Couchsurfing hosting in Japan 12th , with a couchsurfer family for the first time
July 31, 2017For the first time, couchsurfing with a family!
Although their " Real English" was so high level for me.....
This time, they came to our place on weekdays so we were not able to have much time to spend with, and they visited Arima onsen in the day time because I recommended as usual :), but in the dinner time we enjoyed nice chatting. It was great to get know their couchsurfing experience and their educational philosophy.
First impression
Meet up
Anyway, I accepted their changed plan and met up the station not nearest, but I chose for considering their convenient. They had just arrived Japan this day and came to directory from airport to this train station. They said they had killed time at Izakaya for early arrived than meeting up time, but it was also good thing for them because they surely needed some rest after long long flight. I thought it's interesting they chose Izakaya, not cafes or restaurants, they must know Japan very well.
Kids and Youkai watch and Gyoza...There is no language barrier
Their son doesn't speak Japanese and my kids don't speak English at all, but he and my son is almost same age so this two boys played well. According his parents saying, he had been excited to see Youkai watch was very popular in Japanese elementary boys instead of Pokemon at that time. It's a game for Nintendo DS and also the anime, I was surprised to hear that because it had just released even in Japan, but he already knew this new anime/game even live in Germany. I really felt the difference from my childhood. The internet really changed the world.
Anyway, they found this common interest became good friends very soon and my daughters too, even they don't speak each languages. It seems there is no language barrier for kids. This is the new discovery thing for me.
Even this period, my wife had been hooked to make gyoza, so we offered them join to cook. That was very fun to make gyoza joining all families together and they did very well more than me! This is one of good memory.
Talking about Couchsurfing, lifestyles, houses....talked a lot.
They had been couchsurfing member over 5 years at that time, and already have some experience both as host and as surfer. So they understand well about couchsurfing like some people take the cultural/experience sharing seriously and treat surfers like true guests(just like me), and some people are more simply letting people share their space. They say their style is like in the middle, basically they like meeting other people. As a host, sometimes they spend a lot of time with guests, hanging out or visiting places, but some times they simply let people use their space. Also, They serious bringing gifts for hosts as showing their thanks for hosts when they are a guest. They gave us very stylish knitted stuffs which hand made by them such as knitted hats for kids and scarves for me and wife.
They are very curious about inside other people's house and said that Japanese bathroom is most important point. They seems they liked our bathroom. Our bathroom has a room available to use not only for just get off/on clothes also for laundry. It has a washing machine avalable to pomp the water from bath tab, hanging space , and word robes available to make organizing clothes simple after washing and drying. They complimented this system very much! Also, they were surprised to see the glow in the dark wallpaper shone with UV light on it ( of course we have UV lights on ceiling for that purpose) which put on all of walls in second floor. Although my kids haven't been delighted to see it anymore because they are used to seeing it too much, their son was delighted. Thank you boy!
This boy isn't going school actually. The parents have strong and serious educational philosophy as they blogging about it. It made me and wife very surprised, we have never heard about homeschool system in Japan. They said that it's also unusual thing in western culture, but I felt sort of the society tolerance in Europe, it's not same as Japan. This is another new discovery thing through this hosting.
Spend with a foreign family further almost same age gave me pretty interesting new knowledge and experience. The one unfortunate thing was I couldn't catch the meaning and even the words when they were speaking in their family, their talking speed was so fast for me. Maybe I was just not used to their accent because I have been training with American accent ? I hope so.
Anyway, it's really " Real English", it's really cool, I was impressed.
I hope I would become be like them someday, well, I need to improve my English more and more.
This boy isn't going school actually. The parents have strong and serious educational philosophy as they blogging about it. It made me and wife very surprised, we have never heard about homeschool system in Japan. They said that it's also unusual thing in western culture, but I felt sort of the society tolerance in Europe, it's not same as Japan. This is another new discovery thing through this hosting.
Spend with a foreign family further almost same age gave me pretty interesting new knowledge and experience. The one unfortunate thing was I couldn't catch the meaning and even the words when they were speaking in their family, their talking speed was so fast for me. Maybe I was just not used to their accent because I have been training with American accent ? I hope so.
Anyway, it's really " Real English", it's really cool, I was impressed.
I hope I would become be like them someday, well, I need to improve my English more and more.
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