Awkward Tales from the Country

I think I win the prize for most “interesting” homestay family situation for the class trip to Okayama prefecture.


It’s not exactly a class trip, though, because we were divided and subdivided. The A group took a bus to the seaside area, and my B group took a bus to the mountain area. And within the B group, I was in a group of 8 people who went to the mountain town of Hokubou and played with elementary schoolers (their school has only 33 kids! Gotta do something about the declining birth rate…), then went to the grape vineyard right nearby and sampled kinds of grapes I never imagined. There were firmer/crunchier ones, ones that tasted like wine, and some longer thinner ones—and they were all about twice the size of ones I’m used to. Also, the nashi (Asian pear apples) they sold were bigger than grapefruits. Daaaang. They also let us walk around where they grow the fruits—they cover the nashi and grapes with newspaper until they’re ripe, in order to keep the bugs away. Smart! One of the workers there also took lots of pictures of us showing off the grapes. Hope we get some royalties—I mean, c’mon, we don’t just do modeling work for free.

Love that kid's photobomb face, second from right

The nashi was on steroids, I swear...

The ones in the lower right are funky/interesting

So then we walked back from there to the town office for about 20-30 minutes, taking pictures of the scenery and singing songs from Miyazaki movies. At 6, there would be a small ceremony to welcome us and put the students and host families together and whatnot. However, Shore-san (the second in command of KCJS) came up and let me know that my family wouldn’t be able to make it until 6:30. So inside I was like, okay, that’s not a big deal, but still, why’s it gotta be me who gets awkwardly left out of the welcoming thing? Anyway, Mrs. Tsuji showed up after the other students had left and was hushedly discussing things outside the door with one of the officials and Shore-san. At first it seemed like someone got sick and had to go to the hospital, so I was really worried, but then it turned out that her husband Hajime had gotten in a car crash at about 4:00, went briefly to the hospital, and was now dealing with all the legal formalities that come with such things. So then I just figured that the host family (and me) had really, really bad luck, not to mention bad timing. Seriously, a car crash right before the homestay? Do I have bad karma?!


I met the mother, Michiko, posed for a picture with her, thanked her for coming to pick me up in such a taihen (overwhelming/difficult) situation, and we left, while she explained that she hadn’t made dinner yet. Perfectly understandable, and I wouldn’t have minded at all except for the fact that I’d been hungry since 5:30 or so. Still, I was very patient and understanding. After we got back, she explained the house (very spacious compared to the Kyoto homestay, and I get to stay in the washitsu—Japanese tatami room) and started preparations, but with all the phone calls and distractions, we didn’t eat till sometime after 8:15. So that really tested my gaman (endurance) skills. The food was really good though—there was rice with red beans and chestnuts in it (seasonal fall type of dish) and chawanmushi, which is sort of a steamed savory custard in a cup with seafood and other stuff thrown in there. Oh, and miso soup with shijimi—little river clams just caught that day!

A tokonoma (display alcove) in the tatami room I slept in

Michiko’s older sister Keiko also came over before dinner. I found out later that she lived about an hour away…whoa! Good thing she spent the night over here. The family also has two sons, but the elder one—age 28—is working in Tokyo, and the younger one—my age—is living in Ochiai, the next town over. I didn’t fully understand the explanation, but it sounds like the younger one might be slow or developmentally challenged. There’s also a dog and three cats, but I’ve only seen two cats so far and they seem to be pretty shy. Aw, maan…


Needless to say, Mr. and Mrs. Tsuji were a little preoccupied with all the things related to the accident—hospital checkups, going to the company and the other person involved to apologize, et cetera. It was also a really weird situation to be there when the dad was describing to his wife and sister-in-law about the various post-accident issues he was having (left side and hearing in left ear was funky, possibly some glass in the finger, and more). I do remember saying “taihen deshita ne” (that was rough, wasn’t it), and “tsukareta deshou” (you must be tired), and “ganbatte kudasai!” (hang in there/do your best!). I mean, what else can you really say when you just met someone, and you don’t really know the details of the accident or whose fault it was? And even if it were his fault, obviously you don’t want to draw attention to that. Also, it would seem sort of patronizing to say “kawaisou” (aww/poor thing/I feel sorry for you) to the host dad.


