MY JAPANESE SOJOURN

First day in my destination, Fukuoka

Onigiri is a Japanese food made from white rice formed into triangular or cylindrical shapes and often wrapped in nori. Nori is sea weed, it tastes more like raw fishes compressed into sheets.

I ate Onigiri at the Tokyo airport and then took off to Fukuoka.

  

This is Mt. Fuji, an active volcano. It is commonly called Fuji-san. In Japanese culture san is used to give respect.

This was my first dinner in Japan
(おいし かった です) It was very yummy.

DAY-2

This is the common kitchen we use in 
our dorm to make our lunch on holidays

On the first day I couldn't wake up for breakfast because I
was too tired. As I couldn't go out, I made these
 instant, most spiciest Ramen for my lunch.

This was my dinner on the second day. This dish had chicken, cheese and then rice below. It was very cheezie and yummy. The breakfast and the dinner they give in my dorm makes them reasonable for not giving lunch.

             

DAY-3

Today I had welcome party by AFS at my school, Nakamura Gakuen girls high school (中村 学園) and after the party we AFS student batch went out to one of the tourist spot which is Fukuoka Castle Ruins. 

These are my AFS fellow mates.

Our LP gave us these goodies as we couldn't have a party with food during this pandemic.

This is the area behind Fukuoka Castle. There are many cats here, you can even find people coming to feed them. This place is also called Maizuru park, named after the castle's alias, Maizuru Castle. It was built in the beginning of the 17th century by Kuroda Nagasama, who was appointed lord of the surrounding Chikuzen feudal domain, now a part of Fukuoka, for his support during the battle of Sekigahara. The best time to visit castle ruins is between late March and early April as you will be able to view cherry blossom. Hopefully I might get to see it. 

The picture above is of the Fukuoka Castle.

This is the statue of Hirota Kouki which I found on my way to Fukuoka castle.
He was a Japanese diplomat and politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1936 to 1937.

DAY-4

This is what I saw on my first day to school from my dorm window. Students in Japan clean their school to show respect towards it and to develop themselves into model citizens. This also makes them more responsible citizen and not only students clean their school even the teachers do it. 

Finally on my way to school.

In Japan we wear different shoes inside school and everyone has the same one. To differentiate between the grades or to show up the senior classes the color of the tip of the shoe becomes darker and darker. For example in my school the color of the tip of shoes goes from white to purple then to  yellow and finally to green.

This is my school uniform.

Did not do much on my first day to school, I just introduced myself in the staff room and went around the school. Later Masako sensei the coordinator of the school took us to residential office and for some basic necessities shopping. Later in the dorm I unpacked my suitcase.

DAY-5

Today I attended tea ceremony in my school, It was exactly how it was described in our Hindi textbook of grade 10. A full, formal tea ceremony takes about one to two hours but our class limit was only 45 minutes so we only had okashi, it is bread with red bean paste inside. Using phones are not allowed inside as they pratice this for peace of mind.

A small party for AFS students was held by class one of three. We played many games with them like the Fruit basket, fishing origami, shooting cups to win origami and finally they performed an English song for us. 

This is how they hoisted us out of their classroom.

These are the origamis which I won

DAY-6

Our school took us to a field trip to aquarium. In India I had never seen any sea animals, I just saw fishes but this aquarium had every thing from sea plants to seals. In this aquarium there were posters telling please touch and feed the animals in the water. So I touched starfish and fed the seals.

Then they took us to Pay Pay Dome an illusion house where you can catch animals one by one digitally, learn about them and then release it to so that you can catch other one to learn next. I caught 16 animals and after studying them I realised that most of the animals are going extint because of mans greed to extract everything from them. 

These are the other two AFS students with whom I went for the trip.
 

In the other room the animals were projected in flower pattern and they even made sounds when I touched them.

Finally ended my day with ice cream.

DAY-7

Today I gave souvenirs to my Japanese friends and attended classes with them.

I also tried writing my diary in Japanese.

DAY-8

Today I went to Ohori park, one of the most prominent parks with water scenery. This city park in central Fukuoka with a large pond at its centre has many koi fishes, artificial rocks and forests. There are many people who come for jogging in the mornings and even for practicing for their marathons.

Found this beautiful Japanese couple in the garden celebrating their marraige anniversary.

This is a momiji tree which many people might mistake with maple tree. The only difference between these two is that, momiji tree has small leaves whereas maple tree has long leaves.

Then I went to a museum, I couldn't understand much about the things there because every thing was written in Japansese. I just know that this is the exact place where the japanese ancestors threw away all their goods, bowls when they were burnt accidently. In the picture you can see some irregular things and those are the bowls which they had burried after the loss.

This is the cap of a samurai, they are the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medival and early modern Japan. They had high prestige and special privilages such as wearing two swords.

As this was a small museum they only had replica of Heshikiri Hasebe (name of the sword). The original one is owned by Fukuoka City Museum.

DAY-9

Today one of our Thai friend, Tan took us to a Thai restaurant for lunch. 

This is Thai chicken noodle soup with a glass of cold jasmine tea. It was very delicious, there is lot of noodles inside this so it's difficult to finish it. I tried my best to complete it but couldn't.

