Hi parents and friends, this is
David Zhong reporting in for July 5th. Everyone woke up half asleep
this morning, but the day started kicking in right away. We also noticed that
the breakfast was gradually becoming more eastern style. First thing in the
morning we left our ryokan (Japanese style inn) in Kitaibaraki to go to a
senior citizen nursery home in Hitachi. We got a quick tour of the nursery home
before spending quality time with the senior citizens. Some of us had the
chance to learn Japanese flower arrangements with the seniors and the rest of
us would be in a separate area helping other seniors decorate their tree and
hang our wishes. Later, our group gathered together and made a brief
presentation about San Francisco to the senior citizens. After the
presentation, everyone got in the groove and was ready to perform our “Walking
on Sunshine” dance to entertain the senior citizens. Our performance turned out
much better than I had expected. At the end of the performance, each of us went
around the room and gave high fives to all the senior citizens. Watching the
smiles on their faces during our performance was truly heart warming. We left
the nursery home with a sense of glee when the senior citizens and the staff
came out to wave goodbye to us.
The next thing on the menu was to
grab something delicious for lunch to satisfy our stomachs. We had arrived at
the Hitachi Civic Center and were served sandwiches, bagels, fruits, and juice.
After lunch, we had a small amount of free time for us to go shopping. This was
the first time we had shopping time, so everyone reached into their bags and
pulled out their souvenirs list immediately. The next destination in the
afternoon was to head out to the beach. All three high schools, George Washington,
Abraham Lincoln, and Moss Point, worked in sync to help clean up the beach.
Each of us received a small plastic bag and a pair of construction worker
gloves and we all went to work. It’s surprisingly humid on the beach and the
sand that went into our shoes and socks didn’t make it any better. After
clearing a lot of the trash, we decided to stockpile the large wood pieces.
There were some insanely large items such as a barrel, a table, and a huge tree
trunk. The tree trunk was probably one of the hardest to move. We had at least
20 guys working together just to drag the trunk to the pile. We even received
help from local middle school boys that were at the beach just to have a fun
time. This just shows you how much Japanese people care about their
environment, helping others, and benefiting the community.
Everyone was extremely tired after
the clean up, so we headed to an Italian restaurant for an early dinner. The
restaurant served amazing Italian cuisine and also had a stock of the weirdest
flavors of soft drinks. We were all expecting to return back to the ryokan
after the wonderful meal, but it turns out we had something planned for the
evening too. We arrived at a Hitachi elementary school and viewed a dance
performance from a local dance group. It was a traditional Japanese dance, but
was very empowering. Things turned out really fun when we received clackers and
go to participate in the dances with them. Even though I couldn’t keep up with
their movement and my dancing looks like jelly, it was probably the most
entertaining activity of the day.
Some of the students even got to change into costumes.
Lincoln High School’s Japanese Club performed their Japanese dance and it was
pretty amazing. Many guys tried the test of strength by attempting to wave
around a humongous flag, but only a few succeeded.
Finally, we are on the bus about to return to the ryokan. It
has been a long and exhausting day. I am writing this blog under the dim lights
in the bus and everyone is taking a quick nap before we arrive. This is our
last day at Kitaibaraki and life at the ryokan wasn’t so bad. We will be
returning to Tokyo tomorrow morning. David Zhong reporting out.
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