On the 14th of November, our 8th day in Japan, we went to a
teacher's house in Yokohama. Professor Sadoshima san invited us over to her
home for lunch, for which we were very excited to go for. We woke up early,
grabbed our teas and coffees from Doutour (our official coffee house for this
trip) and waited for Yuri to pick us up. Then from Iidabashi we took the Toyoko line to Hakuraku Station in Yokohama. After a long, pleasant, fresh
and painful (my bad choice of wearing heeled boots) walk, we reached her
house. It was the tiniest and cutest little house I have ever been to. She
greeted us with a wide smile and open arms and proceeded to show us around her
garden.
The garden at Prof. Sadoshima's house
After this we went in. We took off our jackets and shoes and climbed
upstairs to the main living room. I was amazed to see in such a tiny house the
amount of space that was available.
Living room at Prof. Sadoshima's house
Professor Sadoshima showed us around and
then served us some Green Tea. Once our brief tea ceremony we proceeded to the
kitchen where she showed us how to make Onigiri (rice balls). We made so many
rice balls with different fillings each time, completely oblivious to the fact
that we had to eat them all up!!! It was lunch time and I was famished, the
walk in those boots had taken the life out of me. We sat together with some
chicken on our plates and our numerous onigiris. By the end of the lunch we
were full, I could feel my stomach giving me a hug and thanking me for filling
it up. We helped clear out the dishes and sat for a game of bingo. Then, Yuri
on Professor's request brought out a huge bag filled with goodies and she laid it
all out on the table, and then she gave each of us a Bingo card. The rules were
simple- whoever starts winning in Bingo gets to pick one present. By the end
of all 5 rows we still had so many presents remaining, so Prof. Sadoshima came
up with a quick Q&A round, where we won all the gifts. We continued to play
another round of Bingo just for fun.
Green tea Prof. Sadoshima teaching us to make Onigiri
Onigiri
After around what seemed like an hour, it
was announced that we would get some cake and tea. We all got up and rushed to
help around in the kitchen in whatever way we could. We cut the cake, cut the
kiwi, placed them both on plates, helped make the frosting and helped in
setting down the crockery. The tea was very much needed. After a warm cup of
tea we started planning what we would do next. Aarushi, Kinjal and I decided to
go see the Shinkasen (Bullet Train) and the Tokyo Tower (which looks a lot like
the Eiffel Tower). We were about to leave when we realized it was raining.
Professor Sadoshima san was our savior, she gave us at least 5 umbrellas to
withstand the rain.
Tea time
So we left Yokohama and took the train to Harajuku, just to finish
some last minute shopping after which we took a train to Tokyo. THE TOKYO! The
station and surrounding areas were dazzled with lights. They were already ready
for Christmas almost a month before. Tokyo was very festive.
Christmas decoration at Tokyo station
We clicked lots of pictures and then headed out find the Bullet
train. After a rather cold walk in the rain, we reached the station and
realised we couldn't enter without special passes. We bought the passes and headed
out. We saw the bullet train and they sure were not messing around when they
called it the fastest train in the world. Then we asked a station master to
lend us the map of all the trains so we could navigate our way to the Tokyo
Tower. In a country where the ENTIRE system of travelling depends on the COLOUR
of the train line we're taking, this station master gave us a BLACK AND WHITE
map!!! After a hearty laugh we managed to find another map and mapped ourselves
to the Tokyo tower. We got there and tried to get to the tower, we spotted it
and started walking towards the tower. That surely was a very long walk, it was
farther than it looked. After a 30 minutes walk, we reached the tower where
we witnessed a beautiful wedding amongst the yellow and golden lights in a very
green archway.
Shinkansen (bullet train)
Tokyo Tower
We went in, shopped for some souvenirs and left, as it was closing
very soon. We had to take a train back to Iidabashi and did not want to walk
all the way back to the station we got off from. We ended up running into two
very helpful young Japanese boys who walked rather fast along with us to help
us out. They took us to the station where the train would take us directly to
Iidabashi and we didn't have to change any lines.
This truly was a rather eventful day and by the time we got home we
were drained. Of course it was all worth it because we made some wonderful
memories, experiences and finally got to relax in some hot hot water in the
jacuzzi.
- Supriya Banerjee
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