Stephanie- My Two Families in Japan

My Two Families in Japan

On January 2nd my mom and brother from Wisconsin arrived in Japan to visit me! It was really great to be able to spend time with them and for them to be able to see and experience a lot of the things that I have experienced here. It was their first time in Japan and my host family graciously invited them to come with us on vacation over the New Year's holiday, so together all 6 of us packed in a Japanese-sized car and drove to Kyoto and Kagawa to go sightseeing and visit friends of my host family.

Ready for Kyoto! Just kidding, we definitely took a car. This is right outside my host family's apartment with some neighbors.

Since my host dad is in the Japanese Self Defense Force, he was excited to take us to the local military museum to see the tanks he used to drive. すごいい！

At a traditional style restaurant in Kyoto

My brother really liked trying all the different food, especially things like squid and fish eggs. This was a new one for me too: raw horse meat.

My host mom took my host sister and I to a place to get dressed in traditional Japanese kimonos, with makeup and wigs and everything. It took about an hour in total just to get ready, but it was great!

My host mom's two Japanese daughters

Comments

Daniel- こにちわ！！

こにちわ！！　(Daniel) Hello,こにちわ, bonjour, Привет ! My name is Daniel Panasenko, and I am the 2012-2013 LEX intern in the Hippo office in Tokyo. I am from Sacramento, California, although originally from Dnipropetrovs'k, Ukraine. I first came across LEX and Hippo when I came to Japan with People to People in 2009. I was hosted by members of the Hippo Family Club for four days, and I enjoyed the experience so much, that I came back to work for Hippo as an intern. Although I am fairly new to Hippo, I have been received warmly and welcomed into the Hippo family. Everyone at the office and at the family clubs are very kind, supportive, and incredibly patient as I unintentionally butcher their language. As the year progresses, I will blog about my experiences in Japan as well as my insights into the language and culture. Although I am a bit overwhelmed by the novelty of the lifestyle and language, but I am more than happy to be here, making fascinating new discoveri...

Michael- Koto-ku Community Festival

Koto-Ku Community Festival Wow! It seems like just yesterday that I was writing my last blog post, but yet it was really 2 weeks! I have been told it has gotten a lot colder in the U.S., so I should probably tell you I've only worn a light jacket once so far...And that was when the latest typhoon was offshore and pulling wind down from Russia. Otherwise, it has been amazing weather here. As always, I've been doing a lot, but I will talk about one thing I really enjoyed. I worked at a Hippo booth at my community festival. The festival was held over the weekend a week ago at Kiba Park near my home. The park is quite large and known for the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art, but mostly it's cool because it has a suspension bridge over a canal in the middle. The event was quite exciting for me as it was also my first Japanese festival. I want to say it was a mix between a flea market and a trade show. There were many tents set up in many different areas. Booths varied a...

Danielle- Shopping Malls

Shopping Malls I noticed I don't talk about shopping enough, so here's a brief overlook of some of my favorite shopping malls (so far~) out here in Japan. AEON I have one about 5 minutes away from my local train station here in Chiba. It feels very homey to me, just because it's really spacious and open and reminds me of a shopping mall I had back in Illinois. What I love about Aeon, too, is that it has a bunch of different stores (other than just clothes). On the first floor, you have your groceries, bakery, and cosmetics, and stuff like that. On the other floors, you have your clothes, electronics, food court (talk about majorly nostalgic, especially with the KFCs and Subways), and mini arcade. Chiba is kind of out-of-the-way, and so Aeon has been a very convenient place for me to buy my toiletries and CalorieMate... and just walk around, if I feel like it. I bought my first winter coat there and some gloves, and it was all reasonably priced, I think (granted,...

Search This Blog