This is Pattai one of the famous dish of Thailand.

It has a sweet taste with smell of shimps in it. People usually have it with some vegetable soup.

DAY-10

These are my school friends who wanted me to write their names and school's name in how many ever languages I knew. So I wrote it in a piece of paper and later during the lunch break they tried writing it. One of them, Riko drew me on the board and surprisingly it looked like me.

The below picture is what she drew.

DAY-11

Today I attended tea ceremony class again and this time we had matcha or green tea.

I couldn't believe that we have so many procedures to drink matcha in Japanese culture. 

When the teacher gives you the plate with bowl and whisker made of bamboo you are suppose to bow and say ありがとございます(arigatou gozaimasu) which means thank you.The bowl was plain except some part which had some designs on it. So while making matcha you have to keep the designed part facing you and after you are done making it. We are suppose to pick it up with two hands and turn the designed part out in two twists. After you are done drinking it, face the designed part again to your side and wipe the part which touched your lips with fingers and then wipe your fingers in the tissue provided in the beginning of the class. Only white socks are allowed inside, it's a rule.

During the whole procedure we are suppose to bend our legs back and sit but after the class is over the teacher allows us to stretch.

DAY-12

    

Finally it snowed a little here. This was the first time I saw snow. I hope it snows more, I have heard many people say that it's been years that it snowed in Fukuoka. 

Today we even had a small Christmas party in our school with all our dorm mates in the school's auditorium. There were many gifts kept with numbers written on it and everyone had to pick two chocolates and a chit which has a number written inside. After that we had to pick the gifts which had the same number as written on the chit. There were also two gaurds who were checking if we are picking up the right gifts. I got a huge blue plastic bag with merry christmas written on it and when I opened it, I found these goodies. I was thinking of buying these warm corks and luckily I got it as my chirstmas gift with chocolates and a coin purse.

DAY-13

Today I went to Fukuoka Tower one of the famous tourist spot. It is 234m tall and when you go up by the escalater, it is has only two floors. One for the restaurant and other for the tourists to view fukuoka and play some luck games. Japanese people believe in luck a lot thus there were three to four games which you play and get to know your luck.

We went to the tower using a subway and this was my first time on it. I really like the idea of having priority seats. I saw a women with her two children, an old lady and a big suitcase travelling on the same train as us. The old lady sat on the priority seat but the women didn't sit. She was carrying her child as well as holding the suitcase, she was struggling a lot but still she didn't have a seat.

Finally I saw the best sunset in my life from the Fukuoka tower.

DAY-14

Today everyone got to meet their host family for the winter vacation at 6:00 a.m. except me because my host family was busy so they couldn't come. I will get to meet them on 25th december and I am very excited. The time everyone got into their family groups and I was the only one sitting alone I felt like everyone was adopted except me.

DAY-15

Today I braided two of my friends hair because they liked how I tied my hair. 

One of my Indonesian friend,Rahmi made Nasi Gorang which is Indonesian fried rice for all AFS students. At first we added sugar instead of salt in it so it didn't taste so good but then she made another one with salt. It was very delicious, the taste of garlic in it was very strong but still it tasted heavenly.

DAY-16

Today's dinner was rice with Japanese curry. I liked it a lot, it had some spices which made it taste like chole's gravy but it had potatoe, carrot, mushroom and small pieces of chicken. It takes approximately 1hr 30 min to cook it. 

DAY-17- 19 

We, the AFS students got a topic to do a presentation on. So these three days we were busy in that and couldn't go anywhere. The task became even more difficult when we got to know that we had to present everything in Japanese in front of the senior class. It was a difficult task but some of our classmates helped us pronouncing some words and even checked our grammer. My topic was Food and Society, I had to relate it to my country so I gave a detailed information about the ongoing farmer's protest. The remarks I got from the senior class were, my speed was good though it was my first time presenting in Japanese, I included Kanji characters in my presentataion which made it easy for the students to understand and read. These are some of the slides from my presentation.

DAY-20

We made a Compost bin for the school in six groups, each group had to make one bin. Before making this we were shown videos on how to make it, outcome, why it is good for environment. All the videos were in english and it was a little difficult for the japanese students to understand it so after every five minutes we were given some time to understand it. The main aim was that, the AFS students would try to speak in japanese with some english to make the japanese students understand it and in this way we both would learn some new words.

Our group's name was pineapple and for something new I wrote pineapple 
in Hindi and in Telugu. 

Last day before the winter break so we got treats from school.

DAY-21

All set to go to my host family. I was very excited as well as nervous because this would be my first time meeting them. At  around 01:15p.m. I met them, initially they seemed to be very quiet so I just thanked them for letting me stay with them. But when I came home they I opinion changed because when we came home they became more talkative. After speaking for hours they asked me to change, freshen up and come with them outside. They took me to the nearest mall to let me try their famous Udon. Udon is a type of thick, wheat-flour noodle used frequently in Japanese cuisine. I was very happy that they took me there.

You can have Udon with many toppings so I chose egg and chicken.
I can't express how delicious it was. If someone offered me one more bowl of it
I would love to have it if my stomach would allow.

