Although it’s traditional, the house still has modern amenities. My family is lucky enough to have a dishwasher and a garage, and my room has an air condition (though I’m not sure when I’m allowed to use it..).
People are really big on conserving energy in Japan because it’s so expensive. This is definitely NOT a bad thing, but its sometimes an uncomfortable thing.. For example, my family doesn’t turn on the air conditioner unless it is necessary. Other families only allow their host kids to keep the air on in their room for an hour every day. Furthermore, before taking a shower I have to turn the hot water on using a button in the kitchen. This makes me think of the new “Karate Kid” movie when Jackie Chan teaches Will Smith’s son how to turn the hot water on/off in their apartment and SAVE THE WORLD.
This past weekend I spent totally with my host family. On Saturday I went to Toyama with my host okaasan (mom), otousan (dad) and sister because otousan sometimes works out of Toyama. The drive took about 4 hours and on our way there we took a drive through the Japanese countryside. One of the things I wanted to do while in Japan was see the Japanese countryside and, at least where we were, it is totally different from American countryside. The farms were A LOT smaller and there were no big silos and barns. Also, there were no horses or cows, just crops. It was beautiful, though, because the farms were set in valleys surrounded by mountains.
From Toyama you can see the `Japanese Alps`
Though, because we were in the mountains, the roads took a lot of turns. It was sort of sick-making. Furthermore, Japanese drivers are super-scary. The roads in Japan are really narrow (even the highways are only 2 lanes or so) and so if somebody’s parked on the side of the road you have to swerve totally in the other lane to avoid them. So on our trip, in order to avoid a truck in our lane we swerved over to the other side of the road just as another car is coming directly at us. We must’ve been 10 feet from hitting that other car straight on before otousan swerved back into the right lane. HE DIDN’T EVEN BLINK.. and most of all, okaasan didn’t even freak a teeny bit (unlike America mom).
Another example of terrible driving in Japan is the fact that, during my commute, I’d probably be hit by a car if I didn’t keep extra-careful watch of where I’m going. These people have no thoughts for pedestrians or bikers. It’s like, survival of the fittest. Just yesterday I tried to cross the street at a pedestrian right-of-way and almost got mauled by a moped. Not to mention that they go about 60mph on curvy, mountain roads while halfway in the other lane..
Anyways, we got to Toyama, dropped otousan off at his work and then okaasan, Mariya (sister) and I went to a Starbucks on a river and walked around the area. There was some live music going on at an outdoor amphitheater. It was a very nice atmosphere:
Because Toyama is near the ocean and it’s famous for its good fish, for dinner we went for kaiten zushi, AKA conveyer belt sushi. This is one of those restaurants where the food is sent around the room on a conveyer belt and you can pick whatever you want off the belt. Prices vary and are listed according to plate color. We didn’t do the conveyer belt thing but I did get to eat really good sushi and sashimi. SO YUM.
Sunday, my host family brought Kenshi-kun (host brother) and me out for o-mocha (sweets). We went to a temple where they served traditional Japanese sweets: some kind of barbequed mochi with sweet sauce, as far as I could tell. It came on sticks:
It was really traditional. We sat on cushions on the floor and ate in a sort of little teahouse. Some of the other guests were wearing traditional yukata that you could rent for fun.
Afterwards, my family helped me buy a much-appreciated ketai (cellphone) at the local SoftBank. Email me on my ketai address! It’ll be fun ~
KPECK@softbank.ne.jp
No comments:
Post a Comment