Hey guys, how’s it going? My name is Micaela and today we’re in Okinawa which is in the
southernmost tip of Japan, and I’m here to experience “Minpaku”.
“Minpaku” refers to a short term home-stay, where guests temporarily stay with a family
that resides in other prefecture, primarily for the purpose of experiencing a bit of the
lifestyle or culture in a specific area.
These days the word “Minpaku” has expanded to include accomodaton such as airbnb, but
this is a little different than just saying in someone’s spare-room. A real minpaku
experience requires you to sit down and get to know the people you’re staying with,
hear their stories, and enjoy local foods, like this beni-imo mochi, made from okinawan
purple potatoes.
*singing*
It seems like the music never stops in this household, even as we sat down for a typical okinawan
dinner of taco-rice and ketchup pork, they sang to us in a way that made me wonder if
they were singing for us, or just for themselves.
As you can tell, Otousan loves to play the sanshin, and after dinner he gladly gave us
a lesson on how to play the sanshin ourselves.
I’m so excited. I got mine right here. About to learn how to play some authentic Okinawan music!
*instructions*
And although it was getting late, the cultural education continued as we dressed up and learned
to dance.
Ohhh my god.
First I tried on a Bingata Kimono. A kimono made of Okinawa materials, designed for the
warmer climate down south.
After we took some photos, it was time to change our clothes and learn traditional song
and dance.
So this is the room where I’ll be staying. In traditional “minpaku”, you sleep on
a futon that you lay out and set up yourself. This room has a kitchen which is actually
quite nice. And then I guess you can separate the rooms by a curtain if you need privacy…
Interesting!
Breakfast was served at 7:30 the next morning, and it would be rude to make everyone wait.
Another unspoken rule of “minpaku" is that you should always clean up after yourself,
including putting away your own bed every morning after
you wake up.
Goodmorning!
Even though we all went to bed past midnight the night before, breakfast was ready for
us at 7:30am. I realised, the Okasan must have got up very early to prepare it for us,
and to be honest, I felt really touched by her hospitality.
I’m sad we have to leave already but this was fun, I’m glad we did this.
Even after living in Japan for ten years now, there are so many things I haven’t experienced
yet. This was my first “minpaku" experience, but it's crazy to think that and a “minpaku” experience
elsewhere in Japan would probably be an entirely different experience. I definitely want to do this again
someday, not even just in Japan, but all over the world.