Mrs. Ranney-Poole

Mrs. Ranney-Poole
Estes McDoniel Elementary, An International School

United States

Japan-Home Stay and Ryokan

I am so fortunate to have been selected to travel to Japan through a Fulbright Scholarship.  I will be detailing my trip with blog entries.  Please click on the following link to view my JFMF blog:

http://jfmf08.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?user=3dlelg14paft2

My Japanese Grandma- Kimio and my Japanese sister- Saori with Silky.

My new Japanese home in Naruko, Miyagi Prefecture.

Here we all are on our last day together.  I am calling them the Japanese Clever family, they are just that darn perfect!

 

This is the grandfather's fireman uniform that the family insisted I take home to my husband, it is awesome!


Here are Saori and I dressed in our kimonos getting ready to go outside for fireworks!

I loved taking Silky on a walk, it was a lot of fun, it made me homesick for my puppies at home!

I was a little worried when we sat around this fire pit for lunch, because I really do not like to eat fish, but the soba noodles were scrumptious!

This is a statue of the one eyed samurai who founded the Osaki area, he is very famous in the country of Japan.

Yeah!  Marlin has a new home in Osaki, Japan!


We went to see this waterfall and they were totally shocked because it was only a small trickle, it was still beautiful.

This was my bed at the ryokan, or traditinal Japanese inn, in Naruko.  It was like having a slumber party.

Here we are in our yukatas, which are the required clothing at a ryokan getting ready to eat our feast.

We took the bullet train back to Tokyo.

 Eating soumen from this bamboo shoot was so much fun!
Fortunately we all were able to grab yummy noodles to eat.
This was boiled eel, egg, bamboo shoots, carrots, and rice.  It was really yummy!
In Japan, they seem to pickle everything.  These are pickled prunes, they are very bitter, but kind of good.
Here I am getting dressed in my kimono, it is a two person job!

 If you can see the back part of the "obi" or belt, it is extremely complicated to tie.
This is the kimono that was given to me by this wonderful family!
My Japan grandma is so wonderful, she cooks like a dream, and is one of the nicest people I have ever met.
Shopping was an interesting experience, you take all of your things to a center aisle and bag all of your items.  I have CC Lemon in my hand, which are the bomb!
We ate at this really cool soba noodle restaurant.  We had to remove our shoes to sit on the tatami mats.
We stopped at a lovely little tea house and had the best mint tea I have ever tasted in my entire life.
Here is my new Japanese sister as a kokeshi doll!  How cute!
We visited this school that was used for the samurai's children in this area.  It was damaged by the earthquake and we could not see some parts. Watch video of the koi fish in the pond:http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=4dcd199209deb235bf75
Here is a close up of the one eyed samurai statue.
I spent the night on a traditional futon in their tatami mat room, it was very comfortable.
There were many shrines in this area, this one is a horse shrine.
During the summer, Japanese families light fireworks at night.
Look at all this amazing food!  This was only the beginning, they brought out many courses after this one.
We wore traditional yukatas during our stay, we even wore them out in the town!
More food during our feast!
More food from our feast, thanks Bonnie for the pictures!

Mrs. Ranney-Poole
Estes McDoniel Elementary, An International School

United States