Coming Home

I boarded the plane at 5:29 P.M. after going to say good-bye to my aunt, uncle, and cousins. They were very generous people and I was glad to be related to them even though they live so far away. The plane was very crowded because all the tourists from Toronto were going home as well. I slept most of the way home with the help of some Advil, but I had to change planes in Frankfurt and Toronto, so I had quick stops in between naps to grab something to eat and maybe grab a cup of coffee to stay up for a little while longer. The plane was a little less crowded on the plane going from Toronto to Saskatoon and I could stretch out a bit more which helped me to relax. I then dozed off and finally woke up when the plane started to land. I finally got out of the plane and waited for my bags. They came along the baggage conveyer and I picked them up and started walking out. I spotted my brother by the entrance and greeted him. We got in to his car and started talking about my trip and how I had dinner with the family in Germany. He couldn't wait to hear some of the stories I had and I would be able to tell him all of them because I slept so much on the plane that I couldn't possibly sleep anymore. We got back to his house and I started unpacking my bag along with all my souvenirs. I brought back a lot of things for my brother like japanese masks, a traditional japanese robe, and a lot of postcards with amazing scenary on them. We went and got some food that I'm used to and chowed down. The food was good because trying new things can get really old fast. We talked about where the next trip would be and he said he would like to join me. We then stayed up all night and talked about my trip and I couldn't wait for my next trip.

My Arrival in Germany

When I arrived in Berlin it was 7:10 P.M. and I had just enough time to go out to one of their famous pubs for a beverage or two and ended up not checking into my hotel until 3 in the morning. It was really easy to make friends there and most of them could talk english. Good thing I didn't have anybody touring me around this time because they might have had to wake me up and deal with my complaining. I got up at 11 A.M. and went to the restaurant aross from my hotel for a bite to eat. I had more meat for breakfast than I ever have before. They 3 different kinds of breakfast sausage and some other things I didn't even know existed. I didn't eat all my breakfast because of it's size. I ate a quarter of it and I couldn't possibly eat anymore. I called a cab and decided to go to the Berlin Wall. When I got there I was surpirsed when i realized most of the wall was demolished, but there was still a spot where some of it was constructed. I read about the history and took a little time just looking around and then I got back in the cab. I have family in Berlin so I decided to call them and they invited me for dinner later that night. Before going there I went back to my hotel and I had a quick shower and switched my casual clothes for something a little more fancy. I called another cab and went to their house. The house was a really big with a massive front yard. I was surprised that they had a house this big and I went and rang the doorbell. My aunt answered the door and welcomed me in. Dinner included the gigantic amount of meat just like any other meal and other potatoe dishes which were very good. After supper we sat down in their very large family room and talked for a couple hours. When it was time for me to leave, I started to call a cab, but my uncle gave me I ride in his luxury BMW. When we arrived at the hotel we said our good-byes and I went to my room and plunked down on my bed.

Touring Tokyo

My second day in Tokyo went really good. Toyoki and I met at the market near my hotel. The market has tons of weird food and other items. Animals are turned inside out and hung on the top of the stand, which I think is pretty gross, but I guess everybody here is accustomed to it. Toyoki showed me stands that I might be interested in, such as weird technology stands, Clothes stands, and stands where you couldn't even tell what the product was. This market was very busy and I could barely get around. Toyoki and I walked almost everywhere since our hotel was in the middle of Tokyo and nothing was that far away. Not many people in Tokyo own cars and most people just bike or walk everywhere. After visiting the market, Toyoki and I went down to have lunch at a different restaurant. This time we had Yakitori which is chicken skewers, Tempura which is seafood and vegetables, and Gyoza which is dumplings filled with minced meat and vegetables. For the evening we planned to see a sumo wresting match and then go out to dinner after. We arrived at the arena which was packed and we caught a glimpse of the remarkably large sumo wrestlers. We took our seats and waited for the announcer to cue in the gigantic men standing at the edges of the arena. When he finally did two men approached the ring and took their positions. They stared at each other, probably trying to intimidate the opponent, and then the referee lifted his sign and they both lunged towards each other crashing into each other with a giant amount of force. Once one of the guys had been pushed out of the ring, the winner celebrated and then left. This continued on for the rest of the night. I went back to the hotel without dinner, but that just means I can have a really big lunch, especially since we are going to Toyoki's house for lunch tomorrow and I heard that I better be hungry because his wife cooks an enormous amount of food for guests. I can't wait to see what we do tomorrow but now I'm going to bed.

