#26 A Wednesday in Handa

Another Wednesday, that means… English Club!

The girls taught me how to do “Traditional Japanese” flower arranging today.

I also showed them my newspaper from home. They were amazed when I showed them that my brother was actually in the newspaper for graduating high school. The thing that probably caught their eye the most was the housing ads and the clothes ads. The houses were very large! The clothes, they were so cheap! It was pretty funny.

After English Club, I went to a different AEON mall with Tomoko and Mayuko. Mayuko wanted to do some shopping and take Pitikura with me. :)





The whole girl gang went out to Udon after that. We ate on the traditional tatami mats. Yeah, we had French fries for an appetizer. I thought cool so I reached out grabbed one and popped it into my mouth like any other American would do. Oh no, bad call. My host mom looked at me, made sure I was watching, picked up her chopsticks and used her chopsticks to eat the French fries. Yeah…

Yummy Udon with Tempura on the side :)

#25 Meetings

I started off the day embarrassingly wearing a not flattering white polo shirt and really hot long length jeans because we would be going to Handa High School for an informational meeting on my 2 week stay.

Before Handa though, we went to my host mother’s volunteer school Miyaike Elementary. This time I wouldn’t be attending class though.

My host mother is a very good painter. She and the other volunteers hand painted onto big poster board the scenes from a Niimi Nankichi book. They all practiced reading the story aloud and flipping through the scenes. Even though I couldn’t understand the language, the pictures were good enough so that I could follow along.

This was the volunteer group. My host mother painted this first scene.

After Miyaike we went to the meeting. Basically, they gave my host mother a long list of things I can’t do or wear, otherwise known as rules. The list was really long too.

For example: 1) You can only wear black, navy blue, white or grey socks. 2) You can only wear skirts that go past your knees and it has to be black, blue, white or grey. 3) You have to bring your slippers, gym, and PE shoes to school every day. 4) You must cut your nails. 5) etc. etc. etc.

Needless to say I didn’t follow number 4. Cut my nails. No way. I need these babies to survive. I don’t think my fingers could function properly without them.

The meeting wasn’t that bad. I found out that my homeroom teacher is the English teacher. Lol.

#24 Humiko

Yesterday, I hung out with a member of English Club today we will go to a Drawing Club member’s house.

Guess what I am learning to do?

Weaving.

Yeah, I got to use the cool little wooden machine and everything too.

Humiko, is the lady that showed me her weaving hobby. She was extremely nice, almost a polar opposite to the forceful Mimi.

Weaving doesn’t sound like a fun hobby but I found it completely fascinating. I always like to know how things work and I learned how to make the most used material in the world, cloth.

These are pictures at my failed attempt to make string from cotton using a traditional Japanese spinning wheel. Humiko made it look so easy when she was doing it. I spun the wheel one time and the string broke.


This was me trying to use the western style spinning wheel.

I couldn’t use that one either. :(

When I actually started weaving the fabric was when I started feeling better. I could do this part. :)


After weaving, I got to play Wii. As far as I have seen, everyone has one in Japan. I played Wii Fit. I beat all Huniko’s scores on the Balance Games. Hehe. She still has the record for dancing though, I couldn’t do that to save my life.

The finished project.

#23 The Cinema

If you really knew me, you would know that I have deep addiction to movies. I am full blooded American on that front. We love our movies.

At home, we have stacks of movies to choose from and a Netflix subscription. My dad and I have our movie nights, at least twice a week.

Here in Japan, they don’t really have the same love. They have the cinema and DVD rental shop.

Today, Nariko, my host cousin(?), took me to the cinema. :) I didn’t have to worry about not understanding anything because we chose to go see The Prince of Persia, which would be in English with Japanese subtitles.

I was extremely excited. My first movie in like 2 weeks!

Normally, in America, if my friends and I wanted to go to the movies, we would just hop in our cars and go. It’s not the same here. You have to plan it out with your parents and make sure it’s not conflicting with any of your club activities or after school study classes. And if you are free to go, your parents still have to drive you because here in Japan you don’t get your license until you are 18 years old.

I can’t imagine what they would do if they ever wanted to go on a date. Kids definitely have a lot more freedom in America. That is for sure.

