Final Day in Japan

Today would basically be split into two parts. The first part was the final business visit to JICA, while the second part would be our free time. We had to leave pretty early in order to make it to JICA on time, which meant we finally got to get a little taste of the rush hour on the trains. This took me completely by surprise. Up to this point, I had not really thought of the fact that we have not really been using the trains during the actual rush hours. We actually got to the train station at the last bit of the rush, so it still was not as bad as it usually is. However, we were still jammed packed into the train we needed to ride on. Thankfully, people got off with every stop, so by the time we were close to our destination, it was not that crowded.

The business we were going to visit was actually a government agency called JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency). JICA is a kind of foreign aid agency of Japan. They do a lot more then just organize and send care packages though. JICA has many volunteers that go to countries that suffer from natural disasters in order to help with relief, but they also have many more volunteers that will go to places like Africa in order to improve the standard of living there. One of the bigger projects they have currently been working on is increasing the level of education in Africa. Not only are they trying to help and make sure the education system is better, but they are trying to make it so that women are also allowed to go to these schools and get educated. In order to make sure this happens, JICA has needed to educate the communities they are trying to open schools in. This way, they can work on getting the schools supported by the community to ensure that they are a success. I think what I enjoyed most about this visit was that it was different then all the other business we have gone to. JICA gave us the view of a company that is trying to help people globally and I was happy to have been able to go in and learn about them.

When the visit with JICA had concluded, it was time to have our final group discussion. Everyone pretty much took this time in order to say what their favorite trip or memory has been so far on the trip. Everyone agreed that everything was extremely enjoyable though. Once the discussion was over, it was free time. The only requirement we had was to be at the train station by 7pm in order to move on to our final hotel by airport.

The House of Ramen

I would end up spending my free time with Carol, Dani, Charles, Ryan, Matt, Paul, Andy, Theresa, and Dr. Laurence. Our first stop was the House of Ramen. This had been a trip I was waiting for. The first floor of the House of Ramen was actually kind of a ramen museum. It had everything from describing the history of ramen to selling different cooking ware in order to properly make ramen. The real treat though was downstairs. After going down about three floors, you reach where the ramen is. This floor was set up to look like a street from the 1950's, they even would broadcast boxing matches from that time. There were six restaurants that all specialized in different kinds of ramens. The normal bowls of ramen were big enough that one bowl would fill you up. So, thankfully, you could order half bowls. I ended up trying two different kinds of ramen. Both were absolutely delicious and I left feeling very full. As we were leaving, I knew that if there was one thing I was definitely going to miss from Japan, it was going to be the ramen.

After leaving the House of Ramen, our group decided we wanted to try and see Mt. Fuji. Since we had the rail passes, we were able to ride the bullet trains for free in order to do so. There were two main stops where you were supposed to be able to see Mt. Fuji. The first one we could kind of see it. It was really far away though and the true size of the mountain was partially blocked by a nearby mountain. So, we moved on to the next stop. This stop was going to give us a clear shot of the mountain. Unfortunately for us, this side of the mountain had rain. Meaning, when we looked towards where Mt. Fuji was supposed to be, all were were able to see the start of the mountain and then clouds. While disappointing, I was glad we attempted to see it at least. Since time was running out by now, we all decided to head back to the Shinagawa station. A few of members of the group decided to try to get massages, while Charles, Ryan, Andy, Dani, Dr. Laurence, and I decided to go to a rooftop restaurant and relax before we left.

If you look really closely, you can see Mt. Fuji

Unfortunately, 7pm did come around and it was time to head to the final hotel. Riding the trains for the last time, we reached the airport where a shuttle would take us to the last Toyoko Inn. What was nice was that this hotel was a lot bigger then all the other ones. Instead of just having a small room that one person could semi-comfortably live in, we had full size rooms (they were bigger then both hotels in Taiwan as well). After everyone had a chance to settle in, everyone made their way to the first floor. We had all decided to spend part of our last night in Japan just hanging out and talking about the entire trip. It was definitely


a great way to end my final day in Japan.