Homestay with Sato Family
Most of us had at least a little anxiety about staying with a Japanese family for 2 days and 1 night, not knowing how communication would be, etc. And most of us discovered that our fears were unfounded! My time with the Sato family was delightful even though our communication was heavily supported by an electronic Japanese-English dictionary.
The Satos live in neighboring Shibata City. The father, Takeo, is a city councillor; the mother, Toyo, is a dental technician; the daughter, Chikako, is a 3rd grade teacher in Tainai City. A very close friend of theirs, Keiko (also a dental technician) spent most of the 2 days with us. The Satos are a very loving family and they treated me like a queen. They have a lovely Japanese style home with a beautiful garden.
They fed me almost non-stop during the homestay! Others had the very same experience. The families really were honored to have us in their homes. The Satos took me sightseeing to a couple of museums and area landmarks. One of the museums houses a very famous Japanese painting by Koji Fukiya of a Japanese bride - very beautiful. We also saw Shibata Castle but it was too dark for good pictures. A very well known Sake Brewery is in Shibata City, too. I had the experience of eating at a Revolving Sushi Restaurant as well as an Italian restaurant. Toyo is an excellent cook and for dinner we had a veritable feast of miso soup, rice, noodles, chrysanthamum salad, tempura, steak, and much, much more. Breakfast was a lot of the same foods as well as American breakfast foods.
Early on, I gave the Satos what I thought were a lot of presents. Well, I wish I had brought 3 times as much because they never stopped giving me gifts! The generosity was overwhelming and humbling. I ended up with three shopping bags of gifts to carry back to Tokyo on the train! The Satos even made up a photo album for me of our stay together, complete with English captions, and brought it to me at our hotel the next day. I loved my stay with the Satos and have four new friends I really hope to see again.
Now we are back in Tokyo and have two days of seminars, presentations, etc. with time only in the evenings to go out into Tokyo so I don't know how many more pictures or interesting entries I might be able to gather. I will be seeing many of you in a few short days. Thanks so much for taking time to read my tripdiary entries.
Sayonara...Mara
The Sato's home Shinto Shrine
Garden at Sato's home - I saw a very tiny hummingbird but couldn't get a picture.
Chikako and Mara in front of an alcove in the Satos formal living room
Shrine for the Sato Family Ancestors
Chikako, Keiko, Mara, Toyo, Takeo
The Guestroom - a futon was pulled out for me when I went to bed
The first sweet offered me in the Sato home - in the shape of a sea bream.
10/29/2007 :
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