Konnichiwa! A Teacher's Trip to Tokyo

Hello Fourth Graders and Families!

I hope everyone is having an AWESOME summer so far! I started off my summer with a trip to Tokyo, Japan, and I want to share with you a few of my favorite memories from the trip. Did you know that the time difference between Maryland and Tokyo is 13 hours? We left here on a Sunday morning and arrived on Monday afternoon (my birthday!) . . . so it was quite an adjustment since we lost a night of sleep! When it is daytime here, it is nighttime (or almost nighttime) in Japan. This live map shows which areas of the world are in daylight and nighttime, and it changes as the day goes on. Check it out! 

We went to a lot of neat places while we were in Tokyo. One of the first sites we visited was the Senso-ji temple, which was founded in the year 645! It was destroyed during World War II, and then rebuilt again. At many of the Buddhist temples like this one, they have a “gate” to guard the temple from evil spirits, and then the actual temple is behind it. Even the gate is huge! Here is a picture of me in front of the Thunder Gate and the Senso-ji Temple is behind it.

We also visited the city of Kamakura, just outside of Tokyo. This city was founded around 1192, so it is also very old! It was once the capital of Japan and has many shrines and temples there. One of the most unique features was a giant statue of Buddha. Can you believe how big it is?

Mr. McLaughlin and I really enjoyed visiting the Ueno Zoo also:

They had many unique animals from Japan at the Ueno Zoo, along with many that you would recognize. My favorite animals were the pandas snacking on bamboo! Here is a video with some of the animals we saw. Which one is your favorite?

Ueno Zoo Animals

One of my favorite parts of the trip was trying lots of new food (and learning to use chopsticks)! We had a traditional meal of sashimi (raw fish) and shabu-shabu (similar to fondue). Look at this fancy plate of sashimi! Have you ever eaten sashimi or sushi before?

Tempura is another delicious Japanese food. It is seafood that is battered and deep fried. Something I think is interesting is that when you order food, it comes out in separate bowls instead of all on one plate like most restaurants here in the U.S.  Here is my tempura meal!

Have you noticed how much seafood I have mentioned? I even had spaghetti with tuna in it at one meal! Why do you think so much Japanese food is centered around fish and seafood? Here’s a map of Japan for a hint:

Picture from www.uniglobetravel.com

I loved every minute of my trip to Japan, and I hope that each of you gets the chance to visit there someday too! I can’t wait to hear about some of your summer adventures or books you are reading (I even read 2 books while I was in Japan)! Don’t forget that you can send Ms. Alder and I your blog post and we will post it on here! You can email your writing to: thirdgrade.thinktank@gmail.com. 

Have a happy Fourth of July and a WONDERFUL rest of the summer! Miss you all! :)

Love,

Mrs. McLaughlin