Shinkansen Ride to Chiba - Nov. 13

After a short absence from blogging, I'm back! I was gone all weekend on a trip to Chiba (a city 25 kilometers to the east of Tokyo), so I didn't have computer access. I rode the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo and then took an express train out to Chiba to see my host family from three and a half years ago. We've kept in touch, and I was really itching to see them. Plus, I had some Frango mints from Chicago to give them, and I wanted to hand over the candies before too much longer.

But I was really excited to see my former host family because I can actually speak Japanese now and have conversations, so it was so much easier to communicate with them. I could learn more about them and learn a lot from them just by being able to speak Japanese.

I rode the "Nozomi Super Express" Shinkansen to Shinagawa station in Tokyo, and then from there took a rapid train out to Chiba. This was my first experience with the bullet train. The train is very convenient for me because the Shinkansen station happens to be a ten minute bus ride from my host family's home. The train is, of course, very quick, and it's a simpler process than flying in an airplane. My only complaint was that since everyone was eating inside the train, it smelled strongly of fish and snack food.

I got to Chiba and my former host mother and her elder daughter Kotone, who is 18, picked me up from the station. When we arrived at their house I saw Makoto, the younger daughter, too. Their house looked exactly the same, and it smelled the same, too! I was surprised that I recognized the smell of their house, but as soon as I walked through the door, I did! It's not unpleasant at all, simply unique.

We talked in the kitchen for a while and ate a late dinner of oden, which is food simmered in a pot. The most commonly found ingredients in oden are burdock (not frequently eaten in the U.S.), Japanese radish (yes, different from U.S. radishes), and various types of fish. My former host father came home very late, as he always does, around ten o'clock or so, after we had finished dinner, so I didn't have much of a chance to speak with him.