First to finish up yesterday's events. For dinner, the family wanted to take me out to a restaurant as a sort of farewell gift. I didn't have any particular preferences, and I don't know much about the restaurants around here anyway, so I let them suggest some, and we decided on a family restaurant. I don't know the name, though.
When we got there, I looked through the menu and felt right at home. A lot of the stuff would have been pretty normal to see on an American menu. I ended up ordering a mixed plate with kind of a meatloaf, fried chicken similar to what I had at the izakaya, mixed vegetables, hashbrowns, corn soup, and french bread (sort of). And I got the juice bar, which is just unlimited drinks of whatever was there. The food was really good, and I ended up drinking three cups of Calpis water when I saw it was on the drink list. That stuff is really good. I've heard it's some sort of yogurt thing, but I don't think that's quite right. According to their website, it's a "lactic-acid" drink, so it's milk based in some way, but I don't know. Yukie thought it was really funny that I liked it so much.
Now on to today.
Despite the weather report saying 100% chance of rain through about 4pm today, it had already stopped before I woke up and it didn't rain at all today. That was a nice, unexpected boon.
I was a little late to school again, but it didn't really matter. They tell us to get there at 9, but class doesn't start until 9:20 or 9:30, and they usually don't give announcements until 5 or 10 minutes before that, so I didn't miss much. Anyway, we all had to fill out surveys about our host families, the school experience, the trip in general, and so on. We also returned the cell phones and ID cards the school gave us in the beginning, so I am now trapped in Japan without a cell phone. To be precise, I have one, but it only works in America.
In class, we each did a practice run-through of our survey result presentations and got a little feedback from the teacher, then did the real things in front of both classes, both teachers plus the program head, Kanzaki-sensei, and a couple of our Japanese buddies. I don't think there were any particular issues with the presentation. It seemed to run pretty smoothly.
After that, we paid our phone bills (mine was 300-some yen, by far the lowest. They charged 100 yen per minute), then went to lunch, which was the usual cheap kitsune udon for me. Kitsune means fox, but it's actually just tofu stuff. After lunch, I had my final kanji test. I'm not too confident in this one. I might have gotten 10/10, but I'm only really confident in 7 of them. This was one of the harder tests, and I didn't study much at all for it with everything else that's been going on. Oh well. Even if it's just 7/10, it's not as bad as I did on some of the early tests.
I came home and played piano for what will probably be the last time in Japan, then started packing my suitcases. At this point, everything's basically packed, minus what I'll be using tonight and tomorrow. I did manage to fit those figures in, but there's not really any room for more, so the rest will have to be shipped home. Well, maybe a couple small ones, but I don't know...
As I was packing, Yukie came in and told me that she had bought Taiyaki, which I vaguely remember telling her was one of the foods I wanted to try while I was in Japan. Taiyaki are fish-shaped pastries, usually filled with an, a red bean paste, but really they come with all sorts of sweet things inside. I of course had one, but I chose the custard-filled one instead of an, since I've had an before and didn't care much for it. It tasted really good.
Yukie also bought two bottles of concentrated Calpis formula for me to take home. Each bottle is supposed to be enough for 15 cups of the drink, so I'll be able to share it with everyone when I get back. She got two different flavors, though, one original and one grape, I think, which I've never tried. We'll have to see what it's like.
Around 6:00, I went to the farewell party at the school. I was biking over by myself, because Ranmaru had tennis at 6, so they'd be late. On the way over, I was going a little (a lot) too fast down the big hill right before the school, and came very close to being hit by a car when I went across a street on the hill. Like, within a few inches. Granted, he was already stopping anyway, so the car would have barely tapped me, but even still. I'd say it was about 80% my fault, although he was also pulling a little too far forward before stopping. Not like I'm likely to ever have the opportunity to again, but I don't plan to ride quite that fast when there are streets like that in the future. I roughly stopped my bike about 5 feet past the car, turned back and signaled that I was alright, saying "daijoubu" (which I'm sure he didn't hear), and continued on. I did get a slight scrape on the side of my knee from hitting the bike as I was trying to stop it, but it's nothing to worry about.
Ok, so anyway, the farewell ceremony closely resembled the opening ceremony, taking place in the chapel with much the same service. The difference was that this time, they presented us with certificates saying that we participated in the course and so on and so forth. I can only read about half of it.
