19th September

Greeting with host families of Homestay
The most critical and special activity of JENESYS program was home-stay, which we had it for two days and a night. It was shorter than what I had though. Last night, we had arranged our important stuff we would use at home-stay, while the other things would be kept at the hotel. However, I took all my stuff with me because I didn’t want to forget anything. Similar to yesterday, anxiety and worry still stayed in our mind for whole morning until ten o’clock. ‘How old are the host families? How many family members do they have? Who will go alone?’ We didn’t know until the last minute they came into the meeting room.

We saw a pair of young couple, granny and grandpa, a young lady with her mother, 30, 40, 50 years old of couples coming and sitting at a row of chairs in front of us. Then, we were delivered a piece of paper for each about the information of our host family which we would stay with, and host families received a piece of paper about the information of the participants who would stay with them. We were discussing who was lucky and who was luckier. Sovann and Bellin went alone with their host families, while the others went in pairs. After a while, we were called pair by pair to meet face to face to our host families respectively. After a short conversation and a taking of photograph, we left each other and the home stay began.

My homestay begins!
Again, Sunmeng and I together had the homestay with Mr. and Ms Chida, who are elder sister and younger brother, 36 and 35 years old. We called their name, Yoshi and Masako. Their house is in Noshiro, on the North of Akita city, so we had to take a very long car rip to their house. However, we stopped at many places before reaching their house.

First of all, we went to Selion tower. It was the highest tower which we can see the whole view of Akita city at the top floor, 100 meters height. The lift we took was transparent so that we could see all the impressive view from the ground to the top. The ground was further and further, and the cares outside were smaller and smaller. Wow, here was the 100 meters height, I had never felt this height before, and the east, south, west, and north views of Akita city were under my eyesight. We just walked around, took some pictures, and then went down through the same lift back to the ground. The weather was sunny but cold in the open air, but when we got into the glass house near the tower, we felt very warm. It was a really good place for relaxing with sound of nature, scene of flowers, and fresh air of trees. We did not stay there long because there were still several places we must go.

We left Selion sea port and went to play golf. How many people in Cambodia used to play golf? I have not even seen the golf course with my own eyes before. How lucky was I to experience this sport in Japan! Yoshi and Masako took Sunmeng and I to a golf club, and they picked 4 clubs and a bucket of 50 balls. At the golf-practice plat form, Yoshi poured some balls to the auto-loading machine and showed us how to stand and hit. I thought it must be easy and boring wit just hitting again and again. When it was my turn, I was surprised by holding the golf club, which was heavy and difficult to aim the target. I missed several times and most balls did not go far. As I used so much strength to swing, the club flew of my hand, so embarrassed was, but luckily, the club did not harm anyone. I had never imagined swinging the club was so tiring. 50 balls were enough for us and we headed to another place.

The third place we visited was the Akita most beautiful flower garden. Outside, we could see violet Lavender and other red orange and yellow flowers planted in rows. At the back, there was a pond surrounded by different colors of splendid flowers accompanied with green trees, creating a wonderful scene of super-natural Akita. There was a glass house as well consisting variety of kinds of flowers inside. Now, it was lunch time. We sat at a wooden table and bench and had a triangle-shaped rice ball and a box of cool coffee. It was another special taste I tried in Japan. After lunch, we went to a shop which sells the products of flowers and fruits of the glass house nearby. Cakes, sweets, apples, pears, etc were free for a try. There were a lot of kinds of flower seed for sale. I noticed that some flowers were eatable and some were for decoration. It was so interesting that Japanese people concentrate on environment and nature so much. It was 1:30, and we continued to our home.

On the way, the beautiful landscape of golden rice field, blue sky, white cloud, and mountain made me want to take picture of it. Now, we were in Noshiro. It was colder than Akita city. Most house were built separately and two floors only. The space of public building was under and the traffic was better. We stopped at a supermarket to buy food for tonight and tomorrow. Masako, Sunmeng and I went into the supermarket, and Yoshi waited in the car. We wandered around inside, but could not decide to buy anything. Finally, we bought spaghetti, beef, tomato sauce, crab flesh, dried beef, coca cola, and mini bottle of Tabasco. After about half an hour of shopping, we went on our journey to home.