She is my host mother and the food she made was very delicious. As there 
were very less people in the family at night we didn't celebrate christmas like a very big event,
how it is celebrated in rest of the Japan. We had pasteries and greeted each other.
We had pasteries after dinner. 

DAY-22

Today was an off day from all the adventure coming ahead. I took time in getting setteled with my host family and the closet to me from the very first day is Hana Chan, the pet cat. I gave them souvenirs which I bought for them, then spoke about how excited I was to spend my New Year with them. As my host dad was not home on Chirtsmas day he bought a chirtmas present for me today. 

This is Hana Chan

Here comes a picture of me with my very helpful 

Christmas presents. Yes that's Hana Chan getting inside the bag, we 

carried her in that bag for a while after she got into it. My host family is the sweetest and the smartest

they knew my needs before getting me something and clothes here are very expensive so I wouldn't have bought these easily.

DAY-23

My host family took me to their family gathering and then I actually felt like a famiy member there. Everyone was very friendly with smiling faces every moment. There was no difference between a child and an old person and that made me feel like a five year old kid again so I played with the kids there and enjoyed to the fullest. Later we had chicken soup, red bean tea and mochi for lunch. I was happy that I was able to view how they make mochi and record it but even greater thing happened to me, they asked me also to make it. I felt so blessed and excited. The large wooden hammers were very heavy but I couldn't feel it on the spot because of my excitement, later my hands hurt a lot that I couldn't even strech it out.

Making mochi

This is red bean tea. It doesn't have a strong taste or smell

so I exactly can't tell how it tastes or smells.

After coming from the family gathering my host mother took me to the flower shop 

to buy some flowers for planting them on occasion of coming new year. All

the flowers were very fresh and beautiful, I would call it a refreshment

 place insted of a flower shop.

It was not only my host mother who buys flowers on new year, there were many others doing 

the same. There was a collection of all the Japanese flower bouquet and it costed 30,000 yen.

This is Japanese flower bouquet.

DAY-24

Finally today I ate sushi. My host mother told me that we are going out for lunch but I didn't know that it was to have sushi. Initially I was a bit hesitant for trying out raw fish but when I tried it I realised how fresh and delicious it was. Later my host mother went for some new year shopping to a DIY store, Handsman. It was so huge that I just forgot to take a picture or video. Everything there was hand made and so attractive that I couldn't take off my eyes from them. After spending one hour there I still missed going to one section of the store from where I would have bought many things, the stationery section as we were running out of time we had to leave and i couldn't see it. My host father told that he would take me there some other time.

Everyone's order would come in the conveyor but when your order 

arrives music is played in the monitor provided for ordering food near your table.

This might look little but after this you won't be able to eat anything more. 

People drink green tea or water with sushi and you don't have to pay for any of 

these, they are already provided on your table.

DAY-25

My host family took me to a restaurant near the airport which provides very delicious food. It was very far from home and we had to wait for our turn to eat because all the seats there were full, it's not the first time it was like that. The restaurant was small with waiting seats all along it's wall.

This was the best thing I had there, fried shrimp with their

special sauce.

We were provided miso soup, rice, fied fishes, chicken and

vegetables. Every thing I ate there was so delicious that I 

couldn't forget it's taste till evening. When we were leaving

even big line was there outside the restaurant and my host father told me that 

peple wait for one hour also just to eat here. We were lucky that we

just had to wait for 15 minutes.

Then we went to Hakata station where my host mum had to buy crockery so

my host father and I were roaming around and then I found this, gacha gacha.

It is a small vending machine which sells small toys in a plastic capsule.

DAY-26

We took rest today as I even had my Japanese school homework to do.

I did my homework though I couldn't complete it and made origami.

Origami is the art of paper folding, which is often associated with 

Japanese culture. In mordern usage, the word origami is used as an inclusive

 term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin.

This was also the part of my homework, to make 100 swan origami.

Traditionally, it was believed that if one folded 1000 origami cranes, one's 

wish would come true. ... It has also become a symbol of hope and healing 

during challenging times. As a result, it has become popular to fold 1000 

cranes (in Japanese, called “senbazuru”).

We are making this so that we can send it to Sadako Peace Monument

 in Hiroshima, Japan.

DAY-27

My host family took me out for lunch and today we had Okonomiyaki

and Yakisoba. Yakisoba is the noodles and Okonomiyaki is the batter which is getting cooked.

Okonomiyaki is a Japanese savory dish containing a variety of ingredients in a wheat-flour based batter.

As I cannot eat pork due to religious restrictions they didn't order the meat one instead they orderd fish and vegetable ones. I didn't like the fish one because I could only taste raw fish and nothing else so I prefered eating vegetable one and it was really delicious. It tasted like veg pizza and the Yakisoba was a little hard to chew as the noodles and fish in that were hard but still it was oishi おいし(tasty).

It took about seven minutes to cook on each side.

Here comes my small and sweet host family and then after this 

my host mom went for new year shopping and my host dad and I were

roaming around. In Japan on the last day of the year everyone eats soba noodles 

so at night we had soba noodles waited till 12 and wished each other akemashita 

omedetou gozaimasu あけましたおめでとうございます (Happy New Year).

DAY-28

My host grandmother came home to stay with her daugher

 during new year.

