Shirasagi Welcome Party

All new members, one is from Ireland and everyone else is from the U.S.

In September, a few weeks after arriving in Japan, our fellow neighbors threw a welcome party for the new people. The Shirasagi (the name of our apartment complex) welcome party was attended by our fellow neighbors who are a mix from the U.S., Australia, England, New Zealand, Ireland, and South Africa. Some Japanese community members from the area also attended. We had a potluck dinner of different items everyone brought. Soon after we played some get-to-know-you games with all of the new people.

New Shirasagi members writing a message to the community members

The first game we played we had an item from home and a random item in a bag. We picked one item out and whichever we got we had to convince everyone that it was the item we brought from home. The second game we played was similar, except instead of an item it was a "fun fact" about us. It was fun seeing who was quite believable in their lie. After that we did a little improv where everyone got involved and moved around the room trying to talk to as many people as they could. It was quite fun as we got to know more about some of our neighbors in Shirasagi and we got to meet Japanese community members. They have all been quite helpful in our adjustment to living in a new country. There's even a Facebook page and website for Shirasagi residence that the local community can follow to learn about the English teachers and the free English lessons we offer during school breaks.