The group sits near the back of the bus with the girls sitting together and the boys sitting in the row in front of them. "Eek, I'm excited for this trip", Aki says to the group. "Same. Can't wait to see what will happen during this trip", Nikko replies to her. "Hey Kichi?", Midori says to him. "Yeah?", he asks her. "Can we have the UNO cards you said you were bringing?", she says to him with pleading eyes. He hands over the UNO cards to the Midori and the girls started playing UNO in the back while Nikko mysteriously fell asleep already. Kichi looks out of the window and enjoys the beautiful view as the bus drives off towards Kyoto, Japan.
As the bus slowly drives its way towards Kyoto, Japan. Aki felt sleepy and decided to take a nap while Nikko finally woken up and took a sip of his water bottle. "You finally awake?", Kichi asks him. "Yeah, sorry for instantly sleeping when we got on. I was tired from last night", he says to him. "That's alright but don't waste your time sleeping through this trip", Kichi says back to him. Nikko nods and takes Kichi's advice as he picks up a guide book from his back titled, "A Traveler's Guide to Kyoto". Kichi looks at him in confusion as he knows Nikko has been to Kyoto multiple times in the past even including their middle school year trip. Emiko silently writes down on her diary as everyone is busy with their own stuff. "What chu writing there Emiko?", Midori asks her which surprises Emiko as she was too deep in with her thoughts as she was writing down on her diary.
"Uhm- uhm", Emiko mumbles through her words as she was just given a sudden surprise while she was in her own world. Midori goes to Emiko's ear and whispers, "Is it about Kichi?". Emiko quickly blushes to bright pink but hides it from Kichi so he wouldn't notice. "Y-yes", she whispers back. Midori gives her a warm smile and pat on the head and let's her know that she can continue writing with no further disturbance as Midori takes out one of her novels and read it by herself. Emiko sighs in relief and quickly calms down from her blushing. "Dear Diary", she writes down on her diary to help pass time.
Everyone woke up from their sleep and look outside the window to see the horizon view of Kyoto, Japan. Everyone in the bus gets very excited as they are finally reaching their destination. After travelling for a few more miles the bus finally stops at their destination. Everyone quickly grabbed their stuff and went outside of the bus to grab their luggage before meeting up with their respective homeroom teachers for a quick count up and letting the students know a thing or two on what they will do during the trip. "Alright, everyone is here. Now everyone shall put their luggage and items in the dorm that the school has rented. Boys room are on the left side of the building while girls are on the other side of the building. Meetings will be made in the courtyard. Once everyone put their stuff away, we will meet up in the courtyard", Sensei Kaito say to his students. Everyone walks up their dorms to leave behind their luggage and belongings before continuing their trip.
"Last person to get there will have to pay food", Aki says to Emiko and Midori as she zooms off towards their room. "Wait a sec- This isn't fair! The boy don't have to pay!", Midori shouts at her but she is too far away to listen to her words. "Woohoo! Free food on day one", Nikko says as he high fives Kichi. Kichi and Nikko casually walks towards their room while Midori and Emiko races towards their room. The two of them arrived at the same time and were meet with a surprise from Aki who was hiding behind the door. "God! You scared me", Emiko says to her. "Hehe, sorry", she says to her. "It seems you guys got a tie. That means you both have to pay", she says to them. Both of them look at her with dead eyes but accepted their joint defeat. After everyone put their luggage and belongings away with only a few items on them, they all went to the courtyard to meet up with their homeroom teacher.
"Alright. Just like usual, you guys are free to go anywhere you want but only within the boundaries that I have set on the map that I've sent in the class's messaging group. Take note of that to know where you can and can't go. If you guys need help, you can just call me up and I'll be there as soon as possible", he says to his students. "Do you understand?", he asks them. "Yes sir!", everyone says at him. "Good. Now have fun everyone", he says to his student with a smile on his face. The group gets back together and can now finally embark on their journey through Kyoto, Japan. Emiko checks the map and finds out that every location that she planned to go to are accessible for them. "Alright, where do you guys wanna go first?", she asks the group. "Let's go to Kagizen. I haven't been there in awhile plus we are all a bit hungry right now", Aki says to her. Emiko likes the idea and everyone agrees as their belly starts rumbling from hunger. They all walk together in a group with Emiko leading them towards Kagizen.