The Japanese celebrate the New Year Day with traditional New Year foods called Osechi Ryori (おせち料理). 

It contains many things but to mention a few, they are

Kazunoko (herring roe) - tiny yellow fish eggs and they taste like salty

water balls.

Kuromame (black beans) are soft and quite sweet and the one my host

family got had thin real gold filings. 

Datemaki looks like the tamago-yaki (egg custard).

Sweet potatoes and chestnuts are the base of kurikinton, which can look something like yellow mashed potatoes and are sweet in taste.

For seafood, shrimp (representing long life) and sea bream (for auspicious fortune) are most typical.

We didn't go out today and spoke to each other for very long about India and Japan. There was NEWS coming up on telivision about how Indian students cheat in exam and they were not happy about it so I explained them that it doesn't happen everywhere. It is mostly in the village areas where people climb up the building and help students cheat as shown on telivision.

DAY-29

Today we went to Dazaifu shrine. Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine was built in honor of Sugawara Michizane (the God of wisdom) and is often crowded with people, mainly praying to pass school entrance exams. As it is close to mountains it is colder there.

Touching this buffalo in any of the three days from new year is considered

lucky. It is believed that if you touch this your rest of the year would go good.

Behind me is the main Dazaifu temple where you throw coins in a box and

pray. O- mikuji are random fortunes written on strips of paper at Shinto shrines and 

Buddhist temples in Japan. These are usually received by making a small offering and

 randomly choosing one from a box, hoping for the resulting fortune to be good.

Even I tried and it tells that I am lucky but for the people who get bad fortune

they tear and throw it in the small pond which is there in front of me in the picture

with coin.

People write their wishes like this on a wodden block and tie it here and in 

most of these people wrote that they want to pass in so and so exam or

get into a good university.

Finally had dinner with my host father's family in a Korean 
restaurant. My host mom told that they had spicy food and I was so 
excited to have some spicy food. But when they served me spicy noodles and rice,
I couldn't feel the spiciness. It was sweet and I was so dissapointed. Everyone else
were having grilled meat with lettuce and beer.

DAY-30

Today was my host mother's birthday so I planned to make biryani for her. My host dad and I secretly went for getting the ingredients needed but we told mom that we were going for washing car. We actually washed car first, then went to get ingredients. After coming back we went to Frog temple. Frog is considered lucky in Japanese culture and there was a big place where you could only see frog carvings, toys, statues etc.

It is considered lucky if you can pass through the mouth of this frog carving
and I passed throgh it.

In this room there were only fake frogs, some made of glass, wood 
and some were as small as toe nails.

 At evening she saw me cooking and liked the smell of fried onion and became excited for eating it. I didn't tell her the name of the dish because I wanted to know her reviews on it first. After I was done cooking we all had it and they liked it a lot but I didn't like it because I couldn't find some herbs and green chilli because of which it didn't actually taste like biryani. On the other hand they loved it and told me that they want to have it in Hyderabad, I was really happy and surprised because they liked it so much. My host family loves travelling and almost every year they visit a new country and now they want to come to India and this made me feel so good. I asked them to come to my place when they come to Hyderabad and they actually saved my address in their google map. I hope I can meet them in Hyderabad in future and take them to various places for shopping and eating.

Looks plain because I didn't have food colouring and herbs.

DAY-31

Today was my last day with my host family. I will miss them a lot.

As it was my last day they took me a very famous castle known as

Kokura castle. The history of this castle goes like, in 1600 after the Battle of Sekigahara, 

Hosokawa Tadaoki was rewardedthe lands of Buzen and Bungo. The ruling castle of the area 

was really at Nakatsu Castle, but Hosokawa found Kokura to be a much more convenient place from which to rule. It is also located at the vital point in transportation between Kyushu and Honshu. He started building Kokura Castle in 1602 and completed it in 1608.

Hosokawa's son, Tadatoshi was moved to Kumamoto in 1632. Ogasawara 

tadazane replaced him and nine generations of his descendents ruled for the next 230 years.

 The main keep burned down in a fire in 1837 and was not rebuilt. The castle itself was

 intentionally burned down and abandoned in 1866 when the Ogasawara fled Kokura during the second battle of Shouchuseito.

The reconstructed castle you see today is borogata style with decorative gables called kara hafu and irimoya hafu, but the original main keep was very simple sotogata and had no gables.

I know all these things because we were shown a video inside the castle about it's history and 

I recorded it so I can watch it later again.

There were many fishes in the water bodies around the castle and people were 

feedind them, there were even pegions. Surprisingly when I went near the 

them, they  didn't fly away instead when you put your hand farward they would sit

on your hand. One of them sat on my host father's hand but when I kept my hand farward

it didn't sit on my hand.

Last day and last picture with my host family. 
Behind us is the Kokura Castle.

At night my host mother helped me wear this summer kimono
and later gave it to me as a present. The kind of love I recieved from 
them, I just couldn't expect it from anyone else. I had a really great time with them.

DAY-32 and 33

Back to dorm and I am excited to go to school again but the problem 

is that I didn't complete my holiday homework due to the busy schedule 

in my host family. 

