Day 1 (5/18) TOKYO

1st Day in Japan!
Meiji Shrine for 20 minutes.
Off to all girls university (only princesses from Royal families).
The metro is much more complex.
At the college they were so worried about us being from America with the swine flu starting in Mexico that they made us wash our hands immediately and then wipe with an antibacterial wipe, then use purell. Man, they are really cautious and we almost felt like they did not want us there. We had lunch with the students and the girls were so sweet. Kyle and I sat together with two girls that attend the university, one was from Korea and she made me crack up because she could not understand a word that Kyle was saying (he has a deep voice) and she told me that his voice seemed so far away. For some reason I found it histerical since I could see both sides. We then did (or actually just observed) a flower making class that is required for their Japanese culture courses. We were sad that they wouldn't allow us to work with the students.
TRADITIONAL JAPANESE DINNER: Yum! We ate nabe, which is a pot of stew stuff that is served family style and everyone shares. We all got hot Saki- it was so exciting because we got to eat with Japanese friends: Erica, Utaka, Kosay, and Sachiko. They took us out to an English Hub afterwards and partyed with us. We learned a lot from them and found that they make "Japanese-English" kind of like we incorporate some short spanish words into our vocabulary...funny huh! I saw two girls that had a Japanese conversation and then said "bye-bye" to each other. The Hub was fun and when we left they totally made directions for us to be sure we could make it home. Utaka actually studyed abroad in Augusta, GA and will be back this August to stay with a friend in Lenior! Sweet. Hopefully we will all meet up and show him some of Boone. They had battery powered mobile chargers for their cell phones which is way cool. Why don't we have that?
METRO ISSUES: James tried to sneek his way on to the metro without a ticket and the guard caught him- oh no! Thank goodness he let us give money to James to buy a ticket, but he said, "You are bad guy...No good!" Whew!