Dear Host Family, Hello, I am Ayaka. I am 15 years old. I am from Japan. First of all, thank you very much for accepting me. I am looking forward to living in the US very much. Through the exchange year, to understand America, I would like to challenge as many different things as I can and I would like to make many friends and talk a lot, and I would like to spend a lot of time with you. I would like to absorb so many things, so please teach me American life, culture, foods and popular things, and so on. I also want you to know about us, so I will share our culture with you. My mother and my older brother were also exchanging students when there were in high school so I have heard about their experience. Last year, I had a chance to visit the USA on a school trip to Seattle. It was my first trip to a foreign country. Touching different cultures and facing friendly American people, I became very interested in the different cultures and people of the United States. I felt that it was so valuable to know a different world, so I decided to challenge myself to apply for this program. By taking this wonderful opportunity, I really would like to expand my future possibilities. My future vision is not clear yet, but I am interested in being a hairdresser. It is not only hairdressers but also all business people who need flexibility. By meeting several people and knowing wide diversity of opinions and various values, I think we can have flexible thinking. So taking advantage of this experience, I would like to be a person who has flexibility and who can accept diversity. As for my daily life, At school, I am having fun talking with my friends and playing guitar at the club I belong to. Actually, I am the head of the Guitar club, so I am also doing leader’s work such as promotion activities, solicitation activities, and preparing club events. I sometimes go shopping and watch movies at home after school. At weekend, I spend time with my family going shopping and concert and watching movies. I also have fun spending time with my lovely dogs. Let me introduce my family. There are four people in my family.　My father, my mother, my older brother, and me. I also have two dogs. My father likes watching sports games, especially MLB players like Shohei Otani. Unfortunately, he can’t go to the USA to watch a baseball game, so instead of that, he has satisfied to get many goods from Shohei Otani. My mother is playing volleyball once a week for 13 years. She belongs to the volleyball team. It is of course an amateur team. She is very much enjoying playing volleyball with her teammates. She and I love music artists called “GENERATIONS”. We went to go to their concert so often, so maybe I will miss the concert. While I am in the USA, I entrust their support to my mother. My brother is 5 years older than me and he is a student at university. He had played soccer for a long time, but now he is forming a band and playing the Drum as his hobby. He is also having a part-time job at a private tutoring school. My two dogs are miniature dachshunds. Both are male and 5 years old. They are so cute. They will miss me so much. I love all my family. Finally, thank you very much for accepting me. I would like to do my best with you in the USA!! I am looking forward to seeing you. Yours sincerely, Ayaka