Home stay

Nagano Home stay : 

The majority of us students went in to the home stay portion of the Japan trip nervously as we had no idea what to expect, except for the given fact that there would be a significant language barrier between the students and the families. Little did we know how truly insignificant this aspect of the home stay would be, as the communication barrier would go on to just make the experience even more perfect.

As for my personal home stay, the family we stayed with was one of the most beautiful families that I've ever come across - The two oldest of the three girls (9,8,5) were prodigies and national champions in both mountain biking and skiing, and are scheduled to participate in the 2020 Olympics set in their beautiful home city of Nagano! As for the third, after a couple of nights of board games and seeing her competitive spirit at play, I could only imagine a similar route in her future as well. They were a humble family despite all of their collective accomplishments who loved each other very much, and in my time spent with them I never once saw any of them mad at each other or tired of each other, despite spending nearly every waking second with one another.

They showed true patience when it came to including the six of us male american students who spoke very little Japanese collectively into their home. To keep this short, they shared their culture with us in every way possible - helping us with our Japanese, helping us write Kanji, playing Japanese board games, etc. It wasn't even necessarily these activities that made it so special, but the time we all got to spend together as a whole.  Not to mention I got to ski for my first time! And what greater place to ski than one of the most beautiful places in the world, in Nagano?  

I would go through this experience again in a heartbeat, and every ounce of doubt in this experience I had going in was quickly eradicated.

To close,  If you ever have doubt or second thoughts about going through an experience, just dive in, man. Whether you love it or hate it, at least you can't say "what if".