Upon arriving to Japan, though, I realized two things:
1) How much Asian culture already was a huge part of my life and the extent to which I love it without me even knowing it. Something as simple as what I normally eat for breakfast taught me that I had more Asian in me than I thought. LOL. I felt right at home in Japan because much like it is at my house, nothing is off limits for breakfast: Soup, noodles, pot stickers, rice... They provided it for breakfast - It was perfect!
2) How interesting and amazing my background really is and how familiar it all felt despite being new. I used to grow up hearing my dad constantly go on about how "In Japan, it's totally different" and "In Japan, they don't have things with such bad design." Having seen it for myself, I can totally understand the basis for my dad's comparisons and why he misses it so much.
Me and my grandfather. It was our first time meeting each other!
Now, onto the convention! I never thought that I'd be able to connect the way I did with the friends. After all, we spoke two completely different languages and were complete strangers, right? But that didn't even matter. The friends were very loving, and between our broken Japanese and their broken English, we learned to communicate and laugh at ourselves and be encouraging to one another. By the end, we came to truly love some of the friends we met and have since then been able to communicate through email.
Below, right next to me is Yoshie, an incredibly sweet sister that sat behind us one day at the convention. Her two kids, Ato and Ro, were also very adorable!
Me & Cody the first day of the convention :)
Just a few more tidbits about Japan.
-Japan is a very organized country. The trains are rarely ever late, people form lines to get on the train without anyone telling them to do so, and it's an understood thing to stand on the left side of an escalator to allow people on the right who may be in a hurry to get to their destination faster by walking instead of waiting for the escalator to take them there.
-The food is incredible!!! Ramen is definitely something to eat there. The one restaurant we went to had a vending machine where you would pre-order your meal and it would print out a ticket that you'd give the waiter. Also, their burgers were FABULOUS. I will forever compare burgers to them and hold it to their standards - haha!
Cody at the ramen noodle shop's vending machine ordering his food.
At a restaurant called Retsu, where you cooked your own food :)
Ramen!
-It was refreshing to see the young people in the organization focusing on spiritual things rather than on dating. At the convention you never saw guys hanging around a wall watching sisters pass by, and you never saw sisters walking around with tight clothes or cleavage hanging out. It was all very dignified and you could sense the happiness of the friends.
MORE PHOTOS!
At Miyajima where there are tame deer
Me and Damaris a sis in our tour group
Green tea ice cream! My fave!
Nao and Shota - our Tokyo tour guides! So sweet! They are newly weds :)
Minami, is in the middle with the brown dress, we've been emailing since we've been back.
Cody in front of some shrine... not sure which one - lol
