Time has been flying by on this trip! It’s the fourteenth and I didn’t even know it. I’m looking forward to this weekend when we get to be with our host families. So far we’ve been in Tokyo a lot, plus Shibuya, Harajuku, and Akihabara which are super cool because they’re well known for how amazing and strange they can be, but I think being with the families will give us an idea of what people actually do in their lives from day to day, and it’s not all strange and super foreign. Harajuku had lots of cool fashion and it was like each store had it’s own specific theme! So many different things I couldn’t even think of on my own. In Shibuya we got to see the Shibuya shuffle, which is when everybody crosses through a GIANT intersection at once, and it’s so busy you can get lost in half a second because it has crosswalks going to all sides of all the surrounding streets. Akihabara was hard to appreciate in the amount of time we were there; I also just didn’t see much that was especially remarkable except for the sheer amount of claw machines. The shrines we went to yesterday were by no means strange, they were all so beautiful and they helped me to understand much about what the culture is based on. The major cities we visited were very different from what we’re used to, and it’s been almost overwhelming with how stunning it is. I like being able to shop like we are cause you can get people small things that are so random and weird because of all the crazy places we’ve been going. I think some people are missing families and home, but as the days get calmer it gets easier because we can take pictures and process the places. It helps to remember that we’re bringing this whole experience home with us to share in the end. All in all Japan has been thoroughly amazing thus far, especially as my first trip outside the U.S.!