First Post!

Konnichiwa! First of all, I was surprised at the fact that Japan is so far away from America. I had always thought Japan was only a couple thousand miles away, but after our LAX flight departure, I had discovered I was very wrong! Nearly 6,000 miles and 11 hours later, we had all arrived to Japan. Upon arrival to our school, which took about 1 ½ hours, we had a crowd of students (Tokiwa students) standing at the entrance of the school, patiently waiting to help us move our luggage into our dormitories. I am now settled at the international exchange dormitory of the school's campus.

Three weeks into our exchange program and I’ve already encountered a countless number of kind people. Also, Tokiwa’s international exchange program staff is great because if I ever need help, they will be happy to assist. I think it is mainly because of them that this exchange program is so successful each and every year. I am looking forward to a great semester in Japan.

-James

Week 3

Kristin here,

It`s been an amazing 3 weeks since we have been here in Japan. There are many things that James, Kristine, Germaine and myself have all found interesting and different and we will most definitely do our best to share all of our experiences with you.

For the most part our intial transition from American society to Japanese society went very smoothly despite a rocky send off ( a 3 and a half hour delay and a changed flight). Our room-mates are all Japanese and always very helpful, assisting with even the smallest things like reading ingredient labels for example. The four of us have all made friends very fast and have gotten along well with the Fresno exchange students.

For now, I`ll leave you with a couple of pictures from our adventure so far.

Kairakuen Park

a night out in Mito

Ajigaura Beach