Home Sweet Home--written Oct. 25

I left with my home-stay family at ten o’clock this morning. Ke, the father, Muchiko, the mother, Toshiko, the grandmother, and two kids, Ryu, their son and Naogo, Muchi’s niece. We set out to go to Kumimoto, the neighboring prefecture, to see a park and a castle. We drove for about 45 minutes, stopping for lunch at a noodle place where I had fried chicken, a delicious coleslaw sort of thing, and some of Toshi’s ramen. It was all good, although the chicken is not breast meat and kind of gristly, and best of all, I was able to eat one piece of chicken and quite a bit of the salad and a few bites of noodles! I was hardly even in pain afterwards. We had to take a ferry, a new experience for me, to Kumimoto, then drive another 45 minutes or so.
The park, Suizenji Jojuen Garden, was gorgeous, very scenic, and we took lots of pictures. Ryu warmed up to me after lunch and was pretty silly, but Nao stayed quiet. Toshi is a bit of an Americanophile, and speaks pretty good English. She was really excited to have a chance to talk to an American!
From there, Toshi and I took the kids on a street car to Kumamoto Castle, and Ke and Muchi took the car and met us there. The castle was huge and very traditional. I have not read the info about it yet, but I have it, so I will. A funny thing there was that a bunch of Chinese and Korean boys asked me to take a picture with them! What a weird world! Of course, I didn’t see a ninja until I was right upon him, but I managed to subdue him, anyway.
From there, we finally went to their house. Several of the male teachers from Obama High School joined us for dinner, which was take out sushi. Luckily, one of them was an English teacher! They left at about 9:00, I took a bath, and went to bed on the futon that they provided for me upstairs.

In the morning, I helped Toshi make miso soup and fix several other small dishes for breakfast. I really learned a lot about Japanese cooking. After that, we set out for a museum and then to city hall to take a bus to the next stop.

Having a family for a night was nice, but I really miss my real one!