Then we moved on to the party portion, and everyone toasted everyone (which I could actually participate in this time, since they had juice and not just tea) before moving on to dinner, which was all sorts of small foods. I stuck to dishes where people didn't have to use their own chopsticks to serve themselves, at least after the first trip, since I don't trust people to not use the end they eat off of. It was good, and enough to fill me up. They had a slideshow running most of the time on a giant projector screen, showing a lot of pictures that they had taken throughout the trip. It was fun to look at all those again. They also gave all the students a farewell package which included a CD, presumably with those pictures on it; a towel with the school's name and logo; and a bottle of... glue. I'm still scratching my head over that one, but whatever.
They also gave out prizes for the best presentations in the classes, one for the beginner class and one for the advanced class. My team won the prize for the beginner class. We each received an envelope containing... a cow keychain. But not just any cow keychain, oh no. This one has a button on its head, and when you press it, it moos and shoots blue lasers out of its nostrils. Seriously. Okay, maybe not lasers, but a really bright light. I really don't understand these gifts.
Most of the other students went to an izakaya after the farewell party, but I decided to come straight home instead. After all, I wasn't going to drink, and I was already pretty full from everything else, so I really didn't see the point in going to a buffet. I said my goodbyes and headed out. I rode my bike nice and slow on the way home.
So that's it for this house. I think I'll quickly take a few pictures of the rest of the house, since I never did actually do all that like I said I would, and then I'll get ready for bed and go to sleep. I have to get up pretty early tomorrow, so I should get as much sleep as I can. Goodnight.
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Days 20 and 21: "Culture experiences" and shopping
Thursday we did some calligraphy after school. It was pretty hard to do it right, as expected. In the end, we each put one kanji of our choice on a paper/plastic fan. Mine was 雪 (snow/yuki). It was either that or 炎 (flame/honoo) for me. Snow implying cold, because you use the fan to cool off, or flame implying heat because you use the fan when it's hot. I decided I liked snow better. Unfortunately, it looks kind of childish, because I'm just not that good at calligraphy, and I got the proportions all messed up. Oh well.
Friday we got to try on yukata. They had enough for the girls, but not the boys, so I only put it on for about 5 minutes or so, and didn't get any pictures on my camera. A few other people got pictures of me, but I don't have them yet. In the end, all the girls (and two guys) wore their yukata for this group picture, with the rest of the guys who didn't have one standing in the back.
That night, I went out grocery shopping with Yukie. First, we picked Ranmaru up from his school, so I got to see that (I didn't bring my camera) and he came along.
We ended up buying a couple small frozen pizzas, and all the ingredients for tacos and "eggs in the basket" which probably has some other more official name somewhere, but is basically just bread with a hole cut out and an egg put inside, fried together, with cheese put on top.
For dinner, I fixed (with Yukie's help, since I don't know my way around her kitchen) soft-shelled tacos. They tasted almost exactly like they do back home, which made me very pleased. Everyone liked them, so I guess Yukie has another recipe to add to her collection now.
And now, more random observations:
Friday we got to try on yukata. They had enough for the girls, but not the boys, so I only put it on for about 5 minutes or so, and didn't get any pictures on my camera. A few other people got pictures of me, but I don't have them yet. In the end, all the girls (and two guys) wore their yukata for this group picture, with the rest of the guys who didn't have one standing in the back.
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| Very colorful and flowery. |
We ended up buying a couple small frozen pizzas, and all the ingredients for tacos and "eggs in the basket" which probably has some other more official name somewhere, but is basically just bread with a hole cut out and an egg put inside, fried together, with cheese put on top.
For dinner, I fixed (with Yukie's help, since I don't know my way around her kitchen) soft-shelled tacos. They tasted almost exactly like they do back home, which made me very pleased. Everyone liked them, so I guess Yukie has another recipe to add to her collection now.
And now, more random observations:
- The most common color of umbrella here seems to be transparent. White and pale flowery colors are also common, as is black.
- I don't know if I said this before, but basically everyone uses cash and coins instead of cards. Most places don't even accept cards. Stores, and even vending machines, will often accept 10,000 yen bills (roughly $130), which seem to be pretty common.
- Most store and restaurant prices include tax. Occasionally, it
will list two prices, one before and one after tax. It makes it a lot
easier to see how much you'll have to pay in advance, which is
especially useful considering the reliance on cash.
