Aneshia
May 23, 2007

Since we’d had such a long trip, we were really tired. After going to bed for a little while, I woke up at 5:30 in the morning. When I went into the bathroom I had a big surprise. A huge spider greeted me at the door. I turned around and went back to the room. After a couple of hours, when my roommate woke up, I went back to the bathroom and made her watch the spider while I went to the bathroom, so that it didn’t come get me. Then we girls had to shower together.

That was an interesting experience, to say the least. I have never shared a shower with four other girls. We all had our swimsuits on, so it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Once we were dressed, we all met for breakfast. Russ and Todd made scrambled eggs with ham, muffins, fruit and juice. It was a nice big meal that got us going for the day. After we cleaned up the kitchen we all went to the train station to get our travel cards. The train is the major means of transportation in Japan. As we were walking around, it was amazing to see the different buildings, artwork, and people. Everyone here is so nice and willing to talk to you. It was a little hard to communicate with others, because they don’t really speak any English.

Once we were downtown, we had to exchange our money. But since we are such a large group it was easier for the bank to exchange it all at once. So Russ did that for us while we went exploring. It was so cool to see that they have a grocery store, clothing store and restaurants all in one area. We were able to see chefs cooking different kinds of food and to try some new things in the grocery store. I didn’t know what I was eating, but it was really good. Todd, who is my partner, even tried the food that he wasn’t planning to try, but we all convinced him. \\

After shopping we came back to the college to play dodgeball with the angels. It was fun, hot and sweaty. The angels are pretty intense when they play sports, but it was really fun to play. Then we had lunch in the school’s cafeteria. I ordered romin, which had corn, green onions, noodles, fish cake and broth. It was really good with soy sauce added to it. I even tried the fish cake. It didn’t taste like anything. When we were all finished eating, we came back to the dorm to practice our dance and songs for the welcoming party. Then, around 6:30, we went to the welcoming party, where we met our host families. This was an interesting experience for me because the family that I am staying with doesn’t really speak any English, but I’m sure that I am going to have a good time with them this weekend. They are very nice, open and willing to teach me anything. Since it is late now, we are all getting ready for bed, so that we can get up and prepare breakfast for the gang and then go to church.