Hurui Densha and Tsuwano

This weekend we all went on a trip to Tsuwano. Everyone was going to meet at my house in the morning so my mom and I sat down and figured out where all the tickets were on the train so that the moms could all sit together and the students could all sit together. I was in charge of the student tickets.

Next we had to pack bento (Japanese boxed lunch) to take on the train. My mom and I ran down to 7/11 to pick up two lunches. She told me to get whatever I wanted so I just picked two onigiri. She thought that wasn't enough though so she got me a chicken salad and pocky (a Japanese candy that's really good). When we were checking out she happened to see that there was some kind of new Cappuchino machine by the register so she asked the boy if she could try it. Unfortunately it was not set up yet but the Japanese being as they are, the boy assured her he could set it up in a matter of seconds. So, he ran to the back of the store, grabbed the stuff, ran back, and set the machine up really quickly. Then he showed her how to work the machine but he was really flustered because he'd had to set it up so quick so he kept dropping things and he was obviously really nervous. He kept apologizing and using the really polite Japanese, gozaimasu, irashaimasu, etc. It was pretty funny but I didn't want to laugh because I felt bad for him. My mom tried the cappuchino and said it was really good so then she asked him to please make one for her daughter. So he made one for me too and after we left the store my mom started laughing and saying she felt bad for the poor boy.

After that we had to go to Yamaguchi Eki to cancel one of the train tickets. I stayed in the car with Ramukuhn, because we had brought him along with us. He doesn't like to be separated from my mom. He barked and whined the whole time she was gone. "Daizyobu Ramukuhn, won won nani?" (It's ok Ramu, why are you barking?) I said to him but he still wouldn't stop. When my mom got back I told her that Ramu had been looking for her and barking the whole time. "Hoontoo ni?"(really) She asked, laughing. "Hoontoo!" (really) I said. Then we ran home and packed our lunches up. By then everyone was showing up at the house and we all walked to the station together, where I handed out the tickets to the students and my mom handed out the other tickets to the moms.

The train was really cool. It was very old, a steam train. That morning my ojiichan (grandpa) had warned me to close the windows when you go through the tunnel because the smoke will come in if you don't. Well, I knew to close the windows but the people in the front of our car didn't so, when we went through the tunnel, all this thick black smoke came pouring in. The old train was only running because it was a national holiday so people had lined up along the track and the rice paddies to see it pass by because normally it doesn't run.

Tsuwano is an old castle town with a really cool Shinto shrine up on the mountain. When we got there our moms took us to the bike rental place. It was only 500 yen per bike, five dollars, so we each got a bike and decided to ride up the mountian to the shrine while our moms shopped and went to a cafe. It was really fun. We parked our bikes at the foot of the shrine and climbed hundreds of stairs up to the top through tunnels of orange tori, gates. At the top was a beautiful shrine. We wandered around it and took many pictures. From the top of the mountian we could see many more orange tori dotting the other hillsides and hidden in the forests. We climbed back down and next went to look at the carp. Tsuwano is famous for the extraordinary size that the carp there reach. There are little rivers throughout the city and alongside all the roads and sidewalks, like gutters but little streams instead. They are all full of carp. There are normal ones and there are koi, which look like giant goldfish. The carp in Tsuwano all reach 3 or 4 feet in length, they're huge! We fed them some fishfood we bought and Emily tried to get one to suck on her finger but it wouldn't.

We also went to explore a very old Catholic Church founded by Jesuits. It is really cool because it is very traditional Japanese but Catholic at the same time. It looks like a normal church but there are no pews, only tatami mats to kneel on, and you have to take off your shoes.

Ichikawa Sensei, our Japanese Professor, told us that in Tsuwano you can get hot ice. This is a toasted roll with vanilla ice cream inside. We all ate one and it was really surprisingly delicious. After that we went to the train station because our train was supposed to arrive soon. There was an old steam train that they had set up kind of like a museum display but it was an actual train and you were allowed to climb on it. Bridget, one of the Canadians, and I jumped up on top of the train and were pretending to have a karate battle. When we jumped up there our moms freaked out! My mom went "EHHH!! KOWAII!" (Ahh!, scary!) and Bridget's mom went "EHH!! BURI CHAN!" (Bridget what are you doing?") But then when they saw that we did not fall and die they started laughing and took lots of pictures of us.

The train ride back was fun too and some of us went up by the engine so we could see it. When we got back to Yamaguchi Sam's mom said that her family was going to make us dinner so we all went over to their house, there were about 20 of us so we kind of took over their house. All of the students sat out on the back deck and Sam's dad made dinner. It was Japanese curry chicken with rice and it was sooooo good! After that we sat and talked for a long time while the parents sat inside and talked. It was lots of fun.

My parents, Elliott's parents, and Elliot, one of hte Quebec students, and I walked back to my house. They had parked there so I thought they were going to leave but everyone came into our house. Then all of a sudden my dad says we should all go get sushi! So Elliott's parents get in their car and my parents and I get into my mom's car. Apparently Elliott was confused and no one noticed that he wasn't in any car. Everyone started pulling away and then all of a sudden Elliott jumps into the back of our car while my Mom is backing out. Everyone laughed a lot about that and then Elliott tried to explain why he was confused in Japanese, which didn't work too well.

My dad had gone fishing that day so the sushi chefs fixed all the fish he had caught. There was so much of it and we were all so full but we managed to eat it all! It was really fun. Then I watched TV with my mom for a while. Japanese TV is all subtitled and I am starting to be able to read the subtitles!