So my homestay experience in Japan was pretty amazing. I was hosted by an older Japanese couple (both in their 60s) and their daughter, who is my age. The main host was the mother, Ichiko, who retired a few years ago from her job as a public health nurse. Now she is a volunteer probation officer, and she takes courses on social work; basically, she spends her time trying to help young people who have run into trouble with the law because they have poor home situations; for example, one of Ichiko’s “clients” has no where to live because her father remarried and has a younger child with his new wife (basically a Cinderella story). I had a lot of opportunities to get to know Ichiko pretty well during my weekend there, and I was really amazed by her story. When she was two or three years old, Ichiko was given to a friend of her family’s, because this couple had been unable to have children and Ichiko’s parents already had several. The idea was that this couple would then have someone to take care of them when they were old (and to this day, Ichiko still takes care of her foster mother, who lives with her.) I asked Ichiko if she always knew she was adopted, and she immediately said “They ALWAYS tell me ‘You are NOT true child!’” I gathered that this situation was kind of traumatic for Ichiko, and it’s why she spends so much of her time in her retirement trying to help children that are unwanted by their families.
In addition to the daughter that lives with them, Ichiko and her husband also have two sons that live elsewhere. And this, I think, is one reason Ichiko was so excited to have me around. I think that Ichiko especially misses cooking for her sons, because Ichiko spent all day Friday cooking every different Japanese dish she could think of… it seemed like one of Ichiko’s main goals was to make sure I tried as many different Japanese foods (and drinks!) as possible. I ate soooo much while I was there. The food was simply amazing over all, but the sashimi was exceptionally amazing—by far the best sashimi I’ve ever eaten (sliced raw tuna with fresh onions and garlic.)
Photos: Sashimi with onions and garlic and japanese radish, various dishes, and a savory egg custard with mushrooms and other things. Yum!
On Saturday, Ichiko had work to do, so her daughter (Nadjuna) took me to do some light sightseeing. We walked around a local market, had lunch at the pier, and then got on this cool boat that had windows underneath the hull. After we got out into the water a bit, they boatmen threw fish food into the water and we were able to watch enormous schools of fish swim by. It was pretty cool. Just as the boat was getting back to port, though, it began to rain, so Nadjuna and I went home so she could teach me how to make Japanese curry. When Ichiko got home we all ate, drank, and chatted before Ichiko talked me into trying on traditional Japanese men's attire (kimono.) It was pretty interesting. I'm not going to post photos of that, but here is a video of the fish:
On Sunday Ichiko and I got up early to go to church. The family's religious practices had come up as a topic of conversation at some point over the weekend because I asked about what I assumed was a statue of Buddha in the house (it wasn't), and when Ichiko mentioned that she enjoyed going to church, I asked if she would take me while I was staying with them. I really wanted to see what a protestant service was like in Japan. It was fairly interesting; the people were really welcoming, and they asked me to stand up and introduce myself before almost everyone came by to talk to me. I really enjoyed it :) After church, Ichiko and I struck out to see Kamakura, which is a popular destination among Japanese for many of the temples and shrines there. Among many of the cool things there is a 30-meter tall Buddha statue (called a “Diebutsu”), which I was able to walk inside of! Very cool.
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