Guest #2 came to stay with us!

We had the second set of guests this summer vacation.
This time, it was a mother and her two chatty girls, ages 4 and 2.

In our homestay program, we ask our guests to prepare their own meals.
This is because there are some people who have allergies or other issues,
also because we believe that small children are used to
having their mothers' home-cooked meals.

The children this time were so cute!

I thought about how the life with our own grandchildren would be like😅.

We pulled out some toys that our kids used to play with
so that the little girls can play with them.

Since they wanted to play at the river,
we took them to the local river.
The little ones had a great time finding the river crabs etc.

One of the child doesn't like green peppers,
but the mother secretly put them in to their meal one day,
and the girl ate it up in one bite without noticing!
When the mother told the girl what she just ate,
there was this indescribable look on her face 😂.

After the kids went to bed,
the mother and us had a lot of fun talking and discussing parenting issues.

The husband couldn't make it this time due to work commitments,
but we do hope he could come visit us next time 🤗

We received the following sweet review from our guest😍.

This is a staycation place that puts the children first!

This was my first trip with my 4 and 2 year old daughters.
We stayed at John and Yoko's home for 4 nights and 5 days.
It took us three and a half hours to get there from Nagoya with two young kids,
but it was such a wonderful place to stay that makes us feel like to forget about the long drive
and just want to go back again in the future.

As soon as we arrived in Tamba Sasayama, we were surprised
at the cool and comfortable temperatures compared to Nagoya.

During the long summer vacation for kindergarten,
it has been hard to go out because of the heat in Nagoya.
But here, the mornings and evenings were cool enough to wear thin long sleeves,
and during the day it was hot and dry, so the children were happy
to be able to enjoy walking and playing outside.

John and Yoko, who had raised five children, were very nice and took good care of my daughters.
They also provided toys (more than my children could play with!)
and activities such as tending and harvesting vegetables in the garden,
and playing in the nearby river.
My daughters enjoyed feeding the parakeets and goldfish as part of their daily routine.
They loved playing with John and Yoko so much
that they refused to go out to other tourist spots.
Thanks to John and Yoko, I could take a nice break!
I felt very spoiled! Thank you so much.

My daughters are learning English at home,
so from the second day, John suggested that he would speak to them only in English.
He has a lot of experience in teaching English, so he spoke to them in a way that was appropriate for their age and level,
and they were able to communicate in English in a fun way.
John is also fluent in Japanese, so if we wanted to we could have spent our time only in Japanese.
However, for our family, it worked very good and we were be able to experience the country life and practice English.

My biggest concern about staying here was that the meals were not included.
However, Yoko accompanied me when I went grocery shopping with my two daughters, and both John and Yoko played with my children while I was cooking.
I was able to cook something that my younger daughter, who is a picky eater, could eat.
If meals had been included, the hosts would have been busy,
so I was happy that our daughters had more time to spend with Yoko and John while I cook.
There were days when we shared the food and ate together.
I loved the homemade Black soybean miso, and lavender tea Yoko served was too delicious to forget.

If you have any concerns or worries, you can consult with them before booking through Zoom interviews or on LINE chat.
So if you are interested in staying with John and Yoko,
I suggest you send a request and have an interview.
I am sure that you will be attracted by John and Yoko's personality and will want to stay with them.

I would love to visit again next year if my work schedule allows.
I hope this place won't be too popular and hard to even make a reservation! LOL!