+10 for being blonde in Japan!

If you didn’t notice the title for this post, please do so now because it summarizes most of this entry. Also, to Mrs. Mckinney’s class and anyone else interested in my last post, the answers to those questions will be in my next post! I’m giving you some time to think about them.

This past weekend was so packed! I spent all of it with my host family and most of it with Okaasan. For those wondering, Okaasan is a housewife while Otousan is a company worker. In Japan that means Otousan works really long hours and spends very little time at home or with his family, while it is Okaasan’s prime job to take care of the house and family. Otousan will leave for work about 7:30 in the morning and not come back until after 10pm (granted he has about an hour commute by train one way, but that’s still a long day). One day he didn’t come home until after midnight, and sometimes he has to work on the weekend. Okaasan will spend the day taking care of Taiyo and running errands, grocery shopping, etc., and then take care of Otousan and me as we come home, cooking dinner for us and chatting. However, in Japan (so far as I can tell), while the husband works to earn money, at the end of the day when he gets his check he gives the whole thing over to his wife. Okaasan takes care of anything relating to money, and she’s the one in charge. She’s not only the power behind the throne, but IS the throne and the one sitting on it too. When I told her that in America it’s usually the husband who handles the money or the couple splits it, she said she was glad to be Japanese.

Annnd after that brief look into Japanese society we’ll move on to what I actually did this past weekend.

Friday I was trying to find something on campus so I asked a Japanese student passing by where it was. She walked me there, and on the way she reached out to touch my hair and said, “Your hair is so pretty! Is this your real hair?”, I guess meaning, “is this your real hair color?” Oh dear. “Yes,” I replied, not knowing that this would be the first of many times I would be noticed for my hair color. She was really nice though, and I was thankful for her help.

Friday I also caved and bought the bus pass. I took $300 to the bank in traveler’s checks and got about 27,000 yen back, and with that money I bought the bus pass. Yikes. However, I did get good news though: I had been told the bus pass would only allow me ride the route from home to school without paying, but found out instead that I can ride any bus on the Keihan line, the bus line that covers Hirakata city and the route to Kyoto, without paying. Basically I’ve already paid my fare until April, so this thing is going to more than pay for itself. Yay! Did I mention that exchange rate is horrible though? Come on US, pick up the economy!

These are what the coin version of yen looks like arranged from least to greatest (going up). Coins come in 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, and 500 yen. The 1 yen coins feel like fake money because they’re so light.



I got home earlier than usual on Friday, and since there was still daylight outside I went exploring. There’s a wooded area I can see from the apartment that I’d always wondered about, so I headed in that direction and found this:



My first local shrine! I’m not sure what god/spirit it’s for and there weren’t any signs, but I thought it was a cool find. Down the road I found this:



Wonder where that path goes to? But wait, I should give you a close up look of those little statues first.



Pikachu and Mickey Mouse? Now I was really wondering where the path went, so I followed it and ended up here:



A temple! Not a huge one, but I thought it was very cool and the grounds were very pretty. There was also a bell, which explains the bell I keep hearing at random times throughout the day and night.



Just outside the temple was another path I decided to follow, and this one had more traditional statues that belong with a temple setting (in other words, not Pokemon).





At the end of the path I found a huge…



...graveyard. Japanese cremate the dead rather than bury because 1) it saves space in a very small and crowded country and 2) I believe it’s a part of the Buddhist tradition. I didn’t follow that path any further and went back to the temple instead, where I took this picture:



Seems to be the two extreme opposite aspects of Japan sitting right next to each other. I enjoyed the contrast.

That night I went to Okaasan’s yoga class with her, except that she forgot to tell me it was a yoga and aerobics class. I’ve never done aerobics before and it took me a while to get into the pattern. I’m pretty sure the instructor was secretly laughing at me, but I managed. Yoga was a lot of stretching that I really haven’t done in awhile since I haven’t been to Tae Kwon Do recently (ok ok, not even “recently”), and it felt really good to do that again. However, I was nowhere near as flexible as the instructor; I bet she could bend herself into a pretzel. After the class the instructor came up and asked if she could take a picture with the “cute international student” for the (athletic) school’s blog, and the whole class joined in the picture. I just saw the blog today, and underneath the picture is a mention of the wonderful, pretty haired international who came to visit. Oh dear. But it didn’t end there.

After the class Okaasan and I ate okonomiyaki at a restaurant near the apartment, and Okaasan sort of knew the owner so she introduced me to her. The lady said I was “cute, had a nice smile, and what good Japanese!” She proceeded to give Okaasan a discount on the meal and gave me two bags of Japanese Rusk, which is a small loaf of bread that’s hard like a crouton, but this kind had almond flavoring and was really good. She also told me to come back again, which I think I will because the okonomiyaki was amazing.

Saturday I went to cooking school with Okaasan, where we watched a lady and her assistant make the food while we read the recipe in front of us. I don't see how you can really learn that way, but oh well.



I did, however, eat a whole piece of fried salmon, and it was really good. I think I was also really hungry. Like the ladies from the yoga class, the ladies at the cooking school told Okaasan that I was really cute, had very pretty hair, and my Japanese was very good. Oh dear. Also, I want to show you this amazing cooking device:



This seems to be the most popular and diversely used appliance I have seen so far. I call it the nabe pot because it's what we made nabe in that one time in Kyoto. However, I've also seen it used for toasting bread, frying fish, cooking dinner, and baking a cake in 25 minutes flat. O.o

Later that day the entire Kitawaki family took a long walk to the park, dogs included. It was very cold outside though, and even the dogs got too cold after a while. I got a nice picture of Otousan and Taiyo, though Taiyo had to be bribed with candy to face the camera.



We also went to the local library, where I was very happy to find this:



Also, here are two pictures of me with Otousan and Okaasan. I’ve been talking so much about these two people I think you should know what they look like.





After the walk we did something else, but I can’t mention that right now or it’ll ruin the trivia questions I asked last time. I’ll post on it next week after you’ve had time to think. It was an amazing and fun experience and I really want to do it again! ^_^ However after “that” we met Otousan’s uncle for a little bit, and while we were in a grocery store getting some things for Okaasan he offered to (and did) buy me a whole bunch of Japanese snacks. He didn’t his reasons for doing so, but I think I’m seeing a pattern here. I got six different things to try, like rice crackers, strawberry-cream filled snacks, cookies, and more. All of them have been good so far, and I really want some more of those strawberry things (I finished them two days ago).

I think I’ll leave off with that for now. For those of you who are still reading, this was long enough don’t you think? ^_^ I have some more pictures from the mid-week holiday of National Foundation Day (which was yesterday, a Wednesday), but those can wait. Also, to Mrs. McKinney’s class, I’m working on getting those pictures you requested! Apparently there’s a fire station not far from the apartment, and Okaasan is going to take me to a school and see if we can get a tour. In the meantime, be thinking about those trivia questions!

As I said before, if anyone has any questions or wants a certain picture taken of something, please let me know and I’ll do my best to answer it! I’m going to Osaka this weekend with friends and maybe trying out some karaoke, so next week’s post should be packed full again. See you then!