Surprise!

Lots of other things that I was planning on writing about, but I just came from my host city orientation, and I have exciting news. In the midst of orientation, talking about the home stay next weekend, our guide says that the two of us who are doing the radio show will need to leave our host families early because of rehearsal. Which is fine, but all of us are staring blankly. Obviously, since I'm writing this, one of those two individuals is me. The city wanted to interview several program participants on its weekly hour-long show. We'll have rehearsal in the early afternoon and tape in the mid afternoon. So, I'll be representing not only Saint Stephen's and the United States, like usual, but also the other Tomigusku participants and JFMF. :)

Leaving our meeting, all of our participants were so excited about the coming week; the school and university visits, tours of local industries, a homestay, and a traditional ryoken.

Imagine our surprise when we meet our guide and she starts off by saying to the men in suits, "It's very hot there...(discussion of US being the only country that does not use the metric system but temperatures in the 80s)...they don't wear those (suit coats and ties). What are those shirts with the big flowers?" Ah yes, we're going to the school district where they wear Hawaiin shirts. (I'm sad because now I have a tailored suit, which she recommended that I leave in Tokyo. While normally I'm fine with my suit-free lifestyle, I'd been gearing up for this opportunity to wear one. We give a group presentation when we return; perhaps at that point.) She said the only long sleeves we'd need would be maybe for for a sweater at night. No flip flops, but open-toed shoes are fine. They even wear shorts there, despite the stern warning we got against bringing them. Our first night, we're staying at a full-fledged beach resort, with free time after 2:30. So you can see why we might be excited.

Walking back to the room with someone from another group, she commented that she was completely drained from her orientation. It turns out that only 5 of the hotel rooms have Internet access, and they're all smoking rooms. What was the logical solution? Why, rock-paper-scissors until a pecking order had been arranged. Another group is staying at the "clean, comfortable, cheap" backpacker hotel. It turns out that not everyone is quite as excited to leave Tokyo.

And now I'm off for an evening at the Oriental Bazaar and the used kimono store.