Lynn Canyon Park

I was looking forward to visiting the park since Kaily talked about it in the morning as we don't have many old growth forest in Japan because of its geographical feature and weather. And I just thought it would be nice to take a walk through the forest in such good sunny day. 

So we arrived and had a very healthy lunch, two sandwiches, slices of watermelons and some strawberries. After that I took some pictures of beautiful nature there to show them to my parents who are waiting for me to come back from Canada in Japan. I was surprised how every trees were so tall and how there were only few trashes thrown away on the ground. Because like in Mt. Fuji, the most famous mountain in Japan, people have been throwing so much trashes while they are climbing. I thought Canadian people are very eco-friendly and Japanese people should learn to be more environmentally friendly. 

On the way to the river bank there was a long suspension bridge and from the bridge we could see a deep canyon and a river flowing in the middle. But I was too busy to be scared of hight and couldn't really see the canyon. 

We went down some stairs and hiked for about 20 minutes and finally arrived to the river bank. There were many people swimming and jumping off from a small cliff. We weren't allowed to swim so my friends and I took off our socks and went into the water. The water was freezing cold but pleasant at the same time. I had so much fun that I didn't even care about pebbles that were hurting my feet. There were some rocks that had thin moss on them and they were really slippery so we had to be careful not to step on those kind of rocks. 

On the way back we did more hiking and I felt like I was in one of those fantasy movies like Narnia. I absolutely loved it. 

Dream catcher

Dream catcher is a circle ring with feathers and beads that is hung above your bed to catch bad dreams that disturb sleeping with a spider web in the middle while good dreams pass through. Then the good dreams can slide down the feathers to your head. 

So yesterday we all made dream catchers. The part where you had to make a spider web with a string was a little bit tricky but I enjoyed it anyway. Even though I had to start over my spider web several times, at the end I was very satisfied with what I made so I've decided to hung mine beside my bed in Japan. I'll also try to make one in Japan and teach my brother how to as well. At the end of the class we took some pictures as a class, each of us holding our own dream catchers and had a really good time together. 

                                                   

The weekend

The Saturday

Melissa brought me to the States again to go and see the parade in the town. The parade started from around 11 am and finished at 1 pm. At the very beginning of the parade some police cars and horses came down and made sure that the street was clear. Then there were tractors and more horses. We also had people throwing candies for children. So every time we saw a person with a bag with candies in it Savannah and I ran to get some. However because it was really sunny and hot outside we soon got tired and stopped. 

I enjoyed watching the parade very much because we don't usually have a parade in Japan. Tyler told me it was a common thing in the U.S. I wish we could do those kind of things in Japan too.

After the parade we went to have a lunch in a Mexico restaurant. I ordered two small tacos again because I wasn't really hungry. Then we all went home and had a nap since we were tired. 

Day 2

We woke up at 9 in the morning and ready to go. I was still sleepy from the day before but excited to go back to Camino island and meet Melissa's friend. We drove about one and a half hour and we arrived to this beautiful house with a blue roof and a small garden with some vegetabeles and flowers plant in. He and his wife welcomed us into their house. He told us that he also used to have a Japanese exchange student years ago and he couldn't really speak English. Every time he asked the exchage student something he said "Oh yes". The family didn't know wherether he was understanding what they said. So he decided to test the student. He asked "Can I step on your foot?" and the student said "Oh yes". So when I introduced myself, he asked me "Can I step on your foot?" to test if I could understand English and everyone laughed. 

They prepared some blueberry pancakes, nice baked baccons and some sunny side up eggs for us. It'd been years since I had pancakes last time because we don't really eat pancakes in Japan. But they were really delishous. 

After we've eaten the nice breakfast the guy from the church came over to the house and showed us around the forest near the house. I was surprised that the every tree I saw was so tall and beautiful. It was so quiet. The only things we could hear were us talking and a lovely bird singing delightfully. 

Then we went back to the house to head off to the church. When we entered the church, it was already started. We sang songs together with the band on the stage. After that a guy went up to the stage and taught us about the bibble and we listened him for about an hour. Although that was my first time to be at an church I really enjoyed it. And even though I don't have any religious belief I appreciated the things the guy taught us about and all of those singings. 

At the end of the day I realiced that I've experienced lots of things that I couldn't have in Japan. 

Day 1

After the 9 hours of long flight from Japan I finally arrived in Canada. I was so tried and sleepy but still excited to see my host family I was going to stay with for the next two weeks. At the school where we were going to meet our host families a woman who seemed to be a leader of all of host families started calling students’ names. When my name was called, I saw this woman with curly brown hair and a stoll on her neck waving at me and I certainly noticed that she was my host family.

So in the car on the way to my host mother, Melissa, ’s mother’s house to pick her daughter, Savannah, we introduced ourselves and talked about our own countries and families. It was really nice talking with her. After picking up Savannah we headed off to her boyfriend, Tyler, ’s place in the U.S.

Tyler and his family were really kind and friendly. They were interested in the difference between Japanese culture and American culture. As we talked I could also learn about their culture and customs.

After the enjoyable chat with them Tyler, Savannah, Melissa and I went to Camino island by car. I’d never been to the U.S. so everything was new to me like farms, animals, trees and the country songs Tyler’s played in the car. Unfortunately we couldn't find any hotel so we returned to where we depertured. But before going back we had some Mexican food. They told me that Mexican food was really popular in the U.S. I had fish tacos and it was really good. I liked the creamy bean sauce they put on the side of the plate. 

We all came back to Tyler’s very tired and went to bed straight away. As I was getting ready to go to bed I reflected on the adventures I’d experienced and realised I’ve already liked this place.