After walking for awhile they finally reached Kagizen. They entered the teahouse and it amazes Nikko and Midori as this is the first time that the both of them entered the teahouse. "You guys like what you see?", Aki asks them. They both nod. "I'll go find a table for us. You guys browse through the food for now", Kichi says to them before leaving to find a spot for them. Midori and Nikko are amazed at what the teahouse has to offer while Emiko and Aki order the usual thing they like to eat there which happens to be the same thing. They both chose to eat "Kuzukiri" which is the most popular thing to order at Kagizen. Midori and Nikko were not sure on what to order so they ordered the exact same thing as Emiko and Aki. But the worker told them to wait at the table for them to start ordering. "Sorry, this is the first time these two have been here", Emiko says to the worker. "It's alright", he says to her. Everyone walks towards where Kichi is sitting and they all ordered their food. "What do you want Kichi?", Nikko asks him. "I'll take my usual of Namagashi Sweet. This one will do", he says to the worker while pointing at the picture of which variant of Namagashi sweet he wants. After waiting for awhile, the food arrives and they indulge themselves with the delicious desserts. "Woah, slow down Nikko. We ain't in a rush here", Aki says to him. "Oh, Sorry!", he says back to her and slowly eats his food to enjoy the experience better. After they all finished eating Emiko and Midori split the bill up and paid up for the food. "Woohoo~ Free food", Aki says to them with a playful look on her face. Emiko and Midori stares blankly at her before they paid up for the food and the group leaves the teahouse with a smile on their faces and move onwards to their next destination.
They decided to get to their next destination via bus so they wait patiently at the bus stop to pick them up. They surprisingly didn't have to wait long as the bus have just arrived in a short amount of time and they all board the bus and head to their next location "Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine". After a hour long journey towards the shrine via bus, they finally arrived at their destination. "Ahh, I remember going here when I was a little child", Midori says to the group. "Same! I haven't been here in ages", Aki says to her while yawning after she was just awoken from her nap. "Let's do our prayers first before we check out the Senbon Torii", Kichi says to them. They all head towards the purification fountain located near the entrance of the shrine to purify themselves first. Afterwards, they head to the offering hall to offer a coin into the offering box and proceed to do their prayers. After they completed their prayers, they head to the back to start their walk through Senbon Torii. "Last person to arrive at the first Torii has to pay for the next meal", Aki says before rushing off. Everyone was mildly annoyed by this but accepted the offer and walks fast towards the Torii in a polite way. "This is making me second guessing that she brought her own money with her", Nikko says to them. "Same", Midori replies to him as they walk towards the Torii with Aki already waiting for them at the entrance of it.
After they all arrived at the Torii, they begin their journey up the walkway whilst taking pictures along the way to commemorate their time there. "I forgot how incredible this walkway is", Emiko says to them as she is amazed at the sheer amount of Torii's that were placed on the walkway towards the top. "I remembered mid-way there's a sushi shop for us to stop at. Shall we stop there to rest and go back down?", Kichi says to them. They all nod and agreed to stop at the sushi shop to enjoy some delicious sushi before going back down. They continued with their walk upwards the mountain and finally stop at a small sushi shop for them to rest at. "We've made it!", Aki says to them. Everyone is happy that they finally reached their destination and they walk towards the small sushi shop to find a place to sit at while Emiko goes order the sushi for them. "What do you guys want?", she asks them. They all give her their order and she goes to order the sushi for them. After picking out all the sushi, she grabs the sushi tray and pays up for the sushi as she lost the walk towards the Torii earlier. She walks towards to the place her friends are sitting at and place down the sushi tray as they all indulge themselves with the newly bought and freshly made sushi.
After they all finished eating their sushi, Aki puts away the tray as they all look towards to see the sun going down gracefully as it's nearing night time. "I suppose we should head back for today", Midori says to the group. The group of friends leave the sushi shop and walked back down through the Torii and reached the bottom very quickly as they need to catch up with a bus to get back to their dorms. They rushed towards the bust stop just barely making it before the bus tried to go away and they walk into the bus and set course to their dorms. After riding for awhile and witnessing the orange sky turn to a beautiful black sky filled with stars beyond the eyes can see, they reached their destination. Kichi pays up for their bus fee and they all left the bus and goes towards the dorm to meet up at the courtyard as they just received a message from their teacher saying, "Before we do our nightly activities. I would like everyone to meet up at the courtyard for a head count to make sure no one went missing". Everyone heads towards the courtyard as their homeroom teacher counts up on every student making sure no one went missing during the first day of the trip. Thankfully everyone was accounted for which brought relief to Sensei Kaito. "Now everyone go back to your sleeping quarters and change out of your clothes as we are going to the bathhouse tonight", he says to his students.
Everyone heads towards their sleeping quarters and took a change of clothes to more airy and casual clothing than the school uniforms that they were just wearing and met up again at the courtyard. "It seems everyone is here now. The bathhouse isn't actually outside the dorm but it's located within the establishment. You can find it in the back where it's split into two. One for the girls and one for the boys. Don't go peeking into the girls side now boys or consequence will be given to you", Sensei Kaito says to his students whilst giving a harsh warning to the boys. "Do you guys understand me?", he says to them and everyone says yes. Afterwards, everyone heads to the bathhouse to relax for the night. "Aight, who's gonna wash my back", Midori asks Emiko and Aki. "Sure, I'll help wash it for you", Emiko says to her. "I guess I'll be relaxing next to you guys then", Aki says to them before they went into the bathhouse for a change of clothes. Nikko asks, "Hey Kichi. Mind washing a bit of my back?". "Sure", he replies to him. The two change out of their clothes and head into the bathhouse to relax their bodies from all the built up tiredness.
