Day 14 | New family and playing the Taiko drums

Oke oke! New exciting day in Japan! My 14th day of being on the other side of the planet and now the time came to change my host family for the last time before moving to camp. Or was it? This was a pretty long day that I got surprised even now how many things happened! Let me tell you what I learned with the new family and about the fun we had together!

Moving to the home of the architects

After spending two nights at the home of the older couple who did their best to make my time with them awesome (and they succeeded) with preparing me welcome party, helping at the bank with the credit card, giving the bike to go around and the new symbolic straw hat, went with me to the karaoke bar and more. Now the time came to switch to the last host family before moving to the youth camp in Osaka. I did not know much about them actually so it was more or less a surprise. I might have heard they were the architects but since our communication was mostly guessing what the other person said it will remain mystery.

After having a breakfast I packed all of my stuff and was ready to go. The grandpa Yanase-san tried to help me but I rejected it as my suitcase was already pretty heavy and there was no way I wanted him to put any effort while carrying my stuff. I greeted grandma Yanase-san and moved out. We had our Jeep already waiting for us at the doorway and got in. When we passed by the store there were several more workers who greeted us and I just said "Mata ne! " (See you later! ) which they always loved (and laughed) to hear. It took us about 5 minutes by car to reach our next destination. I now already knew half of the way since I was on the bike around the day before and already been in the car here many times with other families.

We passed by the traditional Japanese house I saw yesterday and after 2-3 minutes came to my new home for 4 days. We were welcomed by mom Sachiyo-san who helped us get in. Grandpa Yanase-san was laughing and talking with her, I could not understand much except for 'sugoi' which he used to mention all the time when we were having conversations together. Then he left and I then got a tour around the house and left my stuff in the room.

The home of the architects was of course well decorated with a modern interior. I think that was more than obvious. My room was now on the upper floor and I died almost after using the spiral stairs carrying 30 kilograms of stuff slowly. One thing that my new host family told me was that the air conditioner was not working so we were going to die of high temperatures.

I found out there that my new host family were the architects and had an office at home and one right next to their home. I got really excited because my profession - graphic designer - was pretty much like a sibling or a close family member to architecture. I was lucky again that all of my host families were interesting and fun to hang out. They also had a piano in the living room which made me excited too!

Mom Sachiyo-san then told me we can visit the office. It was then that I saw it it was a few meters away from our house doors and we got it. It was a nice office on two floors looking pretty modern and I would not mind working there. We again performed the good manners of taking of the shoes down the stairs and putting on the slippers. She told me that this is normal everywhere and even the clients when they come take off the shoes and walk around in the slippers.

I remember seeing plenty of books on the shelves and boards all around. There were some modern table and the chairs for discussions and meetings with the clients. Then I met 3 other architects who worked there. All of them were young, several years older than me (4-8) and they showed me what they were doing. It all looked complicated to me especially having a headache after seeing the 3D softwares for building houses in Japanese! They were asking me about my experience and thoughts of being here in Japan and I told them a bit of my home. And I forgot to mention that everyone always commented my height. Then we made jokes on that. So I had the opportunity to see what their workplace and everyday look like. Pretty interesting. And to test my colleagues I just said "Kamehameha". They were all jumping in the air doing the same. Very good!

Mom (and the boss) Sachiyo-san then invited us to the lunch at one restaurant nearby. I had small problems with getting into the car as my head was touching the roof the car but I managed to find a comfortable position without making a hole above. As for the other members of the family, father and the boss Tetsuya-san was on a trip and was coming later in the evening or on the next morning. My host sister and brother were also out of the home whereas I met my host sister Sumire later in the evening.

Lunch with the architects

We went to one cool restaurant where one could sit on the chairs or on the floor but there was a hole for the legs so it was pretty comfortable. I had no idea what to order because I simply could not understand the menu so I took their suggestions. They then introduced me to this "Japanese pancake" which tastes delicious. It could be more like Japanese pizza since you put tons of different ingredients inside. And the thing is that we baked it on our table in front of us then taking the hot or very warm parts onto our plates. We used the chopsticks again. It is also here where I learned and remembered finally the word 'oshibori' for the white handkerchief. They are being served wet wrapped in the foil in order to wash and clean your hands before starting to enjoy your meal.

