Baths, kimonos and eating with my homestay in Japan
Another email rebadged as a post… this is my first evening with my home stay family – a mum and dad, and a son and daughter, both around 18 years old
So after another hot and sweaty day we went to the baths. Totally get nuddy baths! Insane! Obviously girls and boys are seperate but it’s in a mall with bowling, restaurants, 100yen shop. There’s inside baths and open air ones. Crazy. All ages too! Bulk shampoo and conditioner impressed my zero waste heart. And little did I know this introduction would be instrumental to others on my trip, when we later went to other baths. There’s so much etiquette involved!
The entry to the (photography forbidden) bathsMy host family after the baths
This made it hard for those with tattoos, thankfully I have none (though the homestay mother never asked)
We went to a traditional tea ceremony during the day, bitter stuff but they give you a sweet pastry thing to have with it. You’re meant to sit with your feet under you bum but we all struggled!! After that three if us got to wear the kimono which was amusing cause none of us were the correct dimensions!! My host sister wears a kimono as a uniform at the restaurant she works at – she’s 18.
Green tea and yummy sweetThe traditional old wooden tea houseGeishas in the gardenOne size fits most non westerns…Looking back 😉Not a pool – this was where water was stored to quell any fire in the historic wooden building
After my host family picking me up we did grocery shopping. Japan are more into milk and sweet & savory pastries than I would gave expected. Meat and most everything is packaged in tiny portions, it’s amazing. Peaches are in protective foam you sometimes get spirit bottles in and plastic wrapped. Conversely you pay for plastic bags at the grocery store but not at convenience stores?! If you say no to a plastic bag you get tape put over the bar code, even in convenience store. They are big into tidiness, the 100yen shop has a bucket on the counter for your unwanted docket. Leaving the airport, there’s a bin especially for printed baggage tags. Every vending machine is flanked by bins too!
Expensive peaches (cause of the labour to wrap them?)Meat in the non family size (at least no Aussie family!)Being picked up by my homestay mum and sisterThis tag stops a free for plastic bags being added to grocery purchases
Prices seem quite reasonable, $90 for five people to have dinner, dad had beer, then baths and some drinks after. I’d love to know what the conversion rates have been in the past!
Japanese table, with bare feet – we left them in lockers?!
————————-
Slept well though it was hot! I slept on a futon mattress which is more like sleeping in a doona. Had both a fan and air con, but I notice the living room air con is on 27c!!
Japanese style sleepingThe lantern in my room at my homestay
This morning I visited the local shrine with the mum, where you wash your left then right hand. Then you ring the bell and pray, after clapping your hands twice. You pay 5yen, which has a hole in it and there is some homophone about seeing friends through the hole. Anyhow you throw this in a slotted container before bell ringing.
Me and the shrineEntry to the shrine
Then we came home to b’fast. There was a salad with cabbage, one cherry tomato and a mini sausage. Then there was a fried egg. Then yoghurt with a fruit sauce an crunchy cereal with dried strawberries. Then I had the bread/pastry I chose yesterday which was maple flavoured. Then there were angel cheeks which are this soft sweet taco with whipped light cream. With iced coffee, which you buy bottled black and add cream or milk. Interestingly full fat milk is more expensive than lower fat milk. An beer is CHEAP, and you can buy single cans at the grocery store. Suita, the city we’re in outside of Osaka is where the Asahi beer is made, we walked past the factory.
Breakfast at my homestay
Another day reported!
8 Replies to “Baths, kimonos and eating with my homestay in Japan”
I don't get all the packaging, and all the things in little serving sizes.
We had a Japanese acquaintance, who gave us some snacks. Teeny tiny little packs wrapped in little packs. I know we have individual serve packs of snacks in multi-packs but the Japanese ones seemed so tiny. I would starve, besides not liking so much plastic. Don't care about cleanliness if it all ends in landfill. (And where? Do they export rubbish? Surely they don't have much space?)
I don't get it either! Maybe all that bother unwrapping to eat, discourages them from over consumption?
I don't think they export their rubbish, but I can't be sure – the Japanese are rather polite, and struggle to answer tough questions that might shame someone… So whilst I did ask about rubble from the tsunami, the answer was rather evasive.
So many cultural differences, from the baths to the shopping. It would be a fascinating place to visit, although 'hard work' in the sense of cultural clash. I was getting a bit flummoxed just looking at the packets of meat and having no way to interpret the script.
