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Daily Journal
Saturday, November 25th and Sunday, November 26th, 2000 The journey continues... I keep thinking it can't get any better, but it does! At 10:00 AM, twenty nervous, yet excited teachers stood in the lobby of the Tokyu Inn waiting for their host families. I felt like one of the aliens in Toy Story. "Pick me, pick me!" Now that my stay is over, I can say that I feel that I was the "chosen one" (another Toy Story reference). Kenichi and Yoshie were the perfect hosts. We were a very
good match. Kenichi is an attorney (like my husband).
Yoshie likes to cook (like me). They have three children--
two are boys who are studying computers in University (like
my daughter), and a teenage daughter as well. They have a
beautiful high tech home which was built one year ago. They had a genkan, which is an entry way where you leave your shoes.
 After showing Hayase San (that's the family name) my website and teaching him how send a photo by e-mail, he dubbed me "Super Teacher", and proceeded to call me that the rest of the weekend. The Hayases worked very hard to speak English so that we could communicate. Yoshie learned to speak English when she lived as an exchange student in Texas many years ago. Kenichi attended English conversation school when he was in graduate school. Because he needs to use English in his profession, he gets lots of practice so his English is very good. On Saturday, we started with lunch that Yoshie prepared. We had chirashi jushi (eggs on rice), kakiage (vegetable and shrimp tempura in a broth), and hoensou no gomaae (spinach with sesame seeds.) We drove to Mino Park, which is in the mountains of the north side of Osaka Prefecture, to look for Japanese monkeys. There were hundreds of Japanese people who came to look at the waterfall, trees turning colors, and the monkeys.
 The monkeys were on the road around the park, sitting there doing their monkey business. I could only get a quick shot as we drove by (sorry it's blurry!) They were so cute!  It was very interesting to be in a non-touristy place. I was the only western face in the crowd. It had the atmosphere of a street fair, with the main attraction being mother nature.   Vendors lined the area near the waterfall and people sat on benches eating food (that was foreign to me) and watching the waterfall.  Here I am with Kenichi. Next stop, downtown Osaka (Umeda) to a Japanese
department store. You would not believe the throngs of
people in this area. The store was very different that
Macy's. For starters, there are friendly young ladies who
operate the elevators.
 Yoshie was kind enough to help me find some things that I was looking for, so I was able to find tabi (on sale) and a soraban (Japanese abacus). Kenichi and Yoshie purchased a beautiful container with a snake on the top. They explained that the snake is the symbol of the year 2001. The salesperson wrapped it beautifully and it was given to me as a gift. What a nice surprise! Dinner was sushi at the Osaka Hilton. Yoshie showed me how to make little sushi fajitas. I put this spicy stuff with some chive looking things on a thin slice of fish, wrapped it in a bundle, dipped it in soy sauce and popped it in my mouth. Oishi! (delicious) Back at the house, I was shown to my sleeping quarters- in the Japanese tatami room.  A futon was pulled out from behind the sliding doors and laid on the tatami mats. This was my best night's sleep in Japan so far. I slept for eight hours! I made a western breakfast for my new friends - french toast. We spent some of the day in traffic- there was a marathon relay race (chi-den) so many streets were closed to cars. After a delicious ramen lunch, we went to Osaka Castle.  Inside the castle were displays describing the history of the castle. There were little dioramas with the actors and actresses placed inside as holograms. Can you see it in this photo?  Near the castle was the Osaka version of the First Union Center. A concert by a famous Japanese singer, Eikichi Yazawa, was scheduled for that evening. There were Eikichi impersonators everywhere we turned! Before being taken back to the hotel, we made a quick
stop at Kenichi's office.
 Thank you Yoshie and Kenichi for a wonderful weekend! |
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