June 25: Foreign Exchange Student Luncheon and Tea Ceremony Lesson

Hey.... so today was another super full and busy day. But what did you expect with my super intense host dad? lol so I woke up at 9:30, ate breakfast and then watched TV with my host mom for about an hour (which was probably the best part of the day lol).  I love spending time with my host mom.  Then my host dad came home from the farm or something... and we went to this community center place a bit outside the town and there was this foreign exchange student meeting... except I was the only foreign exchange student there and we didn't do anything except eat lunch.... lol so I am not quite sure what they would have done if I wasn't in Asago at the time o.O Yeah anyway, it was really awkward because there were like 20 super old people, 3 people in their 30's-40's and I was the only teenager there.  So of course, it got boring super fast. I also had to make a speech which was basically me reading off a couple sentences that my host dad wrote down for me. lol pretty sad.... But the food was really good >_<

lol and after my speech, they gave me a bunch of presents which was super nice.

Shoe Bag (lol I have never used one... but it seems pretty convenient)

Jigsaw Puzzle

Folders with cool scenes on them

and a t-shirt

Yeah so there was some cool stuff except I doubt I will use any of them once I go back to America. The shirt is probably too big because I just have a long history with shirts that are too big. Even extra smalls are pretty much too big.... >_> lol I don't really use those kinds of folders because the way they open is kinda inconvenient.  And the puzzle? Well I kinda suck at finishing puzzles because I always lose pieces and I am just really bad at figuring out which piece goes where. Then the shoe bag? Well... I really don't see when I will need to use it in America. But you know, it's the thought that counts :) So I am still really happy about getting so much cool Japanese stuff :D

Anyway, that luncheon thing lasted 2 and a half hours so around 1:30, my host dad tried to take me to another place that he thought would prove to me Asago is better than big cities, but thankfully it was closed! I don't know why... and I am not trying to be mean but I really wasn't in the mood at the time because the building was on top of a mountain and the road to it was super twisty and turny and it made me really queasy and I just wanted to throw up.  Also, I just wanted to hurry up and go home so we could drop off my host dad and me and my host mom could go to our TEA CEREMONY LESSON!!!!!!!!! Yeah! Can you believe it? I was so surprised when I found out that my host mom takes tea ceremony lessons, but she is like 64.... so she has a lot of free time lol. I was really excited for that so I just wanted to hurry up and get to the lesson.  Besides we were like an hour late already because my host dad didn't want to leave the luncheon.  I don't think he likes the tea ceremony lessons because he thinks they cost too much.... Anyway, this is going to be a super long post :)

The tea ceremony was so fun! And I got to try a lot of different tea snacks... they weren't that good lol :P but I ate them anyway.  

They look really good right? But the yellow and purple jelly things were really sweet and gross...the pastry thing at the bottom was a lot better lol.  

First, my host mom did the tea ceremony the whole way through and then I learned a couple of the main parts and then my host mom practiced the whole thing one more time.  Only the teacher actually wore a kimono because it was just soooo hot.  I don't know how the teacher could stand it.  She had sweat dripping down everywhere lol.  Good self control I guess :)

My Host Mom

Me trying to bear the numbness from my legs and do the tea ceremony at the same time :)

The person in the blue kimono was our teacher.

The lesson was really awesome and we are going back next week... in fact I think I get to attend 6 or 7 lessons during my stay in Japan... because there's about 5 lessons a month and I am staying for a month and a half so hopefully I can really improve my tea ceremony skills by the time I leave :)

I will also be going to calligraphy classes lol so that's going to be really fun as well :)

The tea ceremony lesson ended at about 3:00 and then my host mom and I drove back home.  My host mom's older sister and her husband came over while we were at the lesson because they are going to have dinner with us tonight... it's about 5:30 right now and my host dad and my host mom's sister and her husband went out.  My host mom is making dinner right now so I am going to go and spend some quality time with her :D lol