I spent this week with my Japanese teacher and her family in Ehime and Matsuyama (towards the South West end of the map). It’s truly the most mountain that I’ve ever experienced, and the area is considered to be true Japanese country side. My teacher’s home is a more traditional home, with the paper framed walls and an open interior. If you were to open all of the sliding doors of the house, the entire house would almost be one giant room. The neighborhood is an old farming community, growing things such as rice, eggplant (long and skinny), and kale. The nearest store is a convenient store, which is nearly a 10 minute drive, and most of the older families order their groceries through a company and have them delivered.
We had two drinking parties, one of which was at the local even room, near the school, and the other was at my teacher’s house. To put it simply, drinking in this part of town is insane; if someone finishes a glass of beer before you can refill it for them (which is easy to do since the glasses are small) they can pass the cup to anyone, who immediately has to drink an entire glass. Seeing as I was the guest of honor, the glass was often passed to me. Other than the drinking challenge, all of the younger guys and girls that I met were great and so friendly. In this part of the country students have two school choices, one choice involving preparation for college and the other involving preparation for farming. One guy there was actually a cow guru.
The second drinking party was held at my teacher’s house, so I helped make dinner. I learned how to make sushi, and we also had somen(noodle) balls and raw octopus. While many might cringe at the the idea of eating raw fish, especially octopus, Japanese raw foods are really something special. The octupus is so fresh, has none of the fishy tendencies associate with some sub par American fish, and is extremely healthy. I should think that more people should cringe at the idea of eating McDonald’s.
I spent one day with Koucho Sensei, a local school official, and he took me on a grand tour of all of the mountain sites. This was a bit difficult, because it was the morning after the grand drinking party, and the mountains were a bit rough on the stomach, but it was fun nonetheless. The mountains in the area are famous for there milk, so there are many ice cream and milk bars in the area. You can truly taste the difference between Japanese and American milk anyway, but mountain milk is something mind blowing. The flavor of this milk is rich and bright, and it even made the bread that is made with it taste absolutely amazing.
We made our way up the mountain to the mountain hotel, and we saw the amazing limestone rock hills. It reminded me of pictures that I’d seen of Irish hillsides, except these rolling hills were at the top of tremendous green mountains.
It was truly and amazing week. My teacher and her family were so kind, as were the people of the area. Finally, I had the chance to relax that I had so desperately wanted, all while taking in the country views that even many Japanese never have the opportunity to experience.
