June 29, 2004

Apple Valley High School Arrives in Kyoto. Here's a picture of the group in Rihga's lobby.

The Chesapeake group arrives in Kyoto! Here they are on the Shinkansen platform.

The Gig Harbor group arrives from Takuma.

The Harrison group looks forward to the next few days in Kyoto.

Parkway South arrives in Kyoto!

On to Kyoto!

The six NP:J groups said their goodbyes to their host families and peers at the host schools today and arrived in Kyoto early this afternoon. This is a bittersweet day for most NP:J students. Eight days ago—was it ONLY eight days ago?—the students were nervously anticipating meeting their host families. This morning, the vast majority of them were reluctantly saying their goodbyes to their new "extended" family, promising to right when they returned to the States.

The host family portion of the NP:J Study Tour is typically the most popular portion of the students' experience and this summer is no exception to that! In fact, many students arrived in Kyoto lugging extra bags, filled with omiyage (gifts) from their host moms and dads.

The weather is beautiful in Kyoto. It's quite warm and humid, but on Tuesday, their arrival day in Kyoto, the sky was clear and blue, and a healthy breeze helped keep the students from overheating!

Most school groups arrived by early afternoon and checked in to the Rihga Royal Hotel, spent about 30 minutes getting travel information from Ms. Azuma, and immediately began exploring the rich cultural and historical sites for which Kyoto is famous.

From Tuesday through Thursday, the students will explore temples, "National Treasure" designated sites, and palaces that are hundreds of years old. Today, Nishi and Higashi Honganji temples, Kyoto Tower, and Sanjusangendo were among the most popular sites for walking tours, and these will be followed in the next days with trips to a washi (paper) making shop, a costume museum, and the Kyoto Handicraft Center, to name a few of the many soon-to-be-seen wonderful Kyoto experiences.

With three days of exploration left before Friday's departure, everyone is in good health and spirits, and looking forward to making the most of their remaining time in Japan. The staff of The Laurasian Institution is also impressing upon the students the need to not only read their e-mails from friends and family, but also to respond to them! Please know that if you don't receive an e-mail from your son or daughter, it is not for a lack of effort to convince them to be good correspondents. They are busy in the best sort of way—having a wonderful time absorbing the culture of Kyoto!

The final article for NP:J Tour 2 will be posted by Saturday, July 3rd. Once again, thank you for checking in with us, and thank you for supporting NP:J!

Jefferson arrives at the Rihga Hotel last -- after enjoying dinner in Kobe.