Omoide, Kazoku

Having a host family is probably one of the best experiences I've had so far in my stay here in Japan. As we were all assigned to a Japanese family, I was fortunate to have had one of the most recognized professors in Hiroshima Shudo University, Jim Ronald-Sensei. His wife is Japanese and he has been living here for 20 years. He teaches English here in Shudo University but his Japanese is really fluent - so fluent that I wasn't sure if he knew English the first time we met.

Beside me is Midori Okaa-san and that's Grace-chan in the front and Joshua-kun on Ronald Sensei's back. Trust me when I say that those kids kicked my ass as far as translating skills go. They are very bilingual and it never failed to amuse me hearing a British accent (where they lived for a year). But now, both of them go to a completely Japanese school. Just having this perspective of languages and culture brings a lot of memories of home. It was such a special exprience that I couldn't even explain in writing how I felt even until now as I look back. Anyhow, now is not really a good time to dwell because of all the things I want to show you guys! We went to a lot of places and here are some of them.


This is one of the most popular Japanese Style parks in Downtown Hiroshima. My host family brought me here after going to Church. It was me, Junko-san and Midori Okaa-san who rode the train from Mideki. After walking for a couple of minutes we finally reached this sanctuary within the city. I was able to get in for free since I was an international student which was cool.

The whole place was like Central Park, only more calm. They even had memorial for the people who died in the Hiroshima Bombing because some of the people were buried there (the dropsite was closeby). We were also lucky enough to witness a Japanese wedding ceremony, complete with a bride wearing the full-on Kimono. So that's the park. Our next stop was the Hiroshima Castle only a few blocks away. This is the view from the entrance.

Inside was an exhibit of how the quarters were like back then with some samurai swords, scrolls, relics, and rendering of how the place used to be. You can see that it's not that big so you pretty much go counter clockwise, go up the next floor, which is smaller, go around and go up again... 5 times. We were among the hordes of High School students so it was a little hard to move around, especially with the narrow flight of stairs. However, we managed to snag this photo.

This is the view from the top. I took the picture of the whole Hiroshima Castle from where those three girls are sitting.


Later in the day, my host family brought me to a real udon house. This place lets you watch the cook make some udon by hand, right from scratch so you get to see all the flavors (including sweat) that they put into it.

This was my last day staying with my host family but we are definitely seeing each other again in the next few weeks. I still have to try that special Okonomiyaki Ronald-Sensei was talking about! Note: Okonomiyaki with Tako is currently my favorite Japanese food.