The Ocean of My Being

At home in Mihara... I will never forget a single moment of my whole stay in Mihara town. It was such a nice, little town with, as I mentioned in the earlier entry, the loveliest people. They're all so warm and friendly. My foster family, the Shibaikes , really treated me like a real daughter. The whole time I was with them, I never felt like an outsider or whatever. Never mind that Otoosan (Father) and Ikuko (my 17-year-old foster sister) didn't speak English. I was able to communicate with them in my halting Japanese and by asking them to " yukkuri shabete kudasai " (please speak slowly). Okaasan (Mother) and Takanori (my 22-year-old foster brother) knew English, but later on, Okaasan started talking to me in slow Japanese as well. I had no problem with that, I even liked the idea because I was able to really practice my Nihongo and got my ears a little bit used to native Nihongo speakers. While I was there, they introduced me to Alicia-san (a Filipi

The 2004 Pan Pacific Youth Exchange Program (PPYEP) officially ended on the 12th of October. The 12-day program was really much, much more fun, more interesting, and greater than I expected it to be. It was like a continuation or an extension of SSEAYP . The difference was that there wasn't a Nippon Maru and there was an Australian contingent (very white people among brown ones). And, there were only 32 of us, all in all, from the seven countries and then, of course, the Japanese counterparts. As a result, we were all really bonded and very close. That's very nice, but that also made the parting very, very sad and difficult for most of us. Hay! Anyway, since I've started talking about the experience in a day-to-day basis, I'd like to continue doing so. " It's really funny to look back after all these years... " So, the song goes and I really hope to look back on these days for years and years with that funny, dreamy smile on my face. ******

I've been here in Osaka for five nights (and four days) now. It has been a very, very interesting and enjoyable time for everyone in the program. After all the activities that we've done so far, we're all quite exhausted, but it's just so much fun that we don't mind at all. We still have eight days more to go before the program ends. Tomorrow, we leave for Kyoto to experience Japanese style hotel. I'm really excited about that. Here in Osaka, we're housed at the Kansai International Center (a dormitory-like hostel). Aside from the fact that everything is free here, what I like most about this place is my room. As expected of a Japanese facility, our rooms are fully furnished (TV, heater, refrigerator, VCR player, CD/cassette player, and comfort/shower room). Doing laundry is very convenient, too, because there are 24-hour laundry rooms on every floor. There's a music lounge (with musical instruments and karaoke) for the bored. There's a