Finishing up my trip with the last few days I can talk about. Its Aug 12th, Friday and the 8th day of our trip. The rest of the trip was mostly sightseeing now. We hopped on the JR and headed to Osaka where we met Osaka university faculties. I had already met some of the faculty back in Arizona when they paid us a visit and it was great seeing familiar faces again. They even remembered my name, given they had an attendance sheet with our pictures on it haha. We met them at the poke center, where I spent more than I would have liked but it was all souvenirs to bring back. Luckily they accepted credit card or else I would not have enough cash. We spent some time at the poke center and afterwards, Osaka faculty then led us through the mall and into our next restaurant for Osaka-style noodles and cabbage (I forgot the name for the food). They were so generous, treating us out to lunch, giving us gifts, and even taking us around Osaka for sightseeing, the hospitality must be returned when they come back to Arizona later this year (they treated us out for every meal, drink, and admission tickets to tourist attractions). After lunch, we headed to tourists sights, Osaka castle, Another beautiful spot where I can spend hours, They had amazing 2.5D history panels, lots of art, an elevator too! There is a lot and you would have to go to the castle itself to fully appreciate it. We headed to Doutonbori shopping district next where I got lost from the group for a bit but we all found our way and had dinner at one of the reserved shops, Osaka faculty kindly hosted us again. The guilt kicked in after they spent so much money on us but we can only repay their kindness when they come to visit us next time. For dinner, I can't remember the name of what we ate but we had fried meats, and Osaka specialty omelet with rice. After dinner, We bid our farewells to our Osaka friends and split up into groups to do some night shopping. A group of us headed to dindin or however you spell it, the anime shopping area of Osaka. I bought some more souvenirs there, hanged at the arcades, and saw quite interesting shops.

Next day - Sat Aug 13th, we get ready to go to Kyoto. KGU students met us in the morning at our hotel with a bus already prepared, so nice of them. From the bus, we headed to multiple tourist attractions including Kinkaku-ji Golden Pavillion, Kiyomizu-dera temple, Heian-kingu shrine, lunch at a rotating sushi place which was amazing, and we hit up Nishiki-koji street market. Many great tourist attractions that words would do little to explain. You could see cultural history from the sites in Kyoto, the old style housing, the way structures were constructed - there is a deep respect for the history in Kyoto. We spent much of the day in Kyoto and the bus drove us back to Sanomiya station where we split up for food.

Last day of sightseeing at Hiroshima, Aug 14th Sun, our 10th day in the trip. We rode the Shinkansen today. first time for me and it was fantastic. I felt like I was on a high class train, which it was, served with nice seats found in airplanes. Difference was servers were present but were selling goods rather than serving us free drinks and snacks. We reach Hiroshima at incredible speeds. There at Hiroshima, were took small buses to tourist sights such as the Hiroshima atomic bomb Peace memorial museum where we learned about the sad traumatic history of the atomic bomb and the consequences of using it. Japan is such a respectful country to remember, be at peace with the past, and learn from the past as this piece of history was such a horrific experience. I was the last to leave the museum, it was very touching and moving to see how important it is for the world to see such a deadly event and to learn never to repeat such a cruel act. After the museum, we headed to Miyajima island where we enjoyed the amazing views of the shrine, the beaches, and the wild dear. We headed back and crashed soon after. The next morning we were all packed up and ready to leave, we went to our farewell party at Kobe University where we bid our farewells to many of the students left, An amazing party for a bittersweet farewell, we played smash the watermelon blindfolded and took many pictures before we left.