Japan in Thirty Days

Friday - Week 3

06 Nov 2010 2 Comments

by bjoelle in Brianne/ブリアンヌ

I woke up in a much better mood than the day before. It was nice to know the schedule for the day was less hectic, and Jerry was awesome and asked the powers that be for a free weekend in the next town. And it’s going to happen! That alone makes all the difference.

We were lucky enough to be there when some of the bamboo was flowering, which only happens every 30 years. Without the guide, we wouldn’t have noticed! The flowers are teeny tiny and don’t look like flowers at all! There was a museum and shop where everything you can make from bamboo was displayed and sold. And boy, is there a lot! Then, outside we put on some aprons and made bamboo handicrafts. We played with knives and hammers to create a paintbrush out of a green stick of bamboo. I was unskilled at this and required a lot of help - and this was normally a kid’s craft! haha. I respect bamboo.

We had a Rotary meeting (and a beloved bento box) for lunch. Might I say, we did an awesome job!

After lunch we moved to one of the top two cancer hospitals in Japan. This was especially interesting to Jerry, but we all were amazed at this facility. The whole place was centered around the patient’s and their family’s comfort, outlook, privacy and long-term care. For example, an entire library was dedicated to cancer survivor’s, filled with information to help everyone cope with what comes next. Waiting rooms are situated to face sunny windows and nice views. The rose garden has hundreds of flowers, a heart-shaped pond, and trails friendly to hospital patients with their oxygen etc. The proton therapy required a huge nuclear-reactor looking elecro-magnetic machine that patients never see, but wow would they be impressed by the technology treating them!

The GSE members and their host families had a big goodbye party that night at a restaurant where we enjoyed many treats, took turns making speeches, saying thank you and standing up behind our chairs and singing whatever came to mind. Little Airi even sang for us in an angelic voice. Ami was there, and was absolutely on fire, looking in all our pockets for our iphone’s which she apparently likes very much. The ‘Talking Carl’ game is a big hit. Side note: the women’s bathroom here deserved a photo (I think someone got one) - there was a stream running inside it!! I suppose that drowns out any embarrassing noises, right?

Yamaguchi-san was on his way back from a Tokyo business trip on the train, so the family and I went to karaoke near the station to wait for him. Karaoke here is SO MUCH FUN! We had our own cute room, big screen, speakers as loud as you want them, and drinks served to you… Touch screen computers allow you to choose your songs and we turned the computer on to score us. The computer tracks whether you hit and how long you hold every little note. It even tracks how many calories you expend!! Since the Yamaguchi’s were very fond of The Carpenter’s and Vanessa Williams CD’s in the car, and like Disney, I chose ‘Colors of the Wind’ for my first song. It was so awesome that everyone cheering each other on, banging tamborines and clapping along. What a great family bonding experience! I ended up singing hard songs because I was drawing blanks on what to sing, like Leann Rimes and Mariah Carey. Good grief; I won’t tell you I sounded all that great: but I will say I never scored lowered than 80%! which is a pretty good score in my book!

At home, we discovered that Moka had eaten a shoe. I bathed and relaxed in the tub, and the family gave me many gifts. They also offered to give me Moka. I was touched; I will miss them so much.