ホームステイ one weekend with a Japanese family

Oita University offers a homestay program for all exchange students who wish to spend time with a Japanese family. When we arrived in Japan we thought it would be nice to get to know the Japanese lifestyle and see how people live so we applied for the program. For a long time we didn’t hear anything about our application or the procedure, so we nearly forgot about it, but then one day in December we received the information that they found families for us. We had to participate in a meeting at the university where we received some basic information on how to behave in a Japanese home (for example not to use the “toilet shoes” to go to the living room and to take a shower and wash your body before using the bathtub) and we were also told who our host family is. The info was very limited: name, age, address, living with her grandson. I couldn’t wait to find out more about the person I was going to stay with for one weekend and sent her an email. It took quite a while until she replied so my curiosity grew even more. She told me that December was not a good time and we agreed on meeting in January. At some point I didn’t even know if our agreement was still valid because the contact was scarce and only in Japanese. As I had mentioned in my application that my Japanese is poor, I was sure that the International Office had picked someone with good English skills. Well, it remained to be found out.

When the homestay date came closer my anxiety grew: Would they be nice? Could they understand me? Would we find topics to talk about? How and where would I sleep? Would they like my presents? (Yes, I prepared a box filled with German specialties to share a part of my culture in exchange for them showing me the Japanese way of living)

I was so excited when I got on the train to meet my host mother and so relieved when she picked me up and was the sunshine in person! I could tell from her voice that she was also excited because she started talking in Japanese as fast as humanly possible. Of course I didn’t understand a word. So I told her it would be easier for me to speak English, which turned out to be as hard but the other way round. Well, the language barrier didn’t have any negative impact on the situation, so I was happy to have such a lucky match. We arrived at the music school where my host mom gives piano lessons. I was so surprised to find a group of 15 small children in the age of 2 to 8 waiting for me behind the entrance welcoming me in English!!! “Good morning! What is your name? Where are you from? How old are you?” haha it was adorable! It turned out they had English lessons accompanied by music (a woman playing the piano) and I was a part of it. We played games, they asked me questions and we had lunch together. It was a great experience, but I also had to realize that my Japanese was so poor that I didn’t even understand anything the children wanted to tell me. I felt awful because I wanted them to like me and I wanted to be part of the group but it just didn’t work out. 

JP, the guy on the right, is the English teacher

My host mother is the woman behind me :)

 After the English session my host mother had to give private piano lessons and asked me to go grocery shopping for dinner with two Japanese women who also participated in the English class (one played the piano to accompany the lesson and the other just helped out). Because I said I like Sushi a lot, they took me to the supermarket to get fresh Sashimi (raw fish) and some drinks. I was surprised when we took the Highway to go to Beppu (the next city along the coast) only to buy ingredients. I was even more surprised when we didn’t go back to Oita but took the road to the opposite direction. At no point was I informed what happened. Well, the reason for that was maybe mainly again my poor Japanese. They didn’t speak English but therefore they tried to tell me a lot in Japanese. When they asked basic questions as for example what I like in Japan or why I came here I could understand them and also give an answer but everything else was just a blurred jabber. We drove for a long time (over one hour) and I started to get nervous: Where are we going? What are we doing? Where is my host mother? I thought she lives in the city center, why are we driving for such a long time?

The riddle was solved when we stopped at a kind of national park and I asked what we are doing: They rent a block house for the night and my host mother would come there too after the piano lessons. She would also bring her grandson and his girlfriend. In the meantime the women tried to show me a waterfall nearby which we didn’t find and we waited in the cold house, already starting to have some ready-to-eat sushi. As I was told I didn’t need to bring anything, I wasn’t prepared for the night that should follow: The sushi was delicious, the kids and I played “Uno” (which is easy without having to use too much Japanese), the three ladies sat in the living room chatting, but then it was time to go to the Onsen! I didn’t have a towel or anything with me! So the host mother felt the need to go buy some towels. After the Onsen, we had a coffee (rather unusual late in the evening?!) and then went to bed: all 6 on the upper wooden floor. In the beginning it was quite warm but they turned the heating off for the night and around 5am nobody could sleep anymore because it was soo freezing cold! So we sat all together in the living room with our blankets and the two older women started to prepare breakfast which was typical Japanese: Miso soup with rice and the grilled fish which was left from the sushi in the evening. I liked it very much because hot soup in a cold morning really made my day!

the delicious sushi - just take a nori put some rice in it and the fish on top - voilà

cold morning in the countryside

breakfast is ready!

Then we had to leave the cabin until 10am and started our day trip. We went to Nakatsu to see the Aonodomon tunnel, the castle and a museum or former house of the samurai family Fukuzawa. Very interesting although I couldn't understand a word as everything was written in Japanese...

The tunnel is believed to be carved by a monch's hand in 30 years of time.

In front of Aonodomon

Fukizawa house (he appears on the 10,000 Yen note)

Nakatsu castle with a constumed man blowing a seashell horn

After the sightseeing tour we went to have dinner in a kind of Italian Restaurant and I had Pasta with Mentaiko which is a Japanese specialty: spicy cod roe (fish eggs). It was delicious. And so the day ended as the last tour had begun - with a long car ride back to Oita. Although I didn't really stay at a Japanese family home as I expected and the communication was quite difficult, it was a great experience and I can recommend to everybody doing such a homestay when you get the chance!