I know it has been forever and a day but you will have to forgive me. Here’s what I have been up to:

March consisted of the Rotary spring camp, Spring break and some other stuff. Spring camp was everything its supposed to be. We had maybe 30 inbounds and a bunch more out-bounds and Rotex. I always find it amazing meeting people from the other side of the world. It reminds how different we all are and yet so much the same. On the first day it was mostly boring introductions and such. That night was fun. The next day we did some more talking and showing the new exchange students about being exchange students. I think we also climbed a mountain but that might have been a different day. That night was fun. The next day we did role playing and all of the new exchange students had to pass through the vigorous training we put on them. I got to pretend to be a host dad waiting for them at the airport. That night was fun. The next day we made outro-ductions and we all went home. I got home. Slept. My mom showed up in Tokyo . I showed up in Tokyo the next day. My older brother was already there.

We stayed in Tokyo for a day and then drove to Nagano . We hiked a little bit around Nagano and stayed in a traditional Japanese hotel called a Ryokan. The next day we drove to a camp ground near Kyoto . We camped there for two nights and went sight seeing and hiking around Kyoto during the day. We got to see some beautiful temples and shrines. After that we went to a town near Osaka . First we met up with Shawn’s old host parents and there son Daisuke who stayed with us in Miami five years ago. We had lunch and hung around there for a little while before proceeding to on to Shawn’s first host family. We stayed at the most magnificent temple, way up on top of a mountain in the middle of a forest. The computers all had DSL and wireless networks. We stayed here for a few nights, spending our days hiking and even going to Osaka one night and one day. We got to see Osaka castle and the gigantic park that surrounds it. After that we went to a little town called Kobe to see Himeji Castle . We stayed at a youth hostel. We left Kobe to make our long journey northwards, back to my city. On the way there we stopped in Nagano again to go to a monkey park. The wild monkeys were everywhere but they weren’t really wild because they didn’t actually noticed us and would come up and try and untie your shoes. There was a big hot spring bath that they used. It was really funny to watch the moneys run around and jump into the pools, it kinda reminded of my good friend Gio. We did eventually leave the park and we had this one monkey chase us halfway to the car because we made the mistake of taking out an orange. But we got away from the poor thing and drove on our way to Kanazawa , halfway across Japan . We stayed in a youth hostel up on a beautiful mountain with cherry blossoms all around us. The next day we drove the other half way home and made it to my house in time for dinner. My family stayed with my host family for three days and we all had a wonderful time. We had a small rotary party at my house on the last day of their stay. My brother drove home that night and my mom returned home the next morning. It turned out to be quite a nice trip.

Into April:

April was pretty uneventful. I haven’t been going out much trying to save up some money to buy gifts for everyone back home. I did make it up to Sendai and hung out with all the exchange students I met at spring camp. We went to Nomihodai which was quite fun. I stayed at my Rotex friend’s house along with a few of the other exchange students. I guess that’s about it.

I have band practice tomorrow for a concert I found out a little while ago that I can’t play because there is a rotary meeting that day. Maybe well have another concert later on. I’m really looking forward to May. I’m going to Osaka for the Rotary International Convention.

Here’s to Rotary. Thanks a bunch!!!

 

Sayonara and Oyasumi!

Mark