After we experienced kamishibai, we went to the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art. There they had an exhibition of a famous painter from Holland, named Johannes Vermeer. His paintings are very elegant and realistic. We had a wonderful afternoon enjoying and appreciating every painting there.

On 8^th August, my host sister took me to Nagashima Spa Land, an amusement park that has the longest roller coaster in Japan. And my host sister and I are both crazy-loving ride on roller coaster! So, we rode every roller coaster as much as possible. There are totally seven roller coasters, we rode not only once but also twice for a tallest roller coaster. It was very exciting for me to have such a great experience in Japan. In Taiwan, we don’t have these kinds of roller coasters. It was really impressive and a lot of fun. We really had a wonderful time there.

(“Umi” Yi-Ting Cheng from Taiwan)

Interacting with host families is always a unique and different experience. This is my third time traveling with World Campus – Japan, but I have no procedure on how to deal with new host families. You have to feel your way every time. I have experienced many fun families, we are always very nice and polite to each other. We have a great week together, and you we leave with new impulses and a cool new view on the Japanese and world culture.

Sometimes though, your family seems to match your personality better than other times. One of my favorite English words is “awesome”. I love animals. I love music. My sense of humor is usually hard to understand.

During my stay in Uda city, I was introduced to the Ensatsu family. The procedure on finding host families was to look for a certain item that would be in one of many boxes. Mine was a dog collar. At once I got a vague hope that there might be a dog in my coming family.

When I finally got home with them it turns out they have 4 dogs and 5 cats. The amount of joy that met me every time I entered the house from the animals was great. The family itself too was equally cheerful at all times. My host father’s name was “Osamu”, which sounds just like “awesome”.-a word the whole family immediately caught on to.

They bravely tried my Norwegian cooking, which usually comes with some skepticism.
On host family day they took me to the ninja village in Ueda, a day I know I’ll never forget. They helped me in every way they could when I needed to go see the dentist.

The last night, they even played some songs for me. I played and sang some songs I liked in return, and they listened with great interest. They even made amazing drawings in my “host family book”, that I know I will cherish forever.

It’s a funny thing about likes and dislikes. If there’s something you dislike it’s easy to put your finger on it. But when you really like something, it usually becomes part of you without you noticing at once. All of a sudden, our time together was almost over. I found myself really not wanting to leave.

And now that I had to leave, I spend a lot of time thinking about how I want to live my life when I come back home. It’s amazing how much joy you can bring to a family just with words, simple jokes, and a smile.

I am so thankful I get to spend time with all of you; Masako, Osamu, Masumi, Akari, Minori and Eri. I will never forget your kindness, honesty and great sense of adventure and humor. To me, those are all the tools you need to be a great world citizen.

And I know leaving the house is a challenge with 9 animals to take care of. But if the opportunity to come to Norway should arise, my door is always open. And I will definitely be back in Uda to see them.

The bond that is created in only one week is amazing.

(Henning, Norway)

This was the third time for us to host for WCI. Each time, we look forward to encountering young adults from various countries around the globe, and this has become one of our fun annual events. This is because by being a host family, we gain many things that could not be learned by being abroad for business or as a tourist. It is created through meeting and living with a new family member from another country and culture. We look forward to discussing and feeling our life styles, cultures and ways of thinking in various daily life situations.

This summer, my eight year old daughter started studying English at her own will. This was probably another result of our encounter with WCI and becoming a host family. Although we support WCI as a host family, I always feel that we gain even more from all of you from WCI.

This time, Christine, a Korean American came to our household. As she is majoring in Japanese at her college, she spoke great Japanese to us. Since she has a lot of interest in the Japanese language and culture, we discussed many and various things everyday. I think that this time was also an important one for us to look back on our own country. Our time spent with Christine will continue to be our family treasure.

We hope that WCI will continue on with evermore richened activities. We also look forward to gaining family members all over the world. A final, big thank you to World Campus International!

(Yasuhiro Takahashi, Toride City)

One thing that is great about the World Campus — Japan tour is your involvement with host families. I have found that there are many similarities and differences between my host families in Ueda City and Tama. Maybe it is because each city is so different from the other; Ueda City is very much rural with its rolling mountains, and Tama is a suburban center near Tokyo. Despite the contrast in locations, both families were awesome! They were so caring and loving towards me.

In Tama, I stayed with the Kitami family. Mie was my host mom and Atushi was my host dad, they were so amazing and nice. I also had a 13 year old host brother named Shun and a nine year old host sister named Ami. The children were so nice and adorable. Even at the very beginning, I could feel that they really loved me, because they tried carried my super heavy suitcase up to the 3rd floor! I knew that they couldn’t do that and I told them that I could lift it by myself, but they still tried to be nice and helpful. Oh, so so so cute! They are also a very sporty bunch. Shun plays tennis, and he is in the tennis club, and Ami swims a lot and can do any type of swimming style you can think of. I was never bored with such active kids.

The parents truly cared for me. They gave me so much food because they didn’t want me starving and it was delicious by the way. They also really paid attention to my health, because they knew that I am allergic to cold and dust, so they always asked me about the house condition.

One of the best experiences with the family actually involved a few other participants and their host families! You know what they said, the more, the merrier! The Kitami family just happened to be quiet close with four other families who were also hosting World Campus — Japan participants. One evening the five families all went to a peaceful park to have a picnic and play with fireworks. The food and fireworks were fine but it was the families that made so enjoyable. The families also went together to Disneyland on Host Family Day! Oh how exciting that was! I was in Japan, in Disneyland! It was really unbelievable for me. I was in Disneyland!

The Kitami family really treated me like their one of their own. They would love me so much and they have become a tattoo in my mind and soul.

(Aloysia Lita, Indonesia)