So basically, everything was really awkward. But at least Keiko took an interest in me and asked me lots of things about America and my hometown and family. The next morning when we were talking at breakfast (salad, hard-boiled egg, giant buttered toast and little dessert-like yogurt…oh Japan), she said she did a little research on Maryland! How sweet! She said Babe Ruth came from there, and I was like, “oh, well even I didn’t know that!” *hahaa awkward self-deprecating laughter, derp derp*


I wish I had slept a little better and wasn’t on the floor and there wasn’t a dog barking at like 6 A.M. …whatever. Saturday was fun. We got going sort of late for some reason and drove half an hour to a town called Niimi, where we met Keiko’s daughter Fumika and her husband, and the new granddaughter Ayaka (eight months…d’aaww!) There was a little washi (Japanese paper) shop with a huge water wheel and two smaller ones. We got to make our own decorative paper! Mine had two dried leaves and some blue and red ink with some gold flakes strewn on there for good measure. It looks interesting, but everyone else’s looked more…artistically balanced. Then we drove a bit to another part of town called Koigakubo and ate at a little restaurant there, where most of us got the udon lunch set. Some of the other things looked good, but were only for a certain season….sigh, Japan and its love of “limited edition.”

Adding colored ink to the washi paper

*heart melts*

Mine's on the left...everyone else was more pro.

Me and my host mom with the giant water wheel

I bought a little box of cookies that had some kind of hakutou (white peach) filling in them, since hakutou is one of the Okayama area’s meibutsu (lit. “famous thing” but really just a regional food or product). Basically, if you go somewhere that’s further away than a day trip, you should bring back an omiyage (gift, especially from one’s travels) to your host family. Then we all drove to Koigakubo’s shitsugen, which I sort of figured from the kanji (“moisture” + “plains/wilderness”) meant “wetlands” before we actually went in and confirmed it. We didn’t actually walk that far because we stopped at this big pond where you could buy koi food and watch them swarm and fight to the death where food was thrown. Okay, maybe not to the death, but those were some hungry mofos, I swear.

Look at those mouths...OM NOM NOM

The funniest part was when we were on our way back out, we see a giant nasty spider in its web, and then I hear Fumika’s husband say, “Oh, look, a snake,” in Japanese. It sounded very nonchalant, especially compared to the rest of our reactions once we saw it…oh goodness. Thankfully the park lady came out of the reception cabin-thing and said it wasn’t poisonous.
Then we parted ways and went home. I was super hungry again, but while we waited for dinner, the host dad got out his giant collection of pirated DVDs that he makes and stores (yup, you read that right) to find ones to copy and give me. I ended up getting a total of nine, but they’re Japanese with no subs, so we’ll see how that goes. But yeah, he’s a cool guy—he has a really broad taste in Japanese and Western movies, and we bonded over that. Finally we ate kimchi nabe (nah-bay) for dinner! It was a delicious hotpot of veggies, seafood and tofu simmered in a big pot of kimchi-flavored sauce.

The next morning, Sunday, the dad Hajime was actually available, so we went chestnut-picking! Well, more like searching the ground for chestnuts and shaking them from the two trees and peeling open the bristly shells with gloves. Reminds me of home since we have a chestnut tree (and I live on Chestnut Avenue), but usually my mom just gets the chestnuts. This time, it was a three-person team, yaaay!

Host dad in the tree and host mom below for max efficiency!

Then we drove back though the pretty countryside, which felt like Colorado, the Appalachians in western Maryland, and Canada all at once. Back in town, we stopped at the field of “cosmos” flowers, the local specialty. It was just my host mom and I, since Mr. Tsuji was tired and had to rest in the car. The flowers weren’t all blooming since it was a bit early—they’re best in mid-October. The trip could’ve been timed better, but oh well, the flowers were still pretty.

Back at home we had okonomiyaki for lunch (my fourth time since arriving, but it’s cool), which is hard to describe: just read here. Anyway, it was yummy and ridiculously huge, or at least the second one was—good thing my host parents split it, or else someone’s stomach would burst.

Hard to gauge the size, but look at the receipt on the right for reference!

Then it was time to say goodbye to the pets, grab my stuff and take a family picture in front of the house. We ended up being a little late to the gathering spot at the cultural center, but at least I got more time with them? So it was a solemn goodbye, but we all kept waving out the window of the bus at the hosts as we pulled out of the lot.

Hehe, I'm taller than them. Also, Hana the dog was a cutie-pie

Conclusion: I think we’re all gonna miss the countryside. I know if I go to Hiroshima, which is a little further west, I’m definitely stopping in Hokubou town on the way there or back. And my host mom is coming to Kyoto in November, so we can meet then! Woohooo. (Hopefully my host dad will still have his job then…ehehe.)