We got a bus to the train station today, where we took like 5 different trains to get to the small town of Fukuoka, Tengyo’s hometown. We arrived and were picked up by his parents and a minibus, taking us to the local elementary school. We were waved at by a whole lot of tiny Japanese children on our way into the building, and up to the meeting room. We got to sit on the floor around low tables, and were served fish and fishy stuff. I had some rice. 
We went on a guided tour around the school, and we saw school children everywhere, and they saw us. They waved, we waved, we moved on. We got to a big gymnastic room, filled with schoolchildren. We had to line up outside the door, the schoolchildren rose, and we walked in procession in the middle of them to the front, while they clapped and cheered. Did someone say surreal? There were chairs lined up at the front, and we sat down. A lady talked in Japanese, the children sat down on the floor with a thud, the lady talked some more in Japanese, and we had to stand up one by one with a microphone and introduce ourselves. With the level of English-speakers in Japan, most likely no one understood anything. 
We were approached by groups of schoolchildren who had written our names on paper. I was grouped with Tiril and 5 Japanese kids. According to the nametag they gave me, I was Ulie. In our group, we played some games which were actually fun. We each got a big stick, stood in a circle, put the stick vertically on the floor, dropped the stick and ran to the stick right of us, the point being to catch the stick next to you before it falls on the ground. We stood a bit apart, so it wasn’t easy, but it was fun. We also made airplanes out of newspaper, and had flying competitions (the one who hit Kjell on the head won). We also played the stick-a-pen-into-a-bottle-covered-in-newspaper-game. Afterwards, all the groups taught us a traditional dance from the area we were in, and we danced in two giant circles. The song is still in my head. 
We left for the local koi fish farm, where they had giant goldfishies (or so-called koi fish). I was feeling quite ill still, so I took some pictures and went back to the bus and dozed while the others looked at the fishies. 
Afterwards, we walked to someone’s house, where we were served tea and ’sweets’, while listening to a live performance of Japanese musical instruments. 
We were supposed to rest here until the party later this evening, so this poor Japanese family ended up with 25 Norwegian students sleeping on their livingroomfloor, covered in all the blankets, pillows and doonas the house contained. It was quite a weird experience. After having rested for a few hours, we went to the place where our party was being held. 
There were a lot of welcoming speeches in Japanese, with Tengyo translating, while we watched longingly the food in the middle of the room. Most of us hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and it was now around 7pm. We were introduced to our host family for the night, or in my and Hanne’s case, our host lady. We don’t even know her name. We finally got to the food, and threw ourselves at it, before we were stopped less than 10 minutes later because the ‘show’ was about to start in the theatre room. Still-hungry-students were not happy when food were taken away, but we went into the theatre room, where we were to see a traditional musical performance + dance. It was a lot of monklike people, playing fancy Japanese instuments, and later, a traditional war dance. 
It was cool, and when it was over, we got to go back to the food!!!! 
Food after the hungry Norwegians had been there
We went on a guided tour around the school, and we saw school children everywhere, and they saw us. They waved, we waved, we moved on. We got to a big gymnastic room, filled with schoolchildren. We had to line up outside the door, the schoolchildren rose, and we walked in procession in the middle of them to the front, while they clapped and cheered. Did someone say surreal? There were chairs lined up at the front, and we sat down. A lady talked in Japanese, the children sat down on the floor with a thud, the lady talked some more in Japanese, and we had to stand up one by one with a microphone and introduce ourselves. With the level of English-speakers in Japan, most likely no one understood anything. 
We were approached by groups of schoolchildren who had written our names on paper. I was grouped with Tiril and 5 Japanese kids. According to the nametag they gave me, I was Ulie. In our group, we played some games which were actually fun. We each got a big stick, stood in a circle, put the stick vertically on the floor, dropped the stick and ran to the stick right of us, the point being to catch the stick next to you before it falls on the ground. We stood a bit apart, so it wasn’t easy, but it was fun. We also made airplanes out of newspaper, and had flying competitions (the one who hit Kjell on the head won). We also played the stick-a-pen-into-a-bottle-covered-in-newspaper-game. Afterwards, all the groups taught us a traditional dance from the area we were in, and we danced in two giant circles. The song is still in my head. 
We left for the local koi fish farm, where they had giant goldfishies (or so-called koi fish). I was feeling quite ill still, so I took some pictures and went back to the bus and dozed while the others looked at the fishies. 
Afterwards, we walked to someone’s house, where we were served tea and ’sweets’, while listening to a live performance of Japanese musical instruments. 
We were supposed to rest here until the party later this evening, so this poor Japanese family ended up with 25 Norwegian students sleeping on their livingroomfloor, covered in all the blankets, pillows and doonas the house contained. It was quite a weird experience. After having rested for a few hours, we went to the place where our party was being held. 
There were a lot of welcoming speeches in Japanese, with Tengyo translating, while we watched longingly the food in the middle of the room. Most of us hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and it was now around 7pm. We were introduced to our host family for the night, or in my and Hanne’s case, our host lady. We don’t even know her name. We finally got to the food, and threw ourselves at it, before we were stopped less than 10 minutes later because the ‘show’ was about to start in the theatre room. Still-hungry-students were not happy when food were taken away, but we went into the theatre room, where we were to see a traditional musical performance + dance. It was a lot of monklike people, playing fancy Japanese instuments, and later, a traditional war dance. 
It was cool, and when it was over, we got to go back to the food!!!! 
Food after the hungry Norwegians had been thereWe ate and ate, until we had to go to our host families. Our lady’s husband had arrived, and we greeted, and none of them spoke English. Using sign language, we went to their car, drove to their house, and were seated in their lounge. They had a traditional house with tatami mats, and empty rooms (quite practical). We met quite a few people in their house. We were served tea and cake, and fruit. We were given pictures that the husband had painted, and we understood that he was a judo master in the 8th dan. It was quite an interesting evening, where at one point Hanne and me were sitting on one side of the table, and on the other side were 10 Japanese people watching us eat cake, and talking in Japanese. We spent 2 hours ‘communicating’, before we went to bed. We got one of the empty rooms, where they made up futons for us (mattresses on the floor). This house also had a fancy toilet (like most in Japan) with many buttons and seat warmer.
We went to bed, and at least I fell asleep immediately. It had been a very interesting, but also exhausting day.
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