Travel Nostalgia

Wow, I look back at old photos of my time in Japan and realize it has been exactly eight years since I was last there. Kurume, Fukuoka was the city and prefecture. I was sixteen and a 2006 summer student ambassador for Sister Cities International as a representative of my hometown. We spent part of the time with our host families in Japan, and then our high school aged sibling would come spend time with us and our families in our American city. We'd go to various castles, and temples in Japan. We even got to participate in this awesome water festival in August where at the end of the festival, we got hosed down with water. It felt great given the intense humidity of Southern Japan. The food was AMAZING! My host mother made amazing Japanese curry and I think fueled my Japanese curry obsession, which during college I would make for my old friends. Also, we saw an apprentice geisha perform, which I had video taped and posted on Youtube. You can see that video by clicking the link. One of my favorite times in Japan was when my older sister (nee-chan) played the piano and my younger sister (imouto-chan) and I danced around. We all had a good time doing that. Even though it has been over eight years, it barely feels like five. I do still keep in contact with my host family on occasion and consider them a part of my family, and they do of me. Flash forward to 2014, I am currently on another sister city committee, this time for Sendai, Japan. I am working to connect high school students in both cities together to do high school exchanges, or at least a group skype conversation session with one another. I do hope this works out and that future high schoolers get the chance and experience that I did. In fact, I might get to visit Sendai in a couple of years. I am looking forward to it, and I am looking forward to meeting my host family again, and my friends/former conversation students in Japan again. Here is another picture from my time in Kurume. Sorry for the quality, other people took these pictures for me. :)

Have any of you traveled? If so where, and how long? Did you do an exchange, study abroad or for work?  Let me know in the comments below. I enjoy discussing travel. :)



Till next time!


Hachi