RHS'69
Tomodachi Tour IV - 2019
Tomadachi IV - the fourth tour to Japan is two weeks in length. We have three reporters covering the trip: Lani Harrington, Vincent Yim (RHS'69) and Bobby Imoto (Kalani'69).
This is a "rolling blog" so each day's events are posted as they come in. Check back often for the latest.
Friday, March 1, 2019
Events added daily through Monday, March 11th
Another day, another breakfast. It's quite amazing how much eating they do on these tours.
Today it's a Japanese buffet.
Compliments: so good.
Complaints: they need bigger tables because they take so much.
Getting on the charter bus to Naruto which officially begins the day's adventures.
They ride a lot of buses and there's a "rule" that every day when they get on a bus they are supposed to sit two rows further forward.
As you can imagine confusion reigns in trying to figure out where to sit each time.
Bus Karaoke!
Apparently that's what you do on a long bus ride in Japan.
Japanese songs with Japanese lyrics on the screen for people that don't read Japanese.
First we apologize for the shaky cam - it's all we got. Please don't have a seizure watching it. The really bad parts have been edited out and that makes the audio track jump around.
Yeah, it's a mess but you deserve to see it anyway.
The bus pulls into the Karashiki Bikan Historical Quarter, the major stop for the day. Everyone starts wandering around - cameras in hand.
This video was taken from Facebook live so the quality is occasionally lousy.
Lots of shops, people and some swans.
A charter bus heads from Hiroshima to Naruto. On the way the group will visit the quaint Karashiki Bikan Historical Quarter.
Once the political and commercial center of Kurashiki, it's now preserved as a historic district and a shoppers delight with
specialty stores, museums and cafes.
They then travel over the world's
longest two-tiered bridge from Honshu
Island to Shikoku Island and the town
of Nakanoya. Finally back to the new
hotel in Naruto for some hot springs
action and a group dinner.
We seem to be suffering a lot of videos this day. So here's another one.
At the top you'll see the itinerary calls for traveling over world's longest two-tiered bridge from Honshu Island to Shikoku Island and the town of Nakanoya.
Here's when it happened and it's kind of interesting.
Making their way to Takamatsu and the Nakanoya Udon School they attempt to make their own lunch of udon and tempura.
A long and busy day finally comes to an end.
Tomorrow they shift to Kyoto where one of the activities is a sake museum with free samples.
What could possibly go wrong?
Ahead are two days in Kyoto with a lot to do and see.
The group held a special dinner and dressed for the occasion.
When you make udon you have to flatten it.
Most places use a press for that. But if you don't have one then slip it in a plastic bag and stomp it to death.
Photos/video by:
Bobby Imoto Kalani'69
Lani Harrington RHS'69
Cheryl Osumi RHS'69
Vincent/Wendy Yim RHS'69