Neighbor News
2016 Toyokawa Sister City Visit Journal - Kyle Yu
Kyle's once in a lifetime trip visiting Toyokawa - Cupertino's sister city
A Once In a Lifetime Trip Full of Memories
Starting the very first day, I was extremely excited to meet my host family at city hall already. But before meeting them, our delegation group went to many fun places in Nagoya. My most memorable experience in Nagoya was in Nagoya Castle. We met this person dressed as a samurai, took pictures with him, and talked. He kept trying to ask us questions in Japanese, which we didn't understand at all! Then finally, Jacqueline came to the rescue and translated some of what he said.
After the whole day in Nagoya, we went to City Hall in Toyokawa to meet our host families! The moment our bus arrived at City Hall, our host families were clapping and gave us a great welcome! My hosts, Mareho and Yuzuki from the Toyokawa delegation, were holding welcome signs for both Kohei and I!
Although there was a language barrier, we had such a great time in their house. We mostly played cards and X-box together. We taught them a few card games from America, and they taught us some games from Japan. Our dinner was with the whole Ishihara family, and there were so many things to eat! There was do-it-yourself sushi, and even mochi pizza!
On the second day, we had our first breakfast with our host family. There was rice, miso soup, sweet egg, sausage, and more! Then, our Cupertino delegation met up, and toured the whole day. At the end of the day, we performed in front of our host families at the welcome reception dinner.
Over the weekend, our host family arranged so many fun things to do, and drove us to many fun places as well! We watched Mareho and Yuzuki play basketball and baseball on Saturday. We then went to a temple, and had a Barbecue during the evening with a few other boys from both delegations. On Sunday, we went to a bat cave called the Ryugashido Cave, and went to this beautiful sightseeing point where you could see Mt. Fuji! Our dinner was at a sushi store where you grab any sushi plate you want, and eat it. Our table of five middle schoolers finished 70 plates of sushi!
On the fifth and sixth days of our stay in Japan, our delegation went to Chubu Junior High School. There, we got to experience life in a Japanese school. It was extremely different from schools in America! First of all, every class has a homeroom, and the teachers move to different classes instead of the kids. The food was also a lot better, and in the classes, students were very focused and well-behaved.
The next three days, we stayed at a hotel in Kyoto. In Kyoto, we went to many places such as temples, shrines, and a handicraft center. We even went to a deer park where we fed the deer! But before all that, we had to leave our host families in the morning of day seven at the farewell ceremony. I was extremely sad, because although it was only six days, many memories and friendships were made in our stay at Toyokawa. The good thing is, I knew we would see them again when they come to Cupertino.