Anyways, the move was great. :) Now that I have seen a movie again, I want to see another. I’ll probably walk down to the rental shop one of these days. Apparently I have a huge home theater in my bedroom. What I mistook as a broken over head lamp is actually a ginormous pull down screen that can be hooked up to a projector. I won’t have to pay the 1,400 yen to go to the theater. :)

#22 Mimi

You remember my visit to English Club? Well, one of its most senior members took me out to see some of the most historical spots in Handa today.

Her name is Mimi. Mimi is probably about 76 years old and still driving…

Anyway, our first stop was Mizkan Museum. It’s also called Mizkan Factory. Handa is famous for producing Mizkan Vinegar. They were one of the first factories to produce Vinegar from Sake leaves and ship regularly to Tokyo.

It was really interesting to tour the museum. Then again, I am a history junky.

I think what made it great was the fact that I could actually understand it. Oh yeah, English! Apparently I’m not the only foreigner in Handa :)

These are the storage cases they use for fermenting the vinegar.

These are the storage vats. I think they said that if you drank a cup of vinegar every day from one of these things you could drink for 80 years without refilling the vat.

These are the famous Mizkan warehouses. Apparently they shot a scene here for a very famous Japanese film (that I can’t remember the name of..).

After Mizkan, Mimi and I went to a Japanese buffet. Mimi took the liberty of filling my plate with all kinds of crazy looking foods. I could do nothing to stop her either. Trust me; you don’t mess with this woman. I can’t imagine what she was like when she was younger, she is very forceful at 76..

After Japanese buffet, we went to a Buddhist temple. Mimi and I were the only ones there. The rain fall completely covered the noises that usually come with modern life. As I walked on the stone path, without people or anything else modern to distract me, I could almost imagine I was walking into another age.

We walked up to a water basin that had these wooden scoopers resting across it. Mimi told me that they are used to cleanse the body and soul before entering. First you rinse your hands and then you take a sip.

Thoroughly cleansed we made our way to this traditional Japanese house. I don’t think I will ever forget it. When I first walked in the aroma of tatami mats immediately overwhelmed me. Honestly, I wish I could bottle the smell and take it home with me. It is so unique. The reeds that are used to make tatami were a golden brown and were everywhere in this traditional house. Stepping onto the mats is like combining the best things about hard wood flooring and carpet. The texture is smooth and cool but soft and springy to walk on.

I walked through the house, once again travelling back in time, thinking about how people hundreds of years ago used see exactly what I was seeing now. Smell the same aroma, walk on the same floor, sit the same way, and bow at the same shrine.

Sigh… Moving on… After we left the temple, we went to Kunizakari Sake Museum.

Sadly, this tour wasn’t in English, but they did give me a handout that explained everything in English so it wasn’t bad. Making Sake is very similar to making Vinegar surprisingly. There are only a few different steps. And no, I didn’t get to try anything. The ladies working there kept pushing sake into my hand saying “Try! Try!” But Mimi firmly explained to them my age. Which was a surprise to them, apparently, I don’t look 16…

#21 Part 2- Good Afternoon

After giving me medicine and making sure that I was okay, my Okasan went to her painting class. Of course, not before she gave me money to go buy food and a phone card so I could call if I needed.

When she was gone I did some heavy sleeping, thinking, and typing. It was very therapeutic and I started feeling better. So I did what she had suggested and went to go buy some food down at the Seven Eleven not far from the house. By the time I got home and took the first bite, I felt completely better.

My Okasan came home shortly after I had finished my lunch to check on me. Since I was feeling better I went back to the painting class with her.

Apparently, it’s not a painting class but a drawing class. And as it turns out, they wanted me to be the model. So, I sat there for ten minutes, nothing to do but listen to the strange thoughts that occasionally pass through my head. I figured out that you can think about a lot in ten minutes. I also figured out that you can’t help but think about your flaws when you have six people constantly analyzing your appearance…

Anyways… their gift to me (because they are Japanese, that’s what they do) was their drawings.



:)

#20 Part 1- Bad Morning

Today, my host mom had planned for us to go to her painting class. We wouldn’t have had to leave until 10 so that means I would get to sleep in. Yay! Except… I didn’t sleep in. I woke up early and sick instead. :(

I feel so bad right now. She came down to my room to come get me and I was in bed. She knocked on the door and I told her what was wrong. As soon as she heard, she raced into my bedroom to help me.

After she ran back into the house to see if she had some medicine, which she didn’t, she went to the store to get me some there. She is so incredibly nice.

