July 28, 2008
Japan Experience Day 1 - Welcome!
Welcome indeed! This Sunday July 27th, all 9 of this year's Japan Experience! members arrived safely at Narita Airport to meet the staff and their home stays. Despite some long flights and heavy bags, they all arrived with no problems and big smiles.
The activity for the day? Meet their home stay families and get some much deserved rest. The fun starts tomorrow!
JAL passengers disembarking
Among the first to arrive were Victor and Claudia from Germany, seen here with Victor's home stay, the Kimura family.
Shirlene arrived from Malaysia and she and Claudia had to wait a bit for the rest of their home stay group, so we (Fukuda Sensei, Richard Sensei, and Lawrence Sensei) all went for some lunch.
...... as well as some ice cream to beat the heat!!
Bryce from Canada meeting his home stay, the Mizuno family.
When France and Xenia also arrived from Canada, they along with Shirlene and Claudia were taken by Fukuda-Sensei to the Hanai family home stay house, which has become our unofficial international home stay headquarters! Mrs. Hanai is a former school PTA president, and an expert at the art of wearing a kimono.
Nicholas arrived from Hong Kong in the mid-afternoon so Lawrence Sensei took Nic to his home stay at the Koyama family's house, where he got along very well, especially with Koyama-san's two dogs.
While Jocelyn (3rd from right) arrived midday, her home stay partner Karen (4th from right), both from Hong Kong, arrived last around 8pm. Here they are finally at their home stay with the ever-happy, ever-smiley Arai family.