Japanese Swordsmith!

Not exactly as a homestay program, but as a day trip program, we went to visit the Japanese swordsmith's workshop this time.
He works on making Japanese sword using fire during winter (it is too hot during summer!), so 10 of us went to see him working.

It is a very interesting process. The only place the swordsmith can get the material in Japan is from Shimane prefecture. The iron sand from that particular place is good enough for making Japanese sword.
We saw only a small part of the whole process, which takes 1 month or so to complete, you can see the process on YouTube here as a reference.

After seeing him working, he explained many things about Japanese sword, as well as why he became a swordsmith, how many full-time swordsmiths are in Japan etc. 

Then we took a group photo with him. and moved on to a Korean restaurant (Surakkan) to have lunch. The chef is from Korea and serves very good food! The restaurant is very popular now and for lunch time, we would recommend you to give a call to reserve seats before you go, especially if you are in a group and would rather to sit on chairs than on tatami floor.

After having a nice lunch and relaxing fun chat with each other, some of the participants left for other activities such as shopping etc., and the rest came to our place for tea and coffee.
As you may well know by now, WE LOVE TO TALK. 😆  So the little guys played with toys while adults talked. Some even stayed for dinner! 
It's always nice to have people around! We love it!

One of the participants today was a friend of our friend who are studying at Kobe University, and now we have another new friend!
We love to see the circle of friends expands!

Some day, would you like to come over and be friends with us?