Host Family Time

Hi Everyone! I spent today exploring the neighborhood and getting to know my host family better. This morning my host dad took me bicycling around the neighborhood. I saw the fields near my house and the nearby coffee shop that he owns, which is called Cafe Woodpecker:



This is my host dad at one of the tables in his coffee shop.


Later in the morning my host mom took me to the cherry blossom festival at the local Muko City Shrine. All the little kids were dressed up, and there were, of course, many cherry blossoms all around. We watched people play koto, drank some really bitter green tea, and ate bento lunches of sushi and rice.


This is my host mom and me! My host mom used to be an elementary school teacher, but she retired after she had kids (three of them). My host parents are both really nice; they remind me of my grandparents on my mom's side kind of. They make the same "ossho!" exclamations when they lift heavy objects (kind of random I know).

In the afternoon we went to a little party/gathering in Osaka hosted by one of my host parents' friends, another host parent for SCTI. However, I was feeling ill so I actually spent most of the time sleeping upstairs. I'm still feeling a little bit dizzy, so I'm going to go to bed early tonight to sleep it off.

Tomorrow's the first day of school! I'm excited.

And by the way, if you're interested in reading about things that actually matter in the world, check out my friend Michael Zhuang's blog (there's a link to the right). He has a lot of interesting opinions to share about current events.