First Day in Tokyo!

When I arrived in Tokyo, I found out it was a completely different world then I have. In Tokyo they have technology coming out of their Ying-Yangs and Hoo-Haws! Everywhere you turn people have cell phones that I have never seen in my whole life and everybody has a different one. I asked a man at my hotel why mostly everybody had different phones and he said it was hard for people to express themselves in Japan so they bought phones that could express them. Tokyo is a crowded city and it is often hard to get around, but the people are generous and you can make friends really easy. Lots of people here speak english and that helps alot because my Japenese isn't really up to standard. I have hired a man to show me around and make sure I don't do anything stupid. He is a very educated man and knows all about Tokyo, his name is Toyoki and he can speak english almost better than I can. Today we went to the Tokyo Science Museum and it was very interesting, Toyoki explained most of the stuff to me and it was cool to learn things differently than we have is Canada and they had a robot demonstration going on when I was there and that was also very cool. Then we went and had an interesting dinner and ate things like Beijing Duck which orginate in China but became very popular in Japan. Other foods we tried were Shasimi which is raw seafood, Udon which are noodles and Tonkatsu which is deep fried pork cutlets. These foods were a nice change and tasted very good, but didn't sound very appetising at the time. We then went back to my hotel and arranged where we were going to meet in the morning, and then Toyoki left. I couldn't get to sleep so I decided to watch some T.V. and i found out Japan has some crazy game shows, but they were also very funny and I enjoyed them. I was passing in and out of consciousness on the bed and sometimes laughing in between at these crazy late night shows. I then finally passed out for the night.

My Travel Itenerary

Saskatoon, Canada to Vancouver, Canada
•Depart Saskatoon (YXE) at 7:10 A.M.
• Name of Airliner-Air Canada
• Flight Number-8577
• Time Zone- Central Time Zone
• Arrival–Vancouver (YVR) at 7:27 A.M. (2hrs. and 17 mins.)
• Local Time Zone– Pacific Time Zone
• Number of Stops- 0
• Name of Airport– Vancouver International Airport (YVR)

Vancouver, Canada to Tokyo, Japan
• Departure- Vancouver, Canada at 12:20 P.M.
• Name of Airline- Air Canada
• Flight Number- 8577
• Local Time Zone–Pacific Time Zone
• Arrival–Tokyo, Japan (NRT) at 3:20 A.M.
• Local Time Zone– Standard Time
• Number of Stops- 0
• Name of Airport– Tokyo Narita International Airport (NRT)





Tokyo, Japan to Zurich, Switzerland
• Departure–Tokyo, Japan at 11:10 A.M.
• Name of Airline-Swiss International Airlines
• Flight Number- 161
• Local Time Zone–Standard Time
• Arrival–Zurich, Switzerland at 4:00 P.M.
• Local Time Zone–Central European Time
• Number of Stops-0
• Name of Airport– Zurich International Airport (ZRH)


Zurich, Switzerland to Berlin, Germany
• Departure–Zurich, Switzerland (ZRH) to 5:40 P.M.
• Name of Airline- Swiss International Airlines
• Flight Number- 978
• Local Time Zone–Central European Time
• Arrival–Berlin, Germany (TXL) at 7:10 P.M.
• Local Time Zone– Central European Time Zone
• Number of Stops- 0
• Name of Airport– Tegel Airport (TXL)






Berlin, Germany to Saskatoon, Canada

• Departure–Berlin, Germany (TXL) at 7:10 A.M.
• Name of Airline- British Airways
• Flight Number- 873
• Local Time Zone–Central European Time
• Arrival–Saskatoon, Canada (YXE) at 5:29 P.M.
• Local Time Zone–Central Time Zone
• Number of Stops- 2 (Frankfurt, Germany and Toronto, Canada)
• Name of Airport–Saskatoon Airport (YXE)

All info taken from www.expedia.ca