☆ Day 7 of Japan ☆

Another wonderful in the land of the rising sun...<3

Today, my host family treated me to an amazing trip! We first went to Tsukiji which is a Japanese fish market! Sure, it may seem kind of boring to some but it was truly an experience!! I got to see all kinds of cool things that live in the seas of Japan!! I got to see those gigantic king crabs and even all kinds of shells with little sea creatures in them that Japanese people eat! It was really interesting! I also got free samples of stuff! Um.... I didn't really ask what some stuff was. Probably best I didn't know! It was realllllly neat though!

We went to a sushi restaurant after we toured the fish market. I learned something very valuable today-- It's amazing what you can eat when you tell yourself over and over that it's chicken and that those aren't eyeballs looking at you. My host family treated me to a sushi lunch and it was...um...interesting. I had raw oysters that were still in in their shell. It was a very pretty shell but uh....very hard to swallow. I kept taking a bite and saying in my mind, "Here we go; down the hatch!" and then chugging some hot tea. I didn't want to make my family feel bad so I ate as much as I could!! Actually, some of it really wasn't all that bad!! The crab nigiri wasn't bad at all!! The shrimp one was the hardest to eat since it was very....squishy. I'm really proud of myself for being able to eat it though!! It felt like an accomplishment! I felt like I was on Man vs. Food--Hannah style! So...Hannah vs. Food. Hannah 1, Food 0.

After eating sushi, we all went to Asakusa which is a very cool place! It has a lot of shrines and temples and it kind of resembles a matsuri with all the booths for souvenirs. There was a huge temple (I forget the name of it) that was a pretty awesome sight!! It was BEAUTIFUL architecture and really showed how cool Japanese culture is. I participated in some Japanese customs that I never thought I would do... For example, they have this little shrine place that is full of smoke. If you get near the smoke and blow it in your face and on your body, it's supposed to cleanse you of evil. My family did it and so did I! We then went to the temple to pray. Um....I'm a Christian so this was a very strange thing for me to do. Japanese religion is very interesting to me but I don't believe in them. I only believe in Jesus Christ and I choose only to worship Jesus Christ. Even so, I still prayed at the temple. However, I didn't pray to their gods--I prayed to mine. It might be kind of weird for some one to pray to a Christian God at a Shinto shrine (at least I think its Shinto...) but to me, it doesn't matter where you pray to Jesus <3 He still listens even if I was in a place where false gods are being worshipped....Er...Just so you know, my prayer to God was for him to forgive me and not think of me as a horrible Christian for praying in a Shinto temple XD Hahahahaha!! I just really want to grasp all aspects of the Japanese culture! It was really cool! I'm really glad I did it! Sometimes you just need to have an open mind and go with the flow... Even though the Japanese believe something completely different than me, it's kind of cool getting to see what other people believe in! And maybe my family will be open to listening about mine some time ( ´ ▽ ` )

I think Japan is such a beautiful place! The culture is so rich and I feel like I'm learning soooooo much!! I feel like I really bonded with my family! The more time I spend with them, the more I feel like I'm getting better at Japanese! Of course, that might just be wishful thinking.... Taiga and Ririka have really captured my heart! I also love watching them interact with their parents! You know, Japanese families are a lot like ours! I see Yuji-san play and mess around with the kids like my dad did with me. I also see Masae-san scold the kids when they do something wrong. They really love their kids and are so sweet with them! It makes me so happy to feel like I'm apart of their family ( ﾟ▽ﾟ) I definitely have the greatest Japanese family anybody could ask for! I can't wait to learn more from them! I actually feel suuuuuuuuper motivated to learn Japanese and stuff now! I keep reviewing old stuff I learned and looking up more phrases to use with my family so I can talk to them better! 


Japan has everything! The only thing it's missing is....you <3 This statement applies to all the people I love back home! Family, friends....and of course, C.J. (＾∇＾) I miss you all so much! I really wish you all were here!! We would have soooo much together.... Plus, I need my best buddies to go cosplay shopping with me >w>


So hopefully tomorrow I'll get to see my friend Ko :D It's been forever since I've seen him and it'd be great to catch up with him! Maybe he can help me scout out the area with out getting lost...