AHHHHHHHHH!! I just realized I didn't have many photos of my host family's house in Japan. I really like the house =(( It was actually an apartment which they called "Mansion" but not that kind of luxurious mansion nor our kind of apartment. No swimming pool, no tennis court etc but a modern concrete 4-storey apartment building with elevators at least. The house was not very spacious, with a kitchen, a dining hall and 3 bedrooms. The biggest room was a traditional Japanese room with tatami mats covering the floor, also the living room to watch TV and then converted to a bedroom at night where my host parents sleep. They had a 2-layer car parking which was really cool too!
The balcony, with an excellent view of Kobe city again facing the ocean which was really amazing ^^
:::The Japanese Bathroom:::
One of my most favourite places in the house. The bathroom basically consists of 2 rooms - an entrance room where you undress, also the laundry room and equipped with a sink (for face wash), and the actual bathroom has a shower and a deep bath tub. It was really embarrassing when I first used the bathroom because I had no idea how it worked at all. And yuyu-mama was really surprised when I asked her how to take a bath. Haha. So when bathing Japanese style, you sit on a stool next to the bath tub and wash your body with the water from the tub using a washbowl. This was a bit like how I showered in my grandparent's house when I was a kid, sitting on a small stool & pour the water from a bucket instead of a tub. After you clean your body, you may enter the tub which is used for soaking only. So the main purpose of taking a bath besides cleaning your body, is relaxation at the end of the day. They actually leave the water in the tub for days and reuse the water for several baths so a bit like jacuzzi. Hehe. One more important thing about the bath - it was actually a modern bath tub that could be programmed to be automatically filled with water of a given temperature at a given time, or to heat up the water to a preferred temperature (which was always set at about 40deg). Cool eh!!!! but stupid me forgot to take picture =(( However, it was really great to take a hot bath after a long, exhausted day. you'll definitely need that when you live in Japan ^^
In the morning, Yuuta-chan & you-chan were teaching me how to make origami.
We made some origami peace crane, funny man, shuriken (ninja weapon) and boat i think. Hehe.:::Japanese-style Barbecue:::
The BBQ took place at a big park in Rokko mountain as the land was scare in Japan and you can hardly see any park or garden in the city. I felt pathetic when we had to pay entrance fee to the park.
The food was really good. Lots and lots of variety of meat and vege!!! There was a small pool in the park which was the kids' most favourite place. We also played soccer and badminton under the sun and I got tanned so quickly!
Very cute Syaruru-chan, half-French, half Japanese.
Mi-chan and me. A bit funny looking but cute puppy. Only few months old ^^
Met a lot of nice people ^^
:::First time eating So-Men:::
Yuyu-mama invited her good friend, Ryo-san for dinner to meet me that night. Ryo-san was quite young, just a few years older than me and his English was quite good. He was really friendly and offered to take us to visit the sake factories the next day. We spent the whole night eating and chatting. It was really nice to meet him ^^
Raita-papa and you-chan playing boxing while yuyu-mama was preparing dinner.
With Ryo-san & you-chan
My most favourite So-MenI really love this noodle!! These white Japanese noodles are thin and served cold. Basically just dip the noodles into the sauce in a small bowl and eat it. Very very very nice!! I miss So Men very very much T.T
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