The Clinic

After the visit to Obaachan's, we went to see my host father's clinic. It is closed on Saturday afternoons so I got a full tour. As in all Japanese buildings, there was a place to remove shoes in the entrance, and then several shelves full of the indoor slippers. Inside was the reception desk and waiting area, an exam room, a room that looked like a typical hospital room, the nurses room, and then a small kitchen and storage area in the very back. It all appeared very similar to an American clinic, except that the pillows on the beds were replaced with small rectangular blocks which did not look like nice head rests.
The Japanese tend to make a huge production out of the smallest injury or ailment. Apparently this room is only for giving shots. I find this hard to believe.


After the tour, I helped my host mom tend to the garden in front. In Japan, everything has to be very visually pleasing, which is why we uprooted all of the plants that looked slightly wilted and replaced them with new healthy plants. It's amusing to see the Japanese try to find the right balance of "not being wasteful" and yet "making everything look nice."

Obaachan

From Fraise, we drove to the house of my host mother's mother for afternoon tea. She lives in a very traditional style Japanese house, with the washitsu rooms, tatame mats, shoji (the sliding doors), tokonoma (the small raised alcoves), and kakejiku (hanging scrolls).

A picture of me and Obaachan (Japanese word for grandma) in her garden. She spoke absolutely no English but was thrilled to meet me none the less. She gave me some really cute gifts: a miniature traditional Japanese fan, and a tiny purple coin purse with a little bell on it. She said they were representative of how small everything is in Japan, which is oh so true.

There was a small shrine set up, where we payed our respects to the deceased family members, in traditional Buddhist custom. A candle is lit, incense is offered, and then a small gong is rung twice before saying a short prayer.

Fraise

Saturday! Today my host mom decided to take me to meet her mother, and then to the clinic where my host dad works. Our first stop was Fraise, the cake store. It was so amazing! I have never seen so many beautiful sweets.

Each piece was a work of art. Helping my host mom pick out seven different pieces was impossible because they all looked so wonderful.

Yakisoba

The other night we made Yakisoba! It was sooo good. They have these grill things that you set on the table and then just plug in, which is how we cooked the entire meal.


Other random things pertaining to food:

• Everyone has their own individual rice bowl and set of chopsticks.
  
• There are extra long chopsticks that are used for cooking.
  
• The dairy in Japan is not very good, and I don't think that dairy is eaten that often here. Two of the girls at orientation said they came back lactose intolerant. D: Luckily though my family eats yogurt every morning.
  
• At school, everyone packs their own obento lunch, which is the most delicious lunch ever. My obento set has the Aristocats on it and is very kawaii. (I will post a picture soon)
• So far nothing here is spicy! It's the only thing that I really do miss. People keep warning me that certain foods are spicy right as I'm about to eat them, but I'm not tasting it. It's not that amazing set-your-mouth-on-fire spicy. Someone send me a jar of chili peppers please. lol
  
• Besides the dairy, all the food here is AMAZING!
  

Answers

Today I got to answer my classmates questions! It was terrifying! I couldn't even read half of their handwriting. They laughed a lot when I kept reading the same question over and over again (half of them had asked me what my favorite food was) and then gave a different answer each time, so that was good. At least they could understand what I was saying. It was the long silences that were scary. When I read the last question and thought that I had finally finished, Tanno-Sensei told me that now I had to ask them questions. Haha. Among other things, I asked if any of them had boyfriends, since that's what they've been asking me a million times a day. They thought that was funny. Girls here don't seem to have boyfriends, and they are always amazed to hear that Americans usually do. I told someone today that my little sister has a boyfriend and they were in disbelief. It was pretty funny.