I came to dorm, unpacked my suitcase and did my homework for the 

two days.

DAY-34

We went to school for opening cermony after winter vacation and 

it had snowed a lot last night so the roads were full of snow.

I didn't know walking on snow was difficult because it is slippery, I thought 

moving your legs was a problem. One of my friend slipped and after that 

she always took support while walking on snow.

That's my School behind.

DAY-35- 37

As It was too cold none of us had plans to go out so I studied for 

the exams I have to give after I come back to India. Life of an

exchange student is not always interesting, it's boring too.This

 is what I understand after staying in the dorm for so long.

DAY-38

Today we made ikebana.

In ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging, blossoms, branches, leaves, and stems find new life as materials for artmaking. In contrast to the western habits of casually placing flowers in a vase, ikebana aims to bring out the inner qualities of flowers and other live materials and express emotion.

This is the ikebana I made and that's my nickname, Soma written below.

DAY-39

In our school we also have making clothes as a subject so we the AFS 

students were given a task to make summer kimono which is also called Yukata. 

It is worn incasual settings and to nearby bathhouses. The yukata cloth we got had markings such like S, M and L .Then we were asked to check our size on basis of small, 

medium and large and cut accordingly. As it was our first time cutting such large piece of cloth in curves and straight line, we took a lot of time doing it. Because we couldn't 

complete stiching the edges of the pieces we were asked to come to school on saturday to complete it.

DAY-40

We helped our senior class make a power point presentation on water crisis in english.

They already had a made one we just helped them pronounce some words

and corrected their grammar. As they wanted us to be a part 

of it they gave us some lines to speak.

DAY-41

Today we had the presentation and it went really good. All the english teachers of the

school liked how simple words were used and the way

japanese students were able to remember the lines and speak.

DAY-42

We went to school for making our yukata and I 

realised how difficult and time consuming clothes making is.

DAY-43

I went to the fukuoka beach today which is near the fukuoka tower.

It is usually called Momochi seaside park.Popular manmade beach with a long 

stretch of sand for volleyball, along with an artificial island.

There are actually three beaches, with the main one, Momochi Beach, in the center and where all the facilities are located.

A little to the east, in front of the Fukuoka Dome, is Jigyo Beach, connected to Momochi Beach by a pedestrian bridge.

To the west is the larger Atago Beach, but it is not easily accessible from Momochi. All three beaches are man-made and are of a fine, golden sand. The beaches are protected by breakwaters and so there are no waves and are suitable for swimming and wading even for young children.

It was very windy and cold when we went there. So my suggestion would be,

don't go to the beach during winter. The wind was so strong that it was dragging me to 

a distance.

DAY-44 and 45

We made yukata most of the time in school and attended normal classes 

with the Japanese students. As there is a state of emergency in

Fukuoka we are asked not to go anywhere except for school 

and the nearby grocery store.

DAY-46

Today we didn't have school as there was enterence exam in the school 

for the new next year students. Our Japnese teacher had given us

some Japanese lessons to practice and learn so I did that.

DAY-47- 49

I didn't do much during my holidays excpet for sleeping and

studying. We were not allowed to go out due to the state of 

emergency. I hope everything gets well soon and

we can out out again.

DAY-50

Today I had my cooking class and my group was assigned to make fish and egg

 to eat with sweet potato rice. We started off with washing our hands and the fish.

 I really liked how everyone was carefully doing their work.

After making the food assigned to us we cleaned the dishes and then sanitised all the

 things we touched. It was a great experience, cooking Japanese food with my

 Japanese friends. All of them took great measures during cooking to avoid the spread

 of Corona virus and that impressed me a lot.

We made the eggs in heart shape.
First we rolled the egg and then cut it cylinrically
then cut it slash. After you join the pieces it will form a heart.

DAY-51

We had a class with our compost pit group and in today's class we were given

 information about the benefits of composting. Later our teacher took us to an area

 where they had prepared the soil for compost.

The soil had dry leaves, cow dunk mixed in it. We put the mud into the box we

 had made and now I am waiting for the class when we will put the cafeteria waste

 in it and make fertilizer.

DAY-52

Today was Republic day and Embassy of India in Japan invited us for

the virtual flag hoisting which I couldn't attend as I was in 

school then. As it was Republic day we studied the history of India 

in our world history class. For the first time I understood something in 

class because I already knew about the history and because of the familiar 

words, the teacher was using I could understand most of it.

DAY-53

Class 1 of 6 wanted to spread the health benifits of miso and to do that 
they wanted all the AFS students to learn about miso. Miso is a traditional Japanese
 seasoning produced by fermenting soybeans with salt and kōji and sometimes rice, 
barley, seaweed, or other ingredients.
It has lot of health benifits like it prevents us from getting osteoporosis,
it is a bone disease that occurs when the bones become brittle and break easily.
This is the major problem among the old age people.
It is rich in essential minerals and a good source of various B vitamins, vitamins E, K 
and folic acid. As a fermented food, miso provides the gut with beneficial bacteria that help us to stay healthy, vibrant and happy. Good gut health is known to be linked to our overall mental and physical wellness.

So today they explained us about it and later we will make it too.

