Hosts with the most(s)

The crew met up with our hosts families early Saturday morning. Mr. Takeuchi (Akira, nee Take-San) and his wife Chieko (also Take-san) greeted me at the city government office and took me to their home. I was surprised by the size of their house (large), the size of my room (really large), and the style of room I was given: traditional Tatami room with straw mats, rice paper panels, and a sunroom. I put down my things then the 3 of us left for the Takeuchi's farm, a 4-row garden in a community garden plat. There, we picked cucumbers, eggplant, shiso, negii (onion), and some kind of chive. We left the garden to go grocery shopping and the Mrs. picked up several things. Returning to the house, Take-san told me to go relax in my room (this is the FIRST TIME anyone has even mentioned the word on this trip; I was beginning to think relaxation a completely foregion concept.) I did as I was told and, while reading, quickly fell asleep in the sun room. Take-san knocked on the door sometime later and told me lunch was ready...What a spread!! Mrs. Take-san had laid out sushi, salad, somen, and so much more. Their daughter Mei arrive and ate with us. The two of us left after lunch and took off to a festival at the local university. There, I got to pound mochi with the traditional motar and big hammer (i was terrified I would break the mochi flipper's hand). Afterwards, I got to make it into a mochi cake with red bean paste inside. The girls seemed really amused by my interest and I was glad to accept their amusement (and mochi goodness). Mei and I left to go shopping at "Value City", another one of Japan's ubiquitious department stores. Genius that I am, I picked up 10 pounds of Shiga rice (famous in Shiga) and have since had to schlep the stuff all over Hikone and Tokyo-Brilliant. We returned home, had another feast and I met with Saki, their other daughter who I mistakenly called Sake, as in rice wine (Little did they know that my parents lifted off my own name off a bottle of wine some 34 years ago). Mr. Take-san and I drank liberal amounts of Sake, then the whole family piled into a car (with Mei driving) to see the "Hotal" which the family was quite excited about though I kept thinking they were saying hotel. The Hotal, as I found out, are fireflies and VERY popular in Japan. VERY. They have festivals for it, sing songs about them, and genuinely get a real kick out of the buggers. By the time we got to the landofthefirefly, they were, as Take-san stated, sleeping, as there weren't that many to see. The best part of the evening was not the sighting of the flies, but the real joy the whole family got out of the event.
I fell asleep in the car and thus avoided the whole "family bath thing" I was kinda dreading; here's the 411 on family bath: baths are typically in the evening and 1 bath is filled once for the whole family. First you scrub, then you soak, then this is repeated by the whole family. Sharing bathwater kinda skeevy's me out so I was not disappointed by the absence of this traditional pastime. I slept long and hard and woke up to another fantastic meal. Take-san, Mei, and Sake left to their respective appointments, then Chieko and I sat around and chatted, well kinda, as she didn't speak much English and my Japanese is non-existent. I showed her photographs of my family and the knifeskills video I had on my borrowed Mac. When Take-san came back, we made Okonomi yaki, my new favorite Japanese street food. I left later that afternoon for the Ansen, an experience you'll read about in the next entry.