A
fantastic homestay filled with adventures
I have always wanted to visit Japan and opportunity
came when I stumbled across the homestay program
organized by Titan Planet in the internet late
year 2004. There were many homestay locations
and time to choose from, but I chose Okinawa,
because it's well known for its beautiful beaches
and it will be during summer, where the weather
is warm and furthermore, homestay is where we
get to meet and live with locals, which is very
different from a tour.
My Okinawa homestay was in a period of 1 week,
from July 28th to 3rd Aug, 2005. My home stay
started when my host family (father, brother &
sister) greeted me at the Naha Airport. From there
onwards, my adventures in Okinawa have begun…..
Most of the time, I had to converse in my super-broken
Japanese with my host families as they could speak
only a little bit of English. But I still remember,
my host father answered me in perfect sounding
English…. "I can't speak English", when
I asked him "‰pŒê‚ª˜b‚¹‚Ü‚·‚©" That's one thing
I could never forget.
My host family especially my host father, talks
to me a lot and asked me a lot of things about
Malaysia. Luckily I brought my electronic dictionary
along. That helped a lot. My host mother cooks
delicious meals, and breakfast was like something
that takes hours to prepare - for breakfast, most
of the time we had rice, vegetables & dishes!
Sometimes we had soup too. Back here in Malaysia,
breakfast is simple - bread & coffee, nothing
more.
My youngest host brother & sister, Kazemaru
& Nabira were two of the most active kids
I've ever met. I went to a Hippo gathering; we
had fun there and did singing, dancing and played
some games too. We also had to introduce ourselves
using the presentation we had prepared. Hippo
members learned other languages through mostly
singing and dancing. That's interesting as it
makes learning a new language fun, rather than
sitting in a boring classroom!
We also experienced Japanese Tea ceremony at a
Hippo member's house, Kiyoko-san who was kind
enough to show us the event.
We visited places such as Kids World, Awamori
Factory, Churami Aquarium, Shuri Jo and others
which were truly enjoyable. One memorable activity
is joining the yearly giant tug of war. We joined
in thousands of locals in this event, and we won!
It has been a fantastic homestay filled with adventures
for me and I would not hesitate to do it again.
My only regret is not spending enough time with
my host family as I was always out. I hope to
spend more time with them next time.
Impression by Lim Soo Keong, Regional Sales Engineer
Japanese
tea ceromony has many rules. You have to bow here & there, take
a step back, and there's even a rule on how to hold the cup! 
We
won! Two times in a row! But somebody has got to carry me back home
now. No more energy left to walk.
