Ok so here's what I feel I can write about. Ms. Minori and her family invited me to stay at their house for the weekend. Ms. Minori and I went jogging Friday night, and then we hurried and showered at her house before we went out for dinner and karaoke with Ms. Mihoko. Can I quickly say that my showering experience was a completely new one. It was so interesting!
It looked very much like this, except the bathtub had 2 lids on it, covering it up. You don't get in the bathtub to clean yourself, you get in the bath to relax. But you have to be clean before you get in the tub, so you sit on a stool and shower. It's amazing how something as simple as a shower can remind you that things are done differently all over the world.
Anyways, Karaoke. We sang so much stuff! Takarazuka, David Bowie, Billy Joel, It's a Small World (long story ha ha), Beyonce, Annie, and some Jay-Z. I also worked on my speed with reading Hiragana during the Japanese and Korean songs we sang.
It's very much like this, though every place is different.
Afterwards, Ms Minori and I walked back to her house since it was close by. The streets were very safe, even at 2:30am. In the morning, Minori's mom had this amazing breakfast waiting for us. Toast with tons of different things we could put on top. I had lettuce, tomato, and egg, and ....dang.... something else for breakfast as well. I'm trying to write it all down quickly because I know I'm starting to forget already. It's cause SO MUCH happened! At breakfast, I got to meet her Father, who I'd never seen before. He was so sweet and nice! So many things about my experience reminded me of being at home with my family. Their house was beautiful! It was bigger on the inside, I swear. There were western-ish rooms, and traditional Japanese-tatami-mat rooms as well. Minori's mother is an amazing artist and sculptor. Her paintings had a similar style to Uncle Peder, and I liked them a lot. She loved sculpting very small pieces, and they were all over the house. I fell in love with her vegetable pieces. They were so detailed, and so small! I wish I had taken photos of the kitchen and living room, it was very homey. I loved it. And one of my favorite things about the house was the plum tree in the back.
When Minori and her sister got back, we ordered some sushi. 2 giant sushi platters! I tried every flavor, and they were all delicious of course. Sushi isn't limited to just fish. They have egg and corn sushi too, and Minori was telling me about beef sushi in some places. Interesting. The egg pieces were so big that I was pretty bad at handling them with my chopsticks. But everything else I was fine with. I've been getting plenty of practice, but man, the things they can do with chopsticks. I can't figure how they chop stuff up with one hand. Someday!!! Poor little Kiyoshiro, he found a little dab of wasabi on a plate and put it in his mouth. His mom and grandma both dove to try to take it out of his mouth, but he had wiped it on his teeth. It was one of those moments where you are are saying, "awww poor guy" while also giggling at the silly thing he did. Just when you thought he'd learned his lesson, he tried reaching for some spicy Kim Chi the next day lol. This time his mom got to it before he did ha ha ha.
After lunch, Minori, her sister and I went to rent some DVD's and get some groceries. I told her about how America has switched to things like Netflix and RedBox, and how I wish we still had DVD stores. They had such a huuuuuge selection! It was awesome! I rented Totoro. Totoro to Japan is like Star Wars is to America. Pretty much everyone has seen it. I'd never seen it, and a replica house from the movie is really close to where I live. So I wanted to see the movie before I went to see the house. I'm actually watching it as I blog, and I am loving it for so many reasons. Movies by Hayao Miyazaki have always been favorites of mine, the music is beautiful, and it captures LOTS of small things about Japan that aren't listed in any tourist book. Like the bus stop they wait at. There's a bus stop identical to that one just outside my apartment. And at night, you can hear the exact same toads croaking. The little red bibs around the necks of the shrine animals....even the fox statues at one of the shrines made me think of Inari Taishi in Kyoto. I can even guess the month this movie takes place in, based on rice paddies and flowers growing. I am LOVING the details!!! I'm having to watch it in Japanese, but I am pretty proud of myself because I understand a lot of it.
Anyways, they had tons of dvd's and cd's you could rent. No takarazuka lol I looked. Interestingly, you can rent tons of American TV shows, but each episode is rented separately. When we got back, we watched a movie and I talked with Minori's Dad about various stuff. He reminded me a lot of my Dad, so I liked him a lot. We picked some plums too. He would climb up into the tree, clip off some branches, and lower them down to us. We hung them on some hanging rails for a plum picking event the next day. I was very happy being outside, pruning a tree with Ms. Minori's Dad. It is something I would do with mine.
