I was really anxious/excited to meet my homestay family. She made this card for me and Genia where she told us about her family before the trip, how cute is that? I also made one for her, and brought gifts that I gave to her and her family on the last day of homestay. I couldn't wait to meet them.
Right as we were about to meet our homestay family, I needed the toilet and we made them wait for us :(
We actually saw them on the way to the toilet and Genia and I both smiled awkwardly. When we went back to the room, we took a commemorative photo and left for their house. I don't have the photo yet, though.
Since coming back to Singapore, many people have asked me if I found it difficult to communicate there. It wasn't as bad as my trip in 2012, because Mr Hazen translated for us in the first half of the trip, and on the last three days, Hatta-sensei helped us out a lot.
I can actually speak a bit of Japanese. I took a class back when I was 12, and I'm now taking classes in school. It's very basic still, but I can catch bits in conversations and speak pretty alright. I was able to talk to Yumika and Shione, since they both knew a bit of English and I know a bit of Japanese. I do wish I spoke better Japanese, though, because I wasn't able to talk to them as much as I wanted.
During the car ride, I found out that she was actually our homestay applicant’s best friend. Her name is Yumika, and when I asked her what to call Shione’s mum, she said to call her Shimama. How cute is that? Their car was full of Disney stuff, I loved it.
Their house is pretty big, or maybe I just think so because most houses in Singapore are apartment flats. We went in and were left to our own devices for a little under an hour - we were waiting for Shione to finish her exam and pick her up before we went anywhere else.
They had a dog, Peko, who was really excitable yet didn’t really bark.
After we picked up Shione, we went to an art gallery to collect Shione’s aunt’s art piece that was displayed there. We also met Shione’s grandmother.
I thought that the art pieces were really good! I think Yumika, Shione, and Genia were kind of bored, though.
Most people at the art gallery were the older generation.
We also saw Syazana and her homestay family. My phone battery ran out here >< Yumika was really nice and lent me her portable charger.
After that, we went to the very same AEON we visited yesterday to go shopping! I spent loads. We passed by the teriyaki place and I wanted to buy the limited Halloween pumpkin flavour, but they said we’d go back. It’d be sold out by then, but I didn’t want to trouble anyone.
I bought lots of cute notebooks! I saw some really nice My Little Twin Stars pouches, but they were ridiculously expensive. I wanted to buy a Marvel bag for my brother as well, but wasn’t sure what he wanted.
I took really long at each shop and I think the other girls were really bored :/ I’m so sorryyyyyyy!!! I just can’t help myself.
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| Credits to Yumika. |
We also went to the Baskin Robbins since Genia wanted to try the crepe.
They had so many special flavours! I’ve never had Baskin Robbins before, but I’m pretty sure the ones in Singapore and Malaysia don’t have such flavours.
In the end, I decided to get Maple Sweet Potato, Pumpkin Pudding, and Love Potion.
They’re all seasonal flavours. When I took out my money to pay, Shione insisted on paying for me >< I felt really bad!! She won in the end.
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| Yumika and her crepe. |
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| Yumika, Shione, Genia, and me! (Credits to Yumika) |
We also took purikura (also known as neo prints in Singapore) at the arcade.
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| Credits to Shione |
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| Soft copy of the purikura - apparently you can do that, but only with Japanese emails, like softbank. |
I look absolutely ridiculously but it was really fun being stupid with them. Thank goodness I was with people who could read Japanese, though!
We then went to the supermarket section of AEON that I didn't get to go to before.
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| Bread being sold at the AEON store. Is this interesting? Probably not, but I liked the melon pan! |
We asked them if we could try natto, and they bought a packet for us! Natto is fermented soy beans, and you when stir it with some stuff, it becomes sticky and string-y. Dun dun dun. Many people don't like it because it looks off-putting and has a strong flavour, although it has a lot of health benefits. We'll see how it went, huh?
We met up with Shimama and she treated Genia and I to drinks ><
After that, we went back to their house and we helped out in making dinner!
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| Credits to Yumika |
That night, we had tempura, datte, udon, pork katsu and a whole lot of other things. Genia asked if it was common and Yumika told us it was for special occasions.
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| I've just realised that the food looks generically yellow. |
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| Look at how the datte glimmers! It's egg sushi, but don't confuse it with the normal tamago we see on sushi belts. This one was custardy and tasted like pudding. It was really good! Apparently, you need a lot of skill to make this, so four for you, Shimama. |
I really felt welcomed by them and honestly, kind of touched. They were opening their houses to complete strangers from a different culture, and despite our differences, were so nice to us.
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| Credits to Shimama |
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| Credits to Shimama |
Their bath is really cool, it had armrests and a digitalised thermometer which could adjust the temperature, a little like an aircon controller, for the hot bath. I wish I could’ve taken longer, but I felt bad, because they let us go first.
I bought a lot of things and so needed to unpack and repack everything. My luggage was really full - the extension even popped out by itself. We tried waiting for Yumika and Shione, but we were too tired at 1am and they told us to sleep first. So we wished everyone a good night, and snuggled into our futon.
I'll continue the next day of my homestay tomorrow since it'll be my turn to blog :)
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