By Jordan Delp
Jordan Delp is a men’s basketball player at Augustana. He is blogging about the team’s trip to China. For more posts about the Vikings’ journey, click here.
After our 4:45 a.m. wakeup call today, we loaded up the bus and headed to the airport, set to leave China. Our flight, from Beijing to Tokyo, Japan was the seventh of our trip and lasted about three hours. After landing in Tokyo and getting through customs, we got on another bus and headed into the city, an hour and a half drive from the airport. Along the way, we were able to see some pretty amazing sights, like Tokyo’s Disney Resort and Tokyo Bay. Disneyland, we were told, is owned by an independent Japanese entrepreneur who pays around $600,000 in royalties to the parent company. This American icon has been hugely successful in the Japanese culture, with an average of 35,000 people going to the park daily. One of the other main sights we saw was Tokyo Bay, which leads right into the Pacific Ocean. It was cool seeing this bay in the middle of the city that dumps right into the world’s largest ocean.
Our first stop on our day in Tokyo was at the Tokyo Tower, a structure in the mold of the Eiffel Tower that is actually about 13 meters taller. The observation deck at the tower offered an unbelievable view of the city, with different sights in all directions. On a clear day you can see the Tokyo Disney Resort to the East, the Tokyo International Airport to the South, the Imperial Palace to the North, and even Mount Fuji to the West. You could basically see all of Tokyo, which becomes even more impressive when you consider that it is the most populated metropolitan area in the world, with around 30 million people living there.
Our last dinner on our trip was at an authentic Japanese restaurant, and I think it’s pretty much unanimous that this was the best meal of our trip. At each of our tables we had our own grill, and got to cook our own meat. Also, because it was buffet style we got as much as we wanted. There were all sorts of meats, including pork, beef, and chicken, and it was just a phenomenal way to essentially end our trip. After dinner some we were already starting to reminisce about our experience and how much fun we had; something I know we will continue to do forever. It’s difficult to put into words the impact this trip has had on all of us, but if you ask tomorrow when we get back, we’ll be happy to give it a shot.