Japanese hospitality

Last night was the gathering at Tamura-san's house and I finally got a real Japanese home experience. There were two other football players, Franchesca, Kelsey, Me, and the Tamura family, which consisted of grandma, grandpa, Tamura's wife, and two children. The guests were treated like royalty. The made us eat home-cooked Japanese food and drink large amounts of beer and good sake... it was horrible! (sarcasm)

The whole evening was spent sitting on the tatami mats around the low heated tables (kotatsu). Early in the evening I got to chat with grandma which supported my generalization that little old Japanese obaasan are super easy to talk to. The always seem to talk very simply and slowly for me. Grandpa was the opposite. He sat right next to me and mumbled everything, but I think it was because he was perpetually smiling. He looked at me and we laughed together every time something was said, even if it was in English and not even particularly funny. 

The kids are unbelievably cute and very good at English for their age. I could tell Tamura-san was ecstatic to have 3 native English speaker in the house. Much of the evening was a language lesson (both English and Japanese). 

The picture is of Kelsey, Franchesca, the Tamura kids and me. I'm sure Grandma was just being polite, but she told me that she is waiting for me to come back and eat with them again because I live fairly close. Tempting. 

PS- It took me like 5 minutes to figure out how to flush the toilet... which was operated by remote (why is a remote necessary for a toilet ?!?!?!?!?!). I couldn't read any of the buttons and only a few of them had illustrations. But I survived without making a mess.