*Random note: it's really hard not saying bless you to people when they sneeze! Sometimes I do it by accident and they just stare at me really confused :P The girl to my right just sneezed and I was like "Bl-!" and almost said it in the middle of class! Haha!*
On Father's day Shinya had some work to do at school in preparation for the school festival and Okaasan had some sort of test to do. So I would spend Father's day with my host Dad and my host sister, Miki, who I would meet later that day. We got into our neighbor's car that they let us borrow for the day and Otousan said that the car ride would be maybe an hour and a half. He told me to feel free to sleep, which I didn't think I would do. But believe it or not I was off and on sleeping the whole car ride! We were heading to Miki's college. It was completely storming outside with really heavy rain! Maybe the 47th or 109th time I woke up, we were right near Miki's college. The car ride felt really short but apparently it was almost 2 hours! We waited a while for Miki and Otousan was saying how short Miki is for her age and then I saw her sprinting up to the car in the rain. The rain sort of seemed to die down when she reached the car. Miki's college requires every student to study abroad for a year and so Miki spent a year in America! (I think maybe in Maryland) Because of her time in America her English is really good! Miki showed me around the campus for maybe 10 minutes and then we headed to Otousan's workplace. He works at NHK broadcasting (the reason why Akita has TV). We got to tour around the building and see all of the control panels and screens that I always see in movies! He also showed us a camera of the whole area surrouding the building and you could zoom all the way in to the sidewalk! Kind of scary, right? Haha. Then he took us in to where the news is filmed live and Miki and I sat at the desk and figured out how the teleprompters work! It was really cool, and everyone who sees the picture keeps asking me if I am was on TV. I guess that means Miki looks like a newscaster? Haha!
After that we headed to lunch where we ate at another DELICIOUS barbeque! I had cow tongue again and a lot of beef and rice. It's so fun when you can cook it yourself :P Much later they brought out our drinks (that seems to be a common theme) and we all had ice coffee, which was apparently free with our meal and REALLY delicious! Next we drove kind of far to a mountain! I was so excited! We drove higher and higher up the mountain. The mountains name means Cold Wind and right when we got out of the car we learned why. The wind was blowing so hard! It felt amazing! And it was so cloudy that you couldn't see anything! It was like you were floating in the sky! So cool!! Heading down the mountain we went to a Namahage museum-like building. A Namahage is a creature that happens to appear on new years day to houses all throughout Akita. The whole thing is so funny to me! They go in the houses looked for bad or lazy children and they find all the hiding children and pick them up and scare them! Apparently at every house they are given sake, so each namahage can only go to 4 houses. When I was in the giftshop I was kneeling down looking at something on the bottom of a shelf and someone tapped me on my back. I could NOT believe it! It was my friend Claudia from YFU orientation! What a surprise! We were both in shock! I live about 2 hours from the place and apparently she lives like an hour and a half away. I seriously couldn't believe it! We toured the museum together and watched this awesome skit like thing where Namahage made all these loud noises and completely scared Miki. It was so funny :D After the museum we headed back to Miki's college, and then home. On the way home we stopped at a store and otousan bought some wine. I saw him getting it wrapped at the counter and then he told me it was a gift for the neighbors that lent the car to us. What a fun day! :D
On Father's day Shinya had some work to do at school in preparation for the school festival and Okaasan had some sort of test to do. So I would spend Father's day with my host Dad and my host sister, Miki, who I would meet later that day. We got into our neighbor's car that they let us borrow for the day and Otousan said that the car ride would be maybe an hour and a half. He told me to feel free to sleep, which I didn't think I would do. But believe it or not I was off and on sleeping the whole car ride! We were heading to Miki's college. It was completely storming outside with really heavy rain! Maybe the 47th or 109th time I woke up, we were right near Miki's college. The car ride felt really short but apparently it was almost 2 hours! We waited a while for Miki and Otousan was saying how short Miki is for her age and then I saw her sprinting up to the car in the rain. The rain sort of seemed to die down when she reached the car. Miki's college requires every student to study abroad for a year and so Miki spent a year in America! (I think maybe in Maryland) Because of her time in America her English is really good! Miki showed me around the campus for maybe 10 minutes and then we headed to Otousan's workplace. He works at NHK broadcasting (the reason why Akita has TV). We got to tour around the building and see all of the control panels and screens that I always see in movies! He also showed us a camera of the whole area surrouding the building and you could zoom all the way in to the sidewalk! Kind of scary, right? Haha. Then he took us in to where the news is filmed live and Miki and I sat at the desk and figured out how the teleprompters work! It was really cool, and everyone who sees the picture keeps asking me if I am was on TV. I guess that means Miki looks like a newscaster? Haha!
After that we headed to lunch where we ate at another DELICIOUS barbeque! I had cow tongue again and a lot of beef and rice. It's so fun when you can cook it yourself :P Much later they brought out our drinks (that seems to be a common theme) and we all had ice coffee, which was apparently free with our meal and REALLY delicious! Next we drove kind of far to a mountain! I was so excited! We drove higher and higher up the mountain. The mountains name means Cold Wind and right when we got out of the car we learned why. The wind was blowing so hard! It felt amazing! And it was so cloudy that you couldn't see anything! It was like you were floating in the sky! So cool!! Heading down the mountain we went to a Namahage museum-like building. A Namahage is a creature that happens to appear on new years day to houses all throughout Akita. The whole thing is so funny to me! They go in the houses looked for bad or lazy children and they find all the hiding children and pick them up and scare them! Apparently at every house they are given sake, so each namahage can only go to 4 houses. When I was in the giftshop I was kneeling down looking at something on the bottom of a shelf and someone tapped me on my back. I could NOT believe it! It was my friend Claudia from YFU orientation! What a surprise! We were both in shock! I live about 2 hours from the place and apparently she lives like an hour and a half away. I seriously couldn't believe it! We toured the museum together and watched this awesome skit like thing where Namahage made all these loud noises and completely scared Miki. It was so funny :D After the museum we headed back to Miki's college, and then home. On the way home we stopped at a store and otousan bought some wine. I saw him getting it wrapped at the counter and then he told me it was a gift for the neighbors that lent the car to us. What a fun day! :D
No comments:
Post a Comment