Dinnertime rolled around, and I got to meet Minori's brother. He is working on his English, so we did lots of talking. He was very interested in the world, and America, and how Americans viewed other countries and such. We covered lots of subjects. We also talked about Japan. He told me that Kyoto and Tokyo and Kyoto are in Japan but kind of their own places, if that makes sense. He said that they are fun places to go, but they represent specific sides of Japan, not the day-to-day Japan. Anyways for dinner we had what they said was a typical Japanese dinner. Nikujaga, Ghost Fish, Konnyaku, seaweed, and rice. It was all delicious. Nikujaga had beef, potato, carrot, and onion. I found a photo that looks kind of like it, but Minori's mother is an AMAZING cook, and her's looked much better.
I can't remember the name of the fish, but her Dad jokingly called it a ghost fish because it was so white. He's a big fan of fishing, and had caught some of them in the nearby part of the ocean. Konnyaku, aka Devil's Tongue Jelly, is made from potato starch, and I was told that it was verrrrry healthy for you. It's got a very bland flavor, so you serve it with this really tasty mustard. I was a fan, although this is the hardest thing I've ever tried to pick up with chopsticks. Eventually I had to just stab it ha ha ha!
And then some seaweed and rice, but you know what those look like. It was the first time I'd had straight cooked seaweed, and I was surprised that it didn't taste at all like that seaweed smell I've seriously almost forgotten. The seaweed here tastes good.
After dinner, Minori, her brother and I sat up late and chatted about various stuff, and somehow we got on the subject of fireworks. That led to Minori's brother grabbing a bunch of fireworks and the whole family and I went out back and lit a bunch! They have a big variety of sparklers! There are the ones we have in America, as well as some that only shoot in one direction. You should shove them in water and they wouldn't go out, they'd keep going! So cool. There were some attached to paper machine guns, and they rattled off like a machine gun would. There were special ones you lit at the end which were pretty cool. They were very small and frail, and you lit the bottom, not the top. They glowed faintly and had very faint sparks coming off the bottom. Eventually the lit up part falls off. You're supposed to light them with other people and then have a competition to see who's sparkler falls off last. Whoever's sparkler holds dripping the longest gets to make a wish. After the fireworks, we watched a movie called Snow Piercer. It's made in Korea, with a bunch of American, English, and Korean people. I didn't get to finish because I got tired, but I am hoping to finish it at some point. Tilda Swinton does another fantastic transformation into a completely different person. Her accent is completely hidden. That woman is an amazing actress!!!
The whole time I was staying there, I was getting gifts. Minori gave me all sorts of things, just to be nice, and her Mother gave me my favorite sculpted piece that she'd made.
I was overwhelmed with how sincere and giving everyone was. Ms. Minori, her mother, her father, her sister, and her brother did all they could to make me feel welcome. I felt very cared about, it felt like I was back at home.
I got to sleep in this room, on a traditional futon. Honestly, I found it to be very comfortable. I had a fan blowing at my feet, and I was in heaven. The next morning, we had lots of prep work to be done. Minori had invited all the teachers over for plum picking and lunch. Another delicious breakfast, and then I got to help prepare. I helped make some ebi rice balls, and some Korean pancakes. When the teachers arrived, we all feasted!
There were three different types of Onigiri rice (shrimp, herb, and pickled plum***(my fav)), and a few other dishes that couldn't fit on the table. so they were kept in the kitchen. there was so much food! And it was all delicious!
During lunch, one of the teachers was telling me about a plot to one of the previous christmas plays done at the school. It was made up by a teacher who loved sci-fi, and it made me laugh out loud. The teacher had done a spoof of Alien vs Predator, called Elf vs Reindeer. Apparently there were robots, and even a Cthulhu ha ha ha ha!!!!
After Lunch, we all got out and picked plums. There were so many! Then we packed up and got ready to leave. I left there with a giant bag of sweet plums, numerous gifts, and a very high regard of the Higashi family. I wish I could have done or said more to thank them for such a great weekend. I felt so welcomed the whole weekend, it meant so much to me, and it really lifted my spirits. Now I have to work on finding a way to thank them all!
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