Homestay

    I signed up to participate in a homestay. So, when the weekend came around all students participating in this got to meet their host families. My host family was really nice. The dinner was really good. It was make your own sushi. Their was several ingredients and you got to choose, which was fun. After eating, I got to go see a fireworks show at a local park which was really exciting. The park was doing a winter celebration, so their was a lot of neat displays their too. The show was huge, with fireworks not only in front of you but over your head. Later that night, we watched a new anime movie that was on television. After it was over I went to bed. The bed was pretty neat.

 

     The next morning after eating breakfast, we watched a anime movie I haven't seen before. The movie was Porco Rosso by Hayao Miyazaki. After the movie finished, the husband showed me two plane models he is going to build that came from the movie. The mother then took me to a Japanese garden. It was very peaceful there. We also got to drink some tea that was served to us. At the Japanese garden, the mom even bought me a Japanese folding fan, which she surprised me with later that night, as a gift, which was really nice of her. The atmosphere was nice and I even got to see some huge Koi fish. When we returned to the house, the husband made some spaghetti for lunch. It was really good.  Later that night, the whole family took me to a restaurant I never went to before for dinner. The various foods we ate were really good. I got to try what looked like a mountain of white potato’s that you ate with chopsticks. As well as some other really good food on sticks which were amazing. After a little while, the mother drove me back to AUE. I think the whole experience was really fun.   

Tokyo Disneyland

     A group of friends I made while living here invited me to go with them on their trip to Tokyo Disneyland. So we traveled to Nagoya at night and boarded a bus that would take us straight there and arrive in the morning. The trip by bus was interesting. When we got there we waited until the park opened which is when we also got our tickets. We waited in line for the park to open. It was fairly calm and orderly but when we entered, everyone was rushing to get to the rides and various attractions. I got separated from the group for a little while. So, I walked around the park and took some pictures. Additionally, I rode some rides. After I finished the first ride, a parade started. So I found a good spot and started to take pictures. The parade was very well done.

 

After the parade, I found another interesting ride and after it was finished, the group found me. We all then decided to go eat lunch. I thought the food was pretty good. After eating, we rode a lot more rides and shopped a little. When night approached we got to see this electric parade. It was really neat and the colors were vibrant on the different floats. When this was over we went to the castle and watched the night time fireworks which was cool. We stayed and rode some more rides until the park closed. After that, we got back on the bus and headed back to AUE. I thought it was a really neat experience and I was glad I got to go. I haven't seen a Disneyland since I was very young and it was also very interesting to get to see an actual Japanese theme park. The park was very clean and all the staff were really nice.