more than a month's worth

hey again! i know it's been over a month since my last update... hopefully people haven't given up on me! i've got a lot of pictures and stories to make up for it, so here goes.

in february, i stayed with a homestay family for a weekend! i was really nervous at first, but it ended up being a really good learning experience. i was placed with an amazing family; their name was maekawa, and they'd been hosting international students for about 5 years. they had a student stay with them the year before who i'd actually met before coming over here, and it was funny to see him in the pictures they showed me. the family consisted of the mother and father, hitomi and fumio, their daughter mariko and their son-in-law shinsuke, and mariko and shinsuke's one year-old daughter ryo (who was ADORABLE). they live in minami-hikone, which literally translates to "south hikone." mariko, shinsuke and ryo lived next door to hitome and fumio, so it was cool to be able to see both their houses. japanese houses are pretty much like american houses with several big differences: the toilets and the bathtubs are in different rooms, doors slide shut rather than open and close with doorknobs, there are no garbage disposals in the sink, and instead of mattresses, people sleep on futons. the floors in the bedrooms are usually made of tatami mats, which are basically woven straw mats and are actually pretty comfortable. japanese baths are a lot different than american ones; in japan, baths are used for relaxation and showers are used for cleaning your body. the japanese shower at night, and when you take a shower you clean yourself and wash your hair before getting into the bath. a whole family uses the same bath water, which sounds gross, but really isn't because everyone showers before using it. the guests go first, then the father of the household, then the mother and then the kids. it's extremely relaxing.

my host family! from right to left: fumio, one of their family friends whose name i don't remember, mariko, me holding ryo, and hitomi. :)

the maekawa family mailbox.

fumio has been doing the ironman race for a long time now; he's been to korea, the states, switzerland and several other countries. their family was pretty worldly. hitomi showed me pictures of her snorkling adventures and she even had pictures of herself swimming with dolphins. so cool!

mariko and ryo at the ramen shop the family took me to! it was hitome's favorite restaurant. :)

ryo was so sweet. she even spoke a little english: if you asked her how old she was, she'd hold up a finger and say, "i'm one!" hitomi and mariko spoke some english around her, too, and they even had several bilingual dvds for her to watch. it's amazing how much english hitomi had picked up from her host students and the different books she'd bought. it was really convenient being able to speak english when i didn't understand how to say something in japanese.

they had a fridge in the floor!!

hitomi teaching me how to cut onions to make nabe.

all the different vegetables: mushrooms, onions, bean sprouts, and lettuce.

nabe is basically a big soup potluck. you boil the vegetables and meats in a big pot until they're cooked through, and you just pick out what you want. you can also put noodles in! it was easily the most delicious thing i've eaten since i've been here. hitomi threw in shrimp, beef and chicken, too.

yum! the differently colored dish next to me is from korea. it was different than any japanese food i've had so far, but it was awesome. the pink drink is actually alcohol; i'm legal here, so fumio was nice enough to buy me a cherry cocktail to have with dinner.

after dinner one night, hitome dug out her wedding photo album. these pictures are over 30 years old. japanese weddings are gorgeous ceremonies. the women wear intricate kimonos and hitome wore her mother's headdress. she said the thing weighed a ton! haha.

the last morning i was with them, mariko taught me how to make okonomiyake. it's basically the japanese take on pankcakes; they put fish such as shrimp and scallops, vegetables and batter into the mix, and fry the whole mixture until it's solid like a pancake. then they add mayo, dried fish and other spices on top! it was pretty interesting... but it made me miss american pancakes, haha.

the final product!

mariko and shinsuke's kitchen. this gives you a decent idea of the layout of the houses. they're pretty spacious for how small they are.

mariko's hina-ningyō collection. these dolls are given to young girls for the hinamatsuri, which is held on march 3rd and is called "girl's day." the dolls are supposed to be powerful enough to contain dark spirits.

hmm... what else?

we also went to byodoin & horyuji. i'm not quite sure of the historical significance of the last two places... but they had several beautiful shrines and temples. the weather that day was perfect, and we even spotted some cherry blossoms!

byodoin.

i can't wait for the cherry blossom season! hinami, or flower viewing, is a huge tradition in japan. people come out to view the trees in full bloom and have picnics with drinking and karaoke. the trees are usually in bloom from late may to march, so i'll be here in the middle of it! so excited!

i went back to nara for another field trip, which was cool because i got to see the deer again! we visited todaiji temple again and saw the 50 foot buddha. there is a pillar in the temple with a hole in it the size of the buddha's nostril, and if you can squeeze through it, you'll have great luck for many years.

i gave it a shot...

halfway!
tadaaa!

i also went to fushimi inari taisha, which is a large gathering of small shrines along a mountainside. the area is famous for the hundreds upon hundreds of orange torri gates lining the mountain, and i wanted to make sure i got to see it before i left. the weather was nice enough last sunday that i decided to make a trip out there. it's pretty close to kyoto and it was cool to go by myself and see how my navigations skills have improved.

the entrance to fushimi inari. there are hundreds of kitsune, or fox, statues all over the place.

there are literally hundreds and hundreds of these gates on the mountain. i didn't even try to count them because i would've been there the entire day, but they were a lot of fun to photograph.

didn't believe me? there were so many gates, they looked like tunnels rather than singular structures. the people/companies/organizations who donated each individual gate got their names/titles carved into the backside.

:)
there were several shrines where people could stop to pray, make donations and light candles or incense.

you could make a small donation and write your name and city/country of birth on the back of a little fox head to wish for happiness and good fortune. can you guess which one's mine? ;)

i climbed to the very, very top of the mountain. you could see all of kyoto from there.

we also got to try one of the many different japanese styles of fighting called naginata. it was originally used by the samurai, but became a very popular technique of self defense for women, and therefore it's mainly women who practice it these days. it was a lot of fun! the weapon is a long, wooden pole with a curved end. an expert came in to show us how to do the moves, and they were pretty easy to learn. there are specific ways you're supposed to move your feet when going left to right or back and forth, and certain verbal ques when you strike your opponent.

i've got some other pictures and stories to tell, but that's all you get for now because my head hurts from typing all of this out, haha. hope you're all doing well! i'll try to update again sometime before the weekend's over. ♥