Occasionally, I can’t help but think about my choice to come to Japan. There are times when my host mom is having a conversation in Japanese and I think. Why did I come here? I think: Why didn’t I choose Spain or somewhere I would have some clue as to what was going on?

I thought about the why today.

I chose to go to Japan because of my interest in history. Japan is one of the few countries where the customs and traditions that were used hundreds of years ago are still seen in daily life today.

I have always wanted to go back in time and see the way people lived. Going to Japan would be my ticket into the past.

I have been here for a week now. I have not only seen the traditions and customs of the Japanese people, I have experienced them.

I realized today that one of the Japanese people’s greatest customs is their kindness and their generosity. Hiroko, Yukihiro, and Iri Kato volunteered to take me into their home for 6 weeks. They are buying me food, teaching me Japanese, and taking me everywhere, for absolutely nothing in return. The Japan Program has always been the most popular program offered by YFU. I know why now.

Now, I can assure you that when my host mom is having a conversation in Japanese, Spain will be the farthest thing from my mind.

I will never regret coming to Japan. It has taught me so many things already.

#19 Kawaii!

A couple weeks ago, I was in high school. A few days ago, I was in elementary school. Now, I’m going to Kindergarten.

Yep, kindergarten… In America, my elementary school included kindergarten but apparently it is not the same in Japan. They actually have 3 grades in Kindergarten school. This one in particular teaches 150 kids and has around 10 teachers.

Bright and early, I walked in with my host mom to greet the principal. We went into the staff room and had our tea, thankfully she gave me water. :) After some talking, the principal’s daughter walked in. Turns out she was going to be my interpreter for the day. She studied English in college and even went on exchange to America, to live in Kentucky for a year. I was surprised to say the least. Extremely grateful though, especially after I started meeting the kids.

I’ve found that there are three types of reactions I get when little kids see me. One, they are extremely interested and come towards me at once. Two, they are in complete awe and can’t say anything. Or three, they are really nervous and quickly dart away. Thankfully, there was only a small majority of the latter.

Yui, my interpreter, and I went around to all the classrooms and greeted all the little kids. They asked me questions like “What’s your favorite color?” or “What’s your favorite food?” I have to admit there was one question I couldn’t answer. “What does a chicken say?” I know what a rooster says “Cock a doodle doo!” But a chicken? Cluck? I didn’t know. Haha. Apparently animals sound different in Japan.

For lunch I had my first experience with Tatami Mats. They are the traditional flooring used in Japan. You can only wear socks or go bare foot on tatami too. No slippers even! My feet were in shock. No slippers? Haha. Of course, there are no chairs on tatami mats you sit Japanese style, which is on your knees with your butt resting on your ankles, at a low table. Your legs HURT if you’re not accustomed to sitting like that. All the older women were fine throughout the whole meal. I had to put my feet under the table about half way through and I could tell Yui was feeling the pain at the end.

The Kids, Yui, and me.


After school was over they had an earthquake drill. I hate earthquake drills at home. We have sit under our desks where there is always gum! Here they get to practice with an earthquake truck! Yeah, the thing simulates an earthquake. We waited for all the kids to go and when there was only a couple kids left I made Yui go on it with me.

I had to hold the poor little kids head near the end. The poor thing kept banging it into the pole.

The guys who drive the earthquake truck are firemen. They do the earthquake thing occasionally I guess.

My host mom wanted a picture of course. I think it was just because the one fireman was pretty cute.

#18 Wednesday with the Girls

English Club! Oh yeah, get show off my amazing pronunciation skills. This club has about 6 members including my host mom.

We basically talked about America and the differences between it and Japan. Most of them had been to America before. Some have children working there or husbands and others went for vacation. Their English was very good too. I’m really impressed. Honestly, most Americans don’t even bother to learn another language and these ladies practice every week.

It was really fun talking to them. We all went to lunch afterwards.

I’m so glad we did too. I tried Udon for the first time. They are Japanese noodles. Man, were they delicious! The noodle is usually the same, the thing that varies is the sauce and its toppings. I chose the most basic kind, just in case, and I found it delicious! On top of that, I got tempura-fried shrimp and a salmon rice bowl (the little triangle things I made with my host mom earlier on). Soo good. My mouth is watering just talking about it.

