Wrestling Memories~ Japanese Exchange Wrestlers

So true to the last 11 years, our January (and December- and February) were full of wrestling and more wrestling. Tyler's duals were for the most part, on Wednesday evenings. We'd pick Caleb up from Cub Scouts, and head to wherever Tyler was competing that night. Tyler had a fantastic season, and each day, I was so thankful he wasn't battling the same injuries as last year.


I think I'm going to have to do this in 2 posts. Too many details and pictures. Honestly, we have video and pics galore. more than I know what to do with at this point. I'm hoping we can get them together in an organized fashion on CDs.


Exchange Wrestlers:


In January, some wrestlers from Japan came to Puyallup as part of their wrestling tour/exchange. They needed host families, so we volunteered to host 2 of these young men. It was an interesting, sometimes funny, and cool experience. At the end of it all we were so glad we did it. Tyler said it was exhausting. He was right! Just the communication difficulties made it a lot of work just to eat a meal, have the guys shower, etc. They carried a hand-held Japanese-English translator (computer) and used it to find appropriate words for our questions and conversations. They also consulted each other over EVERYTHING. We'd ask a question, and they'd talk to each other about it before they'd answer. Hilarious.


So we had Rikiya and Ryo (yo) assigned to us. We picked them up Sunday evening, and had them in our home until Tuesday morning. They went to school with Tyler on Monday- including to wrestling practice. Monday evening we watched them compete against local wrestlers.


Sunday evening, we were laying awake in bed and Doug said he felt like we were in a hotel. Why? Because across the hall were 2 Japanese people talking and laughing loudly until at least 1 a.m. Doug picked up his cell phone and called Tyler and asked, "Is this the front desk?" He then asked for management's help in getting those other hotel guests to quiet down. Ty was understandably confused until Doug explained what he'd been feeling. It was too funny! Thankfully, the next night was much quieter, much earlier.


We fed them, and they ate, and ate. Hard boiled eggs were a favorite. They sat with a jar of mayonnaise and a knife and ate the eggs with huge dollops of mayo on them. Gross. When asked what they would like for dinner Monday evening, they had a little conference and then asked for "pork chop." "We very like pork chop." OK- that's definitely not what we thought they'd want! I ended up having to go to the store. Pork chops aren't standard fare around here. I marinated them in Yoshida's sauce, and made a huge pot of white sticky rice and a salad. Wow! Can those boys eat! Honestly- I couldn't believe it. They kept telling me "we very like" and "thank you" over and over again. We learned that Kool Aid is not something they like, that carrots in Japan are long (not like our baby carrots. We couldn't figure out how to tell them we have the regular kind too) and that corn isn't something they like AT ALL. One liked the roast we had on Sunday, and the other looked like he was being forced to eat maggots during dinner. Poor guy!


They brought us gifts, and we sent some mementos home with them. Rikiya took a special liking to Sierra. Who could blame him? She's beautiful. As soon as we realized that he was "liking" her, we paid a more attention to that little situation! The boys treated Caleb like a little dog. Caleb patiently tolerated all of the head patting and face rubbing he got from those 2 guys who thought he was "Cute. Very cute." They also told our family that I am a "young mom." Loved that. Doug asked if he was a young dad, and they laughed, but didn't answer. Funny! They called me "Mommy" the entire time they were here, and when they couldn't remember other names, it was "sister", "brother" etc.