Matsuyama Japanese Exchange Program

I just noticed that the last time I blogged was back in Feb! Wow, I know I have been busy but I really need to make the time to blog because I know Uncle Howie reads these! So a few weeks ago, we hosted two girls from our sister city of Matsuyama Japan. The Asian community in Sacramento has a very close relationship with Matsuyama. This particular event was sponsored through SASF (Sacramanto Asian Sports Foundation), we have an exchange program where Matsuyama sends over a group of basketball players to participate in the SASF basketball tournament and SASF does the same, we send over a group of kids to play in a Japanese basketball tournament. We also do the same thing with Boy Scouts. As part of the program, the kids are invited to stay in a family home for a week. We were fortunate enough to sponsor Misuzu and Mako, both are 15 year old girls. I was a little hesitant at first but it turned out to be a great experience and would gladly open our house again. In the short amount of time, we made some very good friends with not only our girls but a group of the kids in general. Since we kept busy every night doing group activities, we really had the chance to get to know them. They were all so wonderful and fun to be around. I know Cori really bonded with the girls, they would purchase little knick knacks for Cori while they were on their sight seeing adventures, it was really cute. Even though the girls spoke very little english, we communciated just fine and have since kept in touch via email. Even though a few weeks have passed since they have left, we think of them often and look forward to the day that we can see them again.

Sho and Kohei with Marissa

Shizuru at Target

Group bowling trip

Mako, Shizuru, Misuzu and Marissa

SASF and Matsuyma basketball teams

Misuzu and Mako

Mako Justin and Misuzu

Peace and Love!