2016 Toyokawa Sister City Visit Journal - Jacqueline Chang

The moment I stepped off the plane, I could feel the humidity of Japanese air. It was different and I knew immediately that this would be an amazing, new adventure. The first day, we visited the Railway Park, Tokugawa Museum, and Nagoya Castle, where we met a 400-some year old samurai. After an exhausting day, I felt energized when I realized I was going to meet my host family. After finally meeting our host family, my partner and I helped prepare dinner and also gave them gifts from America. We did another day of touring before we could finally spend the whole weekend with our family. On Saturday, we went shopping and then wore yukatas to a barbeque party with another family. During the party, we had nagashi soumen, where we had to catch noodles as they ran down a bamboo pipe. We also had fun playing with fireworks and playing “uno” in a large group of people. On Sunday, we went to the local amusement park called: Lagunasia. We had so much fun riding roller coasters and log rides. We went on one log ride five or six times just to get the perfect picture. After going home, my partner and I made brownies and chocolate milk to share with our family and our partner’s family. We met them at a shabu-shabu restaurant for dinner. After dinner, we headed for their house where we made mari and did some calligraphy. Then, we had ice cream and shared our brownies and chocolate milk with everybody. Both days at school were awesome! We learned what daily school life in Japan was like and made a lot of enthusiastic friends. The delegation left Toyokawa on Wednesday and it was very heart-wrenching to leave our host families because they were pretty much true family to us. After three days of touring Kyoto and Nara, we all just about ready to go home. Although we didn’t want to, we felt the pull of America and the excitement of showing our own families all that we did through stories and gifts. I look back at it all now and can’t help but smile and cry at the same time because of all the happy memories we made and the sadness that we feel because of leaving family and friends that we will know for a lifetime.

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