Arriving in Japan

Wow, that was a long flight, actually a long day as a whole of traveling. I was awake for 24+ hours, I was very tired. Japan is humid, I didn't know this. Very pretty and very clean. The strange this is though, yes it's very clean here but there are no trash cans anywhere. The airport in Nagoya is very pretty. They have a little street style market place inside which was fun.

So my group is here for two weeks, the first week we are all staying separately with host families. My host family is great!! Jun (father) he knows a little English, I haven't really talked much with him. Satomi (mother) she knows quite a bit English. She is very cute and very nice. She is also a great cook. Yo (son, 22) he knows quite a bit of English as week. He's very nice. Haruru (daughter, 20) she is very sweet and funny. Very cute. Ryo (son, 18) He knows the most English, he is majoring at the university in English.

The house is very cute, they actually have two houses. One has been in the family for generations but is too old apparently so they built a new one which is very modern and fancy. My room is very traditional Japanese. With the mats on the floor and screens for doors. I sleep on this little mat on the ground. It's fun.

They actually showed me their family’s shrine...or whatever you call it. It is in the old house and is very ornate and beautiful. Apparently it's a big deal that they showed this to me. I felt very privileged.

Oh and we take our shoes off before entering the house, it was strange and hard to remember at first but I’m getting used to it. I actually like not wearing shoes.