About 10 days ago I changed host families which marked the halfway point of my time teaching English in Tokyo. I have another week and a half in Tokyo, then I depart for a summer camp, and following that I'll be traveling for a week. I'll be back to Tokyo for 4 days at the very end, but mostly to say final goodbyes to all the kind and generous friends I've made here.
Before changing host families, the neighborhood of my first homestay threw me a going away barbeque.
During this afternoon of grilled vegetables, fish, and meat and other Japanese foods, one couple found out that I would be in Nagano prefecture (2-3 hours northwest of Tokyo) for a week as a counselor at an international summer camp in late July. They weren't especially chatty people, but this excited them and without saying anything, they ran inside their house and brought out a copy of "Dwell magazine". There was an article about this epic piece of property in Nagano and my neighbor flipped through the pages and then pointed to a picture of him and his wife. As it turns out, these neighbors go to Nagano almost every weekend to semi-camp on their multi-acre land. I say "semi" because it's surely unlike any camping you've ever seen before. The couple said that if I came back to Japan I could join them for a weekend and that is a promise I have every intention of keeping. Check it out and be sure to flip through the slideshow: http://www.dwell.com/house-tours/article/platform-living
Most of the neighbors knew that the couple frequently went to Nagano, but they had no idea what their camping entailed. It's such an amazing thing when you think you kind of understand someone, and then you learn that the person has this whole other passion that you never could have imagined. It's such an amazing thing to be reminded of how remarkable people can be.
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