Instead of going home with my host mom like I’d planned, some of the ladies in the group took me to AEON mall. It was surprisingly big. There were a million clothing shops and even a Starbucks. The ladies saw me eyeing it and took me there immediately. Of course, we couldn’t drink and walk, so we sat down and had our drinks.

We wandered around a bit. To make a little side conversation, I told them I was looking for polo shirts and a skirt for when I start school in a few weeks… All I gotta say is, there is nothing like a Japanese woman on a mission. We went darting from store to store comparing prices and sizes until my feet actually started hurting. I ended up buying two polo shirts and some socks. We deemed finding a navy blue skirt that is long enough to cover MY knees in Japan a lost cause and went home.

#17 Miyaike Elementary

Unfortunately, I share a common problem with thousands of my fellow teenagers. It’s called procrastination or more commonly known as laziness. It’s a disease and after infection it only gets worse… Basically, I haven’t been very good with keeping this up to date. I officially blame it on the humidity. It’s too hot!

I went to Miyaike Elementary. My host mom volunteers at this school every so often with 20 other women. Instead of volunteering my time to help the other women, I would be attending elementary school for the day. Have to say, I really wasn’t sure how good of an idea that was… None of these kids would know any English and I don’t know any Japanese and I doubted that I could even participate in any of their activities… But I went to school all the same.

I started out having to give this speech in front of all the teachers. In the schools here, instead of teachers having their own classroom they have one staff room. This is Japan were talking about so each teacher doesn’t even have the luxury of a cubicle. All their desks are just shoved together in rows… Anyway I was placed by a certain desk. I eventually found out that it belonged to my teacher for the day. When all the teachers were in, I gave a very quick introduction in very basic Japanese. They clapped so I think they at least understood it. Haha.

After saying, “Ohayo gozaimas! *Bow*,” and drinking straw tea (Nasty!) for what seemed like forever, a man introduced himself to me in English. He told me he would be my teacher for the 1st period class today. (Ohayo means “good morning” by the way).

I walked into what looked like a pretty average classroom…

The kids that came were 3rd graders. They were pretty adorable. I ended up sitting with a group of boys. They all took out these paint sets that they had brought with them. It was cutest thing when they saw that I didn’t have one. They shared their things with me and made sure I had all the right instruments and told me how and where to get the water. The teacher didn’t say anything, they did it all on their own.

This was my painting. :)

After that I went back to the staff room like I was told to do and eventually another teacher came by and showed me to a different classroom. It was a calligraphy class. Unfortunately I just watched.

In the end, after I went back to the staff room, I found that I wasn’t supposed to go to calligraphy at all. Woops…

After calligraphy I was finally in the class in the class I was supposed to be in. They were all 5th graders and one girl in particular took me under her wing. She helped me through all the activities and showed where to sit and even how they eat lunch.

Ahh.. Lunch… That was an experience. In this particular elementary school you are not allowed to bring a lunch and the parents pay for school lunches at the beginning of the year. There is no cafeteria either. They all eat in their classroom. I remember in my elementary school we had a buffet type thing going on where you got to choose what you wanted, they don’t get to choose, it’s just whatever is on the menu that day. On top of that, you have to eat everything you are given.
I am a kind of picky eater. I’ll admit it! I try everything though. At least two bites. But, I did not like this lunch. It was spaghetti, an omelet, and vegetables. Sounds normal right? I thought so too. Turns out it was Fisherman’s spaghetti, baked egg, and vegetables drowned in sour sauce. The fishy spaghetti I could eat, I even managed half the egg but I could not do the vegetables. I felt horrible! Here I am trying to be the perfect guest but I can’t even eat their food! Normally, I would just down the food out of respect, but I couldn’t. It was that bad.

After that horrifying meal, you don’t even want to know about the milk, we finished up class. Yeah, normally, the kids stay an extra half hour after school to clean. No janitors in Japanese school. Luckily, I got out of it. Fiona, another exchange student with YFU, got out of cleaning too.

This is us after school.

Our host moms got to chatting and they ended coming back to our house for afternoon tea. (Or afternoon coke in my case.)

We talked, in real fluent English. :) She told me about a YFU regional get-together that is on the 18th. My host mom hadn’t gotten around to telling me yet. I was extremely excited.

Basically, what I thought was going to be a terrible day, turned out to be one full of memories.

#16 Differences

My morning started out on a brisk walk with Okasan and Tane. We walked to my Host Mom’s friend’s house, or better known as Tane’s girlfriend’s house.

