BBQ with family

On the 23rd of September (Saturday), the host family organized another BBQ and invited me to join. In principle, it was not much different from my first BBQ, except that there were fewer people.

Since I still find it difficult to express myself in Japanese due to my limited vocabulary and lack of grammar, my host father used Google Translate. I know it has a bad reputation, but it was surprisingly accurate as long as the sentences were simple enough. Although I always tried to respond in Japanese, I think my host father wanted to test the communication function and therefore asked me if I could answer in German... Maybe a bit counterproductive for me, but at least listening already helped a bit.

In typical Japanese fashion, they also offered me beer, which I still don't drink... Instead, they gave me red wine again. Somehow you can't avoid drinking at such events with Japanese people. After we had bananas and marshmallows for dessert, we moved back to my host parents' living room due to the cold. My host father more or less slept on the floor while the grandchildren romped around him. Meanwhile, the adults continued to chat. Later, one of the grandchildren showed me photos and I immediately showed my own photos. They were all very fascinated by the family photos. Just because three years ago, I had long hair. They were all very surprised that I cut it so short.

When the bottle of red wine was empty, some of us switched to whisky and my host mother gave us some snacks. When I mentioned that I enjoy playing Shogi (Japanese chess), they convinced me, in my slightly tipsy state, to play against a six or seven-year-old child... I have to admit that strategy games are not my strong suit and I haven't fully internalized all the rules yet, but it was enough to beat the boy twice^^

Afterwards, I played a round of UNO with the children, as it seems to be quite popular in Japan. I think I came in third or so. But it doesn't matter.

At the end of the evening, I just fell into bed. I used Sunday to rest and revise some Japanese.

Best regards

Janina