The girl that has been in Aso for 5 years, Xina, invited me out the other day to take part in some food steaming up in Oguni (a nearby town.) One of her Japanese friends had a sister in town from Kyoto who is a writer for a major Japanese newspaper. About five women came and brought all these raw foods for our lunch. We made different types of dumplings and steamed them by directing a metal pipe with the natural steam towards our food. One of the women had twin sons that I officially want to adopt, so Xina and I had a blast playing with the kids. While the women fussed about making their dumplings perfect, Xina, the kids and I were more interested in making dough moustaches and drumming with our chopsticks. I think (or hope) the old ladies got a kick out of us though! Then, to top it off, our picture was put in the newspaper! Here is the link –

Asahi article I’m famous!

After we made the food, we walked around the town, went to an onsen and just had a nice, relaxing Sunday! I hope to do more stuff like this in the future! Here are some pictures of the day: