May 12

Sweets and Treats!

Today was our first weekend in Japan, so I abused the time to sleep in, haha. Went to bed the night prior (after getting lost, remember!) super tired and around 10pm, woke up around 11am. Great success! =P

After showering, my host family treated me to lunch at a ‘Kaitenzushi’. I know that most of America perceives Japanese food as all forms of different sushi. Which is 100% false. But that misconception would have been 100% true at the ‘Kaitenzushi’, haha. You basically sit down at a booth much like any other restaurant, but instead of a waiter, you have a conveyor belt. What was on that conveyor belt, you ask? Why, tons of sushi, of course. And it was delicious. You eat as much as you would like, and pay 100 yen per plate that you pick up (1.20$). If you would like something that isn’t going by on the conveyor belt, there is a touch screen menu at the booth that you can place an order for something to be put on the conveyor belt especially for your table (they put a note on it for no one else to pick it up, haha).

 

On the study abroad our home-stay families usually will take their students out to see something on Saturdays, but my Okaasan went straight to work after the Kaitenzushi, so I went on the optional excursion that our director set up in the off-chance that our families wouldn’t be able to do anything with us. In our case 7 of us (including the director and his 2 children) went to a sweets factory to make our own Japanese candy! It was super fun! We arrived there and created 3 mochi desserts: 1 with plain mochi and An-ko paste (red-bean paste—it’s sweet and really yummy!), 1 plain mochi dyed red and strawberry flavored An-ko, and 1 chocolate flavored mochi with chocolate flavored An-ko in it. They were all really good! While we were there, we took the time to buy something for our Okaasan for Mother’s Day, which they also celebrate in Japan.

After the sweets factory, we headed out to Arashiyama which is a town on the outskirts of Kyoto for some sightseeing. It is known for its green tea and fan-making so we were able to see some really pretty fans…but it is against the social order to take pictures in shops selling specialty merchandise…so I don’t have any pictures of the fans we saw =(…

After just meandering and talking for a little while, we all made our way back to our respective host-homes and called it a night! It was a nice, relaxing Saturday =)

No Japanese errors today...But I lied about the fan thing now that I'm uploading photos. Here, have a picture of some beautiful traditional hand-painted fans! =)