PolyGlobal Japan blog 2025

Uriel:  Awakened by the light glimmering through my hotel’s window, I, Uriel,  woke up rejuvenated and excited for the day ahead; my view through the window isn’t the best, but it’ll do for my final days in Japan. Miles, my hotel roommate, and I had great conversations and laughs about the past nuisances of our trip; ultimately, we reflected on the societal norms we’ve encountered in Japan and how life is so much more different here than compared to our cultural and societal lives Los Angeles. I didn’t have breakfast today, mainly because I felt full from yesterday’s dinner, but I did have a few snacks that helped me last throughout the time leading up to lunch. I got dressed and headed out the door to the first floor where we all decided to meet; one by one we all arrived at the lobby and quickly debriefed our plan for the day.  Heading out the doors of the hotel, we all set foot on an adventure towards Shinjuku National Park, which contained multiple beautiful views, vi...

  Hello. This is Nick and Lucas. Today, we started with a slightly later wake up time than normal, with a scheduled departure of 9:30. After finishing some laundry and eating breakfast, we all walked down to the Matsumoto Castle. Our Walk Japan Guide, Yo, taught us about the historical importance of the castle. He also informed us about various changes and additions over time to the building. We then walked back to the hotel to retrieve our luggage. After walking to the train station 20 minutes later, we decided to get lunch from a nearby grocery store. We then decided to eat on the 2.5 hour long train ride, eventually arriving in Tokyo after a while. Our long train ride landed us in the heart of Tokyo. We took a quick trip to the ticket counter where we purchased our special Tokyo subway tickets that offered us unlimited rides for 72 hours. We used them for our quick trip to our hotel, where we quickly went to our rooms and decompressed for an hour. Meeting up at 5:00 PM, we set o...

  Hi everyone, it’s Harper and Miles. We woke up with a slow morning, still tired from staying up late the last night, drawing and talking. Our breakfast was a delicious assortment of traditional Japanese foods including egg and ham, miso soup, and salmon. After getting ready and thanking the inn keeper, we set off in the wet mist of the morning. Once we got to the train station, we heard the news that our train was more than 25 minutes late and was of risk of being canceled due to the weather. Yo, our well prepared tour guide, ordered the group a taxi and a van to take us to our trail head. As we started walking the rain began to pick up and the dirt we walked on turned to goopy mud. We walked a grueling and steep uphill trail through the mountain until we peaked at the small shrine at Torii Pass. At the shrine, Harper sang a short yet beautiful rendition of  Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head . We our descent into the valley being careful to not slip as rain came down like a ...

  “What is a blog? A blog is like this bowl of muesli: all mixed up with nuts...” Adam Feldmeth 2024 Hello! This is Zara and August! We started the third day of our Walk-Japan adventure waking up at different times. While most of the girls—who were all rooming together—woke up at around 6:15, most of the guys were awake by 7:00. By 7:20, everyone was sitting in the dining room, enjoying a traditional Japanese meal that consisted of yogurt, a banana, an egg, a piece of cooked salmon, a small side-salad, and self-served rice. While we ate, our tour guide Yo briefed us on the plan for our day, and, afterwards, we returned to our rooms to finish up any packing that we had left to do. At 8:15 we reunited in the lobby, dropped off our luggage, and set out for the day. 💪 Light rain that had set in through the previous night continued into the morning, so, by the time we ventured out, our umbrellas were opened and already in use ☔️. We walked along a damp paved road that eventually ...

  Hello everyone, this is Isabel and Mira (officially sophomores now 😉). We are so excited to tell you about our second day of Walk Japan! Today we started our morning earlier than usual in preparation for a very busy day. We woke up at around 6:30 am, packed up all of our things and quickly headed to enjoy a traditional Japanese breakfast at our ryokan. The breakfast started at 7:15 am consisted of miso soup, cooked egg, a small side salad, salmon, and of course, a side of tea. After our satisfying meal, we dropped off our luggage in the lobby by 8 am and got ready to head out for a long day of walking.  Everyone made sure to fill their water bottles. Once that was done we headed to the train station to catch a quick ride from Ena to Nakatsugawa city. We briefly walked through the city onto a more secluded path up a hill to the Nakasendo Way, which is paved with white and yellow pebbles to mark the historic route. Our tour guide, Yo, warned us about the 3 uphills. He conside...

  We started our day off — waking up a bit later than we hoped to — at 8:20am. The planned meeting time at the lobby was 8:45am; however, since we woke up so late, we rushed to pack our previous night’s snacks, souvenirs, and FULLY charged phones. Both of us (Uriel and Megan 😎) bulldozed our way downstairs without a bite of breakfast! A rough beginning to an eventful day for sure…  Nagoya Station, being one of the biggest stations in the world by floor area, quickly became our first challenge of the day: the group plan was to meet Yo, our Walk Japan tour guide, at an information center within the masses of people hurrying about the station. With the station being so big, finding him quickly proved to be difficult. After 12 minutes of meandering about, we spotted him flagging us down from a pillar across a bustling konbini (convenience store). To our relief, he instructed us to split into pairs and allowed us to buy bentos with ¥1500 each. At 10:15am, we all boarded the trai...

Hi everyone, it’s Zara (August talks about the second half of the day below).  This morning was our last at the homestays, and while everyone in our group had their own unique experiences with their host families, we all shared the quiet realization that our time together was coming to an end. Since we didn’t have to meet until 1:30 at the train station, we each spent the morning with our host families, soaking in the final hours of this special part of the trip. I was lucky enough to sleep in a bit before starting the day. When I got up, my hosts mom had prepared a traditional breakfast of grilled eel over rice, served with warm miso soup on the side. It was super delicious and comforting. As we ate, we watched American music videos on the TV, specifically Billie Eilish and Nicki Minaj, since they were two of my host’s favorites. It was funny and sweet seeing how connected pop culture can be across the world. Next, after breakfast, we played some traditional Japanese games. We fol...

Hi everyone ! This is Mira, a rising sophomore on the trip. Today, I am very excited to tell everyone what happened on Day 5 (Kawaguchiko) for Poly GIP Japan. I’m writing with Isabel. I started off my day at my host family's home in Da Bai. There I got a wonderful breakfast of onigiri and miso soup cooked by my host family. At 7:20 am, my host students (Shun and Rikka Ito) showed me their daily commute to school. We started off with a walk to the local train station. It was a very clear and sunny morning so we had a clear view of Mount Fuji. At the train station we took a five minute train ride to the stop at Niriyama. Then we took a short walk to Niriyama High School that included a view of the rice fields near the school.  My host students and I arrived at the high school at 8:00 am and I parted ways with them to go to the conference room where everyone was meeting. At the room most of the Polytechnic students were there as I was the second last to arrive. It was really nice to s...