{"id":31,"date":"2023-06-19T07:30:32","date_gmt":"2023-06-19T12:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/japan-summer-2023\/?p=31"},"modified":"2023-06-24T04:16:17","modified_gmt":"2023-06-24T09:16:17","slug":"we-are-here-first-day-in-japan-tokyo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/japan-summer-2023\/2023\/06\/19\/we-are-here-first-day-in-japan-tokyo\/","title":{"rendered":"We are HERE!!! First day in Japan-Tokyo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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UMass Lowell and Fitchburg State students arrive at Haneda Airport inTokyo. June 10, 2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s see-where to start?  We have been in Japan for 2 days, and it feels like there are 100 things to write about already!  I am up at 6am drinking an iced coffee, jet-lagged and happy as can be.  We got here safe and sound on June 10th<\/sup>, 12 UMass Lowell students and 12 Fitchburg State students.  Everyone made the 2 flight journey.  We met at 3am at Logan airport, flew to Toronto and had a 5 hour layover before our 12.5 hour flight to Haneda airport!  Luckily no one missed their flight! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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UMass Lowell Students and Professor Oda arrive at National Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first full day, we explored the sights near our hotel in Ueno.  Ueno is in NW Tokyo in an area I refer to as \u201cOld Tokyo\u201d.  First we all walked to the National Art Museum, where Japanese national treasures from the Jomon period (artifacts from 13,000 years ago) until today are exhibited. We marveled at exquisite woodblock prints, painstakingly hand carved katanas and old samurai military clothing, and intricate hand-sewn kimono silks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We then made our way to lunch in Ameyoko-cho, an outdoor market area that feels like it has not changed since 1980\u2019s.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lunch in Ameyokocho, Ueno, first day!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After lunch, we walked to Kanda Shrine, where we met up with UML alumni and professor John Traphagan, who talked to us about Japanese religion and the ways of the Japanese people.  It was fascinating to hear from an expert on Japanese anthropology.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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UML alumni, professor John Traphagan talking to students about Japanese philosophy and religion.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The students had many interesting questions for Professor Traphagan.  He taught us the difference between ritual and worship, how to properly purify ourselves with water before entering a shrine, and how to \u201cpray\u201d by clapping and bowing to the gods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Finally, we had our \u201cWelcome Dinner\u201d where we had Japanese izakaya food together, all 28 of us, and did a \u201cKampai\u201d cheers together.  I was amazed by the open-minded spirit of all of our students, who tried spicy fish roe and marinated mackerel for the first time.  Let our adventures continue!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s see-where to start?  We have been in Japan for 2 days, and it feels like there are 100 things to write about already!  I am up at 6am drinking an iced coffee, jet-lagged and happy as can be.  We … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1342,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/japan-summer-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/japan-summer-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/japan-summer-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/japan-summer-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1342"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/japan-summer-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/japan-summer-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/japan-summer-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions\/48"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/japan-summer-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/japan-summer-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/japan-summer-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}