“Is this Tom Cruise?” I asked the tour guide.

Actually, this is a statue of the samurai Kusunoki Masashige on the front lawn of the Imperial Palace grounds in Tokyo. He was a 14th century samurai who fought for the Emperor against the mighty shogun. A brilliant tactician, Masashige allowed the Emperor to briefly return to power. However, when the Emperor’s stubbornly refused to listen to Masashige’s advice and instead ordered him to go on a suicide mission, the samurai complied and was killed in battle. Today, he is regarded as a symbol of unwavering samurai loyalty or blind servitude, depending on who you ask.

The next stop on our tour of Tokyo was the Imperial Palace. Unlike Buckingham Palace or the White House, tourists cannot to see the palace from the street. That’s because it’s hidden away in the mystic forest. I’ll explain the reason for this after the jump.

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Once our bus entered Tokyo, all of my classmates started snapping pictures of the tall buildings and cool billboards. The bus exited the freeway and deposited us at a Buddhist temple in the Tsukiji area. We were then joined by a local English-speaking tour guide named Naoko. Together, we walked to Sushizanmai, a popular restaurant chain, for lunch.

After spending several hours cramped in a little seat, it was nice to stand up and stretch. Space is limited in Tokyo. However, the Buddhist temple had a huge open space for parking. I assume many tour groups begin at the temple for this practical reason.

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This morning, we left Hakone and took a two-hour trip by bus to Tokyo. During the transfer, we stopped briefly at Expasa, a shopping center that serves as a convenient pit stop between the two locations.

As I walked around Expasa, I saw a lot of “non-Japanese” tourists hanging out. I overhead them talk about hangovers and partying. “This sounds awfully familiar,” I thought to myself. “I wonder who they are.”

It turns out there were 95 MBA students from UCLA Anderson also en route to Tokyo. It was like that episode of The Simpsons where Bart and his friends go to Shelbyville and run into kids who act similar to them but look a little bit different. You may recall that during this time last year, I was deciding between attending UCLA Anderson or Haas. It’s interesting that I would have probably ended up in the exact same shopping center at the exact same time in either scenario (butterfly effect notwithstanding).

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Our crew arrived at Yumoto Fujiya Hotel in Hakone about a half-hour after leaving the sulfurous crater. With very few options for relaxation before dinner, everyone decided to go straight to the onsen (hot spring) and soak in pure bliss. After a tough day of traveling, relaxing in steaming hot water was a godsend.

The only semi-awkward part of the whole experience was getting completely naked in front of classmates and walking around big open spaces with our junk hanging out for all to see. (For obvious reasons, I did not take any photos of the onsen experience).

On the way back to my room from the hot spring, I noticed that the banquet room assignments had been posted. J-Trek planners had reserved the Ume room under the name “UC Berkley-sama.” I may only possess an elementary understanding of Japanese, but I’m pretty sure the hotel called our collective group “Mr. UC Berkeley.” Readers can feel free to correct me in the comments section below.

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This is a picture of me standing in front of the famous volcano, Mount Fuji! After our bullet train ride ended, we jumped into a private motor coach and traveled to Owakudani, an active volcanic zone with sulfurous fumes, hot springs, and gorgeous views of the volcano. Actually, we were very lucky to have such a clear view of Mount Fuji. 9 times out of 10,  clouds and fog obscure the view.

I recorded a video, which can be watched here. As always, there are additional photos after the jump.

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