Sebastopol World Friends

Just to start my blog off I would like to say this: the people of Takeo City and Yamauchi are the most kind, hospitable, loving people I have ever met in my life. They take you in as if you were their real family; and after a week, I have discovered another part of my family. They are the Kusaba family, and my host sister is my foreign best friend. These past days I have bonded with not only her but also other American and Japanese students.

Today we went to Ground Zero at Nagasaki. The museum was one of the most moving things I have ever experienced. The museum reiterated exactly why Yamauchi World Friends is alive. Whether bonding over a Miyazaki movie or the Space Museum, I truly believe we are making peace, one friend at a time.

Katya

So far, the trip has been awesome for me and I'm confident all the other travellers would agree. They've kept us busy with a variety of fun activities - today it was shopping and bowling.
Everyone is so kind and tolerant of us.
The food has been good (for the most part) and I don't think I've been hungry this whole trip.

It has been really great experiencing this unique culture. Each day I learn so much. In addition, I've made new Japanese friends and bonded with the Sebastopol students too.

I'm having so much fun and although I miss my family and friends at home, I'll be sad to leave this amazing country and the wonderful people here.

Hi it's Nick, and yes, I am, in fact, in Japan. It's pretty awesome here and we're all having a great time, except due to an unfortunate, yet comic, tempura accident, Joe is no longer with us (that was just a joke, don't worry!). It's funny that we speak to them in Japanese and they reply in English. yesterday we climbed a mountain and drew Kanji letters. Today we attended a Japanese school induction ceremony, which was a great cultural experience. Thanks for making this trip possible.

Yesterday was host family day and I went shopping with my student (Haruka) I had alot of fun trying different foods and going into shops with very cute things. Today we all went and hiked up Mt. Kurokami. The climb was hard but it was very beautiful at the top. Yamautchi is a very green and rural place and at the top of the mountain you can see many green fields. I am having alot of fun in Japan and I will remember this experience for the rest of my life

We had our welcome party earlier. Wow.

Not only did the Japanese exchange students sing for us, but the hosting parents sang for us also. There was an incredible assortment of Japanese food, extremely talented live music, and our hosts gave us many gifts and honored us in many ways. Japanese students danced the "Algorithm Dance" for us, and then invited the American students to join in.

The shoe thing was something of note to me.. It seems large event halls have huge quantities of communal indoor slippers. Well, they all come in one size...WAY too small (at least from my perspective). I really wish I had known that you weren't supposed to wear your slippers on stage, otherwise I would have probably been less dazed and confused during my speech. :)

Gotta keep this short because I need sleep, but wanted to post so everyone knew that we're safe and sound. We'll post more as soon as we can!

Update:
Want to see how awake we were on the bus to Yamauchi-Takeo?

Several more photos are attached, see below.

I think a marching band could have gone by and they wouldn't have noticed. It was a pretty exhausting trip. But we made it.

All the students did a great job helping move luggage at the airports, and also when we hit unexpectedly long lines at immigration control in Tokyo, the students did a great job of following instructions and really helped us make sure we made our flight to Fukuoka. Kudos to them.

- Chris

This guy really gets it, offering his home to complete strangers once a week in the hopes of fostering new friendships. Take a look at this "All Things Considered" report from NPR:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99172304

Well, there goes my plan of being on this trip and avoiding the blog, unfortunately having an hour to kill and Chris and Kim being...well...Chris and Kim, I am forced to express my thoughts and feelings to the world. It is still difficult to get used to my surroundings, I have recently changed host families and that is still rather awkward. Every time I leave my room or look around or don't eat they ask, you need something? you hungry?

We have just finished a full day and a half of visiting Moscow! The weather could not have been nicer for us. It was supposed to have been rainy the whole weekend, but some light sprinkles are all we have seen.

The past few days have been amazing. I still am slowly realizing that I truly am not in my homeland anymore. Many things that I take for granted are so different here. This is truly a fantastic benefit of living with natives. Even when doing touristy things, our hosts do things that are natural to them.