It begins

The week has concluded and it has been an amazing first week. The plain flight took 14 hours and the train ride another 2 and a half. I went by the shinkansen which is the bullet train and it was very wonderful and fast. I was greeted at the station at 11pm where I went to stay with a couple until my home stay family arrived back from a trip. I stayed with them for 2 days. They were very nice to me and made sure I felt at home. They also took me out the last night i stayed with them to a Japanese restaurant and it was very delicious and they were surprised that I enjoyed all the food as it is Japanese understanding Americans do not eat much raw fish. it is also assumed that my favorite foods were hamburger. lol but we learned many interesting and surprising things from our assumptions. The next day i went to church in sanjo and met many of the church members this service was in English and Japanese but they usually it is in Japanese. Once a month they have a bilingual service, the members ranges from 10-17 people. After church that day I was able to go to a kite festival in tsubame sanjo where i saw this huge kite as big as 8 feet high and 6 feet wide and it was pretty amazing how they flew. They would fly them on each side of the bank and have them fight. This tradition was created out of the upper class and lower fighting over the bank because the lower class boys could not fly kites near the bank. So the fight began and became a tradition.
I believe the church is in a home not a traditional western building. The place I am staying is more in the country than in the big city though there are many cities around sanjo. Niigata, Nagaoka, etc. These are around 30-45 minutes away by car. This whole week I have already done many things ranging from observing classes meeting the students, meeting my home stays friends and being a practice bag for English. I do not mind at all, but I was somewhat surprised how many people even if they knew but one word in English wanted to say it to me. The people have been very nice and kind, and I hope not to get used to this, but return their kindest with my own. Because I am in the country and not the city there are few foreigners and so this is what might spark the interest in wanting to speek English with me. Beside me and robin and a Swedish man I don’t know any other western people. Most people that are foreign are Chinese or Korean. I think this place will be a big blessing to me as I hope I can be to them. Many people are very surprised that I would want to visit such a small city of 80,000 people. That is one of the first questions they ask me, and are always surprised with my answer.(I wanted to come to a small city) they assumed I would want to visit Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto very big cities. I have traveled to Niigata city briefly and it was a big city and I enjoyed it. I have had many foods in Japan and I have enjoyed them all which have surprised everyone I talk to. They are also surprised on how much Japanese I know (I know very little) but that little is much more than most foreigners know just starting out in Japan know. They have all been more than willing to help me learn Japanese. They all teach different things, but I am more than thankful for their kindness. Today which is Sunday is my welcome party and I hope that goes well. I have already built a good relationship with one of my home stays sons and we plan to go to karaoke and bowling. He is a student at the University of Niigata. He would like to learn English and he is pretty good, so we will study together with me helping him and he helps me a lot with Japanese. I have already been able to learn so much about the culture and language just in this short week. I hope that it will continue and I thank all of you for your prayers.