I have been away from my blog for a while becuase of my dulness (not layziness) caused by the uncomfortable climate with the both high temperature and high humidity those days. I feel better now thanks to rather cool weather with the temperature below 30 degrees!

Yesterday the group of 10 young Judo players from Humburg in Germany arrived in Nikko from Minagami in Gunma pref.. The program is named "37th Deutsch-Japanischer Sportijugend Simultanaustausch 2010" That means they have been exchanging their activities since 37 years ago. The total number of the participants from Germany in this program is 120 which is devided into 13 groups according to the sport types. Judo is one of them and this time, Judo group consisting of 10 young people came to Nikko. Their visit to Nikko is realized for the first time in such a long history, which sounds a bit strange from the view point of the value of Nikko. Anyway it's a good thing for Nikko to be one of those communities welcoming them. Their homestay at some Japanese families is one of their programs to be conducted in Japan. Since one of our nephew has been involved in Judo activity and contributing himself to the community, we decided to offer a hostfamily to take care of one of them. Our assistant activity started yesterday to join the welcome ceremony and party held at Kirifuri Skate Arena sponcerd by the city of Nikko. All the athletes looked in good shape but bit serious and stiff. Well it was our first meeting.
Casper, 17 years old, is our family guest. He is a nice boy. We enjoyed talking to each other whole evening at our place. My husband and I were impressed by the way he talks with at his that young age of 17. Good communication with kind consideration to each other has already existed.

Today is Sunday but they have gone for the several programs including Nikko woodcurving experiment. We hostfamilies are supposed not to join all those programs except for giving them a ride back and forth between our places and the meeting places. Therefore I can keep EECC on today as usual. Tonight, after the dinner at home, we will take Casper to the annual big firework festival to be carried out by the city on the bank of the river Daiya. I's sure that all the participants gather there to be taken care by their hostfamilies each. We hope they have a good day today.