Family in Japan

You know that you’re with the right host family when you’re home away from home is with them. My fabulous host family, the Sakurayashiki family. Has from day one been welcoming of me into their comforting home. Open arms and open paws, my older host brother Joe(19) and my older sister Tomoka(17), consistently keep me up to date on the trends and normalities of teenage life styles in the Japanese culture. As my Japanese vocabulary continues to increase, my host siblings are always happy to educate me on the polysemy of different Japanese words. The paws in the family belong to Gen-chan(2) a toy poodle, and he's always up for cuddles. Having a dog in the family is quite curative for me even without being homesick. I really enjoy having two siblings that are close to my age, because I spend more hangout time with them. My host father Hideki and host mother Hiroko are always very sweet and have an alacrity to further introduce me to their home country.

Over a lengthy month long spring break, before starting the new school year, I got the opportunity to get in a considerable amount of tourism. My host mother Hiroko toured me around the Kyoto city to visit different temples such as Fushimi Inari Taisha and Kiyomizu Temple. While being residents of the historical city of Uji, we spent a great amount of time enjoying the culture and living life as a local. Additionally I visited Universal Studios Japan with a friend from school and over all just getting to hang out and spend time with my classmate was nice. I got to chat with her more than when school was in session and we definitely are better friends now than before the start of that day.

Last blooms of an era. Sakura(cherry blossoms) here in Japan are gorgeous!  A very memorable experience of getting to enjoy the sakura blooms and turns out that they were the last of the era. In Japan we have now entered the "Reiwa" era, because of the retirement of the Japanese emperor, a new era has begun. The sakura are a very nice and a comfortable shade of pink and seeing the sakura every day when I go outside is a nice way to really enjoy the spring season. With the sakura season, there was also the influx of tourists visiting Japan which makes everything a little bit more crowded. Nevertheless that is ok, because I got the opportunity to hear other languages being spoken.

~ピトレ　キヤナ