First Day

I would tell you all about my first day in Japan but it wasn't as exciting as my first day in Akita. We arrived at the hotel and talked with some YFU officials and then headed to our rooms. That night we got to go out and explore Tokyo! It was really fun and awesome.... I was finally in Japan! The next following days were about the same and then the departure date came! I learned that I couldn't meet my real host family until Monday because my father was changing work places so I would have to stay at my area representative's house. Arriving in Akita was one of the most exciting days in my life! As the plane lowered and I saw all of the green rice fields growing bigger and bigger I felt like I was finally in Japan! It was a completely different feeling than being in a hotel all day with 100 English speaking students! By this time I was too excited to even tell if jet lag was having an effect on me! After the hour long flight I was greeted by a girl who looked about my age holding a welcome sign and a really kind looking man who seemed really excited to meet me. After talking with the girl it turns out that she was an 18 year old exchange student from Korea named Sang Yi and she was staying with my area rep's family for a year! She was so nice and amazingly good at Japanese. She had apparently only been in Japan for 3 months but she seemed fluent to me :P! After waiting at the airport while everyone met their families we headed out to the car. He told me it would be about an hour but anything was okay for me after my 11 hour flight from California to Tokyo! During the car ride my host father and Sang Yi were asking me questions in Japanese and that's when it hit me that I was actually in Japan! I held one of my first real conversations in Japanese. I was so excited that I didn't even realize how long the car ride was! I was constantly staring out the window at all of the amazing rice fields and mountains on the horizon. When we arrived they told me that my host Mom worked at a school and that there was a basket ball game that we were going to watch. As we started heading for the stairs Sang Yi started waving to a girl at the top of the steps. When we got to the top I was greeted with a huge hug! I was surprised because in Japan, hugs aren't a very common thing. It turns out the girl was my host sister who had spent a year in America! (so her English was almost perfect!) I guess that could be a good or bad thing :P. She could help translate but it would definitely be a bit longer until my speech was in all Japanese. It might seem like I'm just saying this because I was in Japan but the basketball game was seriously the most exciting basketball game I have ever seen in my life! The score and current winning team was constantly changing back and forth until the buzzer, and our team won! Watching the game was a really good relaxer because I got to sit back and watch something knowing that I was finally in Akita! During the game I met my host mom, a really really sweet woman. After that we headed home, but not before picking up my sister's ADORABLE dog named Muku who had just got done getting his hair cut. On the way home I talked a lot with my sister and it turned out that she was engaged and getting married in Hawaii and invited me to come. Of course I want to but the cost might be an issue! :P They also told me that we were going out to dinner! YAY! It was a huge barbeque style restaurant! My favorite! At the restaurant I tried all kinds of new food like cow tongue and raw beef... I can't believe I did that! It was actually really good! Overall my first host family was such a warm and welcoming group of people! Hopefully we can meet up again before I go!