Oguni

i've told her several times that we can't eat meats and drink any kind of alcohol. yet, when we were there the food served was sushi rice bowl, it was some kind of sushi with salads and slices meat over a bed of steamy rice served in a big bowl.  the other side dish made by my Chinese friends which is called gyoza was also have meat in it. so, i just smiled to hubby and we knew that we will get starved that afternoon and the only food that we can eat  was my yummy karipap.

sushi rice bowl also known as 'sushi malas'

gyoza

after the 'kanpai' ceremony (equivalent for "cheers!"), the lunch started.  

"make yourself at home, please take anything you want" said Hara san, 62 years old.

 noticed that we just stand still with the mango juice in hand without touching any food though, she began to take some bowl to gave us when i finally reminded her that we cant eat meat.

" ooh, i totally forgot about that", she said with her guilty face.  after talked to other Japanese about us, she then approached the dining table and started to fill the bowl again. but this time, she cleared the meats aside and put only rice and salads in it.

once again i said, " hara san, its ok. we eat already at home. no, thanks"

"this is without meat, you can eat. or you dont use chopstick?"

" we cant eat because it was all mixed"

she looked so surprised and then talked to other Japanese again, as if she was really shocked that our religious rules was so strict about that.
she was so hard to find something that we can eat and finally my kids got ice cream each of them.

that was the story all about, once we were in Oguni. Hara san is a volunteer at Nagaoka Civic Centre, the place where i attended to study nihonggo now.  very kind hearted person, yet in her golden age now she is very active with so many activities she had.  i am so much inspired by her, in term of trying to fulfil dreams in this short life we had.

hara san with my chinese fren

chatting session 

on the way back to nagaoka, we stopped by the paddy field, at one beautiful spot along the road to have  short photo shooting.