I lived with the Katos from March of 1998 until June of 1998. They were a wonderful family. The family consisted of six members. There was Mama and Papa along with the four children; Yasuko, Satoshi, Masashi, and an older bother that was off at college and I met twice. Yasuko was a Junior in High school while I was staying with them. She is now in college. Satoshi was off at a boarding school in Shizuoka. He was very funny. During the summer of 1999, he traveled to Sweden and during the summer of 2000 the family he stayed with traveled to Japan. Masashi was the youngest of all the host siblings I had. While I was staying with him he graduated from sixth grade and started middle school. They had a very nice ceremony for his class. In the summer of 2000, he also traveled abroad to Brazil. My parents were wonderful. Papa, Takuro, was an architect and ran his own firm. His firm designed the Yokohama Ginko skyscraper in downtown Yokohama. Mama was an entrepreneur. She worked with real estate, but her heart was with her family. The family came first. She was very kind. She would make us breakfast every morning and dinner every night.
In the summer of 1998, about 2 weeks after my return to the United States the Katos came and visited me. I met them in Washington DC and then took them to Baltimore and Pittsburgh before returning to Cleveland. It was the longest car-ride that they had ever taken. We spent three days in Cleveland and showed them my school, home, friends, and places I went with my friends. We had a blast. Next we traveled up to Niagara Falls. As I walked down the street talking to them in Japanese I got some of the strangest looks I have ever seen in my life. I will never forget that trip and I hope to either visit them again or for them to visit me in the near future.
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