Nihon Showa Mura

On Wednesday of last week we went with my tutor, Megumi, and her family to a Japanese village in a different prefecture. It was kind of like in America if you went to an old "colony" town or something (like Billie Creek Village in Indiana). It was in a really pretty area with lots of mountains and we had the best day with them. It was so much fun! We really enjoyed meeting her family and getting to spend the day with them.

One of the first things we did was make rice crackers in these old ovens. These two pictures are Megumi and I making our crackers.


These two pictures are from the go-cart area. Sterling rode with Luke and then got on a little car with Megumi's son, Taiyo. Sterling really loved Taiyo and they had a blast together. Taiyo said that Sterling wasn't a very good driver because he kept running into things!


After we did the go-carts everyone was really hot so the kids all went swimming in these man-made ponds. Megumi and her husband Shuu have 2 kids- Hinako is their daughter and she is 9, and Taiyo is 7. They had a lot of fun splashing around in the water. The bottom was made of concrete so they didn't even get dirty :)



Megumi used to do archery, so here she is showing me how to do it. I was NOT very good at it! In the picture below you can see Shuu and Hinako watching me.


After all that, we were all hot and tired so we went to lunch. Sterling and Taiyo played with his cars, although Sterling still isn't very good at sharing. I had a traditional Japanese dish of cold noodles with a sour plum sauce- I thought it was delicious! Luke decided to go with something he knew a little better and so he got breaded pork cutlet with rice to share with Sterling.

We also got to tour an old school house. Sterling was checking out all the old things they used including a xylophone which he banged on for quite a while!

This was at the very end of the day, Hinako, Sterling and Taiyo all sitting in the back of our car while Luke and I said our thank you's and goodbyes to Megumi and Shuu. The kids wanted to keep going, but I was so tired by the end of the day! There was still a lot more to see at this place- there were all kinds of animals, boats you could take out on a lake, play areas, etc., but I was pretty much exhausted by 5:30 when we decided to head home. Overall this was one of the most fun days we've had in Japan so far.