Continuing with updates:

We got up nice and early on Saturday to head to the Ginza district of Tokyo. Ginza is commonly known to be the much more upper crust area of Tokyo, and shopping there you’ll find many sorts of stores that are familiar and typically expensive. We went there to go to a MSU Alumnis party in Japan, where we were able to meet many ex-spartans currently employed in Japan. It was great to meet so many new people, some of whom were actually going to be returning to MSU in the fall! I came away with some business cards and business contacts that I hope to keep alive as I move through school and into my professional career.

So after our brief tour of the remarkable architecture of Ginza and a morning spent in a small lounge with alums and other Spartans on a various study abroad programs we went to Tokyo station to board the Shinkansen, or Japanese bullet train.

We had bought a JR (Japan Rail) weeklong pass before getting to Japan. Turns out that you can only get one if you aren’t a Japanese citizen! Weird. But it was extremely convenient, as the coming days would readily demonstrate. Owning a pass allows for unlimited access on two of the three types of Shinkansen trains, and any normal train line owned by JR. Which was great, because that Saturday was to be the first day we’d use it.

After packing the stuff we needed, and some unnecessary hassle with tickets we arrived at the station and took our long ride into Osaka. Wasn’t much time to do a lot else that day except eat, so we had a small dinner (either at a convenience store or one of the Japanese fast food places, I don’t remember) and got to bed with the knowledge that we had an exceptionally busy day and an early wakeup call to visit Miyajima island and Hiroshima.