On September 19th, I went to the geisha district in Kanazawa with my host otosan(father). He bought me a beautiful pair of chopsticks with kimono fabric in them. The geisha district has a lot of gift stores, tea houses and the houses
surrounding it are very old. Not to mention you can go there to see the geishas.
We also went to the Kanazawa 21st Century At Museum too – it was interesting. A lot of unique exhibits and stuff, but small and much different compared to the art galleries I’ve seen in Ontario.
On September 20th, I went to Gakoyama and Takoyama with my host mother, and another exchange sudent and her host family. Her host dad treated us to lots of museums and treats from the area. In gokoyama, the traditional old houses are the kind with the straw roofs and such. It was really quite beautiful, but I can’t even imagine how cold you would be living in it!
For the next two days of Silver weekend (which was a 5 day weekend for holidays in September) I went to Universal Osaka with my host mom and sister.
It was a lot of fun! We took the bullet train there and back, which took about two and a half hours. Universal was really neat, but SO busy. Never go to an amusement park in Japan during national holidays. The thing is that there were so few rides there (one roller coaster, the rest all just shows and indoor 3D rides), plus there were so many people. The lines were long and if you’ve ever been to Universal Orlando – this will be a let down for you. I had a ton of fun and it was amazing to go, but Florida won in the comparison battle, sadly. The funniest thing I found though was that in Florida, the “ET” ride is amazing – you take ET home in the basket of your bicycle and you fly him home, its really cool. In Japan – I waited two hours to watch a clip of
Stephen Spielburg talk about the significance of ET with a deep male Japanese voice-over, walk into a room where ET’s spaceship lets out some smoke, then walk into the final room where ET says “sayonara tomodachi” (meaning goodbye friends) and then get pressured to buy a 1600yen picture of myself with ET.. ahhaahah all we could do was laugh.
But Osaka was SO busy, I didn’t get to spend much time there but we had Okonomiyaki when we were there (people describe it as a Japanese pancake, but its really not. It’s like a meal – in the SHAPE of a pancake). Its one of the famous foods in Osaka, so that was legit. Universal and Osaka was a lot of fun, I’m glad I went J
In Japan, “purikura” is really popular. Its basically an interative photobooth that smooths out the colour so it makes you look way prettier than you actually are. Then you get the copies printed out really small, cut them up, and share them or put them in a book (Japanese girls here have books filled with PAGES and PAGES of these teeny stickers, its crazy!) Btw, I can’t remember if I wrote about this or not on account I can’t check because I don’t have internet at this temporary host house so I’m just writing this on word and will copy it later – not like anyone cares or anything. Okay, Back to the story. Yeah, well as of now I’ve done it times. It’s actually a lot of fun and tacky- but cute J
Hanging out with the other exchange students in Kanazawa has been fun as well. (and will continue to be aswell, I just worded that wrong). The usual activities are karaoke, getting something to eat, purikura, and the occasional jumping photo. The other day Jared, Nick and I took 40 jumping pictures because there is nothing else to do in Kanazawa. T’was fun.
On Wednesday, myself and the other exchange students headed off to Shinminato, Toyama for a Rotary weekend type thing. The first night was a Rotary meeting, with some speeches in Japanese and a lot of food. We were also sent to host families – my family was absolutely aborable and their house was huge! They spoke no English but the girl I was with (sharnelle from Australia) speaks Japanese very very well.. so she spoke.. But I find that living with people who don’t speak any Englsih forces you to learn Japanese faster and better. I kind of wish my host families woud have spoken little English.. but it is what it is.
The second day consisted of a boat ride, and the matsuri festival in Shinminato. We went during the day and watched, then the afternoon - we got to join in and help push the floats! Jared, Michael and I were pushing a float together with a bunch of Japanese guys – but they were being fools and would attempt to repeat everything in broken English even though we could understand the Japanese they were telling us.. It was a lot of fun. We then went and met the mayor of Imizu city, and we got a picture in the Toyama newspaper for it. Then we departed and went back to our host families for dinner. My host mom made wonderful food, the biggest breakfast I’ve had yet in Japan and a big delicious dinner that night! Not to mention a pear for desert. I feel like I have scurvy because of the MAJOR lack of fruits and veggies I’m getting here. Maybe Japanese people are so small because they didn’t get all the vitamins they needed from the fruit when they were still growing ;)
Anyway. We all returned to the festival that night – and there was so much food to buy. I only bought a matcha crepe but it was delicious. There was everything from ‘pancake balls’ – I forget the Japanese name, to ‘octopus’ something – I also forget the Japanese name. The floats were all lit up with lanterns and the festival continued, it was gorgeous!
The final day of our little trip, we got to make pottery. Everyone made plates and cups but I made a teapot and matching teeny cup.
We then went to the shopping centre. Clothes here are amazing, but so expensive! The only thing I ended up buying was lunch and a ‘rilakkuma’ bus pass holder. (rilakkuma is a popular cartoon bear here). On the train ride back, our entertainment came from me finishing the rubick’s cube twice in the time a Japanese boy finished it once when he was showing off to his friends. Go Canadian brains.
When we returned back to Kanazawa station off the train, I was encountered by two guys who had a note from my host mom saying they were in Toyama for the rest of the weekend because my host dads dad (aka my host grandfather) died and they had to stay for the funeral. So now I am at my host uncles house for the rest of the weekend. I have a 22 year old host brother, and a mother and father. My host parents don’t speak English – but I find it good because I have even learned a lot just from one day and night here, though my host brother speaks some Englsih that he learned back in highschool.
Today, instead of karate class, I had cooking class. It was fun – we made sushi and dainfuku – which is a Japanese sweet.
It was difficult though, but delicious in the end. Desserts here are flavoured with matcha or sweet beans usually. Dainfuki is a rice paste covering over sweet beans in ball form. I’m missing the rich, chocolatey desserts back in Canada that we can get! Sweet beans don’t cut it all the time, though matcha ice cream is my favourite thing in the world as of now.
Today my host brother and father took me out all around kanazawa, I saw things I never saw before! It was great. I saw many new foods and places to shop and historical things too. It was a good day.
Okay, after this 1387 word essay you should be all caught up with my life in Japan.
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