Wadaiko & a Home visit!!

Minasan, have you ever heard of the word wadaiko before?

I first heard this word when I went to Japan, as I said before the program gave us the chance to choose between 4 different activities that reflect a major part of Japans traditions and culture (Wadaiko, Aikido (material art), Ikebana (flower art), satou (Tea ceremony)), I chose Aikido (I already talked about it ...click here to check it out) and wadaiko.

Wadaiko means Japanese drums, there are different types of Taiko (drums) and different types of performance that can be played (Multi-drum, multi-player, Multi-drum, one player, One drum, multi-player, One drum, one player), wadaiko is a very important and essential part in the Japanese culture because it’s played in festivals( and of course u can imagine the number of festivals Japanese people have ), during my stay in Kansai Japanese language institute, I used to hear wadaiko sound at night , this is because there was a festival everyone was preparing for ( danjiri matsuri , I will talk about it in a later post) , so Japanese people take it seriously and so I did when I played.

So why do Japanese people have a great emphasis on wadaiko this much??

Well, as you all know, the first thing a baby hears is the voice of one’s mother heart beat, the sound of wadaiko reassembles the sound of the mother heart beat, this gives the power to whom ever play or listen to the wadaiko amazing sound, I fell in love with wadaiko, my heart beat in a way it didn’t beat before while listening to it the first time( in Miyajima island),and when I started learning it, although my hands started to hurt me after hitting the drum for a long time, but I kept wanting to hit the drum , of course playing with a group of people is what made it more fun , you can feel the powerful spirit that wadaiko have once u start hitting the drums ^^



I think the home stay is a good chance for a Japanese language student, actually it may be the most rewarding and memorable part of an experience abroad, and imparts special insight into the culture and daily life of the host country.

first my Japanese mom akemi san picked me up from kansai center and then we went by her car to different places before we went home, well , she speaks very fast , I was impressed by her , she went to many countries although she is afraid from getting into airplanes , I thought that she was really interesting .

We went to an art museum ^_^ I enjoyed my time there, we were lucky that there was a classical music show at the same day we went there ^^ it was at 1 pm, so we had time to eat lunch before the show.





The Art Museum^^




The Piano they used in the Classical music show ^^

we took a break for lunch (ramen place), now I already told my Japanese mom that I can’t eat ham meat cause I am Muslim, so I expected a ramen without ham in it, but after one spoon of my ramen, she put her hashi (shop sticks) in my ramen and took ham meat from it saying that u can’t eat this right!! Well I was shocked that the ramen had ham in it, so I told her that I can’t even eat something cooked with ham, she accepted it with a huge smile in her face telling me it’s ok ^^ and then instead I ate tempura which is completely safe^^ oishikatta.



The ramen with ham meat in it >_< & Tempura ^_^

Then after that we went back to the art museum to watch the classical music show, although all of the people watching the show were old, but I really enjoyed it ^^

Then we went to her best friend’s house, she wanted to show her the pictures of their recent trip , my Japanese mom traveled a lot, they were really nice to me and was interested to know more about me and my country , also the father tried to talk to me in English , that was cute ^^



Akemi san ( my Japanese okaachan ) , her friend family^^

Anyway , after that we went to a super market to buy groceries because my Japanese mother wanted to cook something special for me ( how nice was that) , anyway , she invited her son and his wife , because it was weekend ( Sunday) ,I met the father , he was really nice , in fact everyone were, I felt that Japanese families are similar to the Arabic one, cause the role of the mother is the same , when the son entered the house he hugged his dad and drank beer with him and his wife and me entered the kitchen to prepare the food( see what I mean >_>) , I really enjoyed the food , the best meal I had in Japan.



Look how cute my Japanese family is ^^

I now have a new family in Japan; this feeling is something that I won’t trade for anything in this world.