Breathe easy, Mama...

Okay, lots to update here...I am going to do my best. First off, I am back in Tokyo, finally. Tokyo is where I have had the best time so far, so I am glad to be back here. I do need to fill you on on the rest of the time in Sanyo-Onoda though. I have three days' worth of stuff to post, so this is going to be a loooooooooong post. Work with me here, people...I am the one who has to sit here and type it all out. I'll add pictures later...this will take long enough!

SATURDAY

Let me tell you, the one and only thing that has had me worried this entire trip has been the home stay part. Judging from the Japanese that I have already met on this trip, I knew that they were going to be really nice people. However, that doesn’t change the fact that I was going to go live with complete strangers for a 30-hour time period. Furthermore, I had no idea if they would be English-speaking or if I was going to be playing charades the entire time. It was definitely nerve-wracking.

I woke up at 6:30 that morning because my nerves were so shot by this whole ordeal that I couldn’t sleep well. We were to meet our host families at 10:00, so I pretty much just sat around and waited. We lined up in a single file line and then walked into the banquet room where we were meeting. Each host family group introduced themselves, and then we introduced ourselves in Japanese. I could not pick out my family! For one, I had forgotten their names and was completely and totally lost. Finally Kenji matched us all up…I think most of us Americans had no idea what was going on. We were told to expect a formal tea ceremony, but we just had coffee and water. Has that become Americanized as well? We sat down and chatted for a bit. My family was represented by Kana, the daughter who is in college studying English (YES!!!) and the mother, Chisako. Very very nice people. Most of my worries were put aside immediately, but I won’t say that they were gone altogether! They asked what I would like to do, and I told them that I had no idea what there was to do in Sanyo Onoda. Kana told me that we would be going to the seaside and then to the grocery store. Yes! Two of my favorite things! I love the beach, and there is nothing quite like going to a grocery store in another country.

We climbed into Chisako’s car (a Toyota Crown…very big for a Japanese car, and I think quite expensive…it was pretty well loaded down with features, so I know it couldn’t have been too cheap). I had no idea where we were going until Kana mentioned Kyushu. Kyushu? That’s the next island (I am on Honshu right now)!!! Did they live in Kysuhu and drive all that way to get me? I had no idea what was going on, but Chisako started driving, and sure enough, about an hour later we stopped at the Kanmon Bridge that spans the Kanmon Strait between Honshu and Kysuhu. Oh, dang! I was really confused…but I rolled with it.

We stopped before we crossed the bridge and took pictures. It is a beautiful bridge, and the water was pretty, and the mountains of Kyushu and Honshu were so green! We also ate lunch here, and here is where it happened…

As I type this, the lyrics of a Pearl Jam song are running through my head. “Ohhhhhhh I, ohhhhh, I’m still alive, yeah…”

That’s right, kids. I ate fugu. It was chewy and wrong and clear, and I ate it. I was in Shimonoseki, the fugu harvesting capital of Japan. Fugu here is MUCH MUCH MUCH cheaper than in Tokyo. I got a little fugu plate for around 1000 yen ($10). It came raw and cooked. It honestly didn’t have much of a taste, so I am glad that I did not spend a fortune on it. So, cross that one off of the list, y’all! I ate my fugu! By the way, it came as sashimi (raw) and deep fried on my plate. Both were good.

We crossed the bridge into a city called Mojiko, in Kitakyushu (I think that means Northern Kyushu). We went to the Kyushu Railway Museum, which was okay. It was hard to understand everything because it was all in Japanese. I mainly just looked at pictures and the exhibits and pretended to know what I was looking at! As we were leaving, there was a huge set-up at the entrance of the museum. As we found out, the museum was getting ready to welcome its 1,000,000th visitor, and I saw it happen! Guess what though? I was probably Visitor 999,995. I was *this* close to getting all kids of honors and stuff. Very sad moment.

We then went to a really cool museum called the Kaikyo Drama Ship. This was cool primarily because I was given a headset that explained all of the exhibits in English (apparently they knew that I didn't speak Japanese...wonder how that happened?). It explained the history of the Kanmon Strait through dioramas of exquisitely crafted dolls. I unfortunately was not allowed to take pictures in the museum and they had no museum guide book for sale (because that would make logical sense), so I don't have a pictoral record of this. That's kind of sad for me because this museum just made my Top Ten List of Museums. Sigh.

At this point, I was still confused as to whether or not my host family lived in Sanyo-Onoda or Kyushu. Turns out, Sanyo-Onoda. On the way back to the house we stopped at the mall (seems like it truly is the big place to go in S-O). There is a grocery store in the mall that I didn't know existed, and my host mother wanted to buy ingredients for dinner. It was fun to walk around the grocery and see different things. They had raw horsemeat, and when Kana saw how exited I was, they bought a little of that too. You eat that raw as well...horse sashimi. I had it at dinner, but while we're on the subject: very tasty, chewy like beef jerky, fantastic with coarse salt and a little soy sauce.

To the house! My family had a garage across the street from their house, which is a pretty ritzy thing. The house really wasn't that impressive from the outside. It looked pretty modern actually, so my dreams of staying in a traditional Japanese home were shot out the window. Not a problem though. I tried to pet the dog, but he wasn't having it...stupid dogs. No sense at all. The house was typical on the inside. The very few Japanese homes I have been in here share the same characteristics: small rooms, fantastic appliances, lots of storage in the rooms. I was shown to my room, in which I was given a real honest-to-goodness bed to sleep in. We were told to expect futons in a tatami room, so this was MUCH different! I admit to being a little disappointed, but as I would find out later, double yay for that bed!

