Homestay

So, the weekend Oct 5-6 was my Homestay! I got to meet the Murakami family.

I did not know what to expect from this weekend, because I don’t think that it’s as common in Europe to have this kind of homestay program. But it was a lot of fun, and I got to meet more families than just my own homestay family. So many happy people!

First we all gathered at O-okayama to be introduced. Some had already met their homestay family at the orientation during the previous weekend, but the Murakami family could unfortunately not be there. So this was our first time meeting.

Thereafter we moved on to a Hippo Club house where we shared some food and played some “language games” as they usually do.

When this was over we went on home to our respective families. But first we had to go to a grocery store. They wanted me to teach them how to cook some Swedish meatballs, and they wanted to show me how to cook some japanese おこのみやき (okonomiyaki). Also, some more people joined our dinner - not only my homestay family.

We ate food and shared some stories. I was the only foreigner there, but English worked just fine for the most part. I shared with them some pictures from my travels in Europe, and the daughter in the family, Kaede, shared some pictures from her recent trip to California.

Next morning we headed on over to IKEA in Yokohama, where we had a “traditional Swedish breakfast” with meatballs, fries, rice, pasta, jelly and more. Haha.

Then we proceeded to take a tour through the store. They bought a few items and I pointed to a lot of them, explaining the English/Japanese translation of all the Swedish names of everything. Apparently IKEA is quite new here and has only existed in Japan for a few years. A lot of people though. Buying soft ice-cream, hot dogs, lingonberry jam and also some furniture.
I decided to buy some saffransglögg and some fläderblomssaft as a gift to them.

After the IKEA adventure we went back to their neighborhood in Futako-tamagawa where we visited a shrine. Beautiful shrine with an underground passage that was 100m long. Where 30m was in complete pitch darkness. Along the walls in this passage were a lot of buddha statues. There were also these bowls which you hit lightly with a tiny wooden stick to make them sound. An interesting and unique experience for me.

Then it was time for lunch! Just down the street they found an Udon-place where we decided to fuel up before heading over to karaoke.

Karaoke seems to be very popular among many of the generations, especially the younger ones.

The day was coming to an end, so we went back to play some cards and finally went to the Futako-tamagawa station where we said goodbye to one family. Then my homestay family and I had our final meal for this weekend. Just by the station was this building where they had a few restaurants. I chose an Indian restaurant. A great end to a great weekend.

Thank you so much, Murakami family. I hope to see you again soon!

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