It's a Departure: Trading Forks for Chopsticks: February 2010

Hello everyone! We're counting down the days until we come back. It looks like we will return on March 26th (to the USA) and to Seattle on April 2nd. Yay! But today's post is about something we did last Sunday. I'm going to try and make this with less words, and more pictures. We had an invitation to go to Oouchijuku with a Japanese family of one of Tessa's students that we have befriended. They once lived in Fiji, and speak English pretty well, so communication is easy. They have also been very kind to us, occasionally helping us out with issues of Japanese life that we have had. The Hanyu family is Shuichi (father) Kyoko (mother) Ken (son) and Risa-chan (daughter), and they currently have a Korean homestay Kei-chan. They drove us out there (4 hours each way!!!) and though the time in the car was a bit grueling, we had a great time. Oouchijuku is a small town made of old-style traditional housing. We thought is was an amazing cultural opportunity to see these old buildings, but also since it is so much further up North, it was also a chance for us to see some snow, which we don't really get down where we are. The city was beautiful and we had a great time. I do remember that before we left, cousin Ron asked me to try to get some pictures of buildings with an old-style grass roofs, so Ron, many of these pictures are for you. Check them out everyone:

From left to right, Kei-chan, Risa-Chan, Ken-kun.

This was a hot ramen noodle eating contest. the little kid in the foreground with a microphone kept yelling very loudly "Gambare!" over and over again (which is like saying "good luck!", but more directly translated as "do your best!"). It was really cute.