A Japanese Weekend

You must be confused by the title.. I'm in Japan, so everyday is Japanese right? Well, not really.. Since I stay in a single room, I can shut out the whole of Japan if I wanted to. But when you stay at a Japanese house, what can you do but spend a VERY Japanese time?

Well, actually, I went for a Homestay to a Japanese house last weekend in Saitama. The home I went to was the house of one of the students in my college, in a city in Saitama called Hiki（比企郡）.Actually, I've never even met the guy before.. haha.. Thanks to the college's Homestay Program, I was able to go.

So, what type of house was it? well, obviously a Japanese house.. No, I'm not going to post a photo of it.. I don't even have a photo of it. Well, generally, Japanese houses are small and cute.. and the first time I went into the house and looked around, my first impression was that they are very good at using 'space'. For those who have played the sims, you would understand this basic in house building. A Japanese house may be small, but the way they use 'space' makes all the difference. Actually, the house felt quite wide to me.

Okay, so what about the family? Well, obviously a Japanese family, but mixed with Taiwanese blood. The father is from Taiwan, probably migrated to Japan with his own family. On the other hand, the mother is Japanese, which makes the family a Taiwan-Japanese mix. Ho hO Ho. They are a family of 6. The one studying in my college is the eldest son. And 3 younger sisters at home. Err, right, I know what you guys are going to think after reading that short sentence. Please do not draw to your own conclusions. ^-^

Well, honestly, it was kinda fun, suddenly having 3 little sisters for a weekend.. hehe.. Watching Kitarou, playing weird Japanese card games, making an incomplete origami, and "Ka!" and "Hei!" and "Yahhoo" and all that.. Heh.. I don`t expect you to understand that, but anyways, it was not too bad at all.. Just that I`m not really good at talking to girls and don`t really know what to say, especially in Japanese.

And about the place I went to, Hiki, it is called the town of Washi(Japanese paper) 「和紙の里」 hmm.. so, what did I do in the town of pulp? I made postcards with the Washi.. will upload later when I get back to my own computer.. Other than that, I also bought a sake to bring back to Malaysia. And I also went free-sliding down a slide.. My first free-sliding! I`ll explain later after I upload the picture.

And I also ate lots of nice food made by the girls and their mother.. Shiawase... Heh.. Well, in a nuts shell, a normal Japanese meal consists of miso soup, Rice, and any style of cooking you can think of.. Italian, Chinese, anything! well, except Malaysian, of course.. heh..

Well, all in all, it was a nice trip.. the line`s going to be cut in a few minutes so until next time.......


This are the postcards I made at the paper factory. A bit hard to see, but there are flowers embedded into the postcards..


This is the free-slide.. Why do I call it a free-slide? Well, I think by the picture you would expect something like a roller-coaster, right? But notice that the poles are very thin, which are only built to support the riders. Yes, it's a super tall slide on top of a hill. You slide down with a box cutting as a sled.. Well, actually just so that you don't burn your pants. It gets hot when you slide down because of the friction.