Home Stay

Saturday, June 30, 10 a.m. Hitomi and Nozomi Nakamura pick me up at the hotel for a home stay.  We are excited, nervous, and only I have a phrase book.  Later, we will both forget our phrase books.

  The Nakamura Family

from left to right are daughters Nozomi and Yuka, and their parents Hitomi and Isamu

Isamu works for the cooperative farm office 
and manages the family's rental properties.

Hitomi teaches cookery for citizens at Kanoya City Hall.

Hitomi's food was the best I tasted in Japan.

breakfast                                                                 lunch

  and dinner were delicious

The Nakamura home was traditional with some western features, including
the sofa and girls' beds.  There were tatami mats, hand-woven rush flooring,
in the living room, parents' bedroom, and formal dining room. 

Hitomi bought beautiful flowers to arrange an ikebana to put on the tokonoma in my room.

Hitomi took me shopping at the grocery store for dinner 
with a stop at the 100 Yen store for souvenirs.

Dinner in an eel restaurant was delicious.

After dinner and a  traditional Japanese bath, Isamu puts
a futon on the floor in front of the tokonoma, where 
Hitomi had placed the ikebana.

The next day we went sightseeing and visited their friend
Tetuzan Iwata, a ceramic artist.

  Tetuzan Iwata

Japanese people are excellent hosts.  They are polite,  generous, and gracious.  If you are really lost, they will even walk you blocks to your destination.  The Nakamuras were the best of hosts.  They took me to all the places in which I was most interested, fed me like a queen, and helped to answer my many questions, even if it meant looking up lots of words.  I will never forget their generosity.

  Yuka and Nozomi translating