6/23 Homestay!

Hi guys!

Yesterday was more of a travel day. We traveled back to our home base of Kashiwa from Tokyo, and goofed around in Kashiwa until check-in. The group then relaxed before getting dinner at a place where there was not one word of English. 

It makes ordering kind of stressful.

Today was the start of our homestay! We first traveled to Abiko for an Ikebana class. Ikebana is the art of flower arrangement. The teachers had us use cattail leaves to symbolize the buddha's head and hands. The stems were cut so that the cattails were at three different heights. The tallest sticks upright and signifies the buddha's head. The second tallest is angled towards the right and signifies the Buddha's right hand. The shortest is angled towards the left to signify the Buddha's left hand that's laying down and palm up.

This is off Google Images. The Buddha's head and two hands are represented in Ikebana.

This isn't the best picture of my attempt in ikebana. The brown parts of the cattails are what symbolizes the head and two hands. 

Me with my ikebana arrangement. Our teacher's assessed our personality through our ikebana. Apparently I'm balanced and have a very "it's my way or the highway" attitude. 

A group shot :)

After our class some of us ate a quick meal and went back up to meet with our homestay families. So far, my gift-presenting has not been the best. I was a tad bit late because of being so hungry, so I ran over and they had me sit next to them. Riley gave me my ikebana from my original chair, and our ikebana arrangements were supposed to be gifts to the family. I didn't know where else to put it, so I just said "douzo" and gave it to them right there. They were super nice and accepted it, though. I will be living with only the husband and wife, as the kids have already grown up and moved away. 

We later hopped in the host family's car and drove to their house. After some conversation in the car, we finally arrived at the house and they helped me with my luggage. My omiyage (presents) from home were just laying there in the backseat because I had no where else to put them, and the husband grabbed them to help me carry things in. 

My original plan was to hide it until I was all settled in, then present it. But nope, I couldn't hide it. So I just told him right there that it was their present. He said thank you and we walked inside, where the wife began opening it. 

They both seemed like they really like the gifts! Apparently, they've lived in California for 5 years and visited Arizona in the past, so they actually knew a lot about Arizona. They even had this huge grey agate decorating their wall, so my small purple agate-sandstone candle holder actually complimented it a bit. We talked a bit about the Grand Canyon and Arizona in general. They already had a map of Arizona so I was able to point to where Round Valley is. 

I was then served some green tea and red bean pudding, which was great! We talked a little more about Japan and the U.S. Afterwards the wife -who's name is Sachiko Kimura - wanted to go out on a walk. We strolled through the neighborhood and into this really quiet, peaceful park. I told Kimura-san that my dad really liked flower pictures, and so she proceeded to stop at every new flower bed to tell me what the names were and let me take pictures of them. Because I wasn't expecting the walk, I only had my phone on me. Here's some of the pictures from our walk - 

Kimura-san :)

After our walk, we went back and I was taught how to make okonomiyaki! It's surprisingly easy. Basically, it's just flour, milk, cabbage, pork, fish, and ginger that you mix all together and fry it like a pancake. You then smother it in mayonnaise and okonomiyaki sauce, add some seaweed flakes and these fish flakes that curl when exposed to heat, and eat up! I had about 3 servings and was absolutely stuffed. 

My second serving.

After dinner, I was treated to a nice Japanese-style bath. You basically wash yourself thoroughly before relaxing in a nice, warm bath. The bathtub even had temperature control! I was wondering why the heat wasn't fading after a while. After my bath we watched some T.V. and now I'm laying in my nice Japanese-style room.  

You want to know what the best part is? I got presents too! It's all food that I can bring home. I can now force my parents to try Japanese curry.

That's all for today! Tomorrow we will be visiting Kimura-san's garden and make some homemade mochi!