- Women in general wear their hair short far more often than they do in the US. Probably at least 50% have neck-length or shorter hair.
Longer hair is often tied in some way. Ponytails are common, and among the middle school girls I've seen on all my trips, twintails seem particularly popular. Twintails refers to two ponytails, one on either side of the head, like in the picture. These can be anywhere from an inch and a half or so to about a foot long. It seems like a good 25% of the girls in that age range wear their hair like that. I also saw two today (Saturday) who each had one ponytail, but sticking out opposite sides in the back (one to the left, one right).- Instead of napkins, people use small wet washcloths, or nothing at all. Occasionally tissues serve the function of napkins if washcloths are unavailable and someone makes a mess.
- Japanese McDonald's is very similar to American McDonald's, with some added menu items such as McPork and Teriyaki Burger. I had the McPork, which while not bad wasn't anything special. I also had a plain hamburger so I could compare with the US, and it tasted identical as far as I could tell. McDonald's was also the only place so far that I've seen a real napkin. One. They didn't give multiple with my order. Not that I would have used more than one, but they always give way more in the US.
- I have confirmed that there is no "correct" side of the path to walk or bike on. The very concept of there being one is foreign to them. Instead, people and bikes just sort of weave in and out of each other's ways.
- Lots of people seem to be employed to stand there. Supposedly they direct traffic, but they spend the vast majority of the time standing there nodding to pedestrians as they go by. Their actual job seems to be mostly to stop cars from running into people passing by by instead standing in their way themselves until everyone else is out of the way.
- People give out lots of free flyers, free food samples, and tissue packets with ads stuck in them. Stores also often have someone standing outside to call customers in, shouting "irasshaimase!" (welcome) whenever anyone comes close and yelling about their various goods or special deals.
- I will amend my previous statement about number of people into anime. While I haven't met very many into anime myself, it must be more popular, as there are whole stores and stands dedicated to it. Still, it doesn't seem to be a very universal interest (except One Piece, which, again, is absolutely everywhere).
- Gachapon machines are common. I don't even know what they're called in the US, but they're those things in stores where you put in some coins, turn the handle, and get a random toy out the bottom. Capsule machines. The variety of goodies is much wider in Japan than the US, though. Still haven't actually bought anything from one yet, as they generally cost 200 yen per try.
- Vending machines are all over the place, even along the middle of the street in my suburban neighborhood. Most sell drinks, such as tea, coffee, fruit juice, sometimes soda, water, and milk. Some sell cigarettes, and require a special card that proves you're over 20 before you can buy from them. Others sell ice cream or similar snacks. I don't think I've seen any for the more typical chips, cookies, crackers, pretzels, or what-have-you that they put in them in the US.
- Pachinko and slots are both apparently very popular. There are tons of signs for them everywhere, especially when you go downtown to one of the shopping arcades, but even just around the city. They're usually advertised with famous anime characters on the signs, so it always catches my eye before I realize what it is.
Days 17 and 18: Getting tired of the food
These past couple days haven't been very exciting. The cultural activities were "Japanese manners" yesterday, which was a bunch of stuff that we pretty much all already knew (otherwise we'd be in trouble by now), and the tea ceremony today (I went through the motions, but didn't actually drink anything). The ceremony was kind of complicated, but I now at least understand a bit of the reasoning behind turning the cups and all that. And apparently one of the cups they served tea in, the fanciest one, was worth over $1,000. That's too much for any non-ancient cup, in my opinion, and it didn't even look all that special... As for turning the cups, it's so that the design faces you when it's served to you, and away from you when you drink so everyone else can see it.
I'm getting kind of tired of Japanese food. It's different every day, but a lot of the dishes are pretty similar. It's lacking the level of variety in my usual American foods. Yesterday's lunch was actually pretty nasty. I didn't realize exactly what I was ordering when I got it, but it ended up being rice with those little fish/eel things in it, covered in an omelet-style egg, with some sort of slime sauce on top. The sauce was particularly disgusting. I don't know what it is with Japanese people and slimy foods, but they seem to love them. I ate most of the food, except the sauce, but I couldn't finish it. I even ate most of the fish. It helped that it was warm this time.
To make up for yesterday's lunch, today's lunch was decidedly American-esque. Breaded chicken (chicken cutlet, so not quite normal) in marinara sauce with lettuce, a tomato slice, some other greens, and a side soup and rice. That was pretty good. Dinner today was actually pretty similar to lunch, but better. The menus change daily without any input from me, so I guess I just got lucky today.
