~*=recollection of japan=*~

28/5/2005 - 29/5/2005: homestay with Kajiyama family
mi, rachel & kaisi were going for our first homestay together. morning, all of us were brought to some community centre sorta place for a welcome lunch with our "parents", complete with traditional japanese performances and origami class. we also got to play some traditional japanese games with a big group of kawaii children. so fun!



after tt it's the official start of homestay already. but instead of bringing us back immediately, otousan and okaasan drove us to a mountain top to see a bird's eye view of western Hiroshima. there were a lot of clover growing on the mountain. otousan told us tt clover r usually found with 3 leaves. if we manage to find a 4-leave clover, it will represent finding shiawase (happiness, 幸福). with tt, otousan started searching for 4-leaves clover for us. at tt moment, i was quite touched. otousan was really treating us like his daughters and doing his best to find shiawase for us. awww.... and not long after, he found one!


from then on, i fell in love with 4-leaves clover
nx, otousan drove us to the market distribution centre for vegetables, flowers and fishes. then finally to his house. and boy~ it was literally a farm! they rear chickens, dog, cat and even bees. there were fruit trees and vegetables land all ard too. cos otousan is doing agriculture biz, he got quite a lot of land and he grow vegetables for sale.



at home, we met up with ojiisan, obaasan and their 2 sons. after some coffee chat, otousan let us use his computer to check emails, and also showed us some of his TV interviews abt his farms. otousan really 人気がある (popular)! then okaasan drove us to a nearby supermarket, bought ingredients for dinner and proceeded home to prepare. the night's menu was self-service sushi! basically, we juz had to slice up everything and arrange them neatly on the plate.


dinner time!! had fun wrapping and eating the sushi. oishii!
then chatted for quite long with otousan abt various countries until everyone also v tired. but we still had to wash the dishes... which took abt 30mins! after finishing our turns to shower, we finally retired to our tatami and had a gd night's sleep....



*****
early nx morning, after we woke up, tidied our tatamis, changed and ate breakfast, we walked abt and explored more of the house. juz right in front, there's a shrine, vegetable land and otousan's little office.



and then we set off 岩国 (Iwakuni)! it's abt 45min away by car, located in the neighbouring state 山口 (Yamaguchi).

first, took the ropeway up and visited the 岩国城.




then see some white snakes...


and crossed the 錦帯橋！


followed by ice-cream (super cooling and nice!) and some monkey show.

we then left the place and went to this "山賊" (sanzoku) place for lunch. it was v beautifully decorated with Koi all ard! cos it's the month of May, where Japanese celebrate "Boys Day" by hanging up Koi if they hv boys in the house. every month, this place will hv different decoration according to the festival. we had some delicious 山賊弁 there!



off we set off in otousan's car again, stopping by at some convenience store for a cup of coffee. we each bought 2 boxes of really cute biscuits from there. later we also stopped along the road to see the mountain of Miyajima from afar. otousan told us tt the shape of the mountain resembles tt of some Goddess. interesting!


after tt, we visited another plot of land tt belongs to otousan, and he let each of us plucked out an onion each!


then it's off to the supermarket for some groceries shopping. back at home, we again helped okaasan to prepare the night's dinner which consisted of lotsa sashimi! and yup again spent abt 30mins to wash the dishes.

after a day full of activities, all of us were quite tired already. but sadly, we also need to return to our dorm already. b4 setting off, we took family pics, exchange contacts and otousan also let us played with their doorbell, which has a camera tt records all visitors' faces. high-tech sia!


it was a really fun-filled day for us. but all good things muz come to an end. otousan & okaasan sent us back to the dorm and we bade farewell to them...

wat an unforgettable homestay weekend... thank you otousan & okaasan for all your kindness!