Today we got up early to meet with our host family. We were only staying with them for one night, but it still would be a valuable experience to see what the everyday Japanese life is like. Me and Daniel Soledad from Rose Hulman Institute of Technology were staying with the Nakamura's, and Jason Kraft that I knew from the IT Honors program at RIT was staying with the Sakai family. Since Mrs. Sakai and Mrs. Nakamura knew each other well, they showed up together to pick us up, and we drove in Mrs. Sakai's Suburu Forrester station wagon.

When I met with the host family the first time, I mentioned Ninja-dela, which is the coloquial name for Myoryu-ji, an old temple in Kanazawa that got it's name from the many trick rooms and traps inside. This is the first place we went with the host family. It was in a neighborhood of many temples. I found this information on the wikitravel website about Ninja-dela:

The tour guides insist there is no connection between the 'Ninja Temple' and actual ninja assassins. But with 23 rooms and 29 staircases, an impressive array of trapdoors and hidden rooms, and a sepukku (ritual suicide) chamber, it is easy to see why people would make that assumption. Call ahead to book a tour. The tour is conducted in Japanese, but they give travellers a folder with English translations. Local lore has it that there was an underground tunnel from the castle to the temple, to allow the Maeda lords an escape route in case of attack. However, no documentary proof of this has been found, and, like the ninjas, it merely adds to the myths of the place. Unfortunately, the staff have a well-deserved reputation (amongst both Japanese and foreigners) for being rude and unhelpful. ¥800 for adults, and you're supposed to make a reservation in advance, although they'll squeeze you in if there's space. The hour-long tour was well worth the price.

That follows what we witnessed on the tour, but there was a lot more information that I can't seem to find online to share. The house would be the coolest place to live. There's so many secrets, you would never get bored.

At Ninja-dela with Mrs. Nakamura


And Mrs. Sakai

Next, we stopped at the KIT exchange student run International Lounge. We saw a lot of exchange student's artwork.

Traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony at the International Lounge

After that, we drove out of the city to a more rural area where the Sakai's lived. It was just Mrs. Sakai and Mrs. Nakamura so far, I'm not sure where their husbands were on a Saturday morning, perhaps working. We had a great meal in the Sakai's house, including a couple of types of salad with vegetables from her impressive garden. She also makes some wines, including sweet plum wine, and we all had some. It was very tasty.

Mrs. Sakai's garden

Homestay Day 1 Album

Afterwards, we went out to dinner with everyone here plus Mr. Nakamura, and their friends Gretchen and James. I didn't get a chance to talk with James very much, but he was from America and now lives here teaching, and seems like a really nice guy. Gretchen was born in Taiwan and went to college there, then went to America to learn to teach English at St. Michael's College near Burlington, VT. Then she went to Japan with no knowledge of Japanese and now is very much fluent, and also knows Chinese. Mr. Nakamura is a Civil Engineering professor at KIT and, like Mrs. Nakamura and the Sakai's, he enjoys learning English. The meal had many many types of food, and we all had a little of everything. It was very delicious.

After the restaurant, we went to the Fresh Arena Tokyo Store (Supermarket in Kanazawa) with the Nakamura's and Gretchen. They told us to take anything we wanted, but we didn't want them to spend too much money on us, so we took very little. I had mentioned that I like to cook breakfast at the restaurant, so we bought the ingredients for pancakes because I offered to cook them the next morning.

Then we went to the Nakamura's residence. They lived a lot closer to KIT and downtown Kanazawa than the Sakai's, but like the Sakai's their house was very impressive. It was quite big, and very well furnished. They also had a dog that they call "Ai-chan."

The Nakamura's miniature daschund

Mrs. Nakamura treated the dog really well, and referred to it as her "daughter," and liked to carry it around with her from time to time. When we got in, we gave our gifts that we bought in America to them, and they really liked them. We all had long days I think, so we sat around watching TV. We watched this one show called Gokusen, which is about a lady who is the granddaughter of a Yakuza boss and teacher at an all-boys private high school. It was really silly. Gretchen also came home with us, but she went home for the night, but said she would return in the morning for my pancakes.

Then we took the usual Japanese bath, and went to bed for the night. They even gave us separate bedrooms, both we quite roomy.

The smaller of the two guest rooms

They said we could sleep as late as we wanted, but I figured I should get up early to spend as much time with them as possible. Plus, I did offer to cook breakfast.