Great Weekend

This past weekend I met up with old friends in Tokyo. They took me to their beach house in Chiba and it was amazing. We had a nice barbeque and we set off fireworks. The family had two kids..They had one son who was my age who I became good friends with. The next day we went to the beach and caught fish, shrimp, and an octopus! After a delicious sashimi lunch we went back to Tokyo where we had dinner at a yakitori restaurant. I ate two new foods, chicken gizzard and chicken liver. Not my favorites, but I'm glad I tried them. The next day I went around Tokyo with the boy from the family. We took a boat up a river all the way through Tokyo to Asakusa. I bought a wooden sword and a yukata there. Then we had tonkatsu for lunch and did some more shopping. After that I took the strawberry bus home to Togane. I had a great time.

Tokyo with Friends

Yesterday I went to tokyo with a friend I met playing soccer named Kaito. He is a University student in Tokyo. He and his girlfriend Rina took me in by train. They did not speak much english but between their English and my Japanese we got by. They took me all over Tokyo. We went to Ginza, Shibuya, and Asakusa. I bought some cool new Japanese shoes, ate okonomiyaki for lunch, and then had an incredible time in Asakusa. Kaito and Rina were so nice to me and wanted me to try every food we could find and show me as much of Tokyo as possible. They were the best tour guides! After I came home from Tokyo I gave gifts from America to my host family. They were so happy, and all three of my brothers jumped on me to give me a hug and it turned into one big dog-pile with me at the bottom. Rie wanted to join in so she climbed to the top of the pile and started jumping up and down. My ribs are still a bit sore... After all of that excitement, we went out for dinner at a steak house for "American tasty meal". American taste isn't exactly how I would describe it but it was delicious none the less. What a day!

Japanese Kindergarden

Today was very special. I was allowed to sit in for a day in a class room at Rie's kindergarden. All of the kids were incredibly friendly and incredibly cute! They all wore blue and white uniforms with little yellow caps. I introduced myself to them in japanese and they all said "good morning" to me even when it was 2:00 pm.. that was pretty funny. All the kids were very disciplined even at such a young age and they all sing songs together. Todays schedule consisted of planting "edamame" in the school's garden, recess, lunch, art class, story time, and singing time. Pretty much identical to my junior year schedule at high school....

Kabuki Theater

On saturday I got to see all my friends from America who I met at the orientation in Berkeley, CA. YFU organized an event to see kabuki theater with everybody. I made some great new friends from all over the world. I appreciate it for the fact that it was a cultural experience but the kabuki itself was a bit boring.. I am not a fan of theater to begin with and the fact that I couldn't understand a word didn't help much. The costumes were incredible and I enjoyed the music though. After the show we went to Shibuya for dinner. I really had a blast just speaking english. I got back to my house in Togane rather late but the night wasn't over yet. First I went beetle catching with Toshi, and then I watched the world cup game.. Long day.. great day..

More Pictures!

Great Day

Today I had an awesome day at school. I made a lot of new friends. After school I walked to the Togane Post Office and bought about 800 yen worth of stamps.. enough for about seven letters home. Then I went to a big department shopping center and bought my host family some sweet bean desserts for a present. After that I went home and took a nap with Koujiro, Toshi, and Rie. We were all very tired from watching Japan play in the world cup the night before. Then, at around seven Koujiro, Rie, Okaasan, and I went to a big indoor gymnasium and I got to play soccer with some other kids from Togane. It was a lot of fun. After soccer we went for Ice Cream then we went home for dinner. I ate a new food today at dinner! FISH HEADS!! We ate these little fried fish for dinner and Okaasan encouraged me to try the heads! I just went for it, and they were "oishi". Rie didn't like the heads so I ate hers for her! What a day.. Only 26 more to go.

Narita Shrine

Yesterday I slept in and Rie and I skipped school. At around noon Okaasan took us both to the Narita Shrine. I could not believe how big it was. All of the buildings were ancient and very intricately detailed it was beautiful. I learned a lot about buddhist religion and met with a high priest who showed me how to properly light incense and pray at a buddhist shrine. I felt very honored to be let in on such ancient and important traditions. After visiting the shrine Rie was very hot so we went to a restaurant and we all got these giant blue Japanese snow cone things, they were very refreshing. Then, we drove to nearby Narita airport where my host father works. After maybe five security checks my host father took us all into the main control tower of Narita Airport!!! It was sooo cool. I got to see all the fancy switch boards and I got a 360 degree view of the runways while planes landed and took off. SO COOL.