Triumphant

Well, it's probably about time I put up my adventures of the last few weekends.

First up- Yosano.

Jen and I left Kyoto-eki on a bus around 8am.  There were a lot of people enrolled in this little excursion.  Most people were from Kyo-dai, but there were a few from various other schools.  Jen and I were the only Americans in the group.

After a several hour bus ride through the beautiful countryside of Kyoto, we arrived in Yosano.  The bus driver got a little lost once we got in the city (the roads are very narrow and rather maze like), but we got to the Cultural center eventually.  Once we got in, there was a brief introduction and they sent us along with our host families for the afternoon.

Jen and I got placed in the same house, which was nice.  Our host family had super heavy Kansai accents, so we only understood about 60-70% of what they said.  Osaka and Kyoto accents aren't so bad, but once you start moving out of the cities they get harder to understand.  We both felt a little bad because we'd just give them blank stares sometimes.

At any rate, they were really great people. We got lunch with our Mom and Brother (19 y.o.) then went on a boat ride.  You can get these little shrimp flavored things and hold them out for the birds and they come right up and eat them out of your hand.  It was super fun.  Our host mom bought us some souvenirs, too.

They actually bought us a lot of stuff that weekend.  After eating an absolute ton of food, we went back to house and met Dad and Grandma.  They were both really sweet.  The house was way cool, too!  They could heat the floors of the kitchen and family room and there was a voice that told you when the bath was ready and an alarm you could set for the whole house.  So freakin awesome.  I want a house like that when I get rich.

We ate dinner after baths.  They literally had a boat load of food.  It was all so delicious, but we didn't finish all of it.  I think I must have put on at least 5 lbs in two days, I ate so much.

We crashed around 10 pm and woke up at 7am the next morning.  We got dressed and packed up all our stuff and threw it in the car.  Taka, our brother, drove us over to the cultural center.  We actually got side-swiped on the way there.  I wonder if it was his first car accident...

No one got hurt.  He called his dad and we went over to the Center, just barely catching the bus to the rice fields.  Taka came to take pictures of us while we worked.  It was suuuuper weird.  As you step in the rice patty, your foot sinks down in mud up to about your knees.  Our group planted half of the field and a local elementary school and their parents planted the other half.  I really don't know how the pros get their lines of rice so straight.

They told us that morning that a TV crew from KBS Kyoto would be filming and doing interviews for a segment.  It airs this Thursday.  I actually got interviewed as I was coming out for a break.  I think it was because of my ridiculous hat, but whatever.  They asked me if I'd ever done this before and what it felt like.  I said it felt kinda gross having the mud between my toes.  Maybe I'll even get aired in the segment!

After the field was done, we went back to the cultural center and ate with our host families at this pot luck.  It was intense.  There was so much food there.  I didn't know where to start.  It was so nice having home cooked food and not having to make it for myself.

There was a taiko performance as well.  Jen and I enjoyed watching it with an experienced eye.  There was this one girl you could tell was new because she kept making faces when she messed up.  Now I know how obvious I look when I do that.

Once the hunger was satiated, the people putting on the event asked each person to talk for a minute about their home country.  Jen and I were at a bit of a loss, so we went up together.  Our host dad called us a manzai because we were cracking jokes and passing the mic back and forth.  さすがアメリカ人だよ。

And then it was all over.  We got jilted hugs from Dad and Brother at Mom's command and then waved goodbye.

Since then Mom has called us.  They're printing pictures of the rice planting and sending them to us.  It was nice to hear from her again... even if we couldn't understand everything she was saying to us!

Made me feel a little more at home here in Japan.  Family really is important, even if they're not your real family.



I think I'll end this post here.  I need to get some homework done before I go to sleep and I have a long day tomorrow.

Promise to post about Amino with Don soon!

Love until later,

Caitlin D.