People to People 2009

Question

I got a letter from people to people inviting me to go to Japan next summer. I was wondering if anyone who has been to japan or is going knows how much it costs and what you do there.

Also, if you go to the meeting does that mean you have to go on the trip?

Answer 1

Haha thats awesome. I just came back from the trip about 2 weeks ago, and it was awesome! The only bad part is that its like 6,000 dollars. You basically do what the itinerary says, and be prepared, you might not have a homestay which sucks, and then you could end up going to this camp thing for 3 days. Bring xtra powerful bugspray! Also bring a rain poncho. And lots of snacks when you just wanna eat something random. You go to palaces, you probably wont go to Tokyo Disneyland unfortunately, you shop nearly everyday (if you love to shop like me, bring between 500 and  1,000 dollars for shopping. buy things you cant find in america, and bring a visabuxx card. that saved my life, cause i ran out of yen, and my mom just refilled the card. look it up on the website, its a debit card thats really handy, and a lot of places accept it. except some little stores, so always bring lots of yen anyways, since ATMs aren't in a lot of places that your delegation would go to. I only saw one at like CVS, and we never went there.), hopefully you have a kickass delegation "tour guide person" like Atsushi, who was mine, and dearly missed, you go to Hiroshima, Hiroshima Museum, Peace Park, climb Mt. Fuji (hiking is hard, be physically fit), you do tons of walking (we didn't even need our fancy clothes, bring sneakers (also sandals! i regret not bringing them), you don't want your good shoes getting all crappy like mine did. at the end of the trip, you probably wont wanna wear those shoes anymore.), go to temples, Shimajiya (sp?) Island (deer are like everywhere lol but its cool), you dont get to go to the beach (atleast we didnt), bring a bathing suit for the shared baths (you share with other people of your gender) unless you dont mind bathing naked with like 3-4 other people (that could be embarrasing if you have some really fun guys in your group that bust into the girls shower room sometimes like we did lmao), um.. what else. you stay at reaaaally nice hotels, some of them are even 5 stars. and also inns, as well as the camp like place we stayed instead of our homestay with the crappy food (except Qoo juice<3) and crazy japanese bugs. you go to upscale japanese restaurants (i miss ittt :/), and basically tour a huge part of Japan in 2 weeks. You do a shizzload of stuff everyday. And bring a phone card, sometimes you just wanna call your parents/best friends. They arent too hard to use. get a verizon one. the icecream in japan is awesome too. ooh and you could go to the anime museum with this famous dude who made it. walk the streets, you do a lot of bus riding ( the most amount of hours was like 8 hours by bus to somewhere), you go on a bullet train to hiroshima which is cool and goes like 200mph, try every food, dont get to eat much sushi, japanese people are super nice and like to be in pics lol, learn some japanese phrases (you dont need to know much but it helps to know some), and ALOT more! i hope this was help ful :)

You can quit the trip anytime, if you want.

but its a great opportunity, looks great in colleges, and you get an extra high school credit.

EDIT: their foods aren't TOO different from American. Vegetarians eat a lot of tofu, thats what I remember.