A Cultural Immersion

MARCH 14, 2008 - PART 2

We recovered from the sprint on the train and realized that travel by train is the way to travel. Even though it was a three hour ride, it certainly didn’t seem that long. There is so much to look at!
We were met at Kanazawa station by Yui’s Aunt Yoshiko. She took us on a whirlwind tour of the city on the way from the station to her house. This was the first immersion we had in Japanese. I, of course, did not understand most of it. :) Aunt Yoshiko lives in a temple with her husband, Akio, who is a priest. Yui’s cousin, Kayo also lives with them.
Yui caught up with his aunt and uncle briefly before we were ushered off to do a tour of a temple before it closed. The temple has been coined the “Ninja Temple” as there are many booby traps designed to ward off invaders. The staff is very quick to clarify that no ninjas ever lived there. It was pretty cool to see all the tricks that they had - ingenious really. And the best part was that I didn’t have to understand the language. It was all pretty obvious - or my personal translator would tell me. :)
Afterward, still jetlagged, we were craving caffeine. So when we walked out of the temple and saw a cute little cafe across the street, we thought it was fate. It was run by a very sweet looking obasan (older lady) who greeted us when we came in and shuffled around to get us our order. We sat, talked and warmed up for awhile before deciding to head out back home. Imagine our surprise when we saw that our bill came to 700 yen - $7.00! We were blown away. I know that coffee is more expensive in Japan, but the food there was cheap, so I thought the coffee would be too! Fleeced by a sweet old lady. Oh well, it makes a good story.
That night, Yui’s other cousin, Ryuichi came over with his wife, Noriko and two daughters, Ami-chan and Kanon-chan. Ami-chan, the older daughter took it upon herself to teach me the kanji for numbers - Chinese characters. I have never seen a more patient little girl! I barely understood a word she said to me, but she never lost her patience with me. She wrote things out for me and spoke slowly. It was very sweet. I learned the kanji (kind of). Check it out - this is 1 to 10 in kanji: 一　二　三　四　五　六　七　八　九　十。Yui had a good time reminiscing with his cousins and getting used to communicating in Japanese. Apparently he was the target of a lot teasing from his cousins when he was younger. :) That night we slept Japanese style on the tatami floor. It was a great day, even with the 170 m sprint.

More photos from today!

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