Host Family Day

Breakfast

Breakfast was wonderful again! I really like the persimmons. I went out for a short run. Michaiki showed me where to go. He said, hidari, migi, massugu (left, right, straight). I made it with no problem until I had to get back home. I got close to home and continued straight when I should have gone left. I got really nervous because I told him I would be 20 minutes. If I was late, he would probably come nervously looking for me. I turned back, made the right turn not sure if it really was correct. I ran along the road hoping to find the Komatsu digging equipment that is near his street. I was about to turn back again thinking it was wrong, but then there they were. So, it all worked out.

It'll all work out! What could possibly go wrong? Those words have become our trip motto. When we were getting ready to go the night before coming to Japan, Grandpa made a comment about his concern that the two of us only had each other to rely upon. Adrienne said, "Oh! Those two traveling together will be quite the experience!" Rebecca said, "What could possibly go wrong?"

Running club
After breakfast, we went to Michiaki's running club. He has a club of elementary school children that he trains. We were introduced, then four of the students came up to give us "Running Club shirts". Nikki and Kyle were there too. He asked us to lead them in stretching. We did that for while, then taught them how to play link tag. It was really fun, but I don't think everyone knew what was going on. We laughed and had fun though. After that, he passed out a few light dodge balls and we played a game where people ran around dodging the balls. If you get hit twice, you have to do 5 pushups. We were all running around having fun. We both did pushups and laughed a lot. Then, we went to the 1k loop for a run. Rebecca walked with a lady named Hiro and her daughter. Hiro is hoping to host some runners next year. They had fun talking even though communication was a little bit limited. Hiro really does speak quite well. There are so many people that would be fun to stay with here. We gave out a few STG and USATF pins. The children we so happy and having lots of fun. Some wanted to hug and cling to us. Some wanted us to tease them. It was a great start to the day!

Eddie and Yoko
After the running club, we went to see Yoko and Eddie in their new house. They are moving in on Monday, but were there getting some things set. We had a fun visit. They brought out the packaged pancakes that they knew I liked before and some persimmon and drinks. They gave us thoughtful gifts based upon what they remembered about us. We had gifts for them, but didn't know we were going there, so they were at the house. We'll give Eddie the gifts where we leave on Monday. He will come to the send off at the town hall.

Hyper-hockey
Next, we went to HyperHockey at the mall. It was an air hockey game in the arcade. He called it Japan versus USA. It's doubles air hockey. We started and it was fun, but nothing different than what we would do in America. Then, about 30 mini pucks came sliding onto the table. There were pucks going everywhere and it was so much fun! Once those got cleared out, we played with the single puck for a while, then it happened again. We were all laughing and having a great time. We did that for about 15 minutes, then went to get lunch in the mall.

Lunch
We looked around at a few places and decided upon "Pepper Lunch". They were rice surrounded by meat. The come in hot skillets where we wondered if the meat was cooked enough, but by the time we got them to the table and we turned meat over, it was cooked. There must have been some coating on the meat because it was caramelized a little bit.

100 Yen store
After that, we shopped in the mall. We had a great time in the dollar store. We had so many great gifts and things from there, then at the check out we learned that they don't take cards there! So, Toshiko gave us yen and we gave her dollars to make things work.

Running group
We looked around some more, then went to Komeda's Coffee where we had been with Eddie and Yoko for breakfast after the race in 2014. We had drinks there with some of Michiako's running club. It was fun to visit. Nobody spoke much English, but we got by. I spoke to the 56 year-old lady a while. She is nervous about the race and doesn't sleep much the night before. Three of them will come to STG next year to run the marathon. I'm hoping I'll figure out how to meet up with them.

They brought out the Komeda's Coffee donut with ice cream. We all shared some.

In the evening, we exchanged gifts after another good dinner. I had given a clapper for practicing starts in the morning so he could use it at practice. It didn't take too much effort to explain what it was for and Michiaki said the Kanji on it was correct. It says, "Coach Koishi" on one side and "Y to Ibigawa" on the other. He used it at practice and seemed to be glad for it.

Michiaki showed us his bib number. He has now run the Ibigawa Marathon 30 times. He has a special bib number and a long sleeved shirt for the 30th time. He really loves doing the race.

We have been getting to bed around 8:30 to 9:00. Tonight was no different and we got to sleep quickly after laughing about the day and thinking about "What could possibly go wrong?".