I don’t use the word girlfriend lightly either. He was very clearly infatuated with the other dog…

Anyways Miki (Host Mom’s friend) was really nice. Her house was really nice too by the way! It was the biggest Japanese house I’ve been to yet. It was all wood and had a beautiful traditional Japanese garden out front.

What I found out today, is that if you are the first born son in a family, usually, when you get older, your parents come live with you too. Miki is married to a first born son, so her house is bigger to accommodate her in-laws as well. I mean, its common, in Japan. In America, half of the married women I know would probably do something drastic if that were the case. Everything is so different here…

Speaking of different…

The bathroom is a place where I noticed many differences.

Iri goes first, then Alicia, then Okasan, and then Otosan. You shower, using the water as little as possible and then you use the ofuro or tub to soak. No bubbles! Unfortunately, I haven’t soaked yet. I’m only supposed to spend 15 minutes tops in the bathroom and I use all that time scrubbing the humidity from my skin. I will try it though! Trust me, I have been trying everything here. The ofuro is very highly praised from all of the alumni I have spoken to.

This is what it looks like.


Yeah it’s very high tech by the way. (Well, at least as showers go) Apparently you have to turn this little thing on to get hot water… I didn’t know that for the first day. This is one of the many times where I wish I knew the language..

It is very different than my luxuriously long American showers.

This was the toilet in a public bathroom.


Yes, they have a built in bidet. The toilet in my hotel had a bidet and so does my toilet at home. Just make sure you know where the stop button is and that the water is turned all the way down before you try it…

Anyways, enough with the bathroom talk. After tea with Miki and Mocha (Tane’s girlfriend) we headed back home. We were there pretty much the whole day, so when we got back it was around dinner time. That was when I was introduced with Curry Rice. Delicious! One of my favorite dishes so far. That and the Onigiri (not Onegidi by the way) which were the rice ball things I made for lunch.

#15 Music to My Ears

I got to wake up amazingly late today. :)

I felt like singing! I love to sleep in! Especially when you don’t even have to rush to get ready after sleeping in… Sighh… Who could ask for more out of a morning?

Anyways, I wore my good dress today because a little later in the afternoon my Okasan, Iri and I went to see the Handa-shi Symphony.

It was pretty amazing. They played songs from all around the world. Yes, even from Home-Sweet-Home.

Although, I do have to admit I was a tad bit distracted because I was sitting next to a ginormous camera. The guy kept swinging the thing back and forth and zooming in and out on certain sections and people. He occasionally muttered into his neck assumingly talking to the other cameras stationed throughout the theatre. Not going to lie. I was fascinated. Haha. I was trying to figure out the patterns and his mysterious method…

Simultaneously, I was, of course, listening attentively to the music and secretly wishing I could be the composer. (I just want to do the cool hand movements.)

After the Orchestra, we went home to have dinner. Tomoko would be joining us tonight along with her two daughters, Nariko and Mayuko.

Nariko is my age and I think Mayuko is 14. Anyways, even though I couldn’t pick out a word they were saying I ended up having a lot of fun. We played Jenga, Uno, and Othello (I didn’t know they were asking me to play Othello until they actually brought it out, because they couldn’t pronounce it right to my very American ears.) Iri totally kicked my butt in Othello, by the way. That girl has a plan, let me tell you…

We had Cold Chinese Noodles for dinner. They were okay… I prefer my noodles hot usually. What made it better though was the ability to slurp. Yeah, it’s not rude to slurp in Japan. It’s practical. Especially since you only have chopsticks to work with.

I made plans with Nariko to go to the movies on Sunday. We’re going to go see The Prince of Persia. It will be in English with Japanese subtitles. I am so excited. :)

I have to say, I do miss movie night at home. I tried watching Japanese television. It’s really confusing… I think even if I knew the language, it would still be hard to understand… Random things just pop out of nowhere sometimes.

#14 Fish

Today was a long day. Honestly, I am tired just thinking about it. It was so hot. Hot and humid! Not a good combination, at all. It is especially not, when you spend the day, outside. I know what you are thinking. I’m in Japan, Why am I complaining? I’ll tell you why… It’s because I’m in Japan!!! One of the words I can say the best in Japanese is “atsui” or hot.

