I'll start again, shall I?
This weekend (Saturday morning, 7am to be precise) I set off on a trip to the Japanese countryside, to do a homestay weekend, living with a family and learning traditional practises! The whole thing was amazing, the students who organised it were fantastic, and the other people on the trip were so lovely too, so lots of new friends there! Sadly Jerome didn't come on this, as it was only really for Waseda students. Next time!
So we set off bright and early, took us about 4 hours to get up there, to a tiny village called Ten-ei (天栄）in the countryside North of Tokyo. When we got there, loads of activities had been organised for us, like field ploughing and ornament making for day 1, then wood cutting, bean crushing, onigiri making (those triangle shaped rice things, not my cup of tea but anyway), and then a ramble around the nearby woods. All very delightful, and topped off with a night staying with a family!
We were separated into groups of 4 to stay with the families (there were about 20 of us in total), and I was put with Clare, a friend from SOAS in London who'd also come to Waseda, and two Japanese students - Daisuke and Mao. Think me and Clare were put together because we both said we were vegetarian..... this caused quite a stir in the Japanese countryside as you can imagine, at least half an hour of chat (in Japanese) was dedicated to establishing exactly what we do and do not eat! Even weirder chats soon ensued, apparently Susan Boyle is a very famous figure in rural Japan!!!!! I couldn't stop laughing when they mentioned old SuBo (might have been a bit delirious from the cold) but they were pretty serious!! Anyway they made us a huge meal with about 578 courses, after which we were encouraged to go to the public baths....... neither Clare or I fancied this much, so we sat it out (after much attempted persuasion) and took ourselves off to bed. Now in the Japanese countryside, they don't do central heating. So at night, our heating consisted of an electric blanket, a duvet, and not much else (all this on a flat futon on the floor). However, the ever prepared Robson ended up being nice and warm, one pair of woolly pjs, one heat tech top, two thick pairs of socks and one cashmere jumper later!!! Kept the electric blankets turned up full blast as well, even though the fam reckoned we'd be best to turn them down...... ever prepared, but still not partic economical....
Anyway the following day dawned with rain, so we donned our fetching all in one waterproof get-ups from the day before, and chirpily trotted off to do some wood cutting! The rest of the day was taken up with more activities, and after a bit of an emotional farewell we returned to Tokyo, getting home by 11pm so not too bad! Going to leave you with some snaps of the weekend, there are so many tales and anecdotes still but I'll save those for when I see everyone in person!
Nearby scenery
Left to right: Caitlin, Me, Ashleigh, Clare
You want me to do what?
hahahaa
Making 'ornaments'
Robson goes back to her East Anglia roots..
quite literally means 'dream team'. On the wellies.
An 'ornament' I made, wasn't supposed to be a heart but I thought it was better!
Ropes? We made these!
Villagers who taught us to make ropes and bash beans
Our bedroom!!
Breakfast. Yes dinner was even bigger!!
Robson chops wood
or attempts to
Daisuke shows us how it's done!
Clare and I looking delightful
Group photo!
If I ever see another onigiri.....
The family!
Back row: Dad, Daughter, Daisuke, Mao
Front row: Mum, Me, Clare
Robson and Jerome's festive celebrations begin tomorrow, we're off to see Cinderella at the National Ballet so will take pics obviously, SO much planned for this month we've hardly got time for uni!! Merry December!
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