Shoko and the boys

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When we got to Sapporo we met up with our first Servas family. Servas is an international organisation to build links around the world by hosting travellers from other countries. We found Shoko through the list. She has 2 boys, 12 and 14 and they sounded interesting. We asked if they would host us in Sapporo. I was a bit worried about meeting up with them. I didn't know if we would get on and if the boys would get on. I didn't know how much English they had as Weixiong, Shoko's husband who was away in China had previously done the talking in the arrangements.

It worked out fantastically! Shoko's English was great -- and we were able to have good conversations. She is very involved in the organic food movement; through the school and a local network to have healthy food. I wish I had some Japanese to read the catalogue - very very interesting. We had good food of course - dumpling the first night and then the next morning raw egg with rice, adventurous. The second morning Shoko gave up pancakes with honey.

The boys got on well - something that parents cannot predict. They all liked manga. Bunkei in first year junior high school and Shuni in third year - doing exams shortly GOOD LUCK. He will then move to senior high school. Much more pressure to excel compared with Australia and clearly it would be very unusual for a Japanese student to take time off as Kym is doing. We know that he will need some help with maths and perhaps science, shall have to see what issues arise next year.

We went to the Ainu museum in Supporo, a well resourced place by the exterior looks. We found the information very interesting such as the salmon fish coat! and also the library of books some of which were in English. We read that that there were various views on how long Ainu peole had been in Hokkaido and some reports put this at 1400 to 1700. This is very similar to how non-indigenous viewed indigenous in Oz. Eventually it was acknowledged that Aboriginal people had been in Australia for many thousands of years. Not sure where the political state of play is regarding Ainu people in Japan.

Shoko said that recently Maori and Aboriginal people had come to Supporo to support Ainu in a declaration on support for indigenous people.

It was great to meet Shoko and her family. We hope that we keep in contact! We encourage others to consider joining Servas.

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