We spent there a bit of the time talking about different topics and me writing down the interesting facts into my little notebook (remember! Never go around without your notebook! ). Then they had to go back to work so we thanked the waiters and the cook (and I was shouting "oishii nee! mata ne" (delicious! see you! ) and heard them laughing. After being back home I went to my room to rest a little bit and check the internet what was going on on the other side of the planet in Croatia. I believe my family and friends just got up from the bed (or not even then since we had the lunch around 12 p. m. so they must have been sleeping in Europe).

Mom Sachiyo-san told me we were going to go to one drumming course if I am interested in. Of course I was! I told her that I had the African Djembe drum at home and that I would surely like to try the Japanese one.

Playing Taiko drums

An hour and a half later we went again by car to some centre in the town where one could practice drumming. There was a high school friend of mom Sachiyo who was the boss in drumming and who welcomed us. He also spoke English which made things a lot easier and for us to communicate more freely and about different things.

Then another person came in and I started laughing as I had already met him before. It was Peter, a Canadian and a husband of a headmaster of a preschool I volunteered at. He also remembered me so everything was just much more awesome. We commented that Gobo was small and thus not impossible to meet someone. Gobo chiisai.

Mr Taiko-san (for our text here, not in reality) then played us an amazing solo which totally made us all grab the drums as soon as possible and start playing. I regret not recording it. Then we started with some basic melodies and in the end succeeded to make a basic rhythm that sounded good. Mr Taiko-san used the syllables of my name and Croatia to make us remember the melody and several patterns easier. It worked.

After drumming on the smaller ones (they are big but compared to the big one on the pictures... ) he then demonstrated and played a solo on the big one revealing its sounds and power. He turned then to me and asked if I wanted to try. Of course!

Slightly after finishing the patterns Mr Taiko-san continued playing the patterns and asked me to try doing a solo. Then I enjoyed for 5 minutes playing my own thing and hoped it did not sound bad.

After the drumming was done we laid down on the floor and closed our eyes. Mr Taiko-san then told us he was going to play again the big drum in order to demonstrate us its effect. We felt the vibration of the sound throughout the whole body and it sounded and felt like a storm outside.

This was a really fantastic hour and I was thankful to everyone there who spend their time with me and taught me new skills.

Visiting temple in the town, green tea ceremony and the business meeting

The day was still on and after drumming mom Sachiyo said she would like to show me one temple in the town because (as I got it) some festival was going on and we could also take part at the green tea ceremony.

I do not remember exactly the name of the place and do not have my documents with me but it looked amazing too. I think that was among Doujouji the second most important and maybe the only temple in Gobo and Hidaka. We passed through the enormous wooden portal (as seen above) and went into the yard. The evening soon caught us and it got darkened. There were lit candles along the road that led us to another smaller portal.

Here we had to do some kind of a ritual. Going through the second portal (see the picture below) and then pass it to the right side and through it again to the left side in the form or writing number 8 horizontally. At every next try to go through it we had to bow. After 3 circles it was enough. There I saw the lanterns glowing in the dark which looked spectacular. Check the second photo below. It is much more interesting when you are there, unfortunately.

Afterwards we had been invited by a friend of mom Sachiyo to get in and join the tea ceremony. I instantly remembered my first experience half a week ago with the 2nd family as we entered the practising room at Hidaka High School and I went through the ceremony 2x. So I was prepared here to do it again. And I looked forward to the sweets we were given. There were two groups and we went to the smaller one. I hoped I had no obligations to say something or do something in front the others to embarrass myself but everything went smoothly without problems!

The last thing to do before going home was the business meeting of mom Sachiyo and the other guys here. It was apparently very important with some reports about Gobo and projects regarding the area despite the guys below having fun. I was mostly sitting at this position, taking their chocolate when they offered me, drank tea and here and there took the financial reports and pretended I understood something which would make them laugh. They asked me if I knew something Japanese, some brands... I said "Kamehameha" and they all repeated it and shouted "Son-Goku! Sugoi! ". After an hour or less with them (it was fun though I could not understand 95% of the things) we headed back home to pick up my host sister who arrived from school. And then off for dinner!

Dinner at the restaurant

My host sister Sumire also spoke English and was another fun companion to hang out with. We spent an hour at one restaurant with chairs (and also took off the shoes at the entrance... I believe) and ate another delicious meal, it might have been "okonomiyaki" or the 'barbecue' with some other things. We commented again everything all over again and then went home as tomorrow was a new day with new plans.

Plans for the other day

On the day 15 our host dad Tetsuya-san came home from the trip and the plan was to go to one amazing place in the afternoon. But what else happened on the following day you are going to find out in the next exciting episode of Dragon Ball Z!

Thanks for reading.

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