DAY-54

Today they gave us roasted soyabean, boiled soyabean, instant miso

and the original miso to taste. They had some questions with them to ask us 

after tasting every thing. One of the questions was will Indians have miso and

 if yes then in which form. At this point I was confused because I didn't know

 that we can make many dishes with miso so they told me some dishes which

 we can make. The best was miso as a dipping with cucumber and I think 

anyone would have it, even the children as miso's taste is not so dominant in that. 

DAY-55

It's my birthday today and last night my friends came to my room with 

Doracake and gifts for me which I was not expecting at all. I was about to go to bed and there was a knock on my door. As they couldn't find any plastic knife they got me the kitchen knife.

I am very blessed to find such good friends here.

Today I had a very hectic day, I had my school till 7:00 p.m. 

We made miso in school and we made the easiest one with less ingredients.

Ingredients: boiled soyabean, boiled malt and lot of salt.

First we crushed the boiled soyabean finely with our hands which was in a zip lock bag

then we took malt in a big bowl and mixed lot of salt in it and broke the chunks.

After breaking all the chunks we mixed  the mashed soyabeans and after mixing it for 20 minutes we added some water and mixed it again, later we made balls out of it.

We took another zip lock bag and pressed the balls inside very hard so that there is no space in between. After pressing all the balls inside we took out all the air from inside and locked it.

Miso takes 6 months - 1 year to be completely made so we left it to get fermented.

DAY-56

Today I realised that we are going to leave Japan soon.

In school our teacher told that we had to start preparing for our thanks

party in which we are supposed to tell thanks to the school and host family. 

She showed us a video which the previous batch made for telling thank you.

So we discussed about what to do and we ended up planning a dance which had 

everyone's country's song and steps, a poster telling our journey and a memorial 

video.

After coming from school all the AFS students had lunch together and watched 

a movie because now we realised we won't be seeing each other 

after few days. Unknowingly I became so close to them that I had to 

stop myself from crying which I had never done before for anyone.

I hope I enjoy the coming days with them so much that I don't feel 

bad leaving them which probably might not happen. 

DAY-57

Today my host family took me out for lunch with them and I really wanted 

to go out as well. I didn't go anywhere except the momochi beach 

after I came from home stay. First we had lunch, Ramen. I had the veg

Ramen as all their other Ramen had pork broth in them. I always had instant 

Ramen so I didn't know how the actual one tasted. Looking at the noodles 

it looked hard but when I started eating it, it broke in my mouth 

very easily and their broth was amazingly flavorful. Then we went to 

the nearest island called Shikanoshima to see the beach. It 

overlooks Fukuoka dome and Fukuoka tower across the sea.

It was also provided with various facilities including seaside houses 

and toilets, it is also popular for surfing. I saw two men trying to surf

but there was no big wave. I had never seen such beautiful beach it was

all green and ended with blue. After this we went on to see the Reclined

Buddha, which I couldn't see if my host family didn't take me. As it is 

too far from my dorm our local gaurdians didn't allow us to go there. 

For reaching it we had to climb many stairs through the woods but I was not

tired because I got lost in the beauty of the woods. And finally my day ended.

This is the veg Ramen.

In this picture I am pointing towards the Fukuoka

tower and dome which I could see from Shikanoshima island.

The reclined buddha was very huge, I was not even the height of 

Buddha's foot.

On my way to Reclining Buddha through woods.

DAY-59

We prepared for the Thanks party and presented about the food 

in India. All the students were amazed knowing the price

of each food item. In Japan the Japanese cuisines are very 

expensive. First when I asked them what do you think of Indian 

food as, the only answer I got was curry. Later I showed them that 

we have rice dishes too like Biryani and Mandi.

DAY-60

Today we experinced the beans throwing festival, Setsubun.

Setsubun is the day before the beginning of spring in the old calender in 

Japan. The name literally means seasonal division, referring to the day just 

before the first day of spring. Usually it is on third February but after hundereds of years 

it was on second february this time. People throw roasted soyabeans outside their 

homes and temples and while throwing this they chant, "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" 

This chant translated to "Demons out! Fortune in"!

We celebrated this with the juniour high school. One of the male teacher came 

dressed like demon and we were asked to throw soyabeans which were in small packets,

at the demon while he was chasing us. We also made an oni mask which is demon or

ogre mask before starting the game. The juniour high school wanted to make the animae 

masks insted of the traditional masks so we made that. It was really fun experiencing this,

I wish I could see people doing this outside their homes.

These are our animae masks.

DAY-61

We prepared for the Thanks party dance and finished making our yukata.

Now I am just waiting to wear it.

DAY-62

Today we took part in the doll's festival, Hinamatsuri.

It is to celebrate female children and pray for their continued health

and happiness. During the holiday, also known as momo no sekku (peach festival),

families display ceramic dolls dressed in the ornate, decorative robes of the ancient imperial court.

 The manufacturing of these figurines remains a thriving example of traditional Japanese craftwork.

The set usually has a platform covered with red carpet which is used to display a set of ornamental dolls representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants and musicians. These are very expesive, the one which my school got was worth 500 man which is equal to 34,53,774.63 rupees.

 

This is Hinamatsuri doll set.

