So this past weekend (6/25-27) I was fortunate enough to be able to stay with a Japanese family in Nara. We arrived in Nara (a city a little over an hour away) at around 5pm to meet our families. You could feel the tension and nervousness from our side of the room as the homestay families began to enter the small room. I can say for myself at least that after hearing some horror stories of bad homestay experiences that I was definitely very worried. We all were whispering amongst ourselves trying to guess which family we'd end up with when the director of the program, a young short and stubby looking man with wildly curly hair stood up and called all of our attention. Beside him the corrosponding Japanese director walked up beside him, a fragile looking and thin woman. It was quite funny to see them standing side by side :P
They welcomed us and then started to introduce us to our families. I was paired up with another student, Laura and we were introduced to our family, the Minamuras. Mrs. Minamura was short cheery woman with a a very expressive face. To be frank....she was adorable. xD beside her, her daughter Natsumi stood her features showing definite resemblence to her mother's. We both made nervous introductions and soon were led out to meet our host father who was just getting off work at a bank. Mr. Minamura was a man of few words but he was very intelligent and everything he said was with purpose and I found him to be a very likable fellow and I knew I could learn a lot from him.
We all piled into the car and were on our way to the Minamura household. We drove through beautiful and lush Japanese country-side which made me think of a sort of preserved past. The buildings had a sort of old rustic charm while the fields had either tall swaying grasses or vast but perfectly aligned rows of young growing rice plants. Of course the mountains always stood stoically in the background. It was beautiful.
The home was an unpretentious 2 story building with a traditional japanese feel. It had a small driveway which seemed to contain just enough space to fit the car and get out. The doorway was a sliding door which led into an atrium where it was expected to remove your shoes and put on house slippers before entering the rest of the house. This was the same for other rooms such as the bathroom, however when entering your own room or the tatami room no shoes were to be worn at all. It seemed all like a big game of "hot lava" from grade school. can't touch the floor until u get to the "safe zones!" haha. The house had a dark brown hallway to the left and a steeply inclined stair case to the right. We were led first upstairs to our room for the next 2 days.
It was a small and adorable room with a clear theme of disney. This was the older sister, Shiho's room. Shiho however, was also currently studying abroad in Seattle to learn English :P After placing our bags in the closet we were given a tour of the rest of the house. Natsumi's room was next door and across the hall was a small family type room with a large TV and a cage containing a rabbit named Kuli and an open cage for the family cat and my newest best friend..Monaca. A flat faced orange tabby that seemed to have all the energy of a half asleep child. He was absolutely adorable. Made me miss my Tiger so very much!!
Downstairs there was one large room that was a kitchen/ family sitting area with another TV and a dining table. On the other side of the hall there was a traditional tatami room that was absolutely gorgeous. There were paintings across all of the doors and intricate wood carvings above the doors. There was also a small alcove with decorative treasures as well as Mr. Minamura's shodo work. (calligraphy) There was also a small closed doored shelf where a family Buddah statue was kept.
Taking baths...was an experience in itself. One is expected to wash and shower first, using a bucket to dump water to rinse and then once clean to soak in the family bath which was a deep tub (maybe like 3-4 feet deep) which was kept at around 42 degrees C. The tub was not drained after each person though since it was expected that everyone using it was already clean...kinda weird I know...but the soaking part....was very very very relaxing. :)
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