Journals Day 14 (The last day)

I woke up the next morning and got ready to take a shower. After my shower I went downstairs, grabbed my meal ticket and headed off to the buffet. After eating and checking in one last time with my loved ones, I met with all my friends as we waited to board the bus for this, our last day in Japan.

We started off our amazing final day at the Temple of the 1000 Buddahs. The temple is known as this because there is literaly 1000 Buddahs inside the temple. We entered into the temple and took off our shoes and began to walk. Before we went in, we were stopped by the main guard who told us that they do not allow photography of any sort inside the temple. We checked our cameras at the door and went inside. As I walked the long hall, I saw the buddahs. These buddahs were not little 6 inch statues, these were human sized creations of rock and stone. In the very middle, I guess it would be the 1000th buddah, there was a large, almost 15 feet tall buddah made out of gold. This place must be worth millions!, I told myself as I walked back to the entrance to head to our last stop of our trip before the airport.

The bus pulled to a stop at this large mall. We were given 2 hours to run around and look for last minute souvenirs for our friends and family before we hit the skies. My friends and I decided to look for a 99 Yen store to see if there was anything there we couldn't live without. We ran around the mall for an hour trying to find some sort of map and when we did, we got side tracked. Instead of looking for a 99 Yen store, we looked for this large sky ramp that is suspended over the entire mall at about 10 stories. The sky ramp was awesome, from there I got a great pic of what the mall looked like and decided to head back to the bus. We arrived at the bus with time to spare so we looked for a 99 Yen store. Instead, we found a few friends eating ice cream and talked with them until we boarded the bus to the airport.

We boarded the bus and headed off to the airport; a long but familiar 2 hour drive was ahead. On the bus, we talked about how we missed home and we would also miss Japan. We began to say our goodbyes to our guide as the airport came in sight. The bus crossed the bridge and dropped us and our baggage off at the airport and we had a few minutes to say our goodbyes. We all had our pictures taken with our wonderful guide, Kayo, and gathered up our luggage. As we began to check in, our guide began to cry and wished us all the best in our future travels. We passed through customs and proceeded down to the gate. By the time everyone had arrived at the gate, we were only 20 minutes from takeoff. We lined up and boarded the plane. As I took my final step off the jet way and onto the plane, I whispered good bye to the county that had hosted me for 2 weeks. The country that I now knew more about then I every thought I could. I quickly found my seat and began to write today's log of events in my Journal.

This trip has meant so much to me that words alone can't describe it. I thank all of you that sponsored me in my trip to Japan and you that followed me in this Journal. Thank you again for everything. Without you, I would have been stuck stateside this summer. Thank you again.

Jeffrey Jordahl
World Travelor