Change

Last week was sad because it was my last time living with the Tani family. They are an incredible family and so nice. They really know how to take care of an exchange student. They took me anywhere they could think of without hesitating and the hospitality they showed me was really something. It's amazing to think that three months ago we we're complete strangers that did not understand anything the other was saying. Here's all of us except for Baba and Yoshino on the day I arrived. 

The Saturday leading up to the last week was fun. Mitsuki and Nanako had school. It was a day set aside so parents could come watch a school day. I went with mama Akane to see school. The name of the elementary school is Takou Elementary School. When I first herd the name, I got really confused because I didn't hear the "u" on the end. Takou means tall. Tako means octopus. Unfortunately, it's not the elementary school that teaches sea creatures, just small, jumpy, terrestrial human larvae. 

When we first arrived, we walked around the small school and past the gym to the entrance. Along the wall of the gym were all of these awesome contraptions. 

Pogo sticks,unicycles, and stilts! Quite impressive for an elementary school to be teaching those!

After spending time watching all of the worms learn, they all crowded around me and started climbing on me! I had know idea being a jungle gym could be so hard! 

When all of the climbing had been done, all of the parents and kids cleaned the school. It was incredible how much effort everyone put into it! Because I'm tall, I had the job of unscrewing the ceiling fans so they could be 

cleaned. During this time, a visiting sibling had quite the nap. 

When school was over, Nanako, Mitsuki, Nanako's friend Kanna, Mama Akane, and I went to see the One Direction Movie. One Direction is a band that is extremely popular all over the world right now. Japan is definitely no exception and might have some of the craziest fans. At the mall where the movie theater was, they were already setting for Christmas. 

Really, Japan? November barely started! Pretty crazy, but Japan doesn't have a holiday in for almost two months: November and December. That's a really long time for Japan! They just want to party! The is thing is that they don't even have a national holiday for Christmas, yet there's more celebration for it right now than the New Year. Christmas lights have been working their way up everywhere and there is Christmas music playing.

The movie was excellent and I actual have respect for the guys in One Direction. They are aware of thigs that happen both on and off stage and they aren't stuck in their own bubble. Good job, guys! We finally have some pop music celebrities that can be looked up to!

On Sunday, Papa Kazuhiro planned to take Nanako, Mitsuki, and I to a place called Kansai Cycle Center. It's an amusement park in Kawachinagano that is near Takihata. The special thing about it is that all of the rides are powered by the riders. There are all sorts of things to do! You can pedal vertically up a tower or bike through the woods. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go because of rain an wind. Instead, we drove to the Osaka Museum of Natural History. 

The museum had a ton of great information about the history of the Kansai area (Osaka prefecture as well as some surrounding prefectures). They also had an abbundance of skeletons from dinosaurs to whales that died recently. The collection of sea creatures was especially impressive. What really stuck out to me was an Oar Fish that they had on display. They are the longest fish in the world and have only been seen when they come to the surface to die. There was also this giant crab.

And this big squid. 

The amount of native insects was also very cool. 

Gotta love those giant dung beetles. 

On Monday night, the Gigi took the whole family out for sushi for my birthday. This wasn’t just cheap sushi that you pull off of a train moving past the table. This was the kind where you sit at a bar and talk directly to the chef who makes it right in front of you. There were ten of us there all together; the entire Tani family. It was absolutely delicious and it was such a wonderful gift! Fresh made sushi is absolutely delicious! I ate so much!

The rest of this week was spent packing up my room in preparation for moving to my new host house. Here's a look at my room with all the stuff still in it.

On my birthday, we celebrated with a chocolate cake. Yummy! It even had my name on it!

On my final full day with the family, Papa Kazuhiro, Mama Akane, Mitsuki, Nanako, and I drove to Kyoto to climb Daiyamonja Mountain. We met up with friends of Mama and Papa's from college. It was a lot of fun! In August, there are five mountains that are light up with fire in the shape of characters. Daiyamonja Mountain has the character for "big" on it. It was very beautiful and it waas great to see Kyoto again.

When we came down from the mountain, we walked through Kyoto to the subway station. On the way, we saw a lot of interesting things. First, there were TONS of foreigners walking around. Second, we past this little carriage thing that was a sleeping place for cats....only in Japan.

Third, we went over this big railroad that helped haul material from Lake Biwa to Kyoto.

Last, there was this river crossing over a river.....

Two Sundays ago, all the Rotary Students got together to try wearing Kimonos and trying a tea ceremony and flower arranging. It was really interesting to try everything. Flower arranging is really hard!

Instead of returning home to the Tani family, I went straight to my new house. I am now comfortably moved into Michimoto-san's house. Two nights a week bands practice in the studio at Michimoto-sans house. Here's one of them. They're a lot of fun and really good!

This last Saturday I went to a band festival with Nagano High School brass band. It was a lot of fun and interesting to hear other high schools perform. I also got to hang out with my classmates all day!

On Sunday, ROTEX and Rotary Students went to a place called Nara park. It's full of very tame deer and tourists feeding them. A little strange.... We also went to Toudaiji Temple which is massive! It has one of the biggest Buddhas in Japan in it and the biggest lawn I have seen in Japan!

We also did traditional dying of fabric using indigo. So many cool designs!

I'm sorry that this blog is brief, but it's something, right? I will try and do a couple throughout the week so I can do everything justice.

Thanks for reading!

Wes