Yes, it was the home stay. Final the “Home Stay” I was waiting for. We had arrived here at this place last evening and it was time to get going.
In my home, there was a grandfather, a young grandfather he seemed, a grandmother, again young, and their grandson, the cute and lovely, Taiyo. He made our even pleasant and memorable with his jumps and kicks and punches. And not to forget the cat, that I barely saw. :/ I was there with the two tutors, Koki and Yogie. Both of them really helpful and supportive, and spent half of their time at home stay translating things to me.
The morning of 16th was pleasant for another reason. We didn’t have to wake up at 6 and be there for the health check-up on time. We woke up at 8. Woosh! It reminded me of my vacations. We had our breakfast after that (I don’t really remember what we had) and we were off to the Island Tour. We saw caves, memorials, farming fields, and yes, site of suicide. The tour gave me immense knowledge about Ie Island’s history, basically during the World War II. I also learnt about a very interesting thing. Outside a cave we saw a stone. The family explained to us that it was meant for pregnant women. They came there and lifted the stone. Depending upon their ability to lift the stone, we could decide whether the child is going to be a girl or a boy.
Later in the day, we went for beach combing. The second time in this program. We all were extremely tired and no one was interested in picking up the garbage. Still, I don’t know how, we managed to fill up almost 5 baggages of trash. Cheers to us! After that we went to the beach for some swimming and have a leisure time.
In the evening we practiced the song that we’d learnt the previous night on Sanshin. Koki was the best of us 3. He could actually play the whole song without break and sing simultaneously.
After the delicious dinner (I’m sorry, I’m too bad at remembering what I ate) we went back to bed. It was the end of another exciting day in this program.

Group: 2-5
Country: India
Name: Akshit Chopra