Lost in Translation, Found in Tokyo: A Visalia Native’s Journey Through Japan. 

A redwood student goes to Japan in October and shares her journey from there!

By Emma Chavez 

I went to Japan and I’m gonna share my experience with you and what to look out for so when you go you’ll know what to do. 

On the plane my mom and my brother and I were listening to music. My mom had downloaded movies which I regret not doing because the flight was 11 hours. After we landed we got to our hotel and explored the city. We went to a lot of instagram places. 

On the 2nd day, we went to Tokyo Disneyland. We went on lots of rides like Beauty and the Beast, Monsters Inc, Whine the Poo, Small World, and lots more. My mom and I went into this Stitch ride, well we thought it was a ride. Turns out it was a show for little kids and adults to talk and ask stitch questions.

They went around and asked some people questions. My mom and I hoped they wouldn’t pick us because we didn’t know Japanese and didn’t want to be embarrassed. Thankfully they didn’t pick us. We got food and Tokyo Disney is very creative with their food.

The 3rd day we went to explore the city again. Japan is very cheap so you’ll get lots of things. Theres also vending machines everywhere. Make sure to try Coca-Cola over there. It’s better than the United States Coke. We went to a Snoopy cafe and got a Snoopy pancake. Then we went to a mall where they had a Sonic store, a Godzilla store, Pop Mart, and a Miniso and lots more.

We went to the biggest discount store in Shibuya called Don Quijote. They had everything you can think of but no technology but still recommend it because it’s tax free! And then went back to the hotel to get ready to go on the bullet train for Kyoto.

On the 4th day we went to try KFC. Once we got to Kyoto it was very good then we went to a store to look at cameras and found the biggest technology store in Kyoto they had everything you can think of that’s related to technology.

On the 5th day we went to see the temples in the mountains and went to the bamboo forest. It’s a hike, it’s all stairs so if you don’t like stairs then I wouldn’t go but it’s worth seeing. After that we went to a different mountain and I took lots of pictures with my camera. Then we went to see a traditional village. There were some things we did not have permission to take pictures of but I was able to get at least one. 

The 6th day we went back to Tokyo for our last day and explored more of the city we saw the famous dog statue Hachiko and saw the sky tree in Tokyo its a really tall sky scraper you can go on the top but it was very late and needed rest to be up early to go back home.

And finally on the 7th day we got up, packed and said goodbye to Japan went around the streets in the city to just take one last look around and to remember where places are when we come back to Japan and off to the airport. On the way back it took 8 hours, which was way faster than 11 for when we were going there, but there was lots of turbulence, but we made it home safely.

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