I have just finished finals for my fall semester at Sophia, so now that I have 2.5 months of break I can update everyone on Tokyo!
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Over the holiday break I was invited by my friend from High School Diplomats 2005, Madoka, to visit her family and celebrate the holidays together. I met her on Dec 29th in Shinjuku, and surprisingly she was with another friend of mine from HSD2005, Mio. After a short reunion, and some purikura photos, Madoka and I headed to Tokyo station to catch the 8:05PM Shinkansen (bullet train) to Hachinohe. I arrived at her parents’ house around 1130PM at night and had a few drinks with her parents before going to bed as they informed me tomorrow was going to be an early day.
The next day, after a delicious breakfast (Madoka’s mother was an incredible cook) I went to her fathers’ parents’ house to help make mochi. [wiki]. While incredibly challenging to make, it was incredibly interesting to see how such a traditional aspect of Japanese culture was still practiced. Following my visit to my homestay grandparents’ house, the family and myself went to several markets and supply stores to get everything ready for Shougatsu (New Years). As the pictures s\how, the stores had a wide variety of weird seafood, along with tons of alcohol and snacks. My family ended up buying several monstrous crabs and lots of alcohol. My homestay father was excited to try drinking me (a foreigner) under the table and as a result, he purchased lots of alcohol (beer, nihonshuu, umeshuu, foreign wines, sake, etc). He also bought like 15 dried squids as they are eaten like jerky when drinking in Aomori-ken. Later that night, my mother taught me how to make nabe [wiki] for dinner and a little later we went to bed to prepare for the big day tomorrow.
On the morning of New Year’s Eve, Madoka took me to her old part time job and were her mother currently works as an administrator, the nearby retirement home. This was probably one of the most eye-opening experiences I have had since coming to Japan. Presently, Japan has one of the largest populations with the highest percent of elderly individuals (+70). In addition, it currently is the record holding nation for number of centurions. Much of my visit to the retirement home including meeting the various staff members and having very light-hearted conversation with the residents. After returning home, my homestay dad took me out for some male bonding and showed me the company that he works for, Japan Railways (JR) Aomori, and also the various trains that are used in the prefecture and how they differ from those in Tokyo. Having spent all but 2 years of his life in the same locale, he was really quite knowledgeable in telling me how the area has changed since his childhood. Eventually, we grabbed some lunch and he drove me to the ocean and we had lunch on the pier while it began to snow.
Later that evening, we began to prepare all the food we had purchased for New Years Dinner. At around 7PM we began to eat and watched Kohaku [wiki]. This show has been going on for 60 years and is meant to highlight the talent of the music industry with both modern and traditional singers and dancers of all ages. This year, due to it being the 60th Anniversary, had both a children’s kohaku and several guest performers. Additionally, Susan Boyle was the only foreigner invited to perform. Following Kohaku, my homestay father and mother began to drink and we waited till 1AM before heading over to the local temple to draw our New Years Fortune.
The next day, Madoka’s family and myself visited her other grandmother and paid respects to her deceased grandfather’s shrine. I also was given the chance to meet her uncle and his children who were slightly awe struck by the fact that I could speak Japanese so well. Around 2PM, Madoka and I went to the local mall to shop and watch Avatar (in English with Japanese subtitles).For dinner, we had Italian food together, and promptly upon returning home, my homestay father began to drink against me as it was my last night at their home. Finally, around 2AM, we went to bed, but not without creating a fairly large collection of empty wine bottles and beer cans on the living room table.
On my last day in Aomori, Madoka and her family gave me a massive tour of the city, everything from the mountains to the ocean. It really is beautiful prefecture by comparison to Tokyo which is always grey. Nature was everywhere and kind of reminded me of the drive between my home and UVA.
I really can’t express how much I enjoyed their hospitality. In only a few days, they accepted me as a part of their family and took such good care of me. Hopefully, Madoka will be visiting next year and I can’t wait to show her around VA.
*click to see pictures!*
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| Winter Break |
