Tag Archives: host family day

Natural disasters and fireworks; what a perfect host family day!

Host family day is always a fun day! As my host family had already noticed that I was quite tired after a week of many exciting activities, they told me that we wouldn’t start the day until closer to 9, so it was ok for me to sleep past the usual time of 7, which I found very satisfying. Breakfast was served in the traditional Japanese way of delicious, and once the full family of four (counting myself) were ready for adventure, we departed for the local museum of natural disasters!

At the museum I gloriously failed a quiz on how to react during an earthquake, and managed to bleed some nosebleed during a fire evacuation drill, which really impressed the group of Japanese people I was getting a tour with. In addition, I got to experience an earthquake simulation of how a scale 6 earthquake would have been, which was fairly terrifying. We also went into a rain chamber to get a feel for how it is to stand in 30 m/s winds and 30mm/h rain, which doesn’t sound like much, but when you consider that the winds of a typhoon are twice that strength, it puts things into perspective.

Once we finally finished at the museum, we moved on to the Buddhist temple Shibamata Taishakuten in Tokyo, which is surrounded by very touristy shops. The temple itself had a very nice garden behind the main building, which was only overshadowed by the amazing wood carvings surrounding the temple. The last part of the day was dedicated purely to watching the awesome Japanese fireworks display, which was a really good finish for the day! Relaxing and interesting all the way to the end, and I could not have asked for anything better.

Simen Solum (Norway)

Host family day with Pokémon

“Enjoy your day off with your Host Family”, they tell us the day before, and so I did. Both me and my host mom agreed on that sleeping in on this day was a good idea, so the day started slow. After we all had eaten breakfast and gotten ready for the day, we left the house to pick up a friend and her family. It had become quite clear to my host family before that I really liked Pokémon, so our destination was the Yokohama Pokémon Center.

The ride was quite long and with 4 young children in a car, this could have been very tiresome, but luckily there were DVDs to watch, and so we watched a Doraemon movie on the way to Yokohama. I might not have understood everything they said, but I did understand that the evil guy that came from a century later than Doraemon did not win the fight in the prehistoric times. There was also a unicorn.

Having arrived at Yokohama, it was quite clear I wasn’t the only Pokémon lover among us, whose family had noticed, because in the Pokémon Center we encountered Irina and Sam and their host families. After thoroughly browsing the Pokémon Shop and other shops and trying my best at (and winning) a small game they offered, we went to get some lunch, to check out some more small games and a Pokémon pop-up store. After we were all satisfied with having played the games, doing Gacha-Gacha’s and having bought the things we wanted (a Pikachu shirt in my case), we went home tired but satisfied.

But the day didn’t end there, because that evening a local shopping street organized a festival and we were all invited to come, in yukata’s (the summer, festival edition of a kimono) if possible. And so, a lot of us showed up, some in normal clothes, some in yukata, and even someone wearing a Jinbei. When we arrived there, we got a surprise. We were apparently volunteers to work at the festival booths, but nobody had told us in advance, so this caused some stress for some of us. But after all the shifts ended, and when the bon dancing started we were too busy dancing and saying goodbye to worry about it anymore. This Saturday was the last day of session 2, the Sunday was departure day and since some people left early, this was the last goodbye for now.

Thank you everyone for this fun festival and amazing session!

Sabine Boom (The Netherlands)

Host family day in Kumamoto

Charlotte making soba noodles with her host family
Charlotte making soba noodles with her host family
Charlotte with her host family at the soba restaurant
Charlotte with her host family at the soba restaurant

Even though we couldn’t complete the original plan of going on a boat ride to see dolphins because of the predicted storm, I had so much fun! Instead of going to the coast we went up into the mountains. Coming from the Netherlands, where there are no mountains at all, it was amazing to see all the sights. We never saw the predicted storm but the mountains shrouded in clouds were very beautiful.

After stopping a few times to see the view we arrived at our first destination: a soba restaurant where you can make and then eat your own soba. After mixing the dough you roll it out into a big square, then fold it a few times and cut it to make the long soba noodles. They may not have been the prettiest, but they were the best I’ve ever tasted!

On the way back to Kumamoto we stopped at the Shirakawa fountainhead, a spring where you can see the fresh water bubble up. This water becomes the big Shirakawa river that flows through Kumamoto city. The small shrine there is very old and placed in a very quiet piece of forest, it was a very peaceful place.

During all these car rides we were watching the movie finding Dory. I’m still not used to the fact that so many Japanese cars have a television screen installed in the dashboard. This television doesn’t only play DVD’s but can show live TV as well.

When we arrived back home I taught my two host sisters the ninja game, which they proceeded to play for the rest of the afternoon and evening. In between they also found time to teach me a counting game where you have to name the right amount of raised fingers and two card games as well.

After having made our own lunch of soba noodles we also made our own dinner, takoyaki! You have to turn these small balls of dough filled with octopus and anything else you want around very quickly in one movement so they become nice and round. My host sisters (11 and 7 years old) were very good at it. I was not.

Because this was the last day in Kumamoto and with this host family I felt a bit sad to have to leave so soon after meeting them. I’m looking forward to meeting a new host family in Omuta, but leaving my Kumamoto host family will be very difficult because my stay there was so amazing!

Charlotte Lamping (The Netherlands)

Host family day cruising

Thomas and his host family in Omura
Thomas and his host family in Omura

So, today was the host family day and it was amazing! First of all, I got a good night sleep and the breakfast was really amazing and delicious as always. After the son of the family, Kait, had finished his baseball club training we took the car to Kujukushima, where we hopped on a cruising boat. The boat took us around the beautiful islands in the area and it was an amazing experience. The islands were magical and the weather was perfect.

After a delicious lunch at the harbor we went into the Aquarium there. It was a really cool experience as well. After that we returned home and had dinner, which was so delicious and amazing. I really love my host family and Japan 🙂

Thomas Jinton (Sweden)