Thursday, January 14 & Wednesday, January 20-Sunday, January 24, 2010-

I AM ALIVE!! I mean that in both the “I’ve been gone for over a week but now I’m back” sense, but also the “This is the life that I have been dreaming of for years and I simply cannot believe it is all unfolding around me! I am so happy” kind of meaning too. The past twelve days have been more than I could ever have hoped for out of an exchange. I met new people, I visited old friends, I ate delicious food and drank expensive drinks, I carried on exciting conversations in English AND in Japanese, and perhaps most encouraging of all, is that I’ve moved on from the past and stepped into an exhilarating future. My Rotary year is blossoming and I have nothing but time to stop and “smell the cherry blossoms” [a much more Japanese twist to the old phrase]. 留学することは益々素晴らしい経験になっていす！”Ryuugaku suru koto wa masumasu subarashii keiken ni natte imasu!” Being an exchange student is becoming a more and more fantastic experience!

I decided I would break the time into two groups: Tokyo and Tochigi. They’re almost polar opposites but I’ve found myself being happy in both locations. So this first part will be life in my host town, then I’ll write another report later about Tokyo.

Going way back to Thursday the 14^th, I was invited to the Rotary Shinnenkai, meaning a New Year’s Party. It was held at a local golf club and I realized how much I’ve missed my summer time job as a waiter at the Northfield Golf Club. This clubhouse, however, was quite different. Being styled after a German beer house, it was filled with plush chairs, fancy glass and silver, and the waiters all wore long white aprons and black suits! The style was slightly diminished, however, by the fact that the restaurant, rather than being named something fancy and European, was titled “Baby Face.” Hahaha, oh the Japanese! They love their English names, even if they don’t always know what they mean =)

Mr. Sato at "Baby Face"

For the next five days I was in Tokyo with my family’s dear friend and my past Japanese Economics Professor, Bruce Dalgaard. It was a terrific trip into the city and I enjoyed every minute of it. Upon my return, I had one last dinner at a Yakiniku (grilled Korean BBQ) restaurant with the Sato’s, finished packing everything up for the move, and crashing from a long weekend in Japan’s largest city. It was all passing by in a blur, but I have good memories of the last few days at the Sato Family.

Now I have moved in with the Kobayashi’s. They are wonderfully welcoming, kindhearted, generous, and to top it off, hilarious! I’ve had so much fun with their two children: Yuki, daughter, age 16, and son, Masahito (we just call him “Ma”), who as you can tell from the picture on the right is always happy and chattering away in Japanese. I can practically feel my language skills growing and growing. We all stay up late watching TV together, dinner is always as a family, and I’ve given them thank you gifts which they’ve reciprocated in the form of excessive amounts of food and treats! A pretty good trade in my mind; we had a mouth watering Unagi feast on Thursday night and an even better sushi spread on Friday (their grandpa won at the local Pachinko slots so he took us all out for one of the best sushi dinners I’ve ever had!). Right now I’m catching up on life back home, turning in an application for some University of Denver program, and enjoying a lazy weekend in JAPAN. I’ve started having more and more of those “holy crap, I’m in JAPAN!” moments lately, which is a good thing in my mind. It shows that I’m still relishing the exciting and unpredictable lifestyle that grips each and every exchange student, if only we take the moment to stop and realize how lucky we truly are.

Mrs. Sato at the Korean BBQ

Another random picture I snapped here in Nakagawa Town. I've seen an abundance of old women with small dogs. Not the snotty, upper-class women with white, fluffy poodles, but rather hunched-over, cane-using grannies walking just as old and laboring hounds

And finally, one more reminder that I am going to a Fishery school: on Friday morning my classmates and I got to dissect Dog Sharks...yeah, definitely a first!