Day of activity: July 6th 2014
The 6th of July was host family day as well as the eve of the Tanabata festival where people in Japan write down their wishes on pieces of paper and hang them on bamboo. For this host family day I joined Jeremy Cullen and his host family on a trip to the beautiful mountain village Aso.
While in Aso we visited a large tunnel spanning 550 meters with a small stream running through the center. This tunnel was decorated with dozens of hand made hanging decorations of various designs including popular cartoon characters, soccer players and Kumamon of course; all made by local school kids.
Afterwards for lunch we went to a restaurant called the Soba Dojo where Jeremy and I made our own soba by hand and then ate it!
To finish the day we visited an onsen to soak away the fatigue of the day. It was quite an unusual and interesting experience sitting in an outside bath in the pouring rain; definitely something I would like to try again!
Ellis Jones (U.K.)
