My Aizu (会津) Family

22-24 August was the language course and homestay weekend in the town of Aizu (会津), central Fukushima. This was my first host-family homestay experience with my new Japanese mum, dad, sister, brother, aunt and grandpa, aka the "Suzuki Family", aka THE cutest and nicest family in Japan....!

the young 30 something parents, cutest 6 and 4 year olds, the most adorable 60 something grandpa and a sweet 20 something aunt adopted me for the weekend whilst i go for a 2 day japanese course at Aizu University (会津大学 - "Aizi Daigaku")

On the first night, shortly after taking me alcohol shopping, they dished out plates and plates of sushi, sashimi, and lots of other weird and wonderful japanese food things, and kept putting food on my plate as if I were a severely underweight celebrity.

Although they didn't take me out or anything after dinner, it was still really cool just hanging out with them, chatting, playing Wii, setting off fireworks at the backyard, and constructing meaningful conversation with my limited japanese, their limited english, sign language and chinese characters!

On the second night, we were adorned with overflowing plates of tempura, as well as more weird and wonderful japanese food things.

Goodbye on Sunday was a bit sad...oh how I'll miss little 4 year old Utako waffling along in Japanese without me understanding a word! And Yuma and his dinasaurs, grandpa playing Wii, and Mrs Suzuki's cooking!!

Amazing weekend!!!

I-wacky!!

Now that I've finally caught up with my 96-hour sleep debt, these posts might just start to make more sense. Or it might go the other way cos this country is just way beyond amazing and I am surrounded by crazy foreigners almost all of the time.

My struggle with the Japanese language doesn't help improve my sanity either.

Since my last post, we have been to the top of the city, 54th floor of the Park Hyatt, New York Bar, re-enacting Lost In Translation with a bunch of freshies; but we've also been down to the depths of Tokyo earth in the metro/underground/JR, zooming around the city in wrong directions and a constant 'LOST' look on our faces.


Wednesday (6/8) - I arrived Fukushima prefecture, Iwaki City, where I will spend the next 12 months of my life, immersing, teaching, freaking, and hopefully befriending.

These are photos of Friday's Iwaki Odori, aka my first Japanese festival! I've also found the new definition of 'Adoroable' that Oxford will never be able to explain

peace x

new drinking rules

2 days in japan and I've already committed a major social faux pas!

In Japan, at parties and social events that involves the consumption of liquids, you are NOT to pour your own drink, but rather, a good host or party buddy has the unspoken responsibility to fill up someone else's glass whenever liquid levels are getting low, and vice versa.

In the last 2 days, I have slept for a total of 2 and a half hours. I have had my brain overloaded with quality of little to much use. I have repeated my name, country of origin, japanese prefecture area and short life history for slightly over 2638 times.

and yes, I am also wondering why I still have the ability to type in 'Sentence case' that still vaguely makes sense.

Oyasumi! x