Shimada, Big Brother for a Day
The next stretch was shorter—about nine miles—but my body still hadn’t recovered. Halfway through, I stopped at a park where a group of kids were playing baseball. I decided to push myself a little and asked if I could join. To my surprise, they said yes. They handed me a bat, let me play, and I even pitched—though that didn’t go too well when one of the kids hit a home run off me. Still, it was one of those moments, I’m glad I went outside my comfort zone.
That night, I stayed at a host house, hoping for a more local experience, and it ended up being exactly that. The family welcomed me in, shared food, and did their best to communicate with me despite the language barrier. I accidentally took a cold shower because I didn’t understand how the system worked. I am starting to prefer the Japanese method of sitting down washing yourself and then relaxing in a hot bath tub over the standing American shower.
The next day, I spent time with their son—playing soccer, practicing casting a fishing rod, and getting ice cream together. I offered to take the kid with me one city over to go to the batting cages and to my surprise they agreed. It was kind of wild to think about—a Japanese-speaking 10-year-old going on a mini adventure with a foreigner they had known for less than 24 hours.
Getting there was an adventure in itself. I was riding a bike with one hand while holding Google Maps in the other, yelling directions in Japanese to the kid riding ahead of me. I hadn’t been on a bike in years, let alone tried to multitask like that, so it was definitely a bit of a struggle. We also ran into some issues at the station since it was smaller and the ticket system wasn’t very intuitive, but an older woman helped us.
Once we got to the batting cages, everything smoothed out. We had a great time—both batting and pitching—and it was surprisingly cheap, about 200 yen (roughly $1.25) for 20 balls. Afterward, I asked if he wanted to go anywhere else, and he said he wanted to check out a toy store.
That’s where a small but memorable moment happened. He really liked replica cars and found one he wanted. The way he said it made me think he was asking me to buy it for him, so I was hesitant. I had thought I was getting taken advantage of, but then I realized he’s 10. So I agreed to buy it, but when we got to the counter, he handed over his own money, and I realized he was just a little short(less than a dollar). I covered the difference, but I immediately felt bad for assuming the situation. It stuck with me—how quick I was to misread things, and how kind and responsible he actually was.
After a small convenience store trip, we made it back to the house safely, only to find the front door locked—but if you’re over the age of 16, you can probably figure out what that means… Moving on.
For dinner, the host mom cooked an amazing meal: tempura potatoes and onions, meatballs, rice, and miso soup(the bowl in the photo is sauce, miso soup out of camera). It was one of those simple but incredibly satisfying meals. After dinner, she and her son headed off to another house in a different city for work the next day.
That left me and the host dad, and we ended up watching a really funny Japanese TV show where comedians and an actress travel around the world exploring different places and playing games. Even without fully understanding what was being said, it was easy to follow and genuinely entertaining. After that, we watched his favorite show, Reboot, which happened to be the season finale. Did I understand what was going on? Not at all—but somehow, it was still a great time.
Then I slept in until 10 a.m. For lunch I went out to what is probably my new favorite restaurant in Japan, Niko to Kome. They serve a delicious medium-rare steak with unlimited rice, soup, and toppings. This was only 1,450 yen, and if you just want a 180-gram sirloin, it’s 1,000 yen. Then I worked on this blog until dinner time when host dad took me to the grocery store. Look at all I bought for less than a 1,000 yen.
It was a very chill, relaxing day. I will say, though, I’ve developed a newfound hate—and I mean hate—for mosquitoes. While I was trying to sleep that night, I kept hearing one buzz by my ear, forcing me to get up and try to kill it. I repeated this for two to three hours, taking out about four of them. Very annoying.