First things First

So we left Australia early Friday morning, spending the twenty hours travelling, arriving in Machida, Tokyo very late Friday evening. Luckily for us there is only a two hour time difference between Australia and Japan, so we didn’t have to contend also with Jet Lag.

We flew with Jetstar, which I was quite nervous about…but we were pleasantly surprised, although not impressed with the amount of children on the nine hour journey with us. I thought as they were all Japanese children they’d be quiet and well behaved, but I guess at the end of the day all children are the same J. A few hours before we landed our Pilot announced the ground temperature, he then went onto inform us of the time. It went like this… “And the current time in Japan is five minutes too…tooo… (pause)… (another pause)… seven”. It was hilarious! And everyone was laughing and concerned that the Pilot was drunk! Anyway besides that incident the flight was smooth and actually not that bad.

This photo was right at the end of our journey, on the bus...moments before Shota's parents picked us up.

It was a massive day of travelling, but we arrived at Narita airport at 7pm Friday night (9pm Victoria time) then had to bus for two and a half hours to get to Machida, the town that Shota is from. Anyway at Machida station, his parents were waiting for us. I actually recognised them first, as Shota had gone in search of them, leaving me behind to "watch the bags" and they were just coming out of a cafe...　Sorry "Caffe" not sure about the double f. Anyway they were very excited and happy to see me, I got all caught up in the moment and forgot my "Japanese" or the little I know.

They brought us back to their house, which we had viewed on goggle earth the other day, and it looked exactly the same! Surprise Surprise!! As soon as we got into the house I had to take my shoes off, there is sort of a landing area, which is a lower level than the rest of the house. That is where you leave your shoes and all the badness that goes along with them... there were a pair of slippers waiting for us both. Mine were Pink Shota’s were Blue. Mine were HUGE! Seriously they were bigger than Shota’s blue pair! I was slightly embarrassed that they thought they had big foot moving in with them...

Then we were taken into the Tatami room, this is the traditional style Japanese room, where there are memorials set up for Shota’s grandparents, who have passed away. It just looked like the mini temples you might see in Thailand or in Chinese restaurants. They were beautiful and Shota had to light and blow some sticks of incense and make a little pray. I accidently wore my slippers into the room, which Shota told me off about. I had no idea, we were moved into the room so quickly I was a bit flustered. Next was the tour of the toilet, Shota’s Father, Nobutaka, showed me it... and Shota explained how it worked. It has what looks like an arm rest on it, which has a whole lot of buttons. Apparently it "washes" your bottom after you`ve finished going to the toilet. I haven’t yet had a go. It also has a sink attached to the top of the toilet this is where you “wash your hands”, its recycled water well according to Shota, which sounds yucky, but I’ve used it a few times now, think its okay... Next I was shown the bathroom, it is like one Giant Shower, with a bath inside it... The bath gets filled up once a day, and you shower first then get in the bath. I wasn’t ready for the communal bath, so I just stuck to the shower. There is also a mini plastic chair in the shower room, so it’s possible to sit down whilst washing, a concept I thought strange, but practical.

After I had been shown the house, we were sat down in the kitchen, at the Kitchen table. A bottle of white wine appeared and some beautiful soft cheese from France! The good stuff!　Shota‘s parents are both really lovely and do speak quite a bit of English, so we were able to have a conversation. For some reason the house and the area in which Shota lives, reminds me of Thailand, I don’t want to offend his family by saying this either, but yeah it does. It‘s not smelly, or dirty or even that busy, There’s just something about the buildings that look more like Thai Buildings than Australian Houses.

Me standing infornt of Shota's Families House... its up there behind all the trees