"The ocean is kind of interesting"

Today is my third day with the Matsudas. Within this short time, so much has happened. Two days ago, my first day with them, My host father took me to the school where I met the principal and a few other faculty members. We discussed when I should start and it was decided that I will start on Wednesday, the first as many important tests finish on the 30th. Later that night, we got to know each other at dinner. My host father was eager to teach me Yonago's dialect word for idiot (あんぽたん）

Yesterday, I spent the day with my host mother as she had the day off of work. We visited many shops, most of which were in walking distance of our house. These included an electronics store, a bookstore, a manga shop, a stationary shop, a Uni Qlo, and a secondhand store. At the secondhand store, I bought a T-shirt that had the tattoos and necklace of One Piece's Portgas D. Ace printed onto it. I also saw a figure of a One Piece character being sold for 500 Yen, roughly $5. In the U.S. I saw this same figure being sold at a convention for $60. Needless to say, I was very surprised. We also visited Makie-san. Makie-san is my host mother's grandmother and is 102 years old. It was certainly an amazing experience. 

Today, everybody had work or school, so I spent the day with Youko-san, my host grandmother. During breakfast I had grapes, and was surprised to learn that in Japan, the skin of the grape is not eaten. Rather, it is thrown away like the pit of a cherry. After breakfast, Youko-san took me to mount Daisen, All of the pictures below were taken there. Mount Daisen is near Yonago in the Tottori Prefecture. Despite Youko-san not knowing any English, we were able to communicate enough were we both had alot of fun. We also went to the Museum of the Sea and Life in Sakaiminato. There were many taxidermy fish and crabs there. I was given the English guide titled "The ocean is kind of interesting" as pictured above. I thought it was more than just "kind of" interesting.

Something interesting about the Tottori prefecture is that characters from the manga "GeGeGe no Kitaro" are all over that place. The reason being, Kitaro's author is from the Tottori prefecture. It's interesting to walk around and just see a manga character statue just standing there. 

These first three days truly have been very fun.