In the last week, Mum received a phone call from my old high school – my siblings currently attend – who were asking if we would like to host a Japanese exchange student for 10 days. For whatever reasons, one of the host families had become unavailable so they were almost begging us to take one in. Mum of course agreed. In a week, the house was given a complete spring cleaning for our new guest. We received a short profile of the student who would be arriving in a matter of days. Hirouki’s English handwriting was exceptional – much better than the Japanese sentences I could put together when I was studying it. In that profile we learnt some minor details about his likes and interests and we were very excited to meet him.

Hirouki has been here for 2 days now. He is very quiet and shy which is understandable – I couldn’t imagine travelling half way across the world on my own without a full understanding of a counrty’s language or culture. Eating dinner with him was awkward at first. He would not sit down or eat until we were all seated and permitted him to begin. Mum bought him a pair of slippers to wear around the house. I’m sure he brought his own pair, but wears these out of pure respect. I don’t think he realised how cold Melbourne would be since he has not brought clothes suitable for this weather. To the world, Australia is the sunburnt country with hot deserts and sunshine so Hirouki got quite a shock stepping outside this morning into 8 degrees. Tonight, after dinner he gave us some cute little gifts. Purses, hand crafted chopsticks, Japanese crackers and even some Hello Kitty washing bags.

To view information about Hirouki’s school in Japan, click here