Kelly Anderson

Today my host parents took Ruki and I to Yokohama, a large port city about 25 miles south of Tokyo. Yokohama is to Tokyo as Philadelphia is to New York. It's Japan's second-most populated city and has a bit more of a blue collar, underdog feel than its neighbor to the north. Nobody from my host family had visited before, so it was a learning experience for all of us. Downtown Yokohama: I love planning concepts that incorporate Ferris wheels into urban areas. I have a feeling people in Montgomery County might be slightly less enthusiastic.  It took about an hour and a half to get there by train, and after arriving, we went to the Cup Noodle Museum, which tells the story of instant ramen noodles and their inventor, Momofuku Ando, who started the Cup of Noodles brand in 1971. The museum was recently renovated and very modern. Standing in the lobby, I felt I could have just as easily been at The Met and not at a museum dedicated to the history of a food sold at gas stati...

It was another big day for the Koyama household. Ruki had school today (most Japanese secondary schools have Saturday classes every two weeks), so my host mom stayed home while Kanon, Mr. Koyama, and I ventured out together. We left the house at 6 a.m. to drop off Kanon at her swim meet, which started at 7. After taking the train to the other side of Tokyo, we walked to the swimming complex. It filled an entire city block. The swimming competition was the annual championship meet for the entire Tokyo metropolitan area, and when we arrived, there were at least 700 junior high schoolers waiting to get into the pool. After watching Kanon get warmed up, my host father and I left the pool for the Tsukiji fish market. Biking to the train station at 6:00 a.m. Kanon (right) and a friend on her school's swim team The swimming complex It was huge Tsukiji (pronounced ski-ji) is the largest wholesale seafood market in the world and a major tourist attraction. The...