Japan and Arashi - Day Seven (Part B)
When I am done with all these entries, I think I'm going to go back and date-wise put them in order. 
Too many part 1, part b, etc. Fortunately, this will be a very brief entry.
After Roiling Coin Tower, amefurift and I were invited to go to Y-kun's house. His mother, who is a professional cook, was going to cook us dinner! I was very excited about this. I was thinking that we were going to have one of those incredible multicourse Japanese meals, the likes of which I hadn't seen since my last visit to Japan when I stayed at the ryokan in Beppu.
Y-kun's house was pretty far from the train station....
We walked and walked and walked.... "finally" reaching the house about 15-20 minutes later. Their house was adorable! And they had a dog!
Of course, if I'd written this entry in the summer time I'd remember a lot more things... like that dog's name. I think her name was Princess, though. I remember something about "Hime" in her name. But I could be wrong.
EDIT: And I was wrong! Her name was Hawaii, as amefurift laughingly reminded me.
When Y-kun's mom served the dinner, it was amazing.... and completely American!
Well, okay, maybe it was considered more western style (as opposed to eastern), since one of the dishes was a beef medallions stew. My disappointment turned into pure delight when I ate the food though. It was all incredibly delicious!! I'm trying to remember the other dishes we ate, but my memory escapes me. There wasn't a single Asian dish on the table, but there also wasn't a single bad dish on the table. Everything was yummy beyond belief, including the dessert.
Now it turned out that Y-kun had a sister, S-chan. And she liked Arashi too - granted not like us, but if I remember correctly, her favorite member was Sho. She was still in grade school, and very sweet.
All throughout dinner, music was playing in the background, and only when I focused on it did I realize... it was American music! We heard Chicago, and Journey, and Genesis/Phil Collins... it was hilarious. Apparently, Y-kun's mom loves that kind of music and the entire family loved to watch American Idol. Go figure.
We stayed for a while, chatting in both English and Japanese, but eventually, amefurift and I had to leave because we didn't want to miss our last train. That's when Y-kun's mom gave us each a present!
Y-kun's mom writes cookbooks for kids! She gave a different one to each of us, and signed it!
Even though it's in Japanese, it has a lot of pictures, so it's easy to follow (plus,it's a kid's cookbook, so how hard can it be?
) Cutest part in my book was that the entire family, Y-kun, his sister and his mom, were featured as the cooking models in the book. Also, one of Y-kun's cousins was in it took, apparently as the "token child" the cookbook was geared for.
Whew. This was really a long day, and we packed a lot of stuff into it, but it was worth it. At this point, we only had two more days to go (Friday and Saturday) before we left Japan on Sunday. Those memories will probably consist of only one entry, because I didn't take many pictures after that. Oh... with the exception of Johnny's Family Club though. *grins*
Too many part 1, part b, etc. Fortunately, this will be a very brief entry.
After Roiling Coin Tower, amefurift and I were invited to go to Y-kun's house. His mother, who is a professional cook, was going to cook us dinner! I was very excited about this. I was thinking that we were going to have one of those incredible multicourse Japanese meals, the likes of which I hadn't seen since my last visit to Japan when I stayed at the ryokan in Beppu.
Y-kun's house was pretty far from the train station....
We walked and walked and walked.... "finally" reaching the house about 15-20 minutes later. Their house was adorable! And they had a dog!
Of course, if I'd written this entry in the summer time I'd remember a lot more things... like that dog's name. I think her name was Princess, though. I remember something about "Hime" in her name. But I could be wrong.
EDIT: And I was wrong! Her name was Hawaii, as amefurift laughingly reminded me.
When Y-kun's mom served the dinner, it was amazing.... and completely American!
Well, okay, maybe it was considered more western style (as opposed to eastern), since one of the dishes was a beef medallions stew. My disappointment turned into pure delight when I ate the food though. It was all incredibly delicious!! I'm trying to remember the other dishes we ate, but my memory escapes me. There wasn't a single Asian dish on the table, but there also wasn't a single bad dish on the table. Everything was yummy beyond belief, including the dessert.
Now it turned out that Y-kun had a sister, S-chan. And she liked Arashi too - granted not like us, but if I remember correctly, her favorite member was Sho. She was still in grade school, and very sweet.
All throughout dinner, music was playing in the background, and only when I focused on it did I realize... it was American music! We heard Chicago, and Journey, and Genesis/Phil Collins... it was hilarious. Apparently, Y-kun's mom loves that kind of music and the entire family loved to watch American Idol. Go figure.
We stayed for a while, chatting in both English and Japanese, but eventually, amefurift and I had to leave because we didn't want to miss our last train. That's when Y-kun's mom gave us each a present!
Y-kun's mom writes cookbooks for kids! She gave a different one to each of us, and signed it!
Even though it's in Japanese, it has a lot of pictures, so it's easy to follow (plus,it's a kid's cookbook, so how hard can it be?
) Cutest part in my book was that the entire family, Y-kun, his sister and his mom, were featured as the cooking models in the book. Also, one of Y-kun's cousins was in it took, apparently as the "token child" the cookbook was geared for.
Whew. This was really a long day, and we packed a lot of stuff into it, but it was worth it. At this point, we only had two more days to go (Friday and Saturday) before we left Japan on Sunday. Those memories will probably consist of only one entry, because I didn't take many pictures after that. Oh... with the exception of Johnny's Family Club though. *grins*