Day Seven

Yokohama- Day Seven

Pond

Today we were very excited as we were to have lunch at Prof. Sadoshima’s house in Yokohama. This was by far the most personal interaction that we had in Japan. We started off my taking the Metro and changed trains a couple of times which took us about an hour or two to reach her house. She had made an elaborately detailed “map” which was more like a puzzle with clues, albeit easy ones. After figuring out the details, we only had to walk a short distance to get to her house. While walking, we saw a small pond attached to a children’s park along with many anglers trying to get lucky with a big fish. This scene instantly reminded me of Goa and I thought of Rachol, which I frequent, and of Goans of all ages trying their luck in the river, hoping to take home some fish for lunch.

Shapes and Symmetry

The houses there, in the suburbs of Yokohama were pretty compact and squared off- as if they were taken out of boxes and placed right in their spots. As I had mentioned in earlier posts, there is a lot of symmetry and organisation in the way the Japanese build things. The same goes for their houses.

Dange-san and Chowgule students with Prof. Sadoshima 

Somehow this place seemed idyllic if you ever wanted to settle down and have a family in Japan, similar to what we see in Television serials about America and their suburban lifestyle. This similarity of American and Japanese cultural integration is quite prevalent in Japanese youth and modern Japanese ideas of economic development.  

Group Photo!

Vaishnavi greeting the dog

As we entered Prof. Sadoshima’s house, we were greeted by her mother who was quite warm and welcoming and did not hesitate to wake their dog up so that he could play with us. Naturally as dog lovers’, all of us surrounded the cute fellow and took turns petting him. Then we headed to the living room where we were served Japanese tea, as is customary. After a short introduction session, we dived head first into the kitchen as we were all hungry and Prof. Sadoshima graciously accepted to teach us how to make Sushi. Making Sushi was certainly a fun experience for me as I have never indulged in cooking and also because it was so easy that I could do it on my first try! I scrumptiously ate the Sushi I made, partly because I made it and partly because I loved it. Then we sat down for lunch and tried our hands at eating with chopsticks, which we pulled off successfully, well most of the times. After a delicious desert of cheese cake with kiwi and strawberry, our hunger was finally satiated.

Sushi_1

Sushi_2

The next event on our itinerary was Bingo! Prof. Sadoshima had prepared questions on Japan, which we were to answer if we got Bingo and numerous gifts were lined up as prizes. We thoroughly enjoyed the Bingo session and everyone was happy as all won something or the other. After such a fun game of Bingo, we settled down and had meaningful conversations with Prof. Sadoshima along with our other hosts.

After Lunch

Our Gracious Host

We were a bit disappointed as we had to start our journey back to the Hostel but we certainly enjoyed this trip and took back memories of kindness and compassion that we will never forget. This visit has been one of the most memorable experiences we have had in Japan and I think everyone else in our group would also agree.

- Shubhankar Shah