Technos International Week – Day 8

Sunday June 13, 2010

Sun Dried Fish Breakfast

SAITAMA CITY, Japan – Today was my last day with my host family. I awoke early and was greeted with a different breakfast. Today’s breakfast was sundried fish served with rice and nato. This meal is served with a raw egg, which you beat and mix with a few drops of soy sauce. This mixture is then poured over the rice. You pick the fish meat off of the bones and body then take some nato and rice to eat it. Nato are fermented soybeans and they have an extremely salty taste. The meal was extremely good and I was glad to try something new.

After breakfast my host father turned on the television and put on a soccer game. What a surprise! It turns out that he recorded the United States versus England game just so I could watch. It was a great game with the game ending in draw of 1-1. My host family remained neutral in their support.

Okonomiyaki

When the game finished we left and headed toward Saitama Stadium for our tour. However, before we got there we stopped for lunch and had Okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is a tradition Japanese pancake from western Japan. Okonomiyaki means “as you like it” and it  can be served in a variety of ways. A traditional Okonomiyaki is beef, pork and vegetables. The meal comes in a bowl with vegetables, meat, seafood (shrimp, squid, octopus), flour, and an egg. The entire bowl is mixed together; this mixture is then poured onto a hot grill (such as a teppanyaki grill) with oil on it. When it is finished cooking it looks like a pancake. We split three Okonomiyaki as well as soba noodles and rice balls with fish eggs on top.  To drink I had Calpis soda. This is soda with a milky white color. It contains a type of bacteria that helps clean your intestines and as such the soda is extremely healthy and refreshing.

Calpis soda

The meal was great and afterwards we left and continued to stadium. We stopped for gas. All gas in Japan is full service and when you are finished the attendants walk out into the road and stop traffic so that you are able to pull out and continue on your way.  Now that is service!
After about an hour of driving we arrived at the stadium. We waited in the lobby for the tour to start. While I waited my host father bought me a set of stickers with my name in Japanese written on them. It was pretty cool.

Vinage Urawa Red Diamond Jerseys

The tour began we walked through the team room, which had autographed jerseys hanging in it. The jerseys chronicled the changes in the uniform over the years. After the team room we went into the team lounge where the tour guide talked about the players signing a banner in which they agreed to play fair. Then it was off to the outside of the stadium. Part of the tour, brought us into the practice room, where everyone was given the chance to kick a ball. Tiger played around with a soccer ball, and it was here that I learned that my host family’s goal for him was to learn English so that he could play soccer for Manchester United. There were plaques depicting the various games of the 2002 World Cup and their outcomes. Then we walked out onto the field for while. The roof of the stadium was modeled after a flying heron. The tour guide led us up the stairs to the Emperors private box. In the Emperors box he is the only one who sits down and he sits low to the ground to avoid assassinations. While Japan still has an emperor, he is more of figurehead similar to the Queen of England.

2002 World Cup Poster

Saitama Stadium

When the tour concluded we left the stadium and began making out way back to Higashi-Fuchu where I would meet up with the Technos group for the rest of the week. When we arrived in Higashi-Fuchu we drove past the hotel and into Fuchu for dinner. We went into a mall-like building and had dinner at a food court.  This food court served food from Japan, Korea, and China. I went with a Korean dish called bi-bim-bop. I was curious to see if it was the same as what I had in America. Bi-bim-bop is a dish of rice, vegetables, egg, and meat served in a hot stone bowl, which has been warmed in an oven.  The bowl is so hot that it cooks everything you mix it.  There is also a hot sauce that is poured over the top of the dish. To drink I had mango beer. The mango was infused in the beer such that it was both sweet and refreshing. You couldn’t even tell that it was beer let alone an alcoholic drink. I would bet drinking too many of these can creep up on you.

Saitama Stadium from another view

When dinner was over I returned to the hotel where I said my farewell to my family. It was an absolutely amazing weekend and I had a ton of fun. I was glad that I had the opportunity to take part in a home stay, which is something that not everyone in our group was able to do. This opportunity afforded me the chance to see what life is like in a modern Japanese family. Language aside, a Japanese family was not much different than an American one.  It was also a chance to thrown straight into the Japanese culture, where people are extremely open and welcoming to strangers. Just being able to speak English was an opening for me into this culture. I left my host family and gathered my baggage and returned to my room for the night.