Well finally the day came - the day when I would meet my host family. I met them in a room on campus with an official interpreter to make sure both parties understood what was going on. My okaasan (mother) and my imouto (little sister) came to pick me up; otousan (father) was sleeping in the car. We went over basic rules, etc. It was kind of annoying that they spoke only to the translator and not to me, but they didn't know how much Japanese I knew/didn't know. Finally, I went with them to their car, and we picked up my luggage and went home. On the way, my okaasan took me to get a bus pass, since that's how I have to get back and forth from campus. Here was my first shock - in the States, I barely carry enough cash to buy a pack of gum. But here, its normal to carry around hundreds of dollars worth, apparently. My okaasan somehow expected me to have the $210 required to buy my bus pass, right then and there. Of course I didn't have it; instead, she bought it and I paid her back later.
Yikes! My first real money expenditure. But it was absolutely necessary - there's no other way I can get to school. Also included in that price was a temporary card, because my bus card won't go into effect until Thursday. But now that I paid for it, I intend to make the most of it. The bus pass is not only good from home to school, but all over the city. So I will be taking the bus a lot, I think. In fact, I intend to make an entire blog about the bus later.
Ok so I went home on the bus with my okaasan, who wanted to show me how to get back and forth from school. On the way we talked about various things, just getting-to-know kind of stuff. She told me that my Japanese was very good, although I know it's not. But she has hosted 8 foreign students so far, and of those 8 my Japanese is the best. At least that makes me feel a little better. We walked for about 15 mins in a suburb-type area, past aparment complexes, a police academy, and the ubiquitous construction projects. Finally, down a small side street full of swinging clotheslines, we arrived at the Shibata residence.
My first impression is - small and cold. I'm not exaggerating; this house is extremely small and old. It's hard to describe. It's old, with rust stains and cracked walls, but it's kept very neat. There are soo many things in each cupboard and drawer, but they are all kept in their place. Everything is small - a tiny dishwasher, a tiny washing machine, a tiny fridge. Its so different from American appliances and American homes. There is no central heating, of course - each room has its own floor heater which is on only when people are in the room. When you leave the room, you must turn it off. Thus the rest of the house is freezing, including my room.
My room is on the second floor, about 10x8 feet or so. (That may be really off, but I'm just estimating). There is a small desk and chair, and some bureaus, which are full of things already. That's it - I sleep on the hard wooden floor. Therefore I haven't slept very well these past few nights. If i thought the futon at school was bad, well, this is ten times worse. The pad between me and the floor is less than an inch think, and the pillow is very bad. Not to mention that when I wake up, I can see my own breath. That's how cold it is in the room, and the heater does absolutely nothing. Plus, before I go to sleep, I have to turn it off anyways. So I've abandoned my usual t-shirt and pants pajamas for a fleece and fuzzy socks when I go to bed. It helped, but still the hard floor is really tough. I suppose I'll get used to it...
So I got to know my host family. Otousan is a postal clerk, and is gone most of the time. He gets up at 6 and is gone by 7 AM, and doesn't come home until after 8 PM. So I don't see him much. But I know he likes music, since, like my own father, he must have some music on while eating. Also he's got quite a setup near the TV, as far as electronics go. He has a Japanese version of TiVo, and was able to copy DVDs with it quite easily, as far as I was able to determine. There is a device that hooks up to the DVR and copies the DVD to the hard disk of the DVR, and the DVR then burns it to a blank. Very interesting, and a much better way to do it than what I've been doing (if it actually works). Okaasan is a stay at home mom. She does everything in the house that needs doing (shopping, etc). Every morning she walks Mayu-chan to school at around 7:45, and picks her up (I assume). She also does things like craft class every Monday. Mayu is 9 years old, exactly one month older than Gracie (my own sister). She's pretty cute. The only one who speaks any English is the mom. At one time, she studied abroad in America. That's why she likes to host so many foreign students, and that's why she can speak some English. But I talk in Japanese as much as I can, although she often has to translate my Japanese so Mayu and otousan can understand. That's something I need to work on. I want to make my Japanese understandable to native Japanese, after all. But what's good is that I have plenty of opportunities to do so. Each night, as soon as I step through the door, is another chance to practice.
