Back in Midland

All three of us arrived safely at the Flint airport with all of our luggage.  One of my bags and one of Nick's took a long time to get to the baggage claim carousel in Chicago, so we got a little worried. It all turned out fine though and nobody lost anything.  I was really worried that stuff in my luggage would break, but everything arrived in one piece.  I really loved my time in Japan and hope to go back someday.  For now, I hope to share my experiences and memories from Japan with people in America.  I plan to make some Japanese meals for my family and some friends later this week.

the wall next to my bedroom door

Going Back Home

the flight path from Tokyo to Chicago

So the time has come for me to return to America.  It was a wonderful three weeks and I am sad that I had to leave.  This morning everyone went to the Nagoya airport.  I am glad that I got to say a final goodbye to all of my host families.  We took a lot of pictures.  The Shirakawa family gave me a gift today which had an amulet which is supposed to guarantee safe travels.  At the gate for our flight out of Nagoya, I saw a troop of Japanese Girl Scouts.  I introduced myself and said that I am a Girl Scout in America.  They all thought that was really cool.  We took many pictures together and they gave me a paper whistle.  I'm really glad I met some Japanese Girl Scouts on my trip.  I am typing this on the twelve-hour flight from Narita (Tokyo) to Chicago.  Nick and Scout both took sleeping pills, so they slept for most of the flight.  I was awake for the majority of the flight, so I watched four episodes of television shows (2 of The Big Bang Theory” and two of “The Office”) and three movies (Epic, At Any Price, and Trance).  I slept for maybe a couple hours.  Even though I slept for a lot of the flight to Tokyo but only a little on today’s flight, it felt a lot longer on the way there- more than the actual one hour difference.  We have a four-hour layover in Chicago and then one last flight from Chicago to Flint.  We will be home soon!

me with all three of my host families

all three exchange students and all the host families

me with a troop of Japanese Girl Scouts
they were on their way to a ten-day stay in Vancouver, Canada

the paper whistle I got from the Girl Scouts (the GSJ stands for "Girl Scouts of Japan")

My Final Breakfast

For my last breakfast in Japan we had fruit, tamago gohan, and nori.  It was a wonderful last meal.  After breakfast I went to a konbini with Yura and Asuka.  We got ice cream and I tried coconut milk tapioca.  Both things were really good.  I am really going to miss all the interesting foods here, especially everything matcha-flavored.

All packed for America!

After playing card games for a few hours, I packed all my bags.  I was up until 5:00 A.M. packing since I had to make sure I did everything correctly.  I wrapped a lot of things in clothes to cushion them so they (hopefully) won’t break during transit.  I forgot to weight the bags right after I packed them, but I remembered in the morning.  It’s a good thing that I checked since both bags were about 2.5 kg (5 lb) over the limit.  I removed some items and the suitcases were left each weighing 21 kg.  I had a backpack and a reusable grocery bag as carry on items, but I couldn’t fit everything into those two bags combined.  My host mother offered to mail me whatever didn’t fit, but she ended up just giving me a bigger bag and I was able to put everything in it.  All my bags are completely stuffed.

Card Games

playing bozumekuri

On my last night with the Takeuchi family I played many card games with Tomoki, Shinsuke, and Asuka.  They taught me some Japanese games and I taught them some that we play in America.  The first game we played was shichinarabe.  You start with all four sevens in the middle and each person lays down the next card in counting order.  On the first turn, someone could play a 6 or an 8 and place it next to the seven of the same suit. You can pass up to three times; on your fourth pass you are out.   It was really fun even though I lost.  Another Japanese game they showed me was shinkeisuijaku.  It was the game that we call “Memory.”  All the cards are face down and you flip over two.  If they match then you keep the pair and if not then you flip the cards back over.  I got three pairs, so I didn’t win that game either.  The next game we played, bouzumekuri, used a deck of special cards.  There were one hundred different cards, each with a picture and a Japanese poem.  The different pictures were of girls in kimonos, normal men, and some bald men.  Drawing a bald man means you have to put all your cards in the middle and drawing a card with a girl means you get all the cards from the middle.  I almost won, but I drew a card with a bald man at the end and lost all my cards.  I taught my

Spoons (or, in this case, Chopsticks)

playing the game to learn hiragana characters

 family some card games from America too.  I tried to teach everyone Euchre (since it is a game invented and played in Michigan), but it was too complicated.  After that we played Spoons.  It was really fun.  We also played a Japanese game intended to help children learn the hiragana characters.  One person reads a card with a Japanese saying and everyone else tries to find the card with the hiragana for the first syllable which was said.  I knew most of the characters, so I had a good time.

Crush the Watermelon and Hanabi

After the farewell party with the Handa International Association, I returned home with the Takeuchi family and we had a small party at their home.  Yura and her family came over.  We played "Crush the Watermelon" just like we did at the barbecue with Handa International Association. The first attempt hit the watermelon and cracked it, but everyone just hit the ground and missed the watermelon after that.  We started out being blindfolded and spinning then we stopped being spun at the beginning of our turn.  That was still too difficult, so we just stood next to the watermelon and hit it until it broke.  After eating some of the watermelon, we moved on to hanabi (fireworks).  Everything was basically a sparkler except the senko hanabi which just forms a glowing orange ball and sparkles a little near the end of its life.  It was really fun.  Yura's brother was quite upset when they had to go home because he didn't want me to leave.  I told him that he should come to America to visit me.  He seemed to like that idea.  I also gave him two pencils: one with a Michigan theme and the other with an American flag and the Pledge of Allegiance.  After Yura's family left, we did karaoke (I just watched and listened) and ate sweets.  Tonight was really fun.

me trying to crush the watermelong

Yura's brother preparing to strike the watermelon

I tried again

hanabi (fireworks)

more sparler-like hanabi

The Farewell Party

The Handa International Association hosted a farewell party for the exchange students and all of our host families this evening.  It was a really nice party and I had a lot of fun, but it was also kind of sad since I don't want to leave Japan.  After the opening speeches and a little time to eat, Asuka and I played the clarinet  duet "Spring Song" by F. Mendelsshon-Bartholdy.  It actually went very well, much better than I had expected.  I usually get nervous whenever I perform in public, but today went really well.  After Asuka and I finished playing, three performers played some songs on shamisen.  It was really cool and afterwards all three exchange students got to try playing shamisen together.  The leader of the group led everyone in the room in a song that matched the beat we were playing.  It was really fun.  The leader gave each of us a sensu (folding fan) with his name on it.  After the performances, each exchange student went on stage with all his/her host families.  At least one member from each family gave a short speech about the student.  Once the families had finished speaking, the ambassador gave a short speech to his/her host families.  I thanked everyone and talked about how I had experienced a little bit of so many parts of Japanese culture.  I learned history through the museums and historic sites, religion in the temples, different foods from my host families (and also restaurants and festivals), traditions such as wearing a yukata, a little bit of both written and spoken language, and so much more.  Every single day was something new and exciting.  This trip really was the experience of a lifetime.  I'll definitely remember it for the rest of my life.

the sensu from the shamisen group

a book full of photos from the Saito family

the main table

my (and my host families') table

me with all my host families

the three of us playing shamisen

me giving my speech