Our first look at Japan

On the first morning we enjoyed breakfast with out host family, which consisted of bread, fried eggs, potato salad and fresh fruit. Mr. Arai has several orange trees in his backyard, which produce enough oranges to keep them supplied through out the year. They all produce oranges at different times of the year. The ones that are ripe currently are very large and very sweet. After breakfast we toured his garden and then left for Izumi City offices. After arriving at the city offices we met the mayor in a formal meeting room. Mayor Tsuji is new to the office and has run 5 marathons. After meeting the Mayor, we drove to the top Taiko studio in Izumi. The class played several songs and then taught us about the various drums and techniques used to perform Taiko. We were then given a lesson on how to drum and performed with the class (we need more practice). In the afternoon, we visited a Saori Weaving Workshop where we made scarves using hand-weaving looms. Becky was very good at it and I survived. We were able to produce 5ft of scarf in about 1 hour. Many of the people who were weaving on that day were producing very large items at much faster pace. When were finished, we needed to tie the ends of our scarves to finish them off. The mother of the man who ran the store helped us by tying one end of each of our scarves. She completed both of ours in the time it took us to each do our own and she was 96 years old. After departing from Saori Weaving, we drove to the Athletic Club where we met Mr. Sakaguchi, the Izumi City runner who ran in the 2009 Twin Cities Marathon. He led me through a park on an 8 mile run where I saw elementary, middle, and high schools, Japanese homes, and gardens. The day ended with a celebration and dinner at a local restaurant, the Rouge Tomato.