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My homestay experience   

Hello everyone,


I would like to share my homestay experience with you! I was lucky enough to participate in a homestay program in March. The program was advertised at Hokkaido University’s International Office and I had to apply two month before I wanted to participate. The application process was easy and straightforward. I had to provide my personal details and my preferences, however I couldn’t indicate where I wanted to do my homestay. I didn’t really mind that, because my aim with this program was to experience living together with a Japanese family, practice my Japanese and to learn about their daily life. Finally, after a month or so, I got a call from the International Office that they found me a family in Wassamu, Hokkaido!
I was really excited to spend 6 nights and 5 days with my family. They were a family of two, my host-dad, and my host-mum. They also had four lovely cats. Before my arrival I had to make sure that they know the time of my arrival so I had to ring them up, and speak Japanese to them on the phone! It was really scary at first, but in the end it worked out just fine, and they came to pick me up from Wassamu station. They couldn’t speak any English, but they were really eager to learn a lot about my country, my family back at home, and the differences between Japanese and Hungarian culture.
They were really welcoming and I felt like home, although far away from home. I bought them a present from Hungary. It was a bottle of Hungarian white wine, my favourite! It seemed to me that my host dad liked it too, because we finished it together the first night I got there!

During my five day stay, they organised so many programs for me, making sure I was always busy and having fun. We went cabbage picking from the snow! I haven’t experienced anything like that before and I really enjoyed it. The snow was up to might waist but trucks cleared the snow out of the way so we could look for the cabbage that were lying there. We pick so much cabbage, we filled the entire truck with it. After that, we took the cabbage to a place where it gets cleaned and packed, ready to go to Tokyo! It was really interesting seeing the whole process and the work they do before these huge boxes of cabbage are sent to Tokyo. I really enjoyed this taking part in such an experience and learnt a lot about agriculture in Hokkaido.
In the end we got to try some of the cabbage, and it was the most delicious cabbage I’ve ever tried! It was so sweet and fresh, and the fact that I handpicked it, from the snow just made it tastier. I think it’s an experience not many international students get to do, so I was really lucky and grateful that my host family organised this program for me.
I tried so many Japanese dishes while I was there. We had sukiyaki, and it was the first time I tried a raw egg. At first I was hesitant to with eating a raw egg, but I didn’t wanted to refuse it, so I tired it. It was surprisingly delicious. I thought that it went really well with the dish, however I was a bit worried wether it’s okay to eat a raw egg, but my host family said that it’s a very safe thing to do in Japan, and it doesn’t carry any bacteria (I wouldn’t eat a raw egg in my country, because it might carry some).
On our last day, we went to an Alpaca farm, and a Picture Book exhibition. The alpacas were super cute, and really fluffy. I fed the Alpaca food, and they didn’t spit on me (luckily!). I really enjoyed the Picture Book exhibition too because the books use easy Japanese that I can read and understand too. In the evening we went to an onset and had jinghiskan. It was a perfect ending to my stay. I spend 5 days with my host family, and I’m already planning my next visit to see them during Golden Week. I am really thankful for their hospitality and for all the great experiences we had together. I’ll be back soon!


Tamara (Hungary)

by chitchatcafe | 2017-04-15 17:47 | マンツーマン 英会話 札幌

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