Rotary Trip!

My Rotary District (D2590) and the district south of us took a trip together. We went to Hiroshima and Kyoto. It is such an awesome experience to get to see other parts of Japan. And I don't think you could ever find a group of people that are more fun to travel with. There were outbounds, inbounds, rebounds, and rotex all together! It was really fun to get to know the outbounds and get to know everyone else a little better. I had met most of the other district's inbounds before, but there were a few new ones too.

Ruan, Vincent and I at the airport. It was pretty early but I was so excited!

Our flight from Hanadea Airport left at 6:55, so everyone had to be at the airport at 6. I had to get up at like 4:15, but that wasn't too bad. I am lucky enough to be living pretty close to the airport. I planned on sleeping on the plane, but I ended up sitting next to Ruan. That was the end of that idea.

We arrived at Hiroshima Airport, got on a bus and went to the Gembaku Dome and Park. An atomic bomb survivor spoke to our group (in Japanese, so I didn't really understand much of it), and then we went to the Atomic Bomb Museum. It was very sad, and I pray that nothing like this ever happens again. I have now had the opportunity to see both of the atomic bomb sites and museums in Japan. I am glad to have this opportunity, but it is still hard to see it.

You can see the Gembaku Dome in the back there.

We all ate obento in the park and then got back on the bus. It was one of those tour busses with the lady talking and talking and talking about who-knows-what as you drive. It was in Japanese, too. You can imagine that we all paid a lot of attention to her. The bus ride was fun though. One of the brazilian guys brought his guitar. He was really good, actually.

The bus dropped us off and we waited for the ferry to take us to Miyajima. Miyajima has this beautiful temple that is on the shore of the ocean. At low tide you can go up and walk under it, but at high tide it is standing in like 8 feet of water. Its quite famous. We took a little tour of the island, went to the temple, and then went to the hotel, which was on the island. After dinner we had free time. At some point we all took a walk back to the shrine and saw it at high tide. After that we had until 11 for free time. We all hung out in each other's rooms, played those crazy games that always come up at rotary conferences, and went to onsen! At 11 everyone had to go to their own rooms. I went to bed pretty early that night.

On the ferry to Miyajima

Ayumii, Lena, and I at Miyajima at low tide.

Here it is at high tide.

Friday morning we had breakfast and took a ferry back to the mainland. Then we went to the train station to ride the bullet trains! Bullet trains are amazing. I loved it. It's like an airplane. Without the uncomfortable pressure in your ears. We were in Kyoto by lunchtime. I got to see Osaka as we went through, too. Kyoto is a very beautiful city. It used to be the capitol of Japan, so there are a lot of historic places there. Our group went to Nijyou-jo, which is this huge fortress place. It was so awesome. It's one of those places that make you wonder how they built it. I can't imagine building it today, much less hundreds of years ago. Then we went to the Kiyomizu Temple. Japanese architecture is so cool. There is so much detail in it.

Our group (most of it) waiting for the bullet train to come.

Part of Nijyou-jo

When we got to our hotel we had dinner, then the talent show. I really dislike talent shows. Well, only when I have to be in them. I ended up singing the YMCA with 5 other inbound girls. It was pretty embarassing, but it's all good. There is no way to sing the YMCA and look cool anyway. Some of the other talents were pretty good. The boy that is outbound to America did these amazing card tricks. It was really magic! There is no other way he could do that. haha. The room had a stage, karaoke, and a good sound system. After the show was over we were allowed to use the karaoke still so we had a little dance party. I love Rotary converences. At 9 we had to get out of that room so we went back to our rooms and all hung out. At some point some of us went to onsen. Then at 11, the responsible rotex members sent us all to our rooms. At about 11:30 everyone else showed up in our room. Nobody wanted to sleep that night. We had a good time. At about 6, we sent everyone back to their rooms. Then we went to breakfast. After breakfast I got to sleep for about 20 minutes before the bus came to get us. I was soo tired!

Everyone hanging out in the hotel room

On Saturday we went to see the silver temple (which is on the back of the 10 yen coin) and the gold temple. We also went to this famous bridge and souvineer shop in Kyoto. It's famous to Japanese people at least. I had a really good time there. The bridge and river were so beautiful. Sometimes living in Yokohama makes me think that Japan isn't a beautiful country, but it really is. After that we took the bullet train back to Shin-Yokohama Station. From there I took the bus home, had dinner, and went to get some much needed sleep.

The Gold Temple in Kyoto

The trip was so fun! Especially just getting to hang out with the other rotary people and getting to know them. I am so excted for the Mt. Fuji trip now! It will be with the same group of people. It is so nice of Rotary to put these trips together for us, and I am so grateful that they do.

Mt. Fuji! Taken from my airplane window on the way to Hiroshima.