The Ueta's - My Host Family
November 26, 2000
Sunday

     Masami Ueta, her husband, Dr. Yoshimobu Ueta - an engineer wit the Yamaha music company here, and their two teenage sons, Akira and Hiromu spoke excellent English.  I was so impressed with their ability to communicate with me.  This skill in the English language is due to a lot of extra studying on their part.  Being able to speak and write English at their high level of understanding and accuracy requires study and lessons outside of school.  You pay extra money for these lessons.

    Masami gave me directions on how to use the Japanese bath.  In Japanese homes, the bathroom means where you actually bathe - it is a separate room from the toilet.  The bathtub stays filled with hot water - like a hot tub.  It is used only after you have bathed.  This means you sit on a low stool on the tile floor area, which has a drain.  You have wash towel, and you really was - even all your toes.  There's a hand-held shower nozzle to rinse.  Then you relax in the hot tub of water.  I almost forgot to leave the water there because I nearly pulled the plug out when I was finished.  Oops!
     Masami prepared lunch at home on Saturday.  Her sons joined us at the Western style table - meaning we sit on chairs instead of on tatami mats.  The Japanese offer many dishes with their meals.  The only item you would have recognized was tuna salad, made with mayonnaise.  Everything else was either raw fish or vegetables.  Oishi.  To prepare your sushi, you take a small piece of seaweed; it looks like tissue paper.  You spoon some rice onto it - always white, "sticky" rice.  Then you put on your choice of a raw ingredient, then you roll.  When I tried the tuna, it squirted out the other end of the seaweed roll, making a mess of my hands.  It is not the custom to have napkins on the table or in your lap.  Fortunately, Masami came to my rescue and brought me a box of tissues.  Her husband had to work on Saturday, but he helped to prepare the dinner by using a special utensil to fry the food right  on the table. Oishi.  I was very impressed with how the father and the sons were considerate about and helped around the house.  Masami served baked apples with whipped cream as a special dessert for me because it is American style.
      Masami helped set up the futon - a small mattress you spread out on the tatami mat - in order to sleep.  She made sure I had plenty of covers, including a snuggly down comforter, to stay warm.  I slept great.
     On Sunday morning, Masami prepared a breakfast with both Japanese and Western dishes.  The boys ate Kellogg's cereal.  Along with toast and butter and grape jelly (having bread with a Japanese meal is not at all the usual custom), there was also a fried egg.  Instead of green tea that is a specialty of this prefecture (state), she made coffee, which she does on holiday mornings when she has more time.
     The highlight of the day was the drive to the mountains about 1 1/2 hours away.  We hiked in the mountains for about an hour amidst canopies of red and gold autumn colors and still mountain lakes and streams of emerald green.  The Koi (large - very large - goldfish) completed the serenity.
     We then drove to a ryokan nearby which is a Japanese inn.  We had special green tea on the tatami mat, sitting on the floor, of course.  The we enjoyed the natural hot springs - like a hot tub - but out in the open air amidst nature.  Lunch at the inn was huge, 15 items to eat or drink for each of us.  There were many different fish and vegetable dishes that were new to me.  I am only certain about the pears at the end of the meal.  (I remembered to remove my slippers this time before stepping onto the tatami mat).  Upon the return to the house, they presented me with lovely gifts that I will always treasure from this very loving family who kindly welcomed an American stranger into their home. 
      Hamamatsu, its beach with patterns in the sand dunes created by the wind, and its famous Kite Festival, will now have a permanent mark in my mind because of the Ueta family. 
 By the way, did I tell you why the 2 sons did not accompany us to the mountains?  They were studying!  They study on both Saturday and Sunday to prepare to for examinations.  OCES students -- what are you doing?
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