Thursday, July 5, 2012

Day 5


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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