Shizuoka

Before immersing into our next adventure, we decided to take a break near the Mount Fuji.
We drove around the five lakes and hoped to get a glimpse at the majestic shaped mountain, but due to the bad weather conditions, our hope was in vain.

So we continued our way to Shizuoka (Shimizu) where we stayed for 10 days with the Mizukami family. Here we learned more about the Japanese culture and habits than we ever could have learned by travelling across the island.
The family consists of Taiki, his joyful wife Yukko, his outgoing sister Haruka, his very active mother Akemi and his four lovely kids Yoshi (7 years), Aina (5 years), Atto (3 years) and Kino (7 month). We helped the family with their daily routines and spend most of the time with Yukko and the kids.

While visiting an indoor swimming pool, we realized that the Japanese people have a quite different tradition in public pools than we have. We had to take of all our jewelleries and attracted attention with our 'short' swimming suits because the majority of the people wore full-body bathing costumes.

The following week, we got the chance to visit Yoshi's school and to assist different classes (language, mathematics, music and gym classes). Later that day, Haruka introduced us to a journalist colleague of her, Takahide Suzuki, who decided to emigrate with his wife Shizue to the Netherlands in late September. We spend a lovely day together where we had some nice discussions about the cultural differences and similarities. Takahide and Shizue initiated us into the tea ceremony, told us tales from ancient times and guided us around the city in their cabriolet during a sunny day near the Mount Fuji.

On Saturday Taiki decided to invite us all to a traditional Japanese restaurant where we ate a local specialty: Japanese Eel. The preparation of the eel couldn't be fresher than in this restaurant.

During the rest of our stay, we played a lot with the kids, baked delicious cakes and tried to help where we could. Thanks again to the family for their hospitality.

After our journey with the family came to an end, we tried to hitchhike our way through Japan. How this adventure ended, you will discover in the next blog post.

Gender segregation is a common topic in the Japanese culture. In traditional public bathes ('Onsen') for example, men and women are strictly separated, in the bus some seats are reserved only for women and in the metro (during rush hour) even whole wagons are forbidden for men.

Sipping tea like giants in a dollhouse (that is being run by some very nice sisters since more than 30 years)

Lego constructions don't require verbal communication.

Baking a chocolate cake with the kids. Meanwhile Atto uses his binoculars to observe Estelle.

'Cruising down the freeway in the hot hot sun...' (OMC - How Bizarre)

Having a Japanese business lunch.

Shizue and Estelle while eating a shaped green tea ice.

A 'Saturday afternoon eel lunch' in Shimizu.

 

 Warning: Graphic Video (but the eel died for a good cause)

The next movie star in the leading role....

...of the film 'The giant in the land of the dwarves' :)

Next to the Buddhist shrine are the portraits of the ancestors of Taiki's family. In traditional houses, people have a Buddhist as well as a Shinto (traditional indigenous Japanese religion) altar. On the floor of this room you can see the Tatami mats. People often refer to the dimension of this mats to calculate the surface of a room.

In Japan, pupils have to learn three different writing systems: The phonetic lettering system 'Hiragana' (46 characters), the syllabic writing system 'Katakana' (48 characters) and the (from the Chinese adopted) logographic characters of ''Kanji' (more than 40 000 characters).  Most of the time, adults mix the three writing systems and include often the Latin script/alphabet too.

 Collective warming up of the three second grade classes with the help of classical music.

In Yoshi's private school, the pupils can choose between learning violin or cello (the 'solfeggio' lessons too are included in the school time).

Eating lunch from our Bento box that Taiki kindly prepared for us.

 Kids in Japan learn very fast to be autonomous and to function in a collective system. In school they have no cleaning lady but they have to clean the classroom/floor by themselves. They have no waitress but instead they are responsible for the distribution of the lunch.

Enjoying Japan's green summer in the countryside.

Happy family, part two ;)

Wondering how many Japanese people would like to be as free as this bird....

Time to say goodbye :)

On our way to...

...Hida Takayama in the Japanese Alps.