The start of orientation

We left Narita on Wednesday to come to Hayama where we are having orientation at the Graduate School Soken-dai.  But before I left I had to take a picture of the Christmas-themed hotel across the street from where we stayed.

About a hundred of us fellows got into three buses and had about a two hour journey from Narita to Hayama, where we have our orientation at the Sokendai graduate school.  After the welcome orientation, we were checked into our rooms, and it is an amazing view from our balcony.

After a fabulous lunch (a variety of fresh tunas over rice, which I should have taken a picture of), we had more orientation and took a group picture.  Hopefully, they will give us a copy of that.  In the evening, there was a welcome reception, where they provided us with quite a feast.  Note the enormous fish head, that we picked the meat off of.

I tried to stay up at late as I could, but was passed out by 9:30pm and as a result woke up at about 3:45am and couldn't get back to sleep.  Today we had an amazing breakfast, followed by our first Japanese lesson, then an amazing lunch (pictures of the meals are below).  They are feeding us sooo well here.

After lunch, there were special lectures.  The first from an astronomy professor here at Sokendai, and the next a cultural lecture on music from a professor at Tokyo University of the Arts.  There was a performance as part of the second lecture with three instruments: the koto, the shakuhachi, and the shamisen.

After dinner we had a "cultural experience", and some of the host families were joining us for it.  I had been emailing with my host mother for a few weeks now, and she told me to look for her in her green hat.  So this morning I had written to tell her to look for me in my green skirt to complement her green hat :) We found each other right away, without needing the name signs.  My host mother came with my host father, their granddaughter, and a close friend. During the cultural experience I was able to learn some origami and calligraphy, as well as attend a tea ceremony and drink some of the matcha tea.

We parted ways for the night, but after lessons and lectures tomorrow they will come back to pick me up for the weekend home-stay, which I am very much looking forward to!