People are talking with each other whilst the group rest in their respective hot baths. "Why are people so chatty. Shouldn't they just rest", Nikko says to Kichi. "I agree. Oh yeah, I finished washing your back", he says to him. "Thanks a lot bud. Should I wash your back too?", Nikko says to him as a way of thanking him. "Nah, don't need it", he replies back. "Ah alright then. I'll be relaxing a bit now", Nikko says before putting a warm towel on his head as he relaxes his body. "I wonder how the girls are doing. The water is quite hotter than usual bathhouses", Kichi thoughts to himself. "Hey come here Aki!", Midori says to her as she chases down Aki in the bath to wash her back. "But I don't wanna", she says to her as she cowards behind the decorative rock. But eventually Midori caught up to her and gave her a well deserved back wash. Aki screams as she failed to ran way. "Now, now don't be scared. It's only a backwash", Midori says to her. Emiko giggles in the back watching the drama unfold as she relaxes on the edge. "I wonder what Kichi is doing. Probably just relaxing like his usual self I suppose", she thoughts to herself. "Hey Emiko~", Midori says in a intimidating voice. "Oh no", Emiko says as she is now the one running away from Midori and Aki is the one relaxing on the side after getting her back washed thoroughly by Midori. After it was all said and done, everyone gets out of the bath and changed into their respective yukata. The group relaxes together as they watch the starry nights and take a group selfie together. "Say cheese!", Midori says before snapping a photo of them. Afterwards, they all were dead beat tired and decided to change back to their normal clothes and head to bed to await the upcoming journey for tomorrow.
Tomorrow arrives and students were able to go anywhere they want early in the morning. They just needed to notify their homeroom teacher as to not stress him out if they are not there. The group goes to a nearby breakfast area to enjoy a nice taste of morning coffee and delicious food. "I'll pay up this time", Aki says to them. "Wait a sec- YOU HAD MONEY?!", everyone says to her while being a bit annoyed that she did actually had money on her the whole time. But eventually, everyone calmed down and thanked her for paying up the food that they ate for breakfast and they move onwards to their next destination via bus. Their destination is Kiyomizu-dera Temple. As they aboard the bus they found themselves that their not the only people from their school going there as the bus is slowly being filled up with other students from their own class 3-A alongside students from 3-B and 3-C. Once everyone entered the bus, the bus move onwards to their destination. The group decided to sit in the far back and have small talks with each other to make sure no one falls asleep. "I did not expect this bus would be filled with just students from our school", Aki whispers to Emiko. "Yeah I thought the same. Guess it's a school exclusive bus ride", she whispers back to her.
The bus finally arrives at Kiyomizu-dera Temple and everyone quickly pays up their bus fee and leaves the bus. Kichi takes a deep breath as to make sure he doesn't fall asleep quickly as he is still quite sleepy even after drinking coffee. "Woohoo~ We've arrived at Kiyomizu-dera Temple", Kichi says to the group. Whilst everyone else is busy with the beautiful scenery at the bottom of the temple, Midori finds a guide who helps guide them through the temple as all 5 of them haven't been there in so long. The guide takes the 5 of them alongside the other students up the temple and slowly explain the history of the temple to them with Nikko being interested with the temple history as he takes down notes on his phone. After walking for awhile, they reached the very top of the temple where the guide tells them to enjoy the view. Everyone rushed to the side and witness the still rising sun from over the horizon basking them in the light.
Everyone is enjoying a wonderful time with sight seeing and seeing all over the huge forest that loams below them with their beautiful coloured leaves being brushed by the breezy wind. "I miss this view so much", Emiko says with a tear shedding from her eye. "Be careful now Emiko. You're very close to the edge there", Kichi says to her. "I'll be alright", she says to him with a smile on her face. "Hey Aki! Can I borrow your camera for a sec. I wanna take a picture of the beautiful scenery", Emiko says to Aki. "Sure thing", Aki replies to her whilst giving her the camera that she brought along with them during the trip. Emiko puts it around her neck to make sure it doesn't slip from hand as she takes pictures of the beautiful scenery around her. While she is taking her pictures, her schoolmates in the back were messing around and having fun until suddenly they got into too much with them being too close to Emiko and Kichi who were standing on the side of the fence. One student was accidentally pushed by their friend and in doing so they accidentally bumped into Emiko who was tip-toeing to get a better view. Emiko was bumped off her balance as she falls over the fence. Everyone has a blank face as dread fills Kichi face as he sees his childhood friend falls over the edge. "EMIKO!", he screams as he reaches his hand out to the now falling Emiko.