5:30 PM - Okayama, Japan

When: March 9th @ 5:30 PM (March 10th @ 8:30 AM)

Where: Okayama, Japan

Who: Mari Sawa

Mari told us that in Okayama it is 8:30 AM on March 10, 2023. She told us that her favorite part of living in Japan is the cleanliness. Everywhere you go, you take off your shoes inside buildings. Whenever she would come to the US, she would notice how much cleaner it is Japan. In Japan, there are no yearly exams, but instead there is an entrance exam for both high school and college. Many students participate in after school activities. Another aspect of Japan that Mari greatly appreciates is the safety of Japan. She never feels like she is in danger when she is outside.


The culture in Japan is also different from the United States. Cosplaying is a common thing to do and never really ridiculed as it might be here. Another common part of Japanese culture is reading manga and watching anime. Here in the United States, if you watch anime, then it is more of a style that you like, while in Japan, it is just something that everyone does. The currency that they use is the Japanese yen. Their biggest holiday is the New Year. There is a big break during the New Year, which allows everyone to spend time with their family and friends in celebration. Public schools all have uniforms from elementary school through high school. Individualism is a big part of the American school system with things like school awards, whereas in Japan that doesn't happen. Group projects and team awards are more popular. Major parts of American culture originate from Japan. Things like Pokemon and Nintendo Games are from Japan and have become popular in more places than just Japan. The three most popular sports in Japan are baseball, soccer, and volleyball. McDonalds is very popular in Japan, but it is far cleaner and has much better service than the McDonalds in the United States.

The national bird of Japan is the crane. It represents longevity and prosperity. Shintoism is a common religion. It believes that there is a god for everything and there are over 80,000 differnets gods. Japan is far more modern and forward than what most people believe, and Mari highly suggests visiting if you get the chance.

4:15 PM - MYSTERY CALL - Misawa, Japan

When: March 9th @ 4:15 PM (March 10th @ 7:15 AM)

Where: Misawa, Japan

Who: Amy Phillips

We had a very pleasant surprise for us. One of Mrs. Gore’s friends have joined us at the start of this call. As this is a mystery call, we have to pinpoint her location using questions. The interviewer starts off the interrogation by asking if she is in the Northern hemisphere. She gives us a yes, and we’ve confirmed she’s in the Northern Hemisphere. With a lucky guess, we find out that she is in Asia, and in a string of fortunate events we find out she’s located in Japan.

Finally, we have pinpointed it to Japan, but that only helps us slightly. We still need to determine the exact city that she’s in. We quickly throw out guesses on the most popular places. However, none of those are where she is located. Seeing us struggle we are given a few hints. She informs us that she is in the snowiest inhabited place in the world. Along with that, we were told that she is in a very small and rural area. After that it was only a matter of process of elimination. After a while of throwing out questions and getting wrong answers, we finally stumbled across the right location. With an eruption of cheers we found out she was in Misawa, Japan.

Misawa is a military Air Force base located near the coast of Japan. Her job there is to teach people that are in the military. Mostly the children of the people who have come to serve. They are a completely American school located in Northern Japan. Since there is just so much snow they don’t really let it bother them. They play in the snow no matter what. Sometimes the snow piles up as high as an 18 wheeler!

3:00AM Okayama, Japan

When: March 13th, 2020 @ 3:00am CST
Where: Okayama, Japan
Who: Mari Ishii

It is now 3:00am, and we just started a tour with Japan!

We talked to Mari about the culture in Japan and how it's different from American culture. For a little bit, we talked about the different cafes and what they're like. The cakes/sweets there don't have a lot of bright coloring, and they're not really big on sugar. She spoke a little about earthquakes and her experience with one in her life and tsunamis. She started talking about how they only use cash, not Apple Pay there, but if they use Apple Pay, it's very rare in their country. Their traditional food is fish based, because they live on an island, but they have all kinds of food. She talked about the beaches in Japan and how they are not hot spots for tourists. Next, we talked about the different types of transportation, how fast the bullet trains can go, and how the architecture there is very small and compacted. They are in the spring season right now, and they are 14 hours ahead of us. Then she talked about the music they have, and how they have J-Pop, which is Japanese-Pop (like K-Pop). We spoke about the crime rates and different laws our countries have. Mari asked us a question about the World Tour and how long we were doing it. Then, sadly we had to say goodbye.

6:40PM Nara, Japan

When: March 12th, 2020 @ 6:40pm CST
Where: Nara, Japan
Who: Students

This is our next mystery Skype! Our interviewees started out the call trying to figure out our location by asking us if our country's flag has more than two colors, followed by if our country's name started with a vowel, and finally if it was day or night where we were. We just now figured out that they are in Japan by asking them questions such as did their country border a body of water, if their flag has more than two colors, and if they were in Asia. A couple of fun facts about Japan is that they believe that cutting your nails at night will bring good luck, but it may also be a sign that you won't accompany your parents when they die, and that a Maneki-neko cat, known here as the beckoning cat, may bring the owner good luck.