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Nadia lives in the USA, but her mother is from Japan. What differences are there between living in Japan
and in the USA? Write down what you know, then watch this mini movie and find out what Nadia thinks.

plumbing – sanitæranlegg
porta potty – flyttbart utendørs toalett / flyttbart utandørs toalett
pet – klappe
nostril – nesebor / nasebore

So I’m going to Japan this summer because … I need to see my family again, cause I haven’t seen them since 5^th grade. And this’ll probably be the last time I see my grandma, which is really sad. I love Japan – it’s like honestly amazing, and it’s a great experience. The people there are so friendly, and they’re so welcoming too like … as soon as you step in their homes they’re like nice and they smile, and although they can’t understand you sometimes, they really try hard. And I usually pick up a few things there.

Their houses are really different, too. My grandma lived in a traditional house. So my mom said, like one time we were there, she’s like: “Go upstairs”. And, so I was looking for the stairs and I couldn’t find it and then she showed me, and it was like one step and so it was kinda weird. And since my grandma’s house was a little older she didn’t have like plumbing really. I mean her sink had like running water, but her toilet was like a porta potty. And, uhm, the houses are really close … Like we’d –, she didn’t have a yard at all. And uh, her sister lived right next door. Like I could take 10 steps and I’d be at her house.

And this summer I get to finally go to Tokyo, which I’ve been wanting to visit for a very long time now. And we also are going to … Osaka. I think is where we’re going. I don’t remember what that place was. But my favourite place … uhm, when I went there last time was Kyoto because it’s like … traditional. Uhm … there’s like, the temples there are like beautiful. And my mom really got to explain to –, like what her religion was to me, and like how it worked. Like there is this one thing where … you write your wish on a paper and then you hang it on this thing and it could come true. And there’s this other thing like it was before every temple, and this is the first thing my sister and I did at every single temple, was you’d wash your hands with this water and it was supposed to be like cleaning your soul which was like … I thought that was just like –, the message was really pretty.

And each temple is like so different. Uhm … there’s this one and like you walked into this room and there was like a hundred statues and they all looked at –, the same at first. But when you looked closely they were all like a little different. Like they had … It was just really pretty.

And we also went to Nara last time. And … what Nara is known for is like their deer. They have this one temple with like a really big Buddha. And as soon as you get to like the walkway that leads up to it, there are like deer everywhere. And like you can pet them and feed them. And that was my sister’s favourite place.

And then when you get inside the temple – the statues are huge like … I was a little should –, shorter at the time so maybe they seemed bigger than … they actually were. But they were still pretty big! There was one that was like – the biggest one – they cut out a hole in one of the poles to show you the size of the nostril of like the Buddha there, and like you could crawl inside it. It was … it was funny to see some people crawl through it, but it was like, also like amazed me like how big that was.

Crossroads

I love Japan

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