Goodbye to the Shirakawa Family

It has been an amazing first week here in Japan with the Shirakawa family, but this afternoon I will be moving in with the Saito family.  I'm sad to leave this home but very excited for all the new experiences I will have in the next one.

From Yuki: また会えたら嬉しいです (I'm looking forward to seeing you again.)

From Natsuko: １週間とっても楽しかった.  もし私達がUSに行けたらまた会いましょう
                        (It was a very fun week.  Let's meet again if we [her family] go to the US.)

From Manami: もっとお話出来たらよかったです  (I wish I could talk to you more.)

me with the whole Shirakawa family (even Koume, the dog)

My host mother asked me to sign one of the boxes where I have been storing my snacks this week.

Yuki asked me to sign the frame of his bed.

Ramen

My host mother made ramen for us today.  In America we are used to ramen being the cheap college-student food from the Maruchan package, but this was different.  She bought ramen noodles and cooked her own broth.  The ramen was delicious.  We also had Pari Pari Potato, fried dough filled with cheese and potato.  I found them similar to pierogies.  There was also some kind of seasoning for them which was salty but also a little spicy.  I actually liked it a lot.  The small square bowl on the left had menma, a food made from young bamboo shoots.  It was pretty salty and tasted okay, but the texture was really different from what I am used to eating.  The small plate in the middle of the table had chashu, steamed pork.  This was my last meal at the Shirakawa home which is sad for me, but I'm happy for the week I had here and glad that the food was so good.

A Japanese Elementary School

Yuki will be playing a taiko drum with his classmates in a festival later this year.  We dropped him off at practice this morning at 9:00.  Since the practice was at Yuki's school, I asked to look around inside.  One of the teachers gave me permission, so my host mother gave me a tour of the school.  It was so big for an elementary school (grades 1-6)!  I'm so glad I got to see it.

the front of the school

school name: Copin

teachers' room

where the students change from outside shoes to inside shoes
And yes, those are unicycles.  They are popular with children here.

class lists showing how many boys (男) and girls (女) are in each class

a classroom

another classroom

a classroom sign: 4th year (grade), Class 1

They have anti-bullying signs in Japanese schools too.

a view from one of the school's windows

steps with illustrations from some of Nankichi Niimi's stories

a music room with taiko drums

a view from one of the school's hallways: more of the school

another music room

a garden/courtyard surrounded by hallways of the school

a chemistry lab (in an elementary school)

the gym building

the front of the school

Tamago Gohan

This morning we had tamago gohan (egg rice) for breakfast.  The wooden bowl off to the right is osuimono (like miso soup but without miso).  It was really salty but okay.  The plate on the far left is negiyaki (fish and green onions) which was actually good.  In the photo above, the rice and egg are separate.  Before you eat, you mix the egg with the rice.  It seemed a little odd to me to be eating a raw egg since we are so concerned about that giving us salmonella in the U.S., but it was really good.  I think I will make this again when I return to America.

Even more snacks!

 
 Matcha cookies- smelled strongly of green tea (good), and tasted like it but not overpowering.  The cookies were good.  These were nice, but I don't think I'll buy any more.

 
One Piece chocolate wafer- Manami's English teacher gave this to me in a bag of gifts when I went to her house for lunch.  It was really good..  (And the fact that it was One Piece made it even better!)

 Melon pan- didn't really taste like melon, more of just a sweet bread.  Overall, very good.

 Shuwabo- a chewy outside filled with a sour powder that fizzed, kind of like powdered Pop Rocks.  It tasted good and I liked the texture as well.

 Matcha Sequoia- basically a chocolate-covered wafer (green tea flavor).  It was good, but nothing too special.

 Sequoia- about the same as the one above but strawberry instead of matcha.  Good, but even less special since strawberry is a common candy flavor in the United States.

Shuji (as in Japanese calligraphy, not the character from Bakugan)

After we got home from dinner, Yuki showed me how to do shuji, Japanese calligraphy. He wrote the phrase "Hinoyoujin." (Beware of fire.)  I asked if I could try and I wrote it twice along with signing my name in katakana ("Ke-ra": ケラ).  It was really fun.  I plan to spend more time trying calligraphy when I return to America.

Kaiten Sushi

We went to a kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi restaurant for dinner tonight.  It was a really interesting experience.  There were screens to order food as well as many various plates of food circulating around on a conveyor belt.  I tried many types of sushi ad my favorite was cucumber and umeboshi sushi.  My least favorite, ironically, was the one my host father said that Americans typically like.  I also had udon noodles, pudding, and some melon.  Overall it was a very fun experience.

The bottom row has circulating plates and the top row has an automatic cart with delivers your order right to your table.

the order screen

the first type of sushi I tried: ikura
Scout said we should try it because it was very good, but I didn't care for it.

Tamago (egg) sushi
This one was okay, but the egg was kind of sweet which I wasn't expecting.

And of course I liked the pudding.  Dessert is a wonderful thing.