China

China was amazing. However, unfortunately thanks to Mao, the china firewall blocked our blog, preventing us from updating you on our worldly travels. But now we will fill you in on everything that we did. Get ready.

First, we went to Beijing. It was smoggy and a bit gross. We were caught in a Tornado one day and Bari almost flew away. No joke. Otherwise Beijing was jokes. We met hilarious Canadian financial guys mining for Vandium??? We joined their tour group at the Forbidden City because they felt sorry for us little girls... and they seemed starved for female attention.

We also climbed the Great Wall!

Then, on to glamourous Shanghai where we spent our time shopping and running away from homeless men trimming their beards with nail clippers and yelling boo at us.

Hong Kong was next. We arrived at our hostel, confused why it looked like a sweatshop factory. The place was called Chungking Mansions. Only after we checked in, did we get an email from Allison Hennick saying, "Whatever you do, don't stay at Chungking Mansions!" Whatevs.. it's all part of the experience... right?

Japanese, they're just like us

They have a YMCA.

They go to school!

They sleep on the subway!

They take Kaplan courses!!!

Day 2 and 3

Warning: the letter after 'a' isn't working, so we will replace it with '-'

Yesterday, we went to Harajuku, the area where all the Japanese street hipsters hang. There were lots of market stands mixed in with expensive stores. I could have spent the entire day there, -ut o-viously, -ari and Chelsie threatened to a-andon me if I did :(

We later did some -oring stuff that Chelsie wanted to do, while I was still dreaming a-out Harajuku...

jk... we o-vs did fun stuff.. we are in Tokyo, it's impossi-le not to! Sooo we did an architecture walk around the expensive area of Aoyama and ate at an organic restaurant frequented -y the likes of Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder. The architecture tour was cool -ut the organic food was... uhh... it was.. mmm... organic food.

Yesterday, we got up early and went to the fish market. It was sooooo cooool!!! I had a sushi -reakfast. It was so fresh and delicious!

We later went to the Imperial palace and made friends with a few exchange students who invited us to join their guided tour. Our favourites were Tom and Geri. Tom (only -oy i picture -elow) was so cute! -ari tried to flirt with him -ut he wasn't really getting it. He was just too shy and young. While those shenanigans were happening, I made friends with Geri (2nd from left). She was awesome and gave us some great tips a-out the city that we will put in good use for today!

Sayonara for today,

xoxoxx

J-C

Konichiwa!

Dear family and friends,

After 13 hours of flying, one veggie, one kosher and one peanut free meal later we have finally arrived in Tokyo, Japan!


We are so happy to be here. It is difficult to type on Japanese computers.
Everyone is very nice here. Actually sooo nice. The type of sooo nice that we can't comprehend back in Canada. One stranger threw out his bowl of soup he was eating to escort us for 20 minutes to our hostel.

We arrived at our hostel tired and disgruntled, but then we saw these magnificent robes aaaaaand.... we think we are turning Japanese, we think we are turning Japanese, we really think so dooo dooo dooo



We didn't want to go to sleep yet, so we decided to wander around the city. 10 dollars on the subway later, we found ourselves in the area of Asakusa (Ah-sock-sa), where sensoji-temple lies.


Love,
JBC