DAY63- 69

This week I didn't get to attend anything special but I have been 

experiencing a lot. Like the convenience stores in Japan are awesome.

You can find almost anything there, and they're always clean, well serviced, and safe.

Japanese food is great. It's healthy, tastes great, and is fun to eat. People

eat a lot of meat here, you can find meat products in most of their 

chips too and mostly they eat pork as it is the cheapest meat available.

I think people work too hard here. People stay at work for upwards of 15 hours every day.

The students are very goal orientated and study for 12 hours at school and 

some students even stay back and study more.

It's ridiculous that people show up 15 minutes early and stay 90 minutes late 

every day. It's expected that if you are sick, you use a vacation day rather than 

a sick day. And to be hire-able at your next job you need to show that you've used 

as few vacation days as possible. Japanese public transport is unbelievably awesome,

their subway and train systems are very convenient, accurate, and make getting 

around the country so much easier. Even their buses are awesome.

Sometimes I do face some moments where the mother pulls their child to thier 

side and old people walking away from us. But it's not always like that 

some people are kind too. Few days back when I was going back to dorm

from my school, I saw an old man falling off his bicycle. I immediately rushed 

towards him to help him but he was not expecting any help nor did any other student come

to help him. Then the Pakistani participant helped him pick his groceries but he was 

very anxious and refused to get any help, he asked me to put the bicycle on 

stand and leave. After we left he couldn't get up but after some tries he got

up and went away. After this I felt that in situations like this our country is

much more better. If this would have happened in front of our school

I am sure many people would have come to help. But I can't say they are wrong 

because the people here are bought up this way, they are different not wrong.

DAY-70

Today I spent my day with my other AFS participants watching a horror movie

in my dark room. We were watching an horror movie but with friends it became 

a comedy movie. Every one of us were happy as were we getting along well

and having a good time. But at the same time we miss going around together.

DAY-71

We had a zoom meeting with the Japanese university students today and we

 discussed about Kyushu island and it's prefectures. We discussed about each prefecture's 

speciality and about Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing. Tough it was a very long meeting for

 four hours I enjoyed and learnt a lot.

DAY-72 and 73

As we all had different ideas for the Thanks party we all sat down and 

kept it together. Then we decided our scedule for the pratice and one of our teacher

 called us for extra class so that we have time together for practice.

DAY-74

Today finally we wore the Yukata we made. There was one 

teacher who wore by herself and we had to copy her. I thought it would be very difficult

because when my host mother was putting on Yukata on me it looked very difficult.

We all wore it perfectly and all the teachers were surprised seeing us wear it

so perfectly.

DAY-75

As we all were homesick some of us cooked our country's food.

I tried making Palak Paneer but the amount of Paneer I got from

a full big carton of milk was very little and it wasn't even freezing into cubes 

so I just sprinkled it. Obviously it didn't taste excatly

like the one we cook in India but still I was satisfied eating it.

DAY-76

Today was our last day of extra classes after school for practicing for Thanks party.

I hope everyone likes our presentation on the final day.

DAY-77-81

As the return date is coming closer we are having lot of activities going on.

The closet one is the Thanks party for which we have been preparing a lot. 

We are asked to present about our country's food again to another class and about

the common natural disaster in our country in Japanese. And finally a video comparing

 food security in Japan and in our respective country again in Japanese. Doing some

 project in Japanese makes the work five times difficult because of our poor Japanese 

speaking skills but somehow we manage to do it. I can't believe there are only three 

weeks left in Fukuoka. 

DAY-82 and 83

For these two days we stayed back from school to decorate the 

auditorium and to rehearse for the Thanks party. 

DAY-84

Today was our Thanks party and everyone enjoyed a lot.

We played lots of games and even won gifts. I won a outdoor neck towel 

in the bingo game and our Local Guardians got lots of snacks 

for us. My host father is a magician by hobby so he showed us magic 

tricks and every moment spent was very memorable. 

This is our cup song.

DAY-85

Today we went to the Thai restaurant again as Thai food is cheap as

well as delicious. As usual they offered us cold Jasmine tea and

soup. I ordered Thai chicken noodle soup, it was very delicious.

Then we went for street shopping in Nishijin. In Japan every corner is clean.

Though there are many stalls in Nishijin I couldn't see any trash.

This is us in front of Thai restaurant.

DAY-86

The day of leaving Japan is coming closer and today we went to 

ward office to expire our Insurance and Residential card.

After seeing every one's passport I felt that their passports are

very decorative than our's.

DAY-87

I attended Junior High School's English class and I noticed that

they spoke better English than my classmates. This shows that the Japanese students

 are trying to learn English now. We went there and

spoke to them about what they did in their free time, their hobbies

and so on. It was very fun interacting with them.

DAY-88

Abeeha, a Pakistani participant's host mother took us out as we were

not allowed to go alone. We were all very happy becuase we 

were going somewhere far after very long. First we went to

Canal City, a huge shopping mall where we could find 

Disney store. Every thing there was very cute but expensive,

so I just bought a sipper. Then we all just went to random expensive 

stores like Zara, Gucci, Armani, LV and so on, tough we couldn't buy

 anything. Then we went to the biggest shopping mall in Fukuoka

that is the Hakata station. Even here we found lot of expensive stores

so we just went to Daiso, hundered yen store and we took Purikura. 

