Konnichiwa!

I arrived in japan on Saturday august 23rd! It is wonderful! I was so excited while I was on the plane. When I landed The Toyama rotary club greeted me with big smiles and a big sign that said welcome Riley!!!! I felt so happy!!! The next day my host mother and her friends planned a welcome lunch for me! It was delicious!! I attended my first of 6 Japanese classes this morning. When the classes are finished I will go to school! Today I went shopping with my new friends and I also visited my new high school to meet my principal and teachers an also get my school uniform. My host mother took me many places around town! We went to the supermarket to buy ingredients for dinner and then we went to the Favora shopping centre! She bought me Yukata! it is beautiful! I am very excited about Japan so far and I can't wait for school to start!

Yokohama Students

As my departure date SLOWLY approaches, I have been involving myself with many activities. I am currently hosting a Japanese student at my house and i am also a student leader for their group from Yokohama. It is so much fun! I am learning much Japanese and I am making many new friends! The job of the student leader is to take the students around on tours of the many different areas that we travel to including, Toronto, Niagara Falls and St. Jacobs. This has been a wonderful beginning to my summer and a great introduction to the people in Japan. I can't wait until my journey to Japan! It will surly be unforgettable.

Welcome to my very first blog post! I'm Riley and i am a Rotary exchange student.
I am extremely excited about my exchange to Japan. I will be going to Toyama City for an entire year! My departure date is August 22nd. My plane leaves at 1:00pm... The countdown is on! I have been doing some research on my city and i am very pleased to find that it is a smaller city located right on the coast of Japan! there are mountains too. Maybe i will be able to go snowboarding in the winter! I have also researched my school... though i can't read a word that it says on the web page ha ha. Here is the link for my future school: http://www.tomiichi.ed.jp/top.html

So far i have been making my pre-departure preparations. This also includes buying Canadian gifts for my future families! I have a whole bunch of gifts and pins that i will hand out to my host families, friends and the Rotarians. i hope there will be enough! One thing is for sure... Japanese people give presents for EVERYTHING!

I will continue to post news about my trip!

thanks for reading!