Strawberries.

I have never eaten so many strawberries in one day!

Today my host mom and sister and I went strawberry picking!  I don't know why, but during my time in Japan i have developed an intense love for strawberries.  What a perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon. We went and got tickets at a little building, then walked down to green house number nine.

This is where the green houses are!

In Japan, the rules of strawberry picking are exactly the opposite of the rules in the US.  You can eat as many strawberries as you want in an hour and a half, but you can't take any home with you.

Me and Hanae [host sister]!

We spent about half an hour strolling down the little aisles, eating a fantastically huge number of strawberries.  Then we felt quite bloated and realized it was impossible to eat any more, so we walked around and soaked in the beauty of the perfect red berries.

Mom and Hanae

The leaves of all the strawberries I ate.  At least 30.

And there were ostrich eggs in the little food store nearby!

The cost about $35 each!

I was supposed to go to a Japanese class with Annika in the afternoon, but the teacher didn't show up.  I'll go again next week, though.  It will be interesting, because I have never had a Japanese lesson before.  Everything I know I have picked up from experience. I'm excited to join the class, but I'm also a little proud and stubborn and unsure because it will mean that I can't say I did it all on my own anymore. Still, I do realize that this class will help me a lot and I'm looking forward to learning Japanese in a more manageable way.  And I think it will speed up my learning significantly.

Anyway, the teacher didn't come, so we went to the bookstore.  I found the Western Classics section and got way too excited and couldn't decide which one to get.  It was fantastic.  I love that my life now involves moments when I can't choose between reading Shakespeare, Hemingway, or Fitzgerald in Japanese.  I ended up getting The Great Gatsby, because Shakespeare would be way too hard at this point, and I've read lots of Hemingway before.  I also got a Japanese fashion magazine, to get a little of both of my cultures.  Magazines here are really great.  They usually come with little bags or things, and Japanese clothes are so amazingly wonderful that any 200 page book devoted to them is bound to be good.

I ran into my friend Megumi in the train station!  She plays mandola in the mandolin/guitar club.  We walk home together everyday, since our houses are nearby.  This time together has made her become my closest Japanese friend.  She is really nice, and not as girly and giggly as many of my other friends, which I find quite refreshing.  It was nice to take the train home with a friend, rather than alone, as I had originally thought.  It's only 20 minutes, but it is little surprises like this that come together to create general happiness.


Sushi for dinner!  Ate a little squid about 2 inches long.  It was cute.  We talked about cuttlefish and I taught them about how they change colors and can copy patterns and stuff.


I loved today.



Random notes, as usual.
1.  I asked about whaling [it was on TV] and why Japan still does it.  I didn't fully understand everything my host mom said, but this was my general impression:  Part 1 -They've been doing it for a really really long time, so in certain villages it is the way of life and the culture of the people.  Part 2- they have to do examinations/inquiries into the whales [kind of unclear on this part, didn't understand it perfectly] and that is where the meat comes from.  My host mom wasn't sure why the examined whales had to be killed, and said she would look into it.
2.  SUCCESS!  Host Mom [approximate, cause this conversation was a while ago and in Japanese]: "You've changed my image of Americans.  I thought they all ate a lot of fast food and weren't very healthy, but you've told me all about the farms in your area and the kinds of things you eat in New Hampshire and about eating flowers from your garden, and it seems like you have a very good lifestyle."