Life-Changing Experiences

On my trip, I went to various cities: Tokyo, Sapporo, Bihoro, and Kyoto.
In Tokyo, we navigated the train systems and experienced the various cities along the Yamanote line, which was a truly interesting experience as I had never been on a train before.
In Sapporo, we completed language lessons and met with college students for karaoke, cooking, and purikura as we prepared for our homestays.
Bihoro was where we had our homestay, and I truly had an amazing time in this city. The local culture was so amazing and everyone knew each other. I spent a lot of time with the other host families doing barbecue and hanabi (fireworks). We learned Taiko and etegami and went shopping with our families before preparing for our farewell party. I grew extremely close to my host family and truly love them as my own family now. They are very eager to learn English, but you must be eager to learn Japanese as well. The language barrier isn't that scary, especially with translation apps that are out now. Plus, mistakes lead to amazing stories later on in the trip!
Kyoto was beautiful and was truly a tourist site. We made it our mission to go to Osaka and experience the Osaka Aquarium with whale sharks, which was so amazing to see.
I really wouldn't trade this experience for anything. I met so many amazing people, including many very nice locals! I would give anything to be able to return to Japan.