Today I left home early in the morning to head to Kyoto because I had planned to meet Ersatzjello who is a Japanese learner from the U.S. at JR Kyoto station. I've met people from Lang-8 several times, but I hadn't met anybody from Journaly yet.

I had left a comment saying I'd love to meet in person somewhere when he and his family would come to Japan on one of his posts. He kindly shared his email address, and we exchanged several emails to arrange the date, time and place that we would meet.

I prepared my hand-painted gift for him, which you can see in the pictures below. (I'm sorry that they're upside down. I tried to fix it, but for some reason, I couldn't.)

I arrived our meeting spot fifteen minutes earlier and waited for him and his family. As a Japanese person, I thought I couldn't be late. I didn't want to ruin Japanese punctual reputation. They were also punctual and they were there five minutes earlier. I've already known Americans are very punctual as well just like us through my American friends.

Meeting new people is always exciting, especially when they’re friends you’ve only known online .

We greeted to shake hands (not to bow) and chatted in a Japanese style of cafe. I had great time with his family. He introduced me to his lovely wife and their two sons. His wife was a very charming lady, and their sons were very intelligent and polite. They reminded me of one of my American friends who used to talk to me. Even though I met them for the first time, I didn't felt that way at all. I've read and corrected his posts, so that why It felt like I've known them for a long time.

We really enjoyed chatting about Japanese culture, language, their trip and experiences in Japan, and more. I figured out all his family members are interested in Japan, Japanese culture and language, which I thought was awesome. At the same time I was jealous of him because I'm the only one who loves English in my family. Two of their boys seemed to be very interested in learning Japanese. They'll definitely follow their father's footsteps and will become excellent Japanese learners too!

The picture below shows our meeting. I'm sorry the picture is blurry. We were in a very popular matcha cafe in Kyoto. Everybody ordered something different and it was fun to see what everyone chose. I felt a bit guilty because Ersatzjello kindly paid for my order.

He also gave me lots of candies which I'd never seen before in the States. They must be very special including his wife's favorites.

When I got home and opened the bag of candies, I found a handwritten letter inside. I was very impressed by his very first letter in Japanese. It also had a sealing wax! I remember the journal entry he wrote about it. How neat it is!!

I’m truly grateful to have met such kind people from online. Nowadays, it's really hard. I hope we can stay in touch for a long time. I hope they enjoy the rest of their trip in Japan and safely return to the States.

I'm already looking forward to hearing from them more.

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