Our Journey to Japan: Host Family

Share our Excitement & Join our Journey

Welcome to the travel blog of Rotary District 5580's Group Study Exchange (GSE) Team which will embark on an exciting five week goodwill / vocational exchange to Nagoya, Japan in November, 2009.

Here, our hybrid American-Canadian team of enthusiastic and adventurous young professionals, along with our lovely, talented and fearless team leader, will share cultural experiences and engage in unique vocational learning opportunities.

If you have come to this site, you are likely: a Rotarian, family member, friend or colleague of one of the team members, or... are just plain blog-curious. Either way, we encourage you to check our site often to learn about us, follow our progress as a team and of course, keep in touch as we explore Japan.

We thank Rotary in advance for the adventure of a life time and to all readers, we invite you to share our excitement and join our journey.

Sincerely,

GSE Team Japan 2009

________________________

GSEのホストの皆様へ、

私どものチームブログへようこそ。

チームリーダーのイボンヌ、そしてチームのメンバーの、ローズィー、レベッカ、ベン、ジュリーです。

この度の交換留学という機会に恵まれましたこと、先より御礼を申し上げます。

この留学におきまして私どもは大変な感激、また皆様に会って学ばせて頂くことをまちどおしく思っております。

短文ではございますがご挨拶まで。

GSEチーム　ジャパン　2009

Monday, November 16, 2009

Host Family - Week 2 (by Ben)

For week 2 I spent 5 days with Mr. Takashi Itoh. Takashi runs an employment agency near downtown Nagoya. In the evenings, Takashi introduced me to a number great Japanese traditions.

One particular highlights was a light display at a botanical gardens about 20 minutes outside of Nagoya. There were over 4.5 million LED lights on display. It was one of those few instances in life where your brain can't absorb what it is seeing. The display was beyond belief and the team hopes to make it back before the end of November.

Here is a video clip of just one small part of the show:

Note the size of the people in relation to the size of the display. The green smoke in the background changed colors and there were "shooting stars" within the field that didn't show up in the video. Again, these are 100% LED lights:

Later in the week we had the chance to go to the Nagoya Orchid Garden. It was an amazing display of orchids far larger than anything I had ever seen. They even made a 15 ft Christmas tree out of orchids.