If you came to California for the first time, what would you want to see and do and eat?
We are loving having our Japanese student with us.
Today she wanted to see an American grocery store to buy chocolates. We visited Trader Joe’s and she was very curious about s’mores and gummy candies.
We decided that we would make our own pizzas for dinner, as she loves to bake. We bought the dough to roll out, shredded cheese, pizza sauce,pepperoni, Canadian bacon, mushrooms and onions, She never made pizzas before and I think she had a good time.
We invited friends to join us and we all enjoyed each others’ company and sharing a meal together.
Afterwards, the kids all performed the cup song, after learning it at school today. We all loved it!
We ran out of time today, but we plan to take her to a Safeway and to Costco. I can’t wait to see her expression and what she likes.
This weekend I think she will see San Francisco and the beach and maybe the redwood trees.
For breakfast and lunch, I have served her comfort food, which is rice. she seems quite happy here and I hope the rest of the students are having a great visit to the USA. If you have ideas of what we should share with her, please post in the comment section.
here i am 
I love how the Japanese kids do the peace sign…..Rob travels there and says that’s what they all do in pictures…..Maybe the Monterey Bay Aquarium might be interesting for her?
Thanks Marcia! Monterey is so beautiful. We might drive through there this weekend. There is so much to see and do in a little period of time.
She looks like she and you are all having a great time! When we had Megan’s exchange student two years ago, we took pictures of the fun times and experiences she had with us, printed them out, and put them in a nice photo album for her to take home and remember her journey. She loved it and we still keep in touch. Right now, we are hosting a Japanese student and having a great time! I am so glad you are having this experience! Enjoy!!
Thank you for sharing this idea. We were thinking of doing a photo book too. I hope I can be organized enough to get this done before she leaves next week. I’m glad you are having fun too with your student.
It sounds like you’re off to a great start. Pat and I hosted a Japanese student years ago as well as a young man from Sweden. It was great fun, and though we’ve lost track of both of them I know they had a wonderful time. I’m certain you’re throwing in Monterey and the Aquarium, but perhaps a drive down a portion of Big Sur, maybe including lunch, would be fun. The beach and boardwalk in Santa Cruz is also a fun thing to do. Have you ever been to the Bay Model in Sausalito? It is a huge working model of San Francisco Bay inside a large building that was part of a shipyard during WWII. It is actually a working model, and you can see the tide come in and out and get an idea of how vast the bay and delta area is. Coupled with that it would be fun to have lunch at Sam’s Dock in Tiburon. They have a huge outdoor deck for dining which provides a great view of San Francisco. Another gem closer to home is the Hakone Gardens in Saratoga. This is an authentic Japanese tea house which was originally constructed as part of the 1915 Pan Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. This exhibition was a celebration of both the completion of the Panama Canal and to demonstrate to the world that San Francisco hadn’t been totally demolished in the 1906 earthquake. The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco is the only structure in the city which remains from the exhibition. There is currently a marvelous display inside the Palace with lots of photographs and movies of the 1915 event. Hakone Gardens was originally part of a very large exhibit built by the Japanese government for the Pan Pacific. When the exhibition ended all of the buildings except the Palace of Fine Arts were destroyed. William Spreckles of sugar company fame purchased the tea house and had it dismantled and moved to Saratoga, where it became his family’s summer home. Another fun activity might be a ride on the Roaring Camp Railroad in Felton.
There’s lots more, of course, but these are all kid-friendly activities. Enjoy!
Chuck
Chuck!! You are amazing! Thank you for taking the time to share so many wonderful details. I love your ideas and had not thought of the same ones you have. Thank you so much. I think you should be a blogger like me too with your love of history and educating others. Hugs to you. xo