Long-lost Host Brother

I really should be doing other stuff right now, but I'm motivated to blog. For those of you who don't know, 10 years ago we hosted a boy from Japan at our house. His name was Akira. And that's about all I remembered about him.

A few weeks ago Dad suggested that I try to find out where he is and meet up with him while I'm in Japan. All we had was his name, home town, and the year he came to our district. Luckily, we have the amazing power of the internet here! My host dad looked for a rotary club in his home town and we found his sponsor club. We sent them an email explaining the situation and asking if they knew any way to contact Akira now.

As it turns out, Akira's father is a rotarian at that club. He got the email and immediately got us in touch with Akira. Akira emailed my host dad, who gave him my email, and then he emailed me. He was so excited to hear from me and he said he never would have imagined that I'd be in Japan now. He was so happy I remembered him and asked how the family is and such. I gave him the basic updates. It was a really nice email from him.

Akira is now engaged to be married! The wedding is next month in Fukuoka. I've been invited. At first I thought, no I won't go. It's too much of a hassle to arrange it with Rotary and school and his family will be really busy anyway. I'd just be in the way. But I guess they really want me to come because the Fukuoka rotary club sent a formal invitation to my rotary club for me to go down there. My host dad offered (without me knowing, I heard this later from my host mom) to go with me to Fukuoka, but my host club president said he wanted to take me. So, it looks like I'm going to Fukuoka with my club president.

Today I find out that my host club's president can't or isn't going for some reason. I'm not sure why. So, now it looks like I'm going to Fukuoka by myself. I still have no idea what's going on with how I'm getting there or anything. Honestly, I've been hearing all of this besides the email from Akira through my host dad or my host mom, who hears it from my host dad. Who knows what's going on?! I'll just let the rotarians decide what they decide...