Ismail Presents Japan

I wanted to share our JAs essays with everyone, so I'll be uploading blogs for each JA. Here is Ismail's!

My Experience at the 23^rd Annual Asian Pacific Children's Convention

by Ismail Sanchez

             Firstly, I would really like to start this paper by writing a few thank you's to the Japan America Society of Georgia for selecting me for this wonderful opportunity to even go to Japan, and to my host family, for showing their kindness and generosity the entire time. I have always wanted to go to Japan and now, I actually received the opportunity and had the best time ever and hope to go again. Thank You!

            My host family and I did a lot of things together. We mostly biked around the city instead of driving, which was a lot of fun. We biked to Fukuoka tower to see the sights. It was 234 meters high – the highest I have ever been in a building. You could see all of Fukuoka. I could also see mountains in the background of the city. Shan, my host father, took me to a museum for a one-on-one experience. I was in awe by the amount of history that Fukuoka itself stores. In the museum, I learned that Fukuoka was bombed by the United States Air Force during World War II. I did not know this.

            I also attended school for a day with Sakiho, my host sister. It was pretty cool to see the kids have fun in school, although no one in my class could speak English, but they made me feel comfortable. I did a worksheet on math and got an 100% from the teacher. In Japan I noticed that the kids take off their normal shoes and put on shoes designated especially for school. I also participated in cleaning the classroom at the end of day.

            My host family and I went to the Fukuoka baseball museum at Fukuoka Yahoo! Dome, where the Softbank Hawks play. Even though we didn't see a live game, we saw the team practicing on the field.

            One night, my family took me and some of their friends to a sushi restaurant and we ate a lot of sushi. It was very tasty. The sushi comes around on a conveyor belt and you order through a computer. We had everything from raw squid to salmon roe.

            We also traveled to Nagasaki to visit my host grandmother. They were having a festival there so we saw a lot of hanabe (fireworks). She handmade two purses for my mother and sister. For dinner that night, we went to a restaurant and I ate unagi which is Japanese for eel! It was delicious.

            Sometimes my host family was too busy to take me out. On those two days, I spent time with Clay, and Modeline's host families. One one of those days I went with Clay's and Modeline's host family shopping. On that day, I went to a tea ceremony and later ate a giant sushi dinner. On the next day that my host family was busy, I went with Clay to the Fukuoka Marine World. The animals were amazing! Our lunch on that day consisted partially of Sea Snail! When I returned to my host family, we had an outdoor seaside barbeque. The stray cats were eating the seafood scraps. We then lighted our own hanabe and they were really cool. We went back home and to bed. 

             In my opinion, I think the most memorable day's of the trip was first meeting my host family for the first time, and first meeting my new friends at camp. I loved the day I met my friends because I met people I could hang out with. When I first saw Kevin, Oscar, and Manny, they looked like really cool people. I liked meeting my host family because I was waiting for such a long time for that moment and mentally it just blew me away. I also loved the day I met my host family because just seeing their faces made me smile and the time I got to spend with them and my friends was a blessing.

            My favorite food had to be unagi, eel. I liked it because it had so much flavor. My least favorite food had to be sea snail. It was rubbery and chewy. Plus the taste was bad.

            The three really good friends I made were Kevin, Oscar, and Manny. Kevin and Oscar are from Oakland, California. Manny is from Auckland, New Zealand. I first met Kevin and Oscar at Seoul. We did not really talk much though. When we got to the dorms at the Marine House, Atlanta was sharing a dorm with Oakland so there were only five people in the room: Clay, Kevin, Oscar, David (Oakland's chaperone) and I. I soon made friends with Kevin and Oscar. They seemed like very good friends that I would always remember and keep in touch with. I met Manny while I was playing soccer one day. He was on my team and was very good at soccer. Soon, I asked what his name was. He said Manaia but I could call him Manny. We soon went everywhere together. We would play soccer every single day we were together as well. I had a great opportunity to meet really awesome kids. I still email Manny, Kevin, and Oscar. 

               Overall, I learned that representing your true country and making friends with kids from other countries that your country might even have conflict with politically is quite an experience. Also, sometimes you might want to represent a “cooler” country than your own, but when you are confronted with kids that were born, live, and our proud of their countries, you feel proud to say you represent the country you are truly from. I also learned that while you are a kid, you can do things even adults cannot do, which is make unbreakable bonds with kids just like you, but from around world. There are no political boundaries that you cannot cross. You are young and innocent and you can be an ambassador of world peace or 世界平和 in Japanese.