Sep 15, 2012

Friend from US / アメリカから友達が来日

Last Friday, my American friend came to Japan to study at one of our universities in Tokyo for one year, and I went to the airport to pick him and his friend up.  After a long flight from Boston, they looked like zombies (LOL), but it was still so exciting to see them! :)  On the weekend, I helped them with their shopping.  They had absolutely nothing at their apartment, so they had to buy everything to start a new life here.  That's so expensive!!!  My family sent them our extra sets of futon (our bed), curtains, kitchen items etc, but still they had to do lots of shopping!  I used to study at college in Canada for few years, but there I was living with a Canadian host family so didn't need to buy anything.  I can't imagine if I had to buy everything right after I got there...Back then my English was SO poor and probably couldn't even ask for the direction...They're so brave!

They brought me some goodies from the States!  Well, I actually asked them to bring those for me.  This is my favorite North American food - Maraconi&Cheese!  I know some of you might be laughing right now, but seriously this is my favorite!  I had it very often when I was in Canada.  My host mom put sausages in there, and that was my favorite! :D
And these are also my favorites.  I couldn't remember the name of the brand, so I just told him "An oatmeal bar with some chocolate chips, and there's an old man's face on the package."  And he got me the right one!!!  Yeeeeei! :D  Now I have so many chocolates, so I have to be really careful not to eat them at once! lol
Yesterday, they called me saying that they ate something awful and wanted to know what that was.  It turned out to be one of our popular food Konnyaku that you need to cook to eat, but they ate raw, right from the bag!  It's like eating macaroni uncooked believing they're chips. lol

I really hope they will enjoy their stay in Japan and have lots of fun experiences like I did in Canada.  Like my Canadian friends helped me a lot while I was there, I hope I can do the same for them.  It's my turn! :D

先週の金曜日、アメリカから友人とその友達が日本に来日しました。東京の大学で1年間勉強するそうです。仕事帰りに成田空港まで迎えに行くと、ボストンからの長旅に疲れたのか、二人はゾンビのように疲れ切っていました(笑)でも、会えてよかった(^^)。週末は、家財道具などを揃えるのに買い物へ。彼らのアパートには何も物がなく、私の実家から余っていた布団やら、台所用品、カーテンなど送ってもらったのですが、それでもまだまだ買い揃える必要があって大変。私もカナダに数年留学していましたが、ホストファミリーにお世話になっていたので、家財道具をそろえる必要はありませんでした。もし当時の道もろくに聞けないような英語力の私が、到着早々色々買い揃えないといけなかったら・・・と考えたら、二人はとても勇敢ですね。

お土産にと私の大好きなマカロニ&チーズを持ってきてくれました。リクエストしたものです。北米では有名なメーカーのもので、カナダに住んでいるとき大好きでよく食べていました。日本で言ったら…永谷園のお茶漬けみたいな?手軽でおいしい定番という感じのものです。マカロニ&チーズをリクエストしたら爆笑されたので、お土産という感じではないんだと思いますが(笑)。

あと、これも私がカナダにいたときに大好きだったオートミールのバーです。このリクエストにも二人は「本当にこんなんでいいの?」言うような、よく見かけるものです。名前を忘れてしまったので、「オートミールバーで、チョコチップが入っていて、パッケージにおじいさんの絵が描いてあるやつ」と言ったところ、ちゃんと望みのものを買ってきてくれました。嬉しい~!食べ過ぎないようにしないと!

そうそう、昨日二人から電話があり「恐ろしい味の食べ物を食べた。」と連絡があり、よくよく聞いてみるとこんにゃくでした(笑)。調理もせず、そのまま袋から出して食べたら、臭いし味はないし、びっくりしたそう。なんでそんなもんを食べたのか聞いたところ、「安かったし、色が緑で丸く(玉こんにゃくだったようです)、よくアニメに出てくる白・ピンク・緑のお団子の内の一つだと思った。」んだそう(笑)。なるほどね(^^)。

私がカナダで沢山の素敵な経験をしたように、日本で彼らが楽しい一年を送れますように。カナダでは沢山の人に助けてもらったので、今度は私が彼らを通じて留学生の手助けが少しでもできるといいなぁ(^^)。

↓いつもありがとうございます。押していただけると励みになります☆

9 comments:

  1. WOW! What a nice experience will have all of you ^^
    OMG! A lot of chocolates! :9 lucky you! X3

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    1. It was really fun! I'm done with maybe one third of those chocolates they brought...I really have to be careful! lol

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  2. Oh that is so winderful!! I did an exchange to Japan when I was 18- and I had the best time!! I can't remember much Japanese anymore, but I love reading your blog with both the English & Japanese versions! And I never thought about smiley faces/emoticons being different in a different language, so even if I can't really understand Japanese anymore, i did learn something new today by attempting to look at the Japanese text too!! Anyhow all the best to your American friends- i know they are going to have a wonderful experience in Japan!!

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    1. Thanks for your comment! :) That's so nice that you had nice time in Japan! Same here. For a long time, I didn't know that smiley faces are different in English! :D My friends have been enjoying their "adventure" over here. They managed to open their bank account here and were very proud of themselves as the people at the bank couldn't understand much English so they communicated mostly in Japanese. :)

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    2. Ha ha! Awesome! I remember struggling to do that- & then being very excited because my Japanese bank card had a picture of snoopy on it!! Bank cards in Australia are much more boring!

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  3. Macaroni&cheese!!!:D My friend has a family in US and when we were kids they were always sending her packages with macaroni&cheese. I loved it so much that always when I came to play with her, very often actually because she lived in the next street, her mum made us this:D I think I must have been rude because I even was asking if we'll have macaroni&cheese:P

    Haha, that's funny of what your friends ate.

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    1. I had mac&cheese 3 times last week enjoying North America at home. :) I have to slow down a bit. Haha. :D

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  4. I love macaroni and I love cheese, but not together. But, I never ate them from the boxs like americans do it. I`m sure it is tasteful.

    It was fun to read about friends eating raw food.

    Greetings from Bosnia and Herzegovina :)

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    1. Thanks for your comment! :) Till I went to Canada, I'd never tried macaroni and cheese in that way, but I loved it so much. They're so easy to cook. :D

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