Karaoke and Kanazawa

Tuesday 21st July 2009
Yesterday we had a lazy morning at the ryokan. Then we walked to a restaurant near Sharnelle's school. We had to cook our own meal on a hot plate in front of us.

After lunch we met 2 of Sharnelle's school friends at her school. From there we went to karaoke. It was a lot of fun. At the place they have a lot of rooms decked out with all of the karaoke equipment. You hire the room for as long as you like. We were there for 3 hours and so sang a lot of songs. The 2 Japanese girls really liked to sing and had beautiful voices. We then had a big walk back to where we are staying.

Sharnelle's host mother and brother (Yoshi) came to pick us up. We went to their house for dinner. Grandma and grandad and Yuki (Yoshi's sister) live there too. Grandma and mum had prepared sooooo much food. It was all very delicious!! We sat on the floor to eat. Some of the things were a bit hard to eat with chopsticks. Sharnelle showed us her room and we saw some other very special things in their house as well. It was a really special time. Grandad was a very cute little man. He made us laugh!!

Today we caught the train to Kanazawa. It is the capital of the next area. It took about 45 minutes to get there. Sharnelle was meeting some other exchange students there for the day as some of them go home at the end of this week.

We went to a very beautiful garden. It rained but it was still lovely to see. We also went to a Contempary Art Gallery. There were some very interesting exhibitions there. One was a huge room that had a maze made out of small mounds of salt. It was still being completed. There was another room that was being made by people who visited it. It was all being knitted and crocheted. There were lots of flower shapes. Mr K, Felicia and I sat down and hand knitted a flower each. I will have to teach my class to hand knit. You just use your fingers!!! There were also some tricycles too as part of an exhibition. (They spelt it try circles!)You were allowed to ride them around inside the gallery. Felicia rode one.

Mr K, Felicia and I then caught the train back to Takaoka. Sharnelle stayed with her friends and came home after dinner.

Tomorrow we have some formal occassions to attend. Firstly we have to go to the Rotary Meeting at lunch time and then the Rotary Club are taking us out to dinner. We are going to a Chinese Restaurant. I feel a bit nervous about these!
Mrs K. x