Today is .August 22, 2009. My first official day with the Fujishima family. Today was a super, good, great, grand, wonderful day!!! Just spending this one day with them, I know I am going to love them. The sad thing is that I only have 1 month with them. I know that I will end up getting attached to them, and then be departed from them. I was told that I will have about 6 host families, which is quite a bit! It is going to be hard to get adjusted to one lifestyle with a host family, and then have to move on to another. Although, every host family is different, with a total different lifestyle, which gives me a chance to experience new things, and meet new people.

I can`t even explain how I felt today. I just had a feeling like..`I am home, at last` I feel like a totally different person, I am so very truly happy. When I woke up this morning, I watched my host mother `お母さん'prepare breakfast, which was really interesting. I was surprised at all of the wonderful things we had to eat, the table was full of a variety of a different sorts of dishes. We had miso soup, steamed rice, kimchi, salad, and a variety of Japanese style pickles and vegetables.

As soon as we finished breakfast, me and okaasan walked to the Ogose Station (directly in front of our house), and took the train to to Kita-Sakado, to go to the 2009 Yasakoi festival. This festival lasts for about two days, full of music, dance, delicious food, and fun .

When we arrived at Kita-Sakado station, we were in the middle of the festivity. Okaasan immediately took me to a stand to introduce me to her son Nobu and his wife (Miki) grand-daughter (Momoka).

We stood in the street along with all the other hundreds of people from noon until about 5:00 PM in the evening, watching as all the beautiful dancers and huge floats went by. I really enjoyed it, very Japanese culture.

Although, the Yasokoi festival lasted late into the night, we left the crowd around 5:00 PM, to have dinner with some of okkasan`s friends and fellow Rotarians.