Arrived!

Well, here I am laying on my futon, in Japan. (!) The flights went smoothly, and I had a nice seat-mate who went through Narita with me. I surprisingly saw Robyn Cler in the airport, a fellow outbound to Japan from my home district. We had come on different planes, but my gate to Osaka and hers to Nagoya were next to each other and leaving around the same time.

My meeting with my welcome group was decidedly awkward. My first and last host families were there (I think I'll have four), one of my high school teachers, and my Rotary counselor and his wife. First, I came out of a different door than the one they were waiting at. Then, I couldn't think of anything fitting to say in Japanese, and only a few spoke English. But they were very encouraging of my attempts, and I'm glad I learned as much as I did.

We drove home, and Osaka definitely seems like a pretty big city. I noticed there were random vending machines on the streets, even in the neighborhoods, which was interesting. The home is traditional, with lots of tatami mats and sliding screen doors. I have my own room upstairs, with a futon I lay out at night to sleep on. My family is all really nice, and laugh easily, and sometimes I understand why! My oldest sister, Mayuko, is pretty fluent in English since she went to Canada through Rotary, so that's helpful.

So far, so good!