Dan in Japan: Visiting Family

This morning my tutor picked me up from the Kaikan and we drove for an hour to get to his Grandparents house so that I could meet some non city Japanese people, and so his Grandparents could have a chance to meet a foreigner. On the way Kengo told me that it was not just his grandparents, but most of his family that would be waiting for me at the house. It turns out Kengo's family has been curious about talking to foreigners, and has really been wanting to meet me. I wish he had told me a bit sooner so I could have brought a larger amount of the Ghirardelli chocolates I've been giving out as gifts. (Gift giving is an pretty big thing in Japanese culture. Sadly I'm running low chocolate squares.)

When I arrived, I was greeted by the family, and a table full of food (with more being prepared). They served a veritable feast of spring rolls, Katsu (battered and fried meat), Karaage (Oita specialty fried chicken), inari, celebratory rice, some other kind of rice, tomato, okra, and cucumber. (I list all this because I neglected to take a picture. I was just too distracted by the people and food) Everything was delicious.

After Lunch we sat down and took a look at the photos Kengo had taken at his brothers recent wedding. It was interesting to see the pictures of a Japanese wedding. This one was pretty close to weddings as we know them in America, but some of the guests (all of them were women actually) were dressed up in traditional Japanese clothing. The bride and groom actually changed between western clothes, and traditional Japanese wedding garb. Aside from the clothing change, the main difference was the presence of three of what I can only imagine were the grooms friends from the swim team, doing synchronized suggestive dancing around the dining hall in nothing but their goggles and speedos with "Congratulations" (Written in Japanese of course) drawn out across their chests. Seemed like a fun time.

After the photos we sat around and talked for a while. I don't actually know how much time passed, but it was at least an hour. Throughout the course of the conversation I was using steadily more and more Japanese, and relying less on Kengo's translations. There were of course times that I had no idea what was being said, but I don't feel bad about that because apparently the grandparents Japanese is so archaic that Kengo sometimes doesn't even understand it. (This conversation was also accompanied by coffee (Tea for me) and some rolled red bean paste cake stuff that was delicious. (They sent me home with half of it.))

After chatting they took me out into their garden. And by garden, I mean vegetable field. There we picked green bean (or snap peas or something they just called them Mame, which is the Japanese word for "Beans"), carrots, potatoes, daikon radish, and green peppers. They sent me home with everything but potatoes.

After veggies, it was picture time with the family, and then time to return home. It was a really fun day, and they invited me to come back again. They even offered to have me stay there for a few days during the summer. I hope I get to take them up on the offer At any rate, here are some pictures. Still having formatting issues, so I just kind of have to leave them where they get uploaded. Sorry about that.