My Japanese Family Homestay

Today at 10 AM each person met their homestay family in Tokaimura. I am staying with Katsuhiro Mizukoshi and his family-his parents, sister and brother. The day began with a drive to Mito to eat at a nice restaurant. Then we visited the Kasama Inari Shrine and did some browsing of the local merchants. After that we drove to the Crafthills Kasama. There we spent time creating pottery by hand in a workshop. It was a really cool experience. I made a bowl and a leaf. I think the crafts will be mailed to me in a month or so. After all of that, I returned with Katsuhiro to his parents' house (he has an apartment, but I am staying at his parents' home). There we had a dinner that consisted of fried shrimp, fish, vegetables, rice, mixed sprouts, and ice cream. After the dinner Katsuhiro and I went to his weekly English speaking class. At the local community resource center a lady from Canada gives weekly sessions on how to speak English. It was fun to spend time with about a dozen Japanese who want to learn English. The ages in the room were varied, but everyone was doing a great job speaking. After all of this we went back to his parents' house. One interesting and different thing about Japanese culture is that the bathrooms are quite different from western style bathrooms. First, the toilets and the showers are in separate rooms. Second, the shower is a sit down version that is taken first, then a soak in the hot bath is next. The key is to thoroughly clean yourself before the bath because the whole family will use that water and you don't want to dirty it. Also, the beds in a Japanese home are usually a futon that is brought out and laid on the floor for the evening. My family was very considerate and laid two out for me because of my height! After getting to experience all of this, I went to bed. I attached a picture of Katsuhiro's family home below.