Anyways, we went to the aquarium today or Beach Land. I have found, that whenever there is a D at the end of a sentence, the Japanese add an O to it. So, Beach Land becomes Beach Lando. It was really hilarious one time when my host mom, Tomoko, and I were sitting around talking about food. They kept asking me if I liked macadonaldo. I was like, eh? They kept saying it over and over and I still couldn’t understand. Then Tomoko drew a big M on a piece of paper and I was like, “OH! You mean McDonalds!” The Japanese people cannot say it. My host mom makes different people say it all the time. She is determined to get it right for some reason. Lol.

Beach Land was fun. Although I don’t think I could say that if the exhibits inside didn’t have air conditioning. I went with my host mom, Tomoko, and Iri. Iri got to go because she had no school on Saturday! We also got to bring Tane! They allow dogs in aquariums in Japan. Kind of cool. We got to see all kinds of animals. I even got to touch a dolphin! I haven’t done that before. I felt like a little kid, mostly because I was in line with a bunch of them. Haha. :)

This is Tomoko, Iri, Tane, and me.

Host Mom instead of Tomoko.

Tane wanted to play with the penguins.

This guy kept eyeballing me. He was like "Hey!"

"What you lookin at?"

I had my first Picture Booth experience in Japan today. It is very popular here, especially, with the “teenagers” as my host mom would say.


After Beach Lando we went to this Shrimp Chip Factory that was close by. The Japanese turn the strangest things into chips… You got to sample all the different kinds too. There must have been at least 30. There was octopus, squid, plum, wasabi, green tea, rice… I don’t even remember them all. I think I liked squid the best? I’m not exactly sure that’s what it was. All the signs were in Japanese. I definitely don’t like squid in its normal form…

My host mom, Iri, and I went to Sushi today. Yes, the day had finally come, raw fish… My mentality is to try something before you judge it because you never know when you might like something. So I tried and I tried and I tried.
The restaurant was pretty big, for Japan. All of the food went around on this huge rotating circle. You sat at a table next to the circle and just picked up what you wanted or you could order it and the chef would send it on its way.

These are some of the things I tried:
•Rice wrapped in seaweed with corn on top (Good)
•Shrimp on rice (Oishii)
•Sea Urchin on rice (Uh..no.)
•Natto (Japanese soy bean) on rice (Argh! Disgusting!!)
•Cooked Eel on rice (Okay)
•Rice with cucumber all wrapped in seaweed (Okay)

Yeah, I was pretty brave, I know. I came out with the conclusion that I really don’t like raw fish that much… Cooked, sure. Raw… No.

After that we went to a meeting for Iri. She will be going to Australia soon with her Brass Band club. She will be staying with a host family just like I am now. It was all really cool to hear about it all… until it was still going after 2 hours. Of course it was all in Japanese too. All I could do was stare off into space… I wanted to sleep after all the walking at Beach Land and the consumption of fishy food, but I was too afraid it would be rude. Lol.

But overall, today was great. A lot of different, new experiences. :)

#13 Driving, Flowers, and Food

This morning we went to a PTA meeting of sorts. A few members of the PTA were learning Flower Arrangement today, so they could teach the other members on another day. Instead of my host mom driving her Mini Van (I know Mom, try not to cringe) we were picked up. Carpool! And yes, we were picked up in… a different Mini Van. Haha.

I have to say, driving in Japan is scary! First of all, they drive on the other side of the road, I wonder why? Wasn’t the car first invented in America where we drive on the right side? If I had internet access right now, I would so Google it. Anyway, I have a long list of why driving is scary in Japan: the streets are tiny, the cars are tiny, the streets are very curvy, all of the corners are blind, there are a ton of pedestrians and barely any sidewalks, and on top of it all the Japanese tend to drive in short bursts of speed. Yeah, that means they go really fast and come to abrupt halts. I have been in the car with three different people so I think it’s a very common way of driving.

Anyway, we arranged our flowers. I made the cute little shoe. :) The teacher is in the middle in the back. My host mom was taking the picture.


Flower arranging is a very traditional and common pastime in Japan.

After Iri got home, I found out that she likes Ping Pong. Haha. They can’t believe that we have one at our house. Haha.

That’s basically all I did today.

A note on food:

For breakfast, it has become a routine where I eat by myself, since my host dad and sister leave very early in the morning. I usually have toast or a different kind of Japanese pastry. Not too big thank goodness. With that my host mom will usually make coffee, which I try to have sparingly, I know coffee is an addiction, or mizu (water).

