Dear someone that isn't in my state or country,
You know, I originally had different intentions for this letter, but I think I've just thought of the perfect person/people to write to so I don't double up with my letters.. :) This is for the lovely Japanese people living in Sapporo, Hokkaido! :)
I mean, you guys gave me the experience of a life time!! Being in your company, you made us (my fellow Australian school friends) feel so welcome! After two weeks of travelling around your beautiful country, our final destination was your town. Sapporo in the winter time is cold; cold, yet so magnificently beautiful. We received nothing but respect and a friendly exchange :) When we were terrified of trying to fit in in such a foreign environment, you helped us to feel as comfortable as possible! If you ask me, the one week stay at your school was definitely not long enough!!
And my dear host family; the Shinya household! Such amazing people! I was so nervous about staying with a host family by myself with no Australian, English speaking, friends of mine! However, from the very moment that we met I knew I was in safe hands! I remember meeting you for the first time.. Satomi was still in her dance class, so it was just me and Toshimi.. and everyone thought the height difference between us was hilarious!! I also remember that you held out to me my profile sheet and asked me "how do you pronounce it?" and you pointed to my name, lol. So, sorry for having such a difficult name, lol. In so many ways I felt like you became my family; my Japanese family! Some of my friends were having a difficult time settling in, but I never once had that problem. We hit it off straight away, and for that I am very grateful! We would go shopping all the time, take purikura photos, have take out for dinner (which was ALWAYS delicious!), go on rides and go to games centres at 10pm at night! Whenever I was trying something for the first time, or if you thought maybe I might feel uncomfortable doing something, the word we would always use was "challenge", lol. It was our word that meant, 'I have no idea how this is going to turn out, but I'll give it a shot anyway!'. Not only did you embrace me within the household, but into your extended family too! I remember meeting up with Hiromi many times, especially on the last night I was in Japan. We went out for dinner to a traditional Japanese restaurant with all the trimmings! Hiromi came that night too, and you were all lovely enough to shower me with gifts. It was hard to say good bye to all of you, and I hope that someday we can all meet again! Satomi has visited Australia and my family was lucky enough to host her. It was wonderful to be able to see you again! I've hosted before, and sometimes there's awkwardness in the first couple of days, and just as their about to go, that's when you feel comfortable. However, as we had already met before we never experienced that! AND in fact, you're returning back to Australia today for a 5 day stay (with a different family though). It will be fabulous to see you again!! :)
So, thank you for such an amazing, once-in-a-life-time experiences!
-Jyssica.
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