Day 2 (April 12th) 3:45 PM

Konnichiwa! After a long but uneventful flight, we made it to the Narita Airport. (Ahhh, at last!) We then proceeded through customs, and walked out to find Kawamura Sensei and several others waiting for us. We exchanged our American dollars for Japanese yen, met up with the rest of the group, and made our way toward the buses.

While on the bus, I got to know a few of the other students better, but everyone was very tired, and after 2 hours or so, everyone was out! The bus ride took about 5 hours total, instead of the expected 4, because of an accident on the highway.

Everyone was a little nervous about meeting their homestay family, I think. :) And as we walked off of the bus, it was slightly overwhelming because of everyone trying to find their homestay parents. But Hanna (my room mate from California) and I found them, and said "goodbye" to our teachers and away we went!

We have a wonderful homestay family. :) They try very hard to speak English, but they have a really good sense of humor if they happen to mess up. They have been extremely welcoming and helpful too. There was a rehearsal for the piece Hanna and I are playing yesterday, (Friday) but we weren't able to attend because our flight didn't get in soon enough. But our homestay mother was kind enough to tape it for us, so we can know what to practice.

The town we are staying in is Matsumoto, and we are sort of off more in the rural part of it, where there are apple trees and farm land. The mountains are just beautiful though. Our homestay family says they will take us to see the cherry blossoms soon.

Today after getting some much needed sleep, we went to Yuka's (the daughter) rehearsal, where we sat and watched. We also saw our teachers, which was nice. Afterwards, they took us to a Japanese mall! Not terribly different from American malls. Then we went to the McDonalds ;) We also took a visit to the photo booth. They call them "purikuras." You can see the result above. :)

I'm sure you've heard of the famous toilets of Japan. If not, well, you're missing out! They are quite amazing. Just don't forget to put on the "toilet slippers" before walking in. And most importantly, don't forget and go walking around the house with them on. ;)

Mata ne.