homestay, 2

Sunday
Futon means something rather different in Japan. It is much thinner, and on the tatami floor, wasn't the easiest thing to sleep on, but I slept and it was good, and I think it was an important thing to experience, really. I mean, how often will a person have the oportunity to stay in a more traditional Japanese house set-up? We had a huge breakfast - they made both Japanese and Western it seemed. I am of the belief that green tea can cure almost any ill. Miso, scrambled eggs (the first fully cooked egg i've seen in a long time!) bread, blueberry jam, rice, tomatoes, cucumbers pickled in salt, fruit, tofu and we were offered fermented soybeans (but she didn't seem offended that we declined - in fact, she seemed to think our reaction (trying to be polite) was rather funny. We took a couple bites of almost everything (I just couldn't do more plain tofu after the tofu in the miso, and I didn't do the pickles) and headed out for the day. Communication was dicey at best - they have about as much English as we have Japanese (basically, none) so there was a lot of gestures, pointing, and thumbing through phrase books and dictionaries. And laughing.

We went to an old Samurai village just outside Aizuwakamatsu and wandered around. There were still thatched roofs, but it seems that most of the buildings were converted into shops. I did find some pretty pottery, and the mother of the family we were staying with bought us some wooden spoons and a ladle that were made of a particular type of wood that grows around here. We tried to pay, but were not allowed to do so (which seemed to be the course of the day. We were shot down left and right). The drive to the village was incredibly beautiful - words just don't do it justice. On the way back into town, we stopped at a neighborhood craft store, and I bought some linen and some wool yarn. It was nice to have someone there who was able to tell me the fiber content for sure.

Lunch was at a local raman shop, and while good, greasy. But did I say good? Because it was pretty incredible.

Afterwards, it was back to the house for a rest, tea, and goodbyes. Obaachan (grandmother) and the mother started to cry when we left, and made us promise that if we came back to Japan we would visit.

It was so incredible. People took us into their homes, let us see how they lived and were incredibly generous with their time and their resources. I have no way to appropreraltly thank them. It was amazing.


I honestly feel like I could stay here. Well, at least in Fukushima. I wouldn't want to stay in Tokyo, but even here, where their is a tiny community of foreigners, I really feel like I would be able to live and be content. I am excited about Korea still, but also a little sad to leave Japan. I'm also worried about the amount of down-time I will have in Indiana before leaving. It will be good to have the opportunity to start gaining some language skills in Korean, but I honestly feel that in some ways I would be happy to start teaching in a school here next Monday. I know that it is mostly because I am now able to associate people and children and experiences with this place, but I really do like being here. I may fill out a JET application for next year, just in case for some reason I decide that Korean just isn't the place for me and I want to continue to live in Asia for a while. Options are never a bad thing.