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. :)
Also, I was very touched by my host family sharing their family videos with me. Though the youngest daughter in my host family had to leave the room for a bit from embarrassment. I was treated to a show of Christmas morning when the daughters were 2 and 5, for Shiori's kindergarten graduation, and then for Shiori's 6th birthday. Notomi was extremely embarrassed by this whole affair. I explained to her that these are all very special memories, and suggested she cherish them.
Anyway.. You could probably care less about my ramblings.. I promise will get some of the students to post in the next day or two. They'll be more interesting, I'm sure.
Attached are two pictures, one of the Japanese students singing to us, the other is of some of the wonderfully talented musicians that entertained us. I'll attach more to this later, so please check back!
- Chris
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