I arrived in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, on a fairly hard flight that left Lima at 1:00 am and arrived early in the morning at 4:00 am.
Even though it was early in the morning, my host family picked me up at the airport and warmly welcomed me 🥹.
We will take a good rest on this day, and the next day we will attend a ceremony for the high school daughter of the host family who is taking care of us.
TOMA DE NOMBRE
I had the opportunity to participate in the “PROMO 2025 TOMA DE NOMBRE” ceremony of my host family’s high school daughter.
In Bolivian high schools, the academic year in which students graduate is called “promo” (PROMO).
And a special ceremony held before graduation is the “Toma de Nombre”. This is an event where everyone celebrates together by choosing a name that is unique to their generation.
This year’s PROMO 2025 is a little more special.
This year is the 200th anniversary of Bolivia’s independence (Bicentenario), so many schools have chosen the name “Promo Bicentenario” ✨(see the bottom of the picture).
Unlike the solemn atmosphere of ceremonies held in Japan, the students, teachers, and parents all had a great time.
The photo above shows a host family giving a speech.
Although we had only just met, I felt very proud that someone I knew had been chosen to give a speech!
Whenever a badge celebrating graduation was given to each graduate, the hall was filled with applause and cheers. It was a very interesting ceremony that I have never seen in Japan, where teachers also received badges and students from other schools came to celebrate with bouquets of flowers. ☺️
Japanese Souvenirs
In the evening, we gave our host families the Japanese souvenirs we had brought!
They didn’t seem to have anything that we didn’t have in Bolivia, and I was very happy that they were so pleased with it. ☺️
We made sushi together using the Poppin’ Cookin’ snacks that I gave them 🍣.
He was happy that Poppin’ Cookin’ was popular on TikTok to make other food with sweets in Bolivia, and he was happy because he wanted to make it. ☺️
Valley of the Moon (Valle de la Luna)
On this day, I went to my host mother’s mother’s house to help her decorate for an event in the city where she lives. I went with my host mother, her daughter, and her daughter’s friend.
On the way there, we went to a place called the Valley of the Moon (Valle de la Luna). As the name suggests, the terrain was so spectacular that you would think you were on a different planet (the moon is a satellite, lol). It was truly a spectacular view, with terrain as far as the eye could see.
Here’s a picture I took with everyone 📸.
They are really kind, warm, funny and my favorite host family. ☺️❤️
When I arrived at my mom’s house, I was greeted by 5 dogs. They are all very cute and full of energy😍.
Making the decorations was harder than I expected, but it was a good time for everyone to work together.
The night of the day we returned, we all had a karaoke contest!
They also like to listen to Japanese songs, so we sang some Ghibli songs together 🎤🎶.
It is nice to know that there are people who like Japanese things even in remote places. ☺️
