Day 1 ｗｉｔｈ ｈｏｓｔ ｆａｍｉｌｙ

Firstly, I'm very envious that you got Pancake Parlour while I couldn't sleep on the flight. The man behind me grumbled every time I put my seat back until he fell asleep at 1.30 with his foot jammed up against my seat, making moving it back impossible. The solution: move to the empty seat on the other side of the aisle.

The other Australians are all very nice, with varying Japanese skills. So are　my　host family, who have been great. The father (Masahiro) speaks fairly good English, and with the help of my dictionary we've been chatting a lot. His wife speaks a little English, but Taka and Atsu (the kids, 13 and 9) speak no English, but Nick and I have discovered that Mario Kart is a fairly　good communication method. :)

Today, after landing and meeting host families, we went back to the house - a 2 hour drive from Narita airport. It's amazing how green everything is. This impression is helped by the fact that there are little house-block sized bamboo growths everywhere. It's very different to Australia in how things are laid out. Nagareyama (where I'm staying) is about 25 minutes from the centre of Tokyo, but is very densly populated. Strangely there are very few cars off the main roads. The house itself is very nice, and is quite traditional - tatami matting for the floor and shoji screen doors. Nick and I will be sleeping on futons in the spare rom tonight.

The soy sauce factory was interesting, and I now know more about the making of soy sauce than I really need to know. Still interesting, and a nice chance to get to know the other Aussies a little more.

After getting settled in, we had lunch. Nick and I were presented with our own chopsticks, and I managed to actually eat a full meal with them. We also went to the local Supa (supermarket) where everything is incredibly cheap. Coke cans are around $1 each.

This evening we were guests at a welcome party/dinner attended by some of the scouts from the groups which are hosting us. Dinner was good and again I managed with chopsitcks. I'm thinking I'll be pretty pro by the time I come home. After we got home from that we went to the park to light fireworks. Please note that while fireworks is the literal translation they were more like overpowered sparklers. The Murakamis were amazed when I explained that you can't buy fireworks in Australia.

Last of all I had a bath. This is quite different in Japan, where you have a quick shower before getting in and then just sit in the very hot bath (40 degrees) to relax.

Tomorrow: Zen meditation in the morning and then who knows what for the afternoon. I might be missing freezer cake at Music Camp, but fireworks and Japanese pickles are quite a substitute. :D