Day 15: Nagoya-Tokyo-San Diego

I woke up at 4:30am, left home at 5:25am, got on 5:54am train, caught 8:20am flight.

JAL 777: From Nagoya to Narita

My mother already left for work before I got up so I could not see her. My father gave me a ride to the train station. My aunts woke up early to see me off. It was very sad... But now I am ready to work hard for another year until next summer. I am fully charged.

At Narita airport I enjoyed looking around shops. Among many choices, I decided to go to tempura restaurant for lunch. I had soba noodle with mountain potato, tempura, maguro sashimi, and rice. Very satisfying last meal in Japan. It completes my trip.

mountain potato soba set: only 1,220 yen!

Day 14: Last Day with my family

It was last day to spend time with my family in Japan. I did not do anything special but everything was special.

I watched sumo match on TV for about an hour with my family. It was fun. It looks like almost a half of sumo wrestlers are non-Japanese now!!! Amazing. Mostly from Mongol, others come from Brazil, Russia, and Egypt!!!

Day 13: Silver Week

This weekend is a long weekend in Japan, called "Silver Week".
It's a new tradition I think. Traffic jam everywhere... So I took shinkansen, fast train from Kyoto to Nagoya. It was a comfortable ride as usual.

Day 12: Family Sunday in Osaka

It is already Sunday... last day to spend time with my host family.

I made Vietnamese spring rolls for dinner. Everyone liked it except Mariko :)

Mariko

Hanayo bought Halloween donuts at Krispy Kreme donuts.

Hana

It was very short but I had a great time with them. 

I will miss them already... 

Day 11: High School Festival

I went to Hana's high school in Osaka to see the culture festival. Hana danced very exciting dances with her  team mates. It was a very high standard performance! I was really impressed.
It is a private Catholic high school only for girls where Hana's mother went. Very different from the high school I went (the public co-ed high school in town). Anyway, it was a very fun family day!

Day 10: Viva Kuzuha Mall

I used to live in a town called Kuzuha when I was a college student. This is where my host family lives. There was a small shopping center near Kuzuha station called "Kuzuha mall" when I was here. Every time I come back here, Kuzuha mall gets better and better. Now they have a movie theater too. Wow... amazing.

I went to Kuzuha mall this afternoon and walked around for four hours. It was so great. I learned that it is the 20th anniversary for GAP since they opened a shop in Japan.