Abiko – This is our third city in the World Campus – Japan spring tour 2009 for those who have been traveling starting from the first session, but for the new participants, this is their first city. Some of us are still struggling with culture shock, with our new host families, and with our new community. But I believe we are all enjoying this moment deeply in our hearts.
March 28th was our host family day in Abiko! Host family day is when we spend a lot of time with our host families, starting from when we wake up until we go to bed. Yay!! It is such a nice day for everyone.
In Abiko, a few of the host families planned to have a picnic together. Kaho, Atsushi, Philip, Naoko, Nicolina, Guang, Daniel, Amanda, Jaime, Mustafa, Selly, and I had a wonderful picnic outside of a small kindergarten! Our host families called it an o-hanami party which means enjoying and cherishing cherry blossoms and of course bunches of oishii (delicious) food.
Honesty, that day was so awesome, a sunny day with tremendous love! It started with a lot of fun games. We played many traditional Japanese kids games, such as Jankenpong (rock, paper, scissor), hide and seek, dodge ball, and many others. After some of the energetic games, our host families already prepared tons of delicious food for us, it was super oishii! And for sure, we are falling in love with Japanese food!
Although the cherry blossoms weren’t in full bloom yet, and a couple of host families including mine and Kaho’s couldn’t join us, we enjoyed our time together. It was such a wonderful moment in my life. Their laughs, smiles, love, and caring will always be in my heart, and I believe all of us feel the same way!
(Amanda Soeprobo, Indonesia)
