My visit to Japan(Part II)..

During my stay in Japan, I was hosted by two families. I stayed with my second host family for five days. The family has four children and they are all guys. Yet, they are all younger than me where the eldest son is 15 years old and the youngest child is only eight. We were not very close due to language barrier as they can only speak limited english. Yet, we share something in common. We love fooling around when we visit ------------------> HERE..

Guess what, it is onsen, the public bath. The kids love playing with me when we are just wearing our own skin without any clothes on. They washed my back where as I gave them a few spanks in butt for pulling off my 'hair'. It was fun back then even though we were using body language only as our communication tool.

Anyway, my second host father is a priest. I stayed in his temple and there is a lake in front of the temple. It is an ideal, peaceful place with lots sakura tress. But, too bad, it was winter season. Tak ada sakura flower~~

During the new year celebration, my host family will be busy doing preparation for the temple. The woman will do the cooking whereas the man will help to settle things in front of the temple.

For your information, most of the japanese go to temples during the new year eve. Besides, the elders will give angpao to the younger generation. It is something like the new year celebration for the Chinese.

When it was around 10pm, they started to burn woods with some words written on it. I asked my host family about it but due to language barrier, we were like chicken and duck, unable to express our thoughts. Anyway, I guess it was part of their new year celebration ritual.

It was freezing cold that night as it was winter season. All of us were standing around the fire to keep our body warm.

Then, when it's 12.00 am in the morning, which is 1st of January 2007, we started to hit the gong.

I was the second person hitting the gong after my host father. According to them, I am the VIP from Malaysia.

We were supposed to hit the gong loud but apparently, some of the people did not do it properly and in the end, it was just 'gong' instead of "GGGGGOOOOOOOOONNNNGGGGGGGGG! ! !"..

We need to hit the gong for 108 times if I am not mistaken. Each and everyone of the people there will be given a chance to hit the gong, if there is not enough 108 people, anyone can hit it again until it reaches 108 times.

Then, we started to the pray.

I was praying with them in my shorts. I thought it will be around 10 to 15 mins. But, I was sooooo wrong. It lasted for an hour.

It was not that cold at first but it got from bad to worst. It was freeezing cold. In the end, I got sick on the following day.

So, the lesson of the night, do not wear shorts when you pray during the winter season.
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My visit to Japan(Part 1)..

Back in December 2006, I went to Japan under the youth exchange program organized by the Lions' Club. It was fun and I had experienced a brand new culture, for instance, get into your birthday dress and bath with a lot of strangers in a room(おんせん).

There were a lot of sweet memories during my stay in Japan. Yet, due to my weak brain cells, I cannot recal a lot of stuffs especially the name of the places I visited and the foods I swallowed down in Japan. Talking about food, Japanese cuisine, I shall say, is one of the best cuisines in the world.

I love the sticky rice in Japan. It gives you a different taste compared to the rice in Malaysia. I do not know how they do it, maybe due to the addition of vinegar or maybe because of the way they squeeze the rice, it is a plain yet fantastic たべもの(food). I still recall that, I had rice as あさごはん(breakfast) almost everyday during my stay. According to my host mother, they need to have a heavy breakfast as to provide energy for the man to work for the rest of the day.

Another interesting fact, すし(sushi) is one of the well-known foods originated from Japan. Yet, do you know that sushi is quite expensive in Japan? There are two types of sushi, one is かいてん sushi(rotation sushi, something like sushi king in Malaysia), another one is sushi bar. For the かいてんsushi, it is comparatively cheap. But, if you eat at sushi bar, be ready to pay at least RM300 to RM 600 per person. When I was there, we ate sushi at the sushi bar and took a lot of sake during the Christmas Eve and my host mother paid 120,000 yen equivalent to RM 3700 ++ for 5 person. That's how expensive it is. Luckily I did not need to pay for it. Besides, there is no ebikko(prawn's egg) in Japan. It can only be found in Malaysia.

In one of my entries in this blog, I had mentioned about やきとり(Japanese style satay). I did not know that I have taken a real photo when I had it for my dinner in Japan. Anyway, ss what you can see in the next two photos, やきとりdoes not look exactly like satay.

Next is やきそば(fried mee). My host host mother is very good at it.

おさけ(Sake) is a must for every meal. I had a lot of sake during my stay in Japan though I was not allowed to drink. My host father always ask me to drink be it wain or sake and due to courtesy, I had to take it and guess what, he will stop pouring sake into my cup only when my face started to flush. According to him, we need to practice our drinking skill as a lot of socializing needed to be done for the sake of our job and our company in the future. Well, he has a point in a way.

One of the weird delicacies I tried in Japan was fried grasshopper. They fry it and then soak it into sugar water. It actually tasted not bad. Sweet and full of protein. Haha..


This is dried snake meat. It was stinky but still, I tried it just for the sake of trying.

There are uncountable foods I tried in japan but well, will talk about it in my next entry.

By the way, I stayed in Shizuoka, Nagoya and it was very near to Fuji Mountain. In fact, I can see it from my room.

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わたしのへやだい

これはわたしのへやです。

Kore(This) wa watashi no(my) heya(room) desu.

This is my room.

これはわたしのベッドです。

Kore(This) wa watashi no(my) bedo(bed) desu.

This is my bed.

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わたしはきたなれいふくをゆかのうえです。

Watashi(I) wa kitanare(dirty) ifuke(clothes) o yuka(floor) no ue(on) desu.

I put my laundry on the floor.

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これらわたしのほんです。
Korera(These) wa watashino(my) hon(book) desu.

These are my books.

これはわたしのあさがはんです。
Kore(This) wa watashi no(my) asagohan(breakfast) desu.
This is my breakfast.

わたしのへやはおもしろいですか。
Watashi no(My) heya(room) wa omoshiroi(interesting) desu ka?
My room is interesting right!?

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