Have you travelled a lot in places where there's minimal English? I loved France and got more out of the travel experience there than anywhere else, but it was still a lot more 'work' than travelling in an English-speaking country. In some ways I just wasn't prepared for how much effort it took!
It's so interesting to see the differences in Japan in things we just take for granted – like sleeping styles and breakfast.
I haven't really travelled as many places with no English – and I was pleased to just be tagging along rather than making meals etc. I know Aussie products (/sold in Australia) don't offer many other languages on the packaging as default, but in Europe it's a little more common, and in Canada, the norm to have English and French. However, I don't find shopping in France/French as taxing, but that's due to years of exposure in Vanuatu and again living in France. I do get tired from a whole day speaking and thinking in French – like when I'm with a French family and not English speaking friends.
I love travelling and seeing and knowing about the little things – like sleeping styles and eating. It really opens your mind.
I'm not sure I could handle the public baths. It would make me nervous to be naked in front of tons of people!
I think 27° is a reasonable sleeping temperature . . is that strange? What temperature do you prefer?
The grocery store's use of plastic is so different from here! There's been a big pushback (at the local level) against produce being wrapped in plastic – more stores are going back to no packaging for produce (which I'm happy about). I wonder how they handle all that trash.
I found the public baths a ok, but I had many a group member who later shied away from trying it. I suppose I'm not too shy about my body after boarding school and water polo – even if it's not perfect.
The 27 C just seemed too warm, but perhaps it had more to do with humidity?
I'm incredibly interested in their trash systems (as I am anywhere). I did ask what they did with all the tsunami rubble, but the answers were inconclusive.
I wouldn't be too comfortable with the baths or the temple rituals, but I would have been pleased to have a fried rather than a raw egg with breakfast. Didn't know there were 100 yen stores!
I don't get all the packaging, and all the things in little serving sizes.
We had a Japanese acquaintance, who gave us some snacks. Teeny tiny little packs wrapped in little packs. I know we have individual serve packs of snacks in multi-packs but the Japanese ones seemed so tiny. I would starve, besides not liking so much plastic. Don't care about cleanliness if it all ends in landfill. (And where? Do they export rubbish? Surely they don't have much space?)
I don't get it either! Maybe all that bother unwrapping to eat, discourages them from over consumption?
I don't think they export their rubbish, but I can't be sure – the Japanese are rather polite, and struggle to answer tough questions that might shame someone… So whilst I did ask about rubble from the tsunami, the answer was rather evasive.
So many cultural differences, from the baths to the shopping. It would be a fascinating place to visit, although 'hard work' in the sense of cultural clash. I was getting a bit flummoxed just looking at the packets of meat and having no way to interpret the script.
Have you travelled a lot in places where there's minimal English? I loved France and got more out of the travel experience there than anywhere else, but it was still a lot more 'work' than travelling in an English-speaking country. In some ways I just wasn't prepared for how much effort it took!
It's so interesting to see the differences in Japan in things we just take for granted – like sleeping styles and breakfast.
I haven't really travelled as many places with no English – and I was pleased to just be tagging along rather than making meals etc. I know Aussie products (/sold in Australia) don't offer many other languages on the packaging as default, but in Europe it's a little more common, and in Canada, the norm to have English and French. However, I don't find shopping in France/French as taxing, but that's due to years of exposure in Vanuatu and again living in France. I do get tired from a whole day speaking and thinking in French – like when I'm with a French family and not English speaking friends.
I love travelling and seeing and knowing about the little things – like sleeping styles and eating. It really opens your mind.
I'm not sure I could handle the public baths. It would make me nervous to be naked in front of tons of people!
I think 27° is a reasonable sleeping temperature . . is that strange? What temperature do you prefer?
The grocery store's use of plastic is so different from here! There's been a big pushback (at the local level) against produce being wrapped in plastic – more stores are going back to no packaging for produce (which I'm happy about). I wonder how they handle all that trash.
I found the public baths a ok, but I had many a group member who later shied away from trying it. I suppose I'm not too shy about my body after boarding school and water polo – even if it's not perfect.
The 27 C just seemed too warm, but perhaps it had more to do with humidity?
I'm incredibly interested in their trash systems (as I am anywhere). I did ask what they did with all the tsunami rubble, but the answers were inconclusive.
I wouldn't be too comfortable with the baths or the temple rituals, but I would have been pleased to have a fried rather than a raw egg with breakfast. Didn't know there were 100 yen stores!
What makes you uncomfortable about the temple rituals?
100yen and 3 coin or 300yen stores are great. A lot of 'Made in China' but still, a sight to see!