For lunch, it’s usually just my host mom and I. We made Onegidi (?) or rice wrapped in seaweed with anything in the middle (I like salmon in mine.) I love it!

For dinner, we usually have it at home, after Iri gets home around 6:30. Tonight, we had Rice Casserole or Doria in Japanese. My host dad doesn’t get home until 9:30ish.

Tomorrow we go to the aquarium. :)

#12 Go Go Go

So, my host mom has my whole stay here planned out. No joke, my schedule is loaded! You should see her calendar, it is entirely filled with Kanji (Japanese Writing Style #1), and it’s even color coded. Yeah, that’s how busy she is. I couldn’t even imagine how she would get stuff done if she went to work every day. I’ll see if she’ll let me take a picture of it later.

So, today my host mom, Tomoko, and I went to the Nankichi Museum. Nankichi Niimi is a famous writer that was born in Handa City in 1913. My host mom had one of his stories, in English, for me to read. :) You know me and books. I was excited, even if it was just a children’s book…

I love museums. I could spend all day in a museum if I was allowed. I like reading all of the information that is posted at all the little stations. Most of the time though, there are other people with me and they don’t want to do that. (Except for Dad, he likes to read them too.) In the Nankichi Museum however, everything was in Japanese, so I couldn’t read all the information even if I wanted to. My host mom picked out most of the interesting things though. Sigh, I wish I could find a translator button in my head somewhere. That would make everything so much easier…

After the museum, Tomoko took us out to Chya Chya. It is an Italian restaurant that serves pizza and pasta. It was a very Japanese “pizza and pasta” let me tell you that right now. First of all the pizza is super thin and tiny, not thick and deliciously saucy and the toppings were… interesting… It was the same with the ingredients in the pasta. They were interesting… I chose pasta with cream sauce, shrimp, basil, spinach, and eggplant. That was probably the most normal one. I am pretty sure there was one with squid. Haha. I ate it all of mine though. (Except for eggplant.) They were playing Ice Age in English at the restaurant, just thought I would add that in.

When we got home Tomoko gave me a Hiragana (Japanese Writing Style #2) practice book. I learned how to write my name basically. Haha.

Tomoko left eventually, having to go home to her own two kids, one is actually my age, but I haven’t met her yet.

Hiroko Sensei came after that. I got to learn some calligraphy (or shodō). Mostly all I learned was that calligraphy is hard. Lol.

This is some of my best work. It says Kazoku. It means Home Group, or Family, in Kanji. My name is on the side in Hiragana.

They kept telling me I was a quick learner, so I think I did it right. Lol.

The Japanese are very giving people. Whenever you go to someone’s house or if you just feel like it, you give gifts. Hiroko gave me a gift so I gave her some of my precious chocolates. I also gave my host mom her chocolates as well. The first comment they made when they had some was, “It’s so soft.” They are so deprived when it comes to chocolate. :(

After calligraphy, my Obāsan (or grandmother) took my host mom, Iri, and me out to eat. We went to a Japanese Tempura restaurant. It is basically fried food over rice. I had shrimp with some veggies. It was very yummy or as they say in Japan, oishii (delicious). Once again, I ate it all, except for the eggplant. Lol.

I have found out, since my stay in Japan, that I do not like Green or Straw Tea, hot or cold. I love coffee hot, not cold, and they have Coca Cola here! In like every vending machine. And vending machines are everywhere in Japan!

They have a lot of other drinks in there that I have not been brave enough to try yet though.

After Tempura, we went home.

I met my host dad today. He comes home very late and he only speaks a little English but he seems to be okay with that. He gave me a present. It is a picture of a Dashi, which is a float that they make during the Handa Dashi Matsuri or Handa Float Festival. Unfortunately, it is a spring festival and I could not see it. But anyway, in Handa there are 31 of these Dashi, each belonging to a certain group. What is really impressive is that they manage to get these through Japanese streets!

My host dad also presented his wife the gift he was given from the Emperor. He handed her a small white box, I thought it help jewelry at first, but when she opened it, I saw that there were six little squares of candy, all imprinted with the emperor’s seal. We all split one. It was basically powdered sugar that melted in your mouth on impact. So cool!

My Okāsan (Host Mom) took all the pictures today, so I don’t have any of them on my camera. :( So, sorry ‘bout that. I will try to take them in the future.