Japan with Foster Family

When ii was told that ii will be alone with my host family, while my fellow colleagues had theirs in pair, ii was quite nervous & scared that ii don't know what to talk, and who to talk when I'm bored. More worse scenario was after reading my host family's background that they had only a little knowledge of English was a doom for me. Fortunately, thanks to the convenient Japan's handphone with a dictionary program installed and my japanese pocket-phrasebook had made my life easier. Secondly, I had no regret watching J-dramas & animes that has added me an extra knowledge of Japanese not relying only on the textbooks we've learnt. So eventually, ii was able to communicate with the family mostly in Japanese. How cool was that? I didn't realize myself until my host mother told me.



So...on my Day 1... where we were assigned to our host family, did our performance for them entirely and took off. They took me to Yakiniku restaurant! It was delicious!! OMG! the food was heavenly! haa~! Next stop, hakubutsukan (Museum) where display those artificial animals & antique, ancient items such as

The plant (picture below) is huge which shape and size like an umbrella. The second picture, the fish is called Hata-Hata fish, which is a very famous fish in Northern Japan. These two can only be found in Akita-ken. We were very lucky enough able to eat Hata-Hata fish during its season.


[Picture ONE]


[Picture TWO]

At night, we went out shopping at nearby supermarket. The supermarket in Japan is huge compare to Brunei. My host mother bought ingredients for dinner, and ii told her ii would like to eat Takoyaki however none were sold at any nearby stall, so she suggested to cook at home since they have the appliance. The ingredients were not cheap! ii felt guilty.





Day TWO...was the last day. I woke up at 8am and sudden feel of coldness in the room. ii walked out of my room, down the stair, and greeting "ohaiyo gozaimas" to my foster mom in the kitchen who was preparing breakfast for the family. Then I glimpse outside the window...and it was SNOWING!! Quickly ii ran back up into my room, take my camera and took pictures. It was my first experience with snow. I had japanese ramen for my breakfast, and it was DELICIOUS! Mommy's cooking. ahaha!







[Picture of me fall off the slope as I was snowboarding using children's snowboard]





Before that, my 'father' ask me to wake the children up in their room. I tip-toed into their room, whispered to their ears "oki-te" (wake up) and grabbed and wrestled with them. After we had our breakfast, the father told us to go out play snow outside at the football field accompanied with the children. I had to borrow the father's snow apparels as it's freezing cold outside. My hands were frozebitten as ii wore the wrong thickness gloves. ii made snowball and snow angel, but not snowman! haha...how can ii forget that?! My little brothers and I had a snowfight throwing snowballs at each other, and sort of 'snowboard' down the slope. LOL.

After we had fun outside the football field, we went for ice-skating at the skating facility. It cost around BND$18 per entry. It was a fun experience. Luckily ii know how to roller-blade although ice-skating is different from roller blading. It was a little harder than ii though it would be.









We had a race...ii fell on the ring in the middle of the race as my youngest brother blocked my way while ii was dashing and ii didn't know how to stop but instead fell aside of the racing course. I fell down flat, sliding straight the track. Funny. Next stop, we went to Jinja (Japanese shrine) to pray and bless my family and friends. I made a number of wishes, but am not suppose to tell anyone. After that, we went back home for takoyaki! yahoo..!! Taste? Indeed, was delicious. Better taste than the fake takoyaki sold (which made with crabstick) in Brunei.





So here is my story...life with Japanese host family in Akita city.
It was such a wonderful, unforgettable memories with the Takano family.
With a beautiful smiles on our photo.