On Sunday night for dinner we had okonomiyaki - it's a vegetable pancake. Savory, not sweet. Basically, you mix up some batter and cabbage, and then put in some meat or whatever, then there's a special sauce. Okaasan cooks it in a central pot on the table, and everyone serves themselves. With every meal there is also rice, made in the rice cooker, and homemade miso soup. You can bet that I am excited to eat miso soup every meal. Okaasan doesn't put tofu in it, though. She likes to put lots of daikon (Japanese radish) instead. But it's still good. I tried lots of things the first night - natto being one of them. Natto is one of those notorious foods that every culture has; a traditional and traditionally disgusting favorite. Like haggis for the Scots, I think. But unlike haggis, lots of people here actually eat natto. Like my family. They eat lots of it, and so I was pressured to try it. It's actually just fermented soybeans, which doesn't sound so bad. But the texture is just....gross. Slimy and gross. So, no, I don't like it. I didn't pretend to like every Japanese food - I just like most of them. But I certainly won't have a problem eating okaasan's food. For drinks she makes green tea and then cools it in the fridge, so its basically iced tea. Or there's water.
Oh and I was wrong about Japanese people not wanting anything on their rice. They will dump anything on their rice. In one night I saw natto, kimchi, daikon, and various sauces/spices being put on rice. I tried this really good sea salt type stuff on the rice and it was really good. And for breakfast, okaasan said I can eat whatever is in the fridge, but I'm generally too afraid to touch anything in the fridge because it seems like it will all just topple over if I remove anything. Also, I don't know what alot of that stuff is. But luckily, okaasan showed me where the bread for toast is, and she bought me some cereal when I requested it. Acutally that was pretty funny - I asked for cereal, which is "se-ri-aru" in Japanese. But otousan thought I said CD-R, which would be "se-di-a-ru", or something like that. In any case, they are very similar. But it was an amusing mistake.
So we eat at 8, then Mayu goes to bed at 9, and Otousan goes into the ofuru (Japanese bath). Btw, I tried that too. Though I normally take a shower in the morning, and will continue to do so, I was so cold that first night that I went into the ofuro after Mayu and okaasan. This is how it works - you take off your clothes, then OUTSIDE the bath, you clean yourself with a handcloth and soap. Then, once you're sparkly clean, you may enter the bath. It's a very short but deep tub. Everyone uses the same water, since it costs so much to heat it. That's why you have to be clean before you go in, so the people after you can also have clean water. It's basically like a jacuzzi without chlorine. I'm glad I went into it, just for the experience, and to warm up. But I probably won't go in it again, since I like my morning showers.
I gave my okaasan and otousan the book about Connecticut that I bought, and they liked it. More looking at the pictures than anything else, but I tried to explain what each thing was. Some of those things, supposedly items that CT is famous for, I had never heard of. But I did my best. All in all, it was a successful present. Okaasan kept a japanese-english dictionary for reference. I tried to explain that I was half Jewish and half Christian. They had never heard of a Jewish person before! I didn't know how to BEGIN tackling that one. We'll get there, I expect. Mayu-chan likes have me play with the cat with her. Of course they have a cat, although I'm not a big cat person. I think he can tell, and he hates me too. The first night he scratched my arm all up. But oh well. Mayu also plays the violin and piano. She's quite good, waay better than me and her violin is better than Gracie. I think that's because she's already been playing for a while - they start them early here.
Here's Mayu playing the violin in the living room:
Ok I think that's all I have to say about my host family. My classes have started though, and that's a whole nother story. I think they will go well. As usual, I may have bitten off more than I can chew by taking 5 classes instead of 4. But there were just too many good ones to pass up. We'll see - I have the next two weeks to drop a class. If i do drop, it will probably be Reading and Writing Japanese, which promises to be difficult. But we'll see.
Here's the CAT, Jappi, curled up on top of the space heater:
Aggravating things:
Not a napkin or paper towel in sight, anywhere! They have disappeared off the face of the earth, and thus my main means of preparing food on my own is also gone. Also, don't Japanese people ever spill food on themselves, albeit rarely?
Multiple redundancy - In order to buy a textbook, you must receive a coupon from your teacher, go to the ticket machine in the admin building and purchase a ticket for the price of the book, then go back to the CIE and present the ticket WITH the coupon in order to get the book. How ridiculous!
No wireless anywhere - and for that matter, I haven't been able to access the internet much. And just useful stuff, like looking up the nearest movie theater, I can't do! I guess it's because I don't know where to look, and even if I did, I wouldn't be able to understand it.
Ok folks that's all for now. More information as events warrant.
Leave comments please! So far, I only know that Julia is reading. And don't forget to check out Haley's blog, haleyinjapan.blogspot.com. Ja ne!
