So as I was saying

My program took a distributed field trip to Okayama (岡山) prefecture last week. The 岡 (oka) in the name means hill, and 山 (yama) means mountain, and guess what! Both were in evidence. We (the people of my program) were first split into two buses, one going to locations along the coast and the other to the interior (my bus). We then were dropped off in two groups at different local high schools, which was one of the more traumatic experiences of my life. In Kyoto, the sight of a gaijin gets some looks, as I have complained about. But I had literally no idea what staring was until small groups of us were dispersed throughout this fairly small, regional high school. One of my erstwhile companions dubbed it 'giggletown, Japan.' The organizers tried to get us to connect with the Japanese schoolchildren, but even when we could manage to understand each other there wasn't terrifically much to talk about... I mean I doubt I could have a non-awkward conversation with an american high schooler I'd just met either. We discussed our favorite super smash brothers (videogame) characters and that was about it.. Later was clubs! I thought this was 'hey look at them Japanese kids doing clubs' and I signed up for kendo, thinking it'd be cool to watch. HOWEVER, this was apparently interactive. So, I got there and was forcefully presented with a set of clothes to wear that were 1) embarassing and 2) embarassingly difficult to put on, also breaking my promise to myself that "I am not an orientalizing schmuck and I will not play dress up with traditional clothing." I was then given a crash course in super beginning Kendo! I think I managed to not embarrass myself as much as was possible, which was good? I don't know, I'm sure not going to be winning any swordfights, but I'd say it was a good experience.

Anyway, after this exhausting day of giggles and swords, we were ushered into a meeting hall where (traumatically) there was one line of chairs on one side, empty, and two lines of chairs on the other, filled with our super deluxe one-weekend-only host parents. We sat in the empty ones, and ONE BY ONE were called up to meet our new temporary benefactors, then we went and sat down with them. I got super lucky, and my weekend host family were great people. My host dad is 'retired,' and by that I mean he fishes, grows rice, has a vegetable garden and a fruit orchard, makes pottery, does calligraphy, and tutors middle schoolers in English. His wife practices tea ceremony and flower arranging (as well as being an incredible cook), and they also have the most adorable grandchildren in all Japan. I think one of the reasons that people in Japan live so long, aside from the diet and nationalized healthcare, is that they stay so unrelentingly busy. My Kyoto-regular host parents are also involved in all sorts of community activities, and my friends report their parents are similar. One of my friends' host mother got upset when he called her the respectful term for older woman (roughly equal to grandma), and she said "I'm not old! I'm only 68!" You just can't slow these folks down. Anyway adorable grandchildren. The younger one was very young (around 1) and terrified of me, and the older one (I forgot years? somewhere in early elementary school) became my best bud after we built legos together. He also tried to race me with bicycles but, as his hip barely comes up to my knee, it was a little bit of a lost cause. He also drew one of those adorable 'little kid portraits' of me, in which I have GIGANTIC ROUND EYES. Very flattering. I hope he learned valuable life lessons about how giant eyed people aren't all bad!

Anyway, outside of domestic pursuits, my weekend-host-dad and I tore up the prefecture, visiting castles, temples, shrines, this one furniture factory where they have A RACECAR MADE OUT OF WOOD, and his pottery teacher's house (where I learned that using a pottery wheel is very, very hard (and that Japanese pottery is really nice)). It was basically all a lot of fun! Then we had the 5 hour bus ride back, and I came home and had to do homework. That was not as much fun.

In other news, I am writing this with my computer on a kotatsu and my legs under said kotatsu. I made the mistake of telling my host parents it was a little cold, so they have added to my room this, approximately a thousand blankets, and an adjustable, electrically heated rug. I had been told that the Japanese 'heat the body not the room,' which I thought meant they like turn the thermostat down a bit and put on a sweater, but I am only now noticing there is no evidence whatsoever of any central heating in the slightest... looks like I will be getting good use out of this little table.

Until next time, internet!