Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Memoirs of Today: Wakayama (2007)

July 9th

2007

Naga High School, Wakayama, Japan


I feel like I should have tried to do this series years ago! For some reason I have more motivation to write about all my past activities this way-maybe I could have kept up regular posts if I had. XD

Ah, well, at least they're getting done now, right? ;)



This day in 2007 marked the first day we attended our sister school, Naga High School.
I should probably explain a little before I continue.
Students from Naga visited three schools in Washington State (USA) every March, of which our high school  and the high school of the other students we traveled with were two. It was because of this program that my friends and I asked our Japanese teacher if we could do a similar program in reverse. This trip was the second successful program for the American high schools :)


Aaaaanyway, because of this, we knew many students in varying grades before we ever arrived on campus. 
We were pleasantly surprised when a group of friends crowded in the doorway of our classroom during our break time! It was soooo nice to see them again--especially because so many of them had been our exchange students or exchange students of our friends!




 Throughout the day, we spent the morning in our own series of classes and then were invited to join our Japanese friends and host families in their classes. It was so fun to sit in with them and see what Japanese classrooms are like! At one point in a science class, a teacher surprised us all by throwing at egg at a girl!--only, it was rubber, despite how realistic it looked ;)
Once his joke had been successfully performed, he gave me the egg as a souvenir. xD


After thoroughly loving our first day of classes, some of our host siblings took us to karaoke! It  was the first time for us to visit a private-style karaoke room, and we had soooo much fun!!





After my sister's club activities had finished, she and my host brother and mother came to pick me up.
We went to a kaiten-zushi (conveyor belt sushi restaurant) place. 
It was DELICIOUS and it was so nice being able to end the evening with my host family after a thoroughly wonderful day <3





3 comments:

  1. This is such a great series! Reminds me of how my high school had the same program! Our sister school was in Kanagawa Prefecture and they came to our high school in March, while we went to theirs in June/July. Homestay has some of my best memories of Japan! ^o^ Too bad digital cameras were still really expensive in 2002.. UGH. Lol

    Are you still in touch with your friends from Wakayama??

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  2. Aww, I'm so glad you think so, sweetie! Thank you! ♡



    I would love to hear about your program! It sounds like it was amazing~! did you stay with a host family, too?? :) Definitely the same time frame as ours, too~


    Sadly, I've lost contact with almost everyone. :(
    Hopefully you can still keep contact with your friends in Kanagawa~? :D

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  3. Yeah! I stayed with the same girl who stayed at my house in the states! She was a real sweetheart for letting me borrow her uniform for school too ;n; Ahhh, I miss being young and just going to school everyday ._. lol

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