Reciprocation

This past May our eldest granddaughter, Talli, traveled to Japan on a short-term student exchange program. She stayed with the Kata family in the rural town of Wadayama, northwest of Osaka.

Yesterday, her Asian counterpart, Miu Kata, arrived in Oregon to spend about a week with Talli and her family. And being weekend, already today they are traveling in the Northwest, to mainly enjoy a Seattle Mariners baseball game tomorrow against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Of course Mariners center fielder Ichiro Suzuki, Japan’s most popular Major Leaguer. and catcher Kenji Johjima will be the players of interest for Miu.

That’s Miu, Talli and Hayley (just back from her India venture), left to right in the pic above, just after they arrived here earlier this evening. Five-year-old Aubrey and their mom Elaine also came. They’ll all spend the night with us tonight and then head to the game late tomorrow morning where they’ll meet up with Miu’s full group of Exchange students who will travel tomorrow morning to Seattle from Oregon.

Seattle, of course, is the closest Major League city to this country of 3,000 islands. Today, baseball has become the most popular sport in Japan, even ahead of sumo wrestling. Nippon (the Japanese word for Japan) has its own professional baseball, with a total of 12 teams in their two leagues. Many of these extremely talented players, like Suzuki and Johjima, are sprinkled throughout the Major Leagues.

Next week Miu will attend school with Talli and take part in the normal family activities. I’m sure they’ll do their share of other fun things as well. Miu already has been exposed to the “American Mall” as they made a several-hour stop today on their way here. I’m discovering there’s not a much higher priority for two teenagers, even though they’re from very different cultures.

Welcome to America, Miu.