A Family from Californis

A family with very cute girls and their friend from California enjoyed making sushi in my house. The three-year-old and four-year-old girls also tried to make sushi without wasabi by themselves. They were so impressed how delicious the real wasabi was and I was so glad that all of my guests looked so satisfied.
 

A Family from Singgapore

Wearing a woman's kimono is quite difficult because it doesn't have any buttons or zippers and it is longer than the wearer's height. We use two strings and an Obi sash to fit it to us. I taught a Singaporean family, consisting of parents and a daughter, how to put on yukatas, simple cotton kimono for the summer season. After putting on their yukatas, we walked around a nearby Shinto shrine and park to take a lot of pictures. I was so glad to see them taking pictures with each other in high spirits.

 

Nice Couple from Oslo

My guests came from the capital city of Norway, Oslo. They tasted both real wasabi-horseradish and wasabi-paste in a tube, and realized the big difference between them. They have Asian markets in their town so they can buy sushi rice, rice vinegar, and Nori-laver there. However, it's difficult to buy real wasabi-horseradish in their country. They really wanted to take the real wasabi to Oslo as a souvenir. According to a reliable website, they can take it to Norway without any problems but it's impossible to take it to the U.S. I hope they will find wasabi at a nearby department store of their hotel and surprise their friends in Oslo.

A Nice French Couple

A nice French couple made sushi in my house. They bought a block of fresh tuna and wasabi-horse radish at Tsukiji Market and I prepared the other ingredients such as shrimp, scallop, salmon, mackerel, avocado and so on. I usually show my guests how to make sushi-rice, makizushi, nigiri and battleship shaped sushi. Many foreign guests have eaten sushi in their own countries but don't know how to ma...ke sushi-rice. They are very impressed with the delicious sushi rice which they make with me. I have also eaten sushi in several foreign countries and I was always disappointed with it. The most important thing to remember when making sushi-rice is not to mash the rice grains. I have several helpful hints for making good sushi-rice. If you want to know them, please visit my house. Let's make delicious sushi together!!

 

An Australian Couple at Oguruma-Beya

I guided an Australian couple to Oguruma-baya sumo stable. During the morning training, high ranking wrestlers called Sekitori wear white loincloths and the others wear black ones. When I visited that stable last summer, four wrestlers wearing white loincloths were practicing hard. Today, I found only two wrestlers wearing white loincloths. The two wrestlers had been demoted from the Makuuchi divi...sion to the Makushita class. It's a severe society. The next tournament will start on the 12th so another Sekitori wrestler from Mastugane-beya came to the stable and they practiced together, as both stables belong to the same group. There are 44 sumo stables now and each stable belongs to one of six groups. The stables in the same group usually cooperate with each other in things such as morning training and kind of roadshows. The word 'stable' sounds strange for English native speakers but we say 'sumo stable' because wrestlers live together like racehorses in a big building with a sumo ring.

A French Couple and their Daughters

A nice French family came to my house to make sushi after walking around Tsukiji Fish Market with an excellent French speaking guide. All of them really enjoyed traveling around Hiroshima, Hakone and Tokyo. They told us that they would visit Japan someday in autumn to enjoy the beautiful colored leaves. After the sushi party, I guided them to the top floor of my condo to see the view of Tokyo and the Hello-Kitty shop near my house. They are going to back to their country with a lot of nice memories of Japan.