without their heads, we got to see the town in its full golden afternoon glory. Even if it was rushed and during a competition. With nature and steep roads, daily life and small businesses, we got to witness the differences in life between two places. Whereas in Tokyo you could find a vending machine every five steps, here there were only a few. Most of the shops didn’t belong to chains, and there weren’t any big billboards or flashing lights. This was because the town is trying to preserve its history and has laws about keeping things a certain way. Which I appreciate, since we got to witness the unique architecture in the buildings which had been updated in other cities.

From there we took the train and hurried to our one-night accommodation at the Zenkoji temple with a kind monk who welcomed us in the dampening rain. We had a vegetarian dinner, which was a blessing for the vegan traveler among us, but also a bit of a curse since nobody –except Jason Holt, of course –knew what anything on the plate was. Beforehand we participated in a Zen meditation. Where we aligned our bodies, breath, and heart. It was a new practice for all of us, and unsurprisingly there were grumblings and complaints about numb limbs and foot pain. As to whether the monk heard this or not, we still do not know.

The sliding of the wooden door. The teachers soft voices. “good morning”. Lights flickering on. The sun wasn’t even up yet. But we were. At 5:00 am to partake in the morning service at the temple. Before the service we stomped through the wet cobblestone streets on a tour of the temple in the light rain. In a huddled group of umbrellas, we clustered around the grounds while the monk pointed out the statues and their history. There were four tall statues at the front. The two outwards facing ones were for protection and to scare off anyone with bad intent. We also were introduced to the Rokujizō, the statues of the six Bodhisattvas
 from the six different worlds in Buddhist beliefs.

Although we were yawning and rubbing our eyes we still kneeled and took the blessing as the morning ceremony conductor came by the tap our heads. Then we were ushered into the temple and waited until we could go down the steep steps into a long dark tunnel made of polished wood. There, is where the monk told us we would find a metal key that would bring us enlightenment. While we nearly lost Jason Holt, we all made it out “reincarnated” as the monk said. Then it was onto the next place in another city for one night.

I won’t bore you with a place we spent less than a day in, but Mikawa had a wonderful beach and fishing area. Only me and my classmate Merric went though. Everyone else missed out. It was a beautiful day with the sun and a spring breeze tugging us forwards. The sea air whipped the scent of dead fish and sand into our faces. But when we came back it was to the chaos of a moving day. We spent the day travelling by train and bus to get to our place for the next three nights in Kyoto.

But alas it was another travel day, so we were on the move to Himeji. But first a trip to the Hiroshima Peace Park. The park was beautiful and bright, very happy for a place with such a sad history. It weighed on all of us, the deaths. I won’t go into detail about what we saw, as that may be disturbing for some. Going through the museum with the photos and the art we saw war, evil, and suffering. With effects that lasted long after the bombing. We learned about the hurt and torture the citizens of Hiroshima were burdened with.

On a lighter note, we spent the afternoon exploring Himeji castle. With its old wooden walls and steep staircases. There was plenty of room, but there were also plenty of people, so things became a bit squished on the high stairs. Built in the 14^th century with 83 rooms and reconstructed in 1577 and 1964, also known as “White Heron Castle” Himeji castle is Japan’s oldest castle.

Once again it was a travel day and we awoke to chaos, but more controlled this time since we had gotten used to the road life. We hopped on a train to Osaka and unpacked at the Dotonbori hotel with its four funny statues guarding the entrance. We toured the shopping area with its colourful hippy side, and the more sophisticated expensive side.

Before we caught the train that would carry us to Nagoya, we speed shopped along Shinsaibashi-Suji Shopping Street under the ticking hand of the 20-minute timer. There, we saw street performers, large animatronic crabs, and stickers plastered on every streetlamp. It was a burst of life and movement with smaller streets branching off and the back shops like smaller flowers on this tree of expression. Unfortunately, our time there wasn’t very long, and we were at it again, bags packed, prepared to catch the train to Nagoya.

Once there, we took our time and gave ourselves room to breathe. In a nearby shopping center, we roamed for three hours in our groups. Cleaning up on shopping and experiencing. Our final dinner was at a nearby Italian Pizza restaurant where I lead a toast for Jason Holt. There were many thanks and acknowledgments for Jason Holt, the person who started it all.