Udon party at my apartment

I planned a home party at my home last weekend.

That day’s afternoon, I accompanied my colleague who was looking for a new apartment in my residential area.

After that, I invited my friends to my apartment to eat dinner together.

One of my friends’s mother came to Japan from the US, so I also invited her to my apartment.

I originally wanted to eat Tarai-udon which is one of my hometown’s popular local foods with my guests.

But my husband wanted to express his hospitality, so he cooked some very nice dishes for us.

Most of the vegetables were grown by my father in his veggies garden, and all of them were organic vegetables.

He gives me vegetables every time I go buck home. And my husband usually cooks them for us.

All members said that the dishes were very delicious and couldn’t stop eating.

The following picture is also a local food in my hometown, Tokushima.

It is called “Fish-katsu” in Japanese.

I used to eat it as a snack when I was a child. It is a bit spicy and taste like junk food.

It is usually eaten with sauce, soy sauce, mayonnaise and spices.

One guest became to like it very much, so I gave her the rest of it.

By the way, I want to tell you about one of the Japanese customs which is that most Japanese men who are married never cook.

In Japan, for a long time, it has been normal that husbands work outside and wives do housework at home.

But now the situation is changing in that the status of women is becoming higher than in the past.

Most Japanese women who graduate from university want to continue their careers even if they get married, but most Japanese husbands don’t help their wives.

As a result, most wives need to work outside and inside very hard every day.

Some of my female friends sometimes complaine that their husbands never help them since they got married.

In my case, at first, my husband could not cook very well and also could not do housework, because his mother and his ex-girl friend did everything for him.

We started to live together 2 years before our marriage, and at that time, I was very busy with my previous job, so I couldn’t cook for him very much, therefore he started to try cooking for us by himself.

He soon became to like cooking, because he really likes to eat delicious food.

Also he was lucky, since he was working for a printing company, he got some cook books free of charge.

After several years, he became a good cook. Whenever he cooked for our guests, all of the guests said his dishes were very delicious, and some of them said that my husband could open a restaurant if he wanted to.

Some of my male friends say to me that they don’t have enough time to cook themselves, but I disagree with them.

I think the most important thing is whether they like to cook or not, and if they are married, whether they want to help their wives of not.

In my case, I used to think, I had a opportunity to learn English overseas.

But now I’m thinking that we can make our own chances if we truly hope so.

The Wedding anniversary

July 7th was our 5th wedding anniversary.

Though I do not feel that we have spent such a long time together, the time certainly goes by quickly.

And, that day was also his 38th birthday. So I had planned to travel somewhere with him.

I remembered about hato bus tours.

Hato bus is the biggest bus tour company in Japan.

I used to go on their tours up until few years ago with my husband.

They provide a lot of kinds of tours; half day, full day and overnight. Their main customers are middle aged people.

You can find some of their tours at their English website, but at their Japanese website, there are more kinds of tours available.

One of the good points of a hato bus tour is the cheap price and the comfort the bus.

Usually if we travel some places within one day, we need to ride the train and sometimes use a taxi. In which case I guess we need to spend a lot of money and generally we feel tired after the trip.

However the reason why I chose hato bus was not only for the prices and comfort, but because I like the particular atmosphere of a hato bus tour.

I guess people who like to communicate with others join hato bus tours, so the atmosphere of a hato bus tour is always heartwarming.

I applied for a hato bus tour for him.

The tour which I applied for was a  joint project between hato bus and a small village in Gunma prefecture.

I noticed that it was an important project for the village to attract tourists who live in Tokyo.

The village’s name is Kuni, which I didn’t know.

The tour started in Shinjuku, and the time we had to assemble was at 7:10am, which was very early.

When we reached Shinjuku, some passengers were already in the bus.

I felt excited!

Soon the bus departed from Shinjuku for Kuni.

It was about a 4 hour trip to Kuni, which was a bit long…

The bus stopped at parking areas 2 times, and we bought some local foods there. It was one of our pleasures to eat the local foods.

After the 4 hour trip, we reached Kuni, and almost immediately the participants ate lunch together.

The lunch was not so interesting or delicious except for the tofu with miso paste.

While we were eating lunch, the mayor of Kuni came into the room, and started to give a welcome speech.

I was very surprised, and soon noticed that this hato bus tour was a more important project that I had originally thought.

While listening to his speech, my husband and I felt the mayor was very honest and friendly.

To my surprise, after his speech, he handed his name cards to each guest.

Moreover, he apologized that he couldn’t show us around Kuni, because he had to go somewhere for an urgent job.

Post cards and free tickets for drinking soy milk had also been prepared for us. How amazing! Their hospitality was very nice!

After lunch and a short break time, we rode the hato bus again and moved to Lake Nozori.

A local person who was working for the Kuni sightseeing association showed us the way.

Lake Nozori was an amazing place.

He suggested us to see some alpine plants.

We had only 30 minutes to stay there, so we climbed a small hill in a hurry to see them.

The guide told us that this year is a good year, so we can see a lot of alpine plants.

Time went by quickly, so all members got back on the bus and we moved to the next place.

The next place was a small area in Kuni, which is called Akaiwa area.

Akaiwa area is a famous area in which there were still some old sericulture farmers’ houses.

The eras in which those houses were built, were different.

Some of them were built in the Meiji-period, and other ones were built in the Edo-period.

Gunma prefecture had some famous areas for sericulture, and Akaiwa are was one of them.

Now, the sericulture in Japan is declining, because of cheap products which are made in China and other developing countries.

So this architecture style is becoming important in Japan.

The feature of these house is the second and sometimes third floor.

Do you notice that the balconies are protruding? And all houses are very big.

At that time, the silk was expensive and the rate of currency was good, so many farmers wanted to extend their house to breed silkworms.

An other guide who knew that area very well, took us to a small museum in which models of silkworms and some agricultural machinery and tools were on display.

Akaiwa’s location was very nice and I felt nostalgic.

We stayed in Akaiwa for about 1 hour.

To tell the truth, we were lucky, because the day before our trip, the same hato bus tour was canceled due to heavy rain.

That day was cloudy and it was good for walking.

Before we moved to Akaiwa, one of the local guides presented us with cell phone straps.

I remember that I had told him it was our wedding anniversary.

He appriciated that we had chosen Kuni village for our anniversary trip.

The straps were a pair for my husband and I, which were made from Akaiwa silk. Of course, they were handmade.

I felt very happy to selected this small village.

After the long trip from Kuni, we finally reached Shinjuku again at about 7:30pm.

We ate some local foods in the hato bus, which we bought at parking areas.

At home, we ate Manju which we bought as our souvenir. It was also delicious!

I’ll go to Gunma prefecture this summer with my husband and his mother. So if I have time, I want to visit Kuni again and stay there longer to feel relaxed.