A view from above

This is Ryan, this has been the greatest trip I have been on so far. I have had so much fun doing everything that the Japanese people do. It has been great to expereince their cultre from above. Their country is not designed for people my height. My first problem was the beds. On our first jight in Tokyo my feet hung off the bed. Also the showrs in the hotel were so small that I couldn't get the top of me head wet without bending over. Another thing that was veryu annoying was in the subway the handholds were right in my face. One thing I liked the most was the monorail, from iut yoiu could see all the city.  The view from the train was the best view of anything I have ever experienced. After we left Tokyo things got very different. Things went from modern western city to classical Asian town. There was less and less American food and American words. Also things became less designed for all sorts of people and more designed for just Japanese people. Now a third of doorways I have to duck under and it is much more in the houses. It is very hard to be my height in this country.

Yesterday was very fun. In my house we started the day early and with a classic Japanese breakfast. It included rice, fish, mizo soup adn salad. Then I was driven to the town hall where we will meet everyday.  As soon as everyone arrived, except for Molly who has the flu, we set out for our first stop, the sports dome. It was very fun and we enjoyed some heated ping pong tournaments!  After we finishedf there we went to see the neputa. A large flout that they use for festivals - it was amazing standing ten meters high. It is Aomori's largest. We were surprised to meet a much smaller neputa that walked. Hirakawa citizen had gotten into it and was walking around and flapping his hands like a bird. He was very funny. After we left there we went to a building that they used to make the school lunches. It serviced four schools and catered a total of  500 students. They served us what they sent out to the schools today, which was curry. It was very good and it tasted better than our scvhool lunches.

After lunch, we went to meet the mayor or Hirakawa City. We all got to sit around a large oval table and as we were talking to the mayor we got to drink apple juice made from Hirakawa apples.  Then we went to a tea ceremony. Though the tea was very bitter and the position you had to sit in was awkward the ceremony was very interesting. We found out that the woman who performed the ceremony had been studying these rituals for 40 years.  Also there was a certain way you had to drink the tea. When they placed the tea in front of you you would bow then pickup the tea and place it on your left palm. Thenb you would spin it clockwise in three small turns. Then you wold try to drink all fo the tea in three sips. Though if you did, they would seem like gulps! Then, instead of washing cake down with tea, you would wash tea down with cake.

When we returned home, I was greeted by my host student and two of his friends. We then began to play mariokart! There were teams with a total of 12 racers and I either got first or last place. It has been so much fun here in Japan. I almost want to live here! The only thing stopping me is the language. I love this trip and I know all of you are very interested in this trip and I wish all of you could be with us.