Imohori

Saturday 10/2/2010
We woke up early this morning, and went downstairs for a large breakfast prepared by Mizutani sensei. It was very delicious, but it made me too full!
After breakfast we left the house and drove to Mizutani sensei's house in Gifu prefecture, where her husband does some farming and stuff. We stopped at a super market on the way to get some stuff for our barbecue.
When we got to her house in Gifu, we walked around for a bit, looking at the creek right by her house, and all of the pretty trees and things (I took a lot of pictures, see my facebook). When Mizutani sensei's youngest son and his fiance arrived, we went out to the fields where Mizutani sensei's husband grows food. It's actually a rather small plot of land, as should be expected since land is so expensive in Japan, but he grows a lot of food there. We started by picking eggplants and peppers. And after that was the main event: Imohori (potato digging). It actually only lasted like 10 minutes, but that is all we were told we were going to do at mizutani sensei's house in Gifu. "You're going to her mountain home to dig potatoes." that is what my host dad told me. Anyways, the imohori was pretty entertaining, the potatoes were pretty gigantic. Oh yeah, and they were sweet potatoes.
After the farming was over, we went back to prepare the barbecue. The barbecue pit that they have is different from any barbecue pit I've seen in America. It's just like a brick well sort of thing, where you put fire inside, and then barbecue stuff on top. Mizutani sensei's husband told us that he made the barbecue pit himself.
I didn't eat much at the barbecue, because there was fish and chicken(?), and then some vegetables... they also threw some sweet potatoes wrapped in foil into the fire itself, and the came out black. They sent one of those home with us, and it was pretty yummy (after removing the black part...)
After the barbecue, Nobu and Mari (Mizutani sensei's son and his fiance) left. And Mizutani sensei set up some futons for Suet-yee and I to take a nap. I actually fell asleep, Suet-yee didn't. After 30 minutes, Mizutani sensei came to wake us up, and we headed out.
On our way back, we stopped at this really pretty shop. I don't know what it was called, but apparently it's really famous. Everything it sold had chestnuts in it. Mizutani sensei's husband bought us chestnut ice cream, which was sooo delicious!!! And then he excitedly took us through the shop to all of the free samples for us to try. Oh my goodness, it was all so good!
Soon after we got back to Mizutani sensei's house in Nagoya, my host parents came to pick us up.
When we got home, we had udon and vegetable tempura for dinner, it was delicious, but I was beyond full.
Oh yes, I learned an interesting Japanese phrase today! Mizutani sensei told us that Japanese people say that they have a separate compartment in their stomachs for food they like. That way, even when they are full, they can still eat some cake or something. "betsubara" is what this is called. I started telling Suet-yee that "even my betsubara is ippai" (ippai means full). Especially after that yummy ice cream...