KENTARO!!!!!!!!

I had a long-time friend come visit me in Japan this past weekend! Although Kentaro lives in Japan, he had to come by plane from Honshu (the main Island in Japan) in order to get here to visit me. Kentaro stayed in Asahikawa for the weekend and then we went to Sapporo together on Monday. This was such an amazing weekend, but first there is a connection to Kentaro and the fact that I am in Japan that I need to explain.

My friendship with Kentaro Matsumoto is special. I first met Kentaro when I was in the 3rd grade. How does that work out? Well, in 3rd grade, Kentaro's family came to America because of Mr. Matsumoto's job. He lived a couple of streets down from me and we became great friends. Throughout our friendship, I was introduced to the Japanese culture by visiting his house and spending time with the Matsumoto family. My brother and I were invited to Japanese outings with them and it was very interesting to both of us. Sadly, in 7th grade, Mr. Matsumoto's job was completed here and Kentaro and his family moved back to Japan. Our friendship never faded, though. Last summer, for their vacation, the Matsumoto family came to visit us for a while. So, I guess I would say that my interest in Japan began with Kentaro and the Matsumoto family and that is part of the reason I chose Japanese as a language I wanted to learn. So, when I found out that I received the scholarship to go to Japan, the first thing I thought of was that maybe, this time, I could visit Kentaro, but when I learned that I would be on a different island, my hopes of that were gone. In any case, I contacted him by email that I was in Hokkaido (the northern most Island of Japan) he was excited to learn that I was there, but it was very far away. That was a big problem. Kentaro got around that dilemma by using his frequent flyer miles XD.

Back to this weekend. On Saturday morning, I watched Keroro Gunso at 10:00 (something I look forward to here in Japan when I get the chance) and then my host mom and I went to Furano to take her parents to their therapy. Afterwards, in the mid afternoon, we went to Asahikawa train station to pick up Kentaro!!!! I was super excited to see my friend. Kentaro, my host mom, and I all got along great with good laughs. My host mom had to go pick up her parents from therapy and take them back home. So, during that time, Kentaro and I talked, went to the supermarket to look around, and shared things that happened since we saw each last year. When my host mom, Mrs. Mikami, came home from taking her parents back to Furano, we thought it would be nice if we would all go get something to eat together. We went out for kaiten sushi! Kentaro's and my favorite, LOL. We went and had a few plates and then my host mom did not like how sushi was not coming out fast enough. She said she wanted fresh. So we went to a different one, lol. I know she really did that for us, so that it would be just right! It was so much fun being with Kentaro. When I found out I was going to Hokkaido, I thought I would not be able to see him, but since he was able to come to me, I was very, very happy. We went back home and talked for a while and then headed downtown to the hotel where Kentaro was staying. He was staying in a capsule hotel, which both of us have never seen before. It was not as tightly spaced as I thought, but was still only enough room for just one person and that's all! I was actually surprised there was a TV in there. He put his bags in and then we went around the city for a while. We thought about what to do for Sunday, and our plans were to visit the zoo and the Furano lavender farms. (The lavender farms are what I wanted to see the most in Hokkaido.)