AGE: Otari, Japan

After spending the previous week in the English speaking comforts of the Santana B&B, we have just finished up a week immersed in the culture by living in a Japanese-style minshuku in Otari. The minshuku is maintained by an old Japanese couple, Izowa and Hisako, who did not know a word of English. Our rooms had tatami mat floors and cushions we had to lay on the floor in order to sleep at night.
Our meals were served in the traditional Japanese style of sitting on the floor in tatami mat rooms with traditional Japanese meals like cured, salty fish for breakfast and a type of crab dish, served right in the shell, as part of dinner. Even though I was usually craving pizza with a side of fries, I embraced the experience whole-heartedly and tried all of the items that were served at every meal.

Our week in Otari was highlighted by new snow and skiing almost every day. Each morning we would wake up to anywhere from a few inches to nearly two feet of snow, and a few times we even managed to make first tracks through the fresh powder. On most days we would have one class right after breakfast and then hit the slopes for almost four hours of skiing. Around 1pm we would head back to the minshuku to conclude our classes, have dinner, and spend the night relaxing and getting work done for the next day. The ski lift was just a one minute walk from the minshuku, so it was easy for us to maximize skiing and class time.

One day we took a field trip to visit some students at an extracurricular program that teaches English and U.S. culture. The Japanese students were very excited to meet our students and exchange some words and knowledge from each of our cultures. To thank us for coming, they wrote each of our names in Japanese calligraphy. The funniest thing about the field trip was a miscommunication we had with the teacher, Fumiko, when she came to pick us up. She didn’t realize that seven of us were planning on visiting the students and Fumika showed up in her 5 passenger Subaru Impreza with her daughter and dog already occupying a couple of spots. Since the class was about to start and we all still wanted to go, we decided that we could squeeze into the Subaru for the short trip. We had two (Greg and Nina) in the front seat, four (myself, two students, and Fumiko’s daughter, Karyn) and a dog (Sophie) in the backseat, and two more students in the hatchback. It was like a clown car. If you look closely, you can see everyone but Greg.

As the week progressed, the whole group became enamored by our gracious hosts who not only started serving us slightly more American-style meals, but even started to learn English to better communicate with us! It’s embarrassing to admit that by the time the week ended Izowa and Hisako might have learned more English than we had learned Japanese, and they even took the time to teach us about their culture and language. Our cultural experience with them has been the highlight of my trip so far, and I left their minshuku yesterday hoping that they understood how completely grateful we were for their hospitality.