I met the rest of the family, and then Chisako started making dinner. We had okonomiyaki, which is a a weird omelet/pancake/quiche thing. "Okonomi" means "what you like," and the ingredients change from region to region or by whatever makes you happy! We had potato, green onions, bacon (mmm...bacon), cheese...we fried it up, and served it with teriyaki sauce and mayonnaise on top. I'm not sure what it is, but the Japanese love their mayonnaise. Very weird. We also had the biggest grapes I have ever seen in my life and some tangerines. Quite a tasty meal. I tried to get the recipe from them, but a lot got lost in translation so I will need to look it up later!

After dinner, I gave my host family their gifts. I think that they liked them, especially the chocolate (those people at Schimpff's really know what they are talking about). I then took my bath. The Japanese generally bathe at night. I am a morning bather, so I knew this would completely wreck my system, but hey, I'm a team player when I have to be. At our program orientation, they informed us in detail about the Japanese bath. As the guest, I would be allowed to bathe first. You go in, lather up and clean yourself, rinse yourself off, and then get into the tub which has been filled with scalding hot water and soak. But, not in my family's house! They told me that they would rather I just shower. A soak would have been nice (I was really cold), but I did as instructed. After the bath, I went upstairs and went to bed.

SUNDAY

Since I was told by my host family that they sleep in and to not come downstairs until around 9:00, I happily obliged them and stayed in bed as long as I could. When I came downstairs, they had breakfast for me. It was an interesting combo...miso soup (Host Dad made it...very good), onigiri (traditional Japanese rice cakes...was fantastic), ham and cheese panini with eggs (random), and grapes. It was a rainy and cold day, so our options were pretty limited. The city festival was going on, and I did want to go to that. We first went to the seaside in Sanyo-Onoda. It was sprinkling lightly, and Chisako and Kana both did not want to walk down to the beach, so we got out and took a few pictures and then headed back to the car. We then went back to the mall (sigh) and walked around. That wasn't too exciting. It seemed that they really did not know where to take me. Maybe Sanyo-Onoda really didn't have anything to do! It made me wonder what the rest of my group was up to, so I kept looking around the mall for everyone. We FINALLY left the mall and headed to the festival. I don't think that they really wanted to be there, but by this point, I was just really beside myself. This host family thing was not panning out the way I've heard that it does, and I really started to get down in the dumps. My family seemed bored with me and with the entire process. They were nice to me, but I just don't think they knew what to do with me, and it carried over as a general feeling of not caring. I decided to make my own fun, and started going up to various booths just to see if anyone knew English. Very very very few did, but they kept giving me stuff (Kleenex packets, reflectors for the boke I don't have, etc) so it was fun. I was also the only adult, and American, that day to get a child's driving license for Japan, so that was cool. Obviously, it is not valid. I got a painting lesson from a very nice lady who taught me how to use Japanese black ink and brushes. This took up a good chunk of time, so I had just enough time to stop by a store and pick up a few things before I was dropped off at City Hall. While many people appeared sad to leave their host family, I was just glad it was over.

I don't mean to sound ungrateful. I was uncomfortable the entire time and never could relax. When I started to hear about the shrines and museums that others went to in Sanyo-Onoda, I got a little upset that my host family didn't take me to places like that. I would have much rather spent two hours at a shrine than two hours at that silly mall. I was really fortunate to go to Kyushu, but I feel as if I missed out on Sanyo-Onoda. I still know very little about the city where I lived for a week, and that kind of makes me sad. I hate that my host family experience was so different from everyone else's. Maybe others are lying when they said theirs was awesome. I don't know. I know I built it up too much, but still...oh well. Whatever. I'm in Japan. I have no right to be upset.

At City Hall, we boarded the bus for the ryokan. A ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn. Ours was up in the mountains, and it was really nice. The first thing we were told to do after the innkeeper talked to us was to cahnge into our yukata and go take a bath. Here is where things get really interesting.

A yukata is a summer kimono, traditionally, but can be used as a regular robe year round. We had been measured, but for height, not girth (man, what a terrible sounding word). I knew my yukata would be long enough, but I wasn't sure about it going around as the Japanese are too skinny for their own good. Mine fit around, but I knew things would get ugly if I sat down in it, so I donned my ever-so-fashionable scuba-diving sock monkey pajama pants. They clashed horribly, but hey, I liked it after a while. I went downstairs to the bath.

See, in a ryokan, there is a large onsen, or hot springs. You do the traditional bathing thing that my host family had me not do, and then you soak in the bath. The only difference is that you are not alone. That's right, kids, it's group bathing time. AHHHHH!!!!!! Good thing though, the baths are separated by gender. Still, you have to get naked in front of people you've only known for a week or so. Not cool. Honestly, I was nervouse for about 2.5 seconds. I finally said, "What the heck?! I'll never see these people again!" and from that point, I was in. Over the course of my ryokan stay, I took three different baths in under 24 hours. They were really hot, and very relaxing. I am glad I did it, but let me tell you...NO ONE is talking about the bathing experience. We've been told that the Japanese are masters at not seeing what they shouldn't see. As Americans, we're practicing not talking about what we've seen, as we have seen too much. Thankfully, no cameras were allowed anywhere near the baths.

We had a formal Japanese dinner that night. It took 2.5 hours to get through. It was really very good, but there was a LOT of food to eat. I can't begin to list it all. I was very full afterwards, and had to take another bath to feel better about myself and to test if I was more buoyant after eating enough for an army. I was.

Our beds were laid out when we got back to the room. We slept on futons in our tatami-matted room, so I get to cross that off the list now!

MONDAY
will finish tomorrow...too tired to think any more!