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?
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
Mrs. Mclaughlin...I am so glad you guys had a great time. I loved your pictures and I am glad you sent me a picture of my favorite animal while you got to visit the Ueno Zoo...ZEBRAS of course!!
ReplyDeleteMiss all of you and cant wait to see you all in 4th grade!!! Hope everyone has a great summer!
Love,
Mrs. Torres
Dear Mrs. Mclaughlin,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the cool pictures. Japan looks awesome! My favorite animal in that zoo was a panda, and the spaghetti and tuna sounds weird. Well, I have had sushi and sashimi before and I love it. I have a question, what did your hotel room look like? Did you sleep in a tube?
Sincerely,
Bailey
Dear Bailey,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed the pictures! You and I have the same favorite animal. :) We stayed at a Hilton hotel, on the 35th floor! We had an excellent view of downtown Tokyo. It looked very similar to a hotel in the United States, except instead of curtains over the windows like we have here, there was a long sliding shade made out of paper! I did not sleep in a tube, but I have seen pictures of those hotels, and they look very interesting! You'll have to let me know if you like if you ever get the chance!
Sincerely,
Mrs. McLaughlin