Tag Archives: coal mine

Exploring the coal mine history of Omuta

Thomas and his host family
Thomas and his host family

Our Host Family day was packed full with many different activities instead of just one big event! I was hoping to take it easy on the Host Family day but we had a schedule to keep so there really was no time to rest. My Host mother is a real movie enthusiast and she wanted us to go to the movie theater! It was a different experience because the movie started at 9:30 in the morning and I was very surprised to see so many people there. Especially because in Sweden we do not go to the movies that early, it is more of an afternoon and evening event. After the movie ended we went to the Omuta Coal Museum!

The Coal Museum was a very small but interesting museum. My Host mother wanted us to go there because of the Coal Mine History the city had. Even though it was small I still learned a lot from the information texts and the models were good representations of how it used to look like. In the end I learned something new about the city and the coal mine industry. Close to the museum we ate our lunch at a Ramen place.

Before heading to our next activity with my Host Family’s friends we went into one of the malls in Omuta. They wanted to buy me a gift and we went around the mall looking for something that I would want. However, we did not find anything interesting so we decided to go to another mall the next day.

After a quick rest we went to the Bowling center where we played three games with their friends. My Host mother and Host father are Bowling experts so of course they crushed me and got way better results. It was a lot of fun and we cheered on each other. I would like to add that if you ever go Bowling in Japan, look up your japanese shoe size so that you don’t have to try a lot of shoes to see which one fits. It did this mistake unfortunately.

We ended the Host Family Day with a nice dinner with their friends at the Suchi bar that was nearby. As always we had a lot of fun and the food was amazing. I enjoyed our day together and I have learned so much.

Thomas Jinton
Sweden