Testimonials

Hiroshima Homestay 2006
(Tristan's Homestay Diary)

When I woke up, I stared out of the window and looked. It was a bright cheery morning and the clouds were very fluffy.The captain said good morning and announced the weather for Fukuoka and it was a pleasant 8 degrees. The first sight I saw was busy streets and people walking to work. Then we were supposed to meet a Hippo Family Member to bring us to the Shinkensen Station to take a Shinkensen to Hiroshima. Once we were there, we bought tickets and boarded the train! The train was real cool because you could turn the seat 360 degree. I really had a fun time turning it round and round much to the amusement of our guide Mr Takanori Kamikawa. Before I realized it, we already arrived in Hiroshima in just 1 and a half hours. Once we reached there, we went to meet our respective host families. They welcomed us warmly and I gave the gift I had brought for their 11 your old son, Atushi. I had brought for him a Lego building set. Sae–san, my host mother, brought us to her house. It was a pleasant 7 Celsius outside and our ottosan was waiting for us in his MPV. He looked really handsome and kind.

After a sumptious lunch of obey which looked like pizza but actually composed of noodles and cabbage and any ingredients you like eg seafood or chicken or beef, we had an afternoon nap. At night, we went for a Hippo family meeting where we said goodbye to many different participants who were leaving for home or on to another Japanese city.

My mother got interested at a bus that took us to the mountains. The driver stopped and we asked him that if he could drive us there. He said yes and we all clambered on the bus. The ride was very bumpy and noisy. It was a very long way up. Once we reached there, my father went and asked the ticket booth for the ropeway up to the mountains.We bought tickets and waited for one carriage to take us up. Luckily, there were almost no people there and we got a carriage to ourselves. When we went up, there were spectacular landscape and big rainforests that no body that had ever stepped on. Once we reached the top, there were a lot of red buttock monkeys. There were a few metal round scopes pointing to islands of Miyajima.

We decided to walk down the mountain because it would be a great achievement to walk down a mountain 530m high and also we wanted to save money. We found the right route down. There were a lot of steps which was uneven and some were very high off the ground. Then we went to a temple where a fire has been burning since 806 AD. Since we had almost no water left, we bought a bottle of mineral water there. You just leave the money in a container – they trust all who visit the place. I didn’t see any CCTV anyway! Once we had rested enough, we continued walking down the mountain.I was very tired and stopped awhile to rest.We thought walking down would be quite fast but it actually took us three hours to reach the bottom. Once we reached the bottom, we went to a motel to rest. My legs felt like jelly and I wanted to drift off to sleep.

After that we walked to the ferry dock to buy tickets back home.We bought some souvenirs for our host family especially the famous miyajima cakes which actually in the shape of a maple leaf. The ferry arrived and we got on. It was a very cold ride back to the mainland.Once we had arrived,we went to eat dinner at a restaurant. We ate dinner and had a sumptuous meal. After that we went back to our host family house, I was very tired and satisfied that I had just walked down a mountain.

21 December 2006
Went to Kintai-kyo bridge.
Saw the white snake
Ate the very traditional Niku Udon for lunch.
Castle and Tram closed.

After awhile, my mother called me to stop playing because the tour was about to start. I excitedly ran over. Soon we were on the tour bus. The tour guide told us about a bridge that only Mazda cars could go on. Once we reached the factory, I jumped of the bus as I was very excited and wanted to see the factory. The tour guide led us to a showroom were there all the models of the Mazda cars since it stared making cars. We were allowed to take as many pictures as we wanted! Soon we got to the part that we could see the real factory were they make the cars and all that. But sadly we could not take pictures. I saw different parts where different people did different jobs. I spotted one putting the seats in a car. I saw another person putting a steering wheel. Then, the cars were transported y a crane to another part of the factory. Soon we were out of the factory and back into the showroom were there were the future Mazda cars. Luckily, we could take photos now. I took a photo of a really cool car with my father. Then we went out and the guide gave each of us a cute Mazda car keychain.

It was time to leave the factory. The bus came and took us back to the place we started. We bade goodbye to the guide and we left. We ate lunch at a la mian restaurant. Then, we took the JR line back.It was a long and tired day for us.I slept early that night.