July 23rd, 2008: New Eyes Part I

Today was such a hectic day, but it yielded many rewards for the whole delegation. I tossed and turned the night before, trying to force my body into an exhausted sleep stage because of the time change, and succeeded in getting 8 broken hours of Dreamland. I woke up at 8:30 am, my mind set on organizing my temporary room as I gathered my disorientated thoughts whilst driving away any residual fatigue.

The small room accommodated for what I unpacked. I placed clothes on hangers, folded socks together, and withdrew gifts hidden amongst the suitcases. I placed my luggage close to a space beneath the window seat before heading downstairs with 2 more gifts steadied quietly in my arms.

Eriko was already awake, her translator and paperwork neatly covering the table top, as I approached. She greeted with questions of a good hostess.

"Would you like something to drink?" I accepted the tea, and once breakfast was established with different flavored breads- pan with sesame, pan with raisins--we began a conversation about the different aspects of our lives. She asked about cereal and I asked about her family as I skimmed over translated pieces of her speech for later on.

It was very peaceful, enjoying great bread and bananas and sharing stories about my life.

At 11 am, we set up the iron, and as I ironed my business attire, she watched curiously, asking me questions about my life and sending me smiling when she thought of a word she couldn't translate. At 11:30 am, we separated to change and pack our things together for our big trip to Odawara's City Hall. We set out at 12:30 pm towards Chris, another City delegate like myself, whose host family was nearby. They drove us to City Hall, and from there, we began a lengthy tour of the building.

We met Shoko, an able and devoted member of Odawara's International Friendship Association. She went through our schedule for our stay in Odawara before we went to meet the mayor and the council members.

At first, I assumed the mayor was one of the three older people seated at the head of the long table. The real mayor entered shortly after, and I was taken aback. The mayor looked quite young, especially when he broke into a smile. He was quite handsome, with his smoothed black hair, small black eyes, and broad shoulders, and I was immediately smitten.

He understood much English, though limited in responding, and after introductions to the City Council, we introduced ourselves in Japanese. I was the first to go.

I introduced myself with my name, age, and school in attendance before bowing, and the introduction was one I would have to repeat 2 more times later on. The mayor gave us gifts, traditional wooden sweet plates, and we imparted a small box of chocolates and a T-shirt to him.

Soon, we were being ushered into a smaller room and repeated the same process, accepting gifts from the vice chairman of the Assembly. We left to tour the rest of City Hall, and soon enough, we were off towards the International Lounge, our destination for the Welcome Party planned by the Odawara delegates. We helped set up, moving chairs and tables to make the room look more presentable. I was impressed with the girls. They held a blueprint for the tables and chairs. I felt more reassured by the preparedness.

As more people from the City Hall came to assist we were called by Shoko-san to follow her. We traveled down the stairs and onto the streets in search of a shoe store. The shoe store we stopped at was filled with brown and black colored shoes. It had few sneakers, but an immense amount of semi-formal and business casual shoe wear.

Shoko-san approached the store clerk and politely asked for indoor shoes. Indoor shoes are shoes used to walk around inside buildings. We would need them for our volunteering activities the following days. The store clerk returned with several boxes in her arms. Kelsey and I wore the same size and Chris and Jason wore large sizes. In Japan, shoe size is in centimeters. We had to look at the current shoes we were wearing to locate the tag with our shoe size in it. I ordered a pair of blue and white indoor shoes and Kelsey ordered red ones. The entire time we went through shoes, the store clerk serviced us mostly on her knees in a polite, waiting manner.

She watched us speak in English, and when we finally decided what shoes we wanted, she hurriedly collected the many boxes and shoes already sprawled out in front of her and awaited us at the counter.

Shoko-san purchased the shoes, which were cheap--only 8,000 yen per shoe or less than $8 in American money--and she trekked us past the buildings we exited earlier.