The Daiso in Hakata station is the biggest Daiso in Fukuoka.

Purikura is a photo booth machine where you can click photos 

with your friends and get a print out of it afterwards and it is also

 refered as photo sticker booth. We also went to pokemon store and then 

had Sakura berry from Starbucks. Sakura(cherry blossom flowers) is the

 national flower of Japan.  In Japan you can see many shops having sakura edition

 things when spring starts.

This is our Purikura.

Sakura Berry

Stuffed Pokemon toys.

DAY-89

As we all had shown about our country's food the Junior High School

chose to cook something for us taking some ideas from the Indian

food items. So they tried cooking something like Pav bhaji.

Aditionally they offered us soup, milk carton, egg and some fruits.

We had tomato and soyabean curry as bhaji. It actually

tasted good and I would not have a problem if original

bhaji was replaced with this, except that it would

not be spicy.

DAY-90

Today we made a video comparing food security methods taken by 

Japan and our own countries. I didn't want to show my country in a 

bad picture but the techer incharged for it asked us to show 

Japan as better. Tough all of them were true I still didn't feel 

good. Some of the comparisions were, cutting meat in open,

eating raw meat and having preserved food items.

This was our background for the video.

DAY-91

My host family took me to Nagasaki to see the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Meseum.

I was very excited for this trip as we all have studied about it and seeing it

in front of you would be very interesting and fun. Going to Nagasaki from Fukuoka

was two hours long but I didn't get bored at all because of my excitement.

Finally when we reached there first we went to a garden, Glover's garden.

This is a open air museum consists of nine Western-style homes built

between 1868 and 1912 for the Western merchants living in Japan.

Glover Mansion, the most famous of these, is Japan's oldest Western- style

house. In front of one of the masions there was an artificial pound

consisting of many koi fishes. There was even a gatcha gatcha machine for 

fish food with a letter telling that feeding the red and white koi fish

brings you luck and I did feed three of them.

Then we went to the Peace statue.It was dedicated as an appeal 

for lasting world peace and as a prayer that sucha tragedy would never be 

repeated.The eleveted right hand points to the threat of nuclear weapons,while 

the outstretched left hand symbolizes tranquility and world peace. Furthermore,

the folded right leg symbolizes quiet meditation, while the left led is poised

for action in assisting humanity.

Finally we went to Atomic bomb museum. 

This is the exact place where the bomb was dropped and the lines 

around it show how the radiations spread.

It is believed that the bomb was dropped at 11:02 a.m. as a clock was found 

800m away from hypocenter which was shattered by the blast, and it's

hand stopped at 11:02. 

The bomb was called Fat Man and these were it's contents.

It is told that when the bomb exploded it seemed like another 

sun which eventually raised up and became like a mushroom shaped cloud.

 Most of the people died due to the strong radiations

from it. Bottles, helmets, shirts everything started melting.

This is a picture of a man who was working 

1km away from the hypocentre.

This picture shows why we should never have

wars. It displaces a lot of people and leads to injury and death of many others. 

DAY-92

Today we spent our time preparing for Bunka sai which is the school 

festival. We made jewelery with beads for selling on the

school festival. Tough they don't have any art or craft class

they were all so creative and they taught me some of the designs too.

I made this cherry beads ring.

DAY-93

As we are going to leave soon we made something for our class 

teachers with the help of our cooking teacher.

We decided to make ichigo daifuku. It's a small round

mochi stuffed with anko (sweetened red bean paste) and 

strawberry. We all made one for ourselves and one for our 

class room teacher. Finally our hardwork paid off, it turned out to

be very delicious and our teachers appreciated it a lot.

DAY-94

One of our school teacher took us to Yanagawa.

It is a city on Japan's Kyushu island. It's known for it's many canals,

which are navigated on small boats.

The skipper took us through very narrow bridges

and sang for us.

Then we went around the local shops and explored their 

handmade crafts.

Mostly these hangings are made in Yanagawa.

DAY-95

It's the Sakura season but until it starts blooming we wouldn't be in Japan.

So our local guardian took us to a place where a tree had already bloomed.

From far it looked like a cloud as it was all white but after going closer

I felt calm looking at it because of it's beauty.

DAY-96

Finally it's the day when we will get our course completion 

certificate from our school. I was so excited and nervous

as well because I had to speak in Japanese in front of the 

school. 

DAY-97

Today was the school festival and the last day of my 

school but I couldn't go to school as I fell sick and 

got a fever of 102 F. I was really sad that I missed my last 

day of school but my class teacher came to see me with

the gifts my friends wanted to give. Everyone of them wrote 

a letter to me and gave me the some beads jewelery which they made.

Then came the other techers too, our stitching class teacher, Japanese

teacher, school coordinater and chemistry lab incharge. All of them

got some gifts for us and wished us a safe journey.

DAY-98

We left Fukuoka at 11:55 a.m. All the time spent here had

my most precious memories. I can't forget anything about it and 

Fukuoka will always be my second home. I wish to come here again.

These are my dorm mothers.

Final picture in front of school.