My host family's home
Around 3 o’clock, we arrived home. I was still wondering how Japanese house was inside. There were 2 floors only. Dining room, kitchen, bathroom toile are at ground floor, while the living room is at the first floor. Yoshi led us to the living room where we had to sleep tonight. The living room is roomy with tatami floor. There are photographs of Masako and Yoshi’s parents, who had passed away, and a table of sacred things and worship. After a while, Masako brought up 4 cups of tea, and 4 of us sat together and had some conversation. I took out the Cambodia documents we learnt at CJCC to show and explain to them about Cambodian food, fruits, festival, Angkor Wat, and other tradition, ceremony, and culture. They also asked Sunmeng and me something related to our life in Cambodia. The conversation of exchange lasted for an hour.

Then, Yoshi and Masako took us to visit Japanese Buddhist pagoda and Shintoist shrine. First, we went to ‘West Light Pagoda’. Obviously, the eastern-style pagoda is different from our Cambodian-style pagoda. The West Light pagoda is built of wood and was very quiet in the evening. Yoshi showed us by himself how to pray to the Buddha in Japan, and we told him about the Cambodian. Then, we sat down in a room, had some sweet and tea, and had conversation again. After that, Yoshi and Masako took us to meet their uncle and grandma. We did not stay long, just a brief greeting and introduction.

Then, we continued to a Shintoist shrine, ‘Eight Flags Shrine’. I could see the torri gate and red lantern hanging at two sides of the gate. In the main sacred hall, a ceremony was being celebrated. A woman in white dress was performing a series of movement for wishing by shaking a dagger attached with bells along with desolate music. As a foreigner, I did not understand the real meaning of this performance, but I admired Japanese tradition which could be maintained till nowadays and interest so many people to come and see it. The nature around the shrine was great with statues, pond, ancient structure, and sound of crows.

The evening in Noshiro
The sky became dark, and we went home to have dinner. Our dinner was fish. I didn’t know how it was made, but the taste was like Cambodian. We hadn’t had such taste of home for a week. After dinner, Yoshi and Masako took us to Noshiro game center. Yoshi drove smoothly through a spiral road to the parking lot at third floor. The road was narrow and dark, but his driving skill was so good that he could drive without any worry, while I was a bit scared of that. The center wasn’t very big. That’s why we couldn’t find any games we really wanted to play. Sumeng and I only played car racing and table hockey, and we went down stair to 100 yens shop. It was the first time for me to come to 100 yens shop. I was surprised by everything costing 100 yens (=1$ approximately). However, some items were more than 100 yens, which we must be careful with the price labels. I was holding a basket and walked from row to row to find souvenirs for teachers and friends. It was hard to decide what the best things to give them were, and it would be difficult to bring those things back to Cambodia if I bought too much. After a long choice, I bought 15 items and Sunmeng bought a few things. Then, we went to another floor to see some fruits. Wow! Finally, I understood why it was said that Japanese apples were the best. Not only apples but also pears bananas, grapes, etc. were all 2 or 3 times larger than those we used to eat in Cambodia, as well as the price was 3 or 4 times more expensive. We picked a box of giant grape because we wondered how tasty it was.

When we got home, we gathered in the dining room, ate the crab flesh, dried beef and giant grape, drank coca cola, and talked about Cambodia. At that time, our coordinator, Borng Danich, called to Yoshi home telephone, and he called Sunmeng and me to answer it. She asked how we had been, and we told her that everything was alright and the food was delicious. Then, we continued talking with Masako and Yoshi until 11:00, and we went outside to play mini firework. It was extremely quiet and chilling in the midnight. I thought it must have been under 20 0C. Each of us held a stick of firework in hand and swung around. Yoshi said it would be happier to play with many people in Summer time. The happy time always lasted for short.
We returned home. Yoshi went to rest, and Masako still talked with us until 12:30. It was time to say ‘oyasuminasai’. We slept in futon, with thick blanket which kept us very warm.