Yukie invited me out shopping with her, so I'll probably go at some point when we're both free to help pick out groceries and maybe make some of the American food I know how to cook for everyone. Assuming I can find good ingredients at reasonable prices.
Tomorrow the school is taking us all on a trip to Nara. I don't know much about what's there, so we'll see how it goes when I report back.
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| Kneeling in the tea room at school after the ceremony. |
To make up for yesterday's lunch, today's lunch was decidedly American-esque. Breaded chicken (chicken cutlet, so not quite normal) in marinara sauce with lettuce, a tomato slice, some other greens, and a side soup and rice. That was pretty good. Dinner today was actually pretty similar to lunch, but better. The menus change daily without any input from me, so I guess I just got lucky today.
Yukie invited me out shopping with her, so I'll probably go at some point when we're both free to help pick out groceries and maybe make some of the American food I know how to cook for everyone. Assuming I can find good ingredients at reasonable prices.
Tomorrow the school is taking us all on a trip to Nara. I don't know much about what's there, so we'll see how it goes when I report back.
Day 16: Church and barbeque
Sunday I went to church in the morning, barely biking there on time to be picked up. But still on time. There were actually quite a few Americans there this week, visiting for various reasons. They had 41 people, which is quite rare for them. I didn't get much out of the first two hours this week, but the third hour I understood almost all of. It helped that half the people there spoke English as their native language, and one of them had an English version of the reading material available.
After church, Yukie picked me up from the train station and we went to a barbeque she and some friends had put together for a few of the host families and their students, both current and former. So there were a bunch of people there who I didn't know, but it was still fun. We were outside in a park area next to a small stream. After everyone had eaten, most of us went down to the water and watched the kids catch frogs, bugs, and fish. It was a good time. Unfortunately, I got sunburned on the back of my neck, and probably some on my arms and face, but not noticeably. I got burned a lot worse on my first Sunday here at the softball game. It took most of the first week for my skin to not look red anymore.
So that was Sunday. I can't think of anything else exciting that happened. Unfortunately, no pictures, since I didn't bring my camera to church (and hence to the picnic). But Yukie did bring a change of clothes for me in the car, so I wasn't out there all day in my suit. That would have been horrible.
After church, Yukie picked me up from the train station and we went to a barbeque she and some friends had put together for a few of the host families and their students, both current and former. So there were a bunch of people there who I didn't know, but it was still fun. We were outside in a park area next to a small stream. After everyone had eaten, most of us went down to the water and watched the kids catch frogs, bugs, and fish. It was a good time. Unfortunately, I got sunburned on the back of my neck, and probably some on my arms and face, but not noticeably. I got burned a lot worse on my first Sunday here at the softball game. It took most of the first week for my skin to not look red anymore.
So that was Sunday. I can't think of anything else exciting that happened. Unfortunately, no pictures, since I didn't bring my camera to church (and hence to the picnic). But Yukie did bring a change of clothes for me in the car, so I wasn't out there all day in my suit. That would have been horrible.
Day 9: Church and Osaka Castle
Sunday I got shown the way to the station more directly by bike, and was picked up by Bishop Ozaki and taken to church. It was a small branch, only about 35 people there, but there were two missionaries I met there who spoke English. I couldn't really understand much of what was said, since people tend to use different language at church than they do in regular conversation. However, I got the idea, I could sing all the hymns, and aside from the size and the language, it was pretty much just like every other church meeting I've ever attended. The church is the same everywhere. [For those of you reading who don't know me personally, I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or the Mormon church.] After church, I got a ride back to the station, biked home, and soon departed with my host family for Osaka Castle.
After we got there, our first stop was a big playground, where Ranmaru climbed around for maybe 10 minutes before we moved on.
After that, we headed off towards the castle, but not before passing by many other interesting objects, people, and scenery:
There were actually a lot of foreigners there, too. I saw several American families, along with some Chinese and I think Koreans. No one really looked at me as anything special there for once.
At this point we went inside the manor, took an elevator (!) to the top, and looked around the area from above. We didn't have much time to spend there, because it was closing in half an hour, but we skimmed through all the displays. It was basically set up like a museum, and about half of it had English text next to the Japanese.
One of the coolest things I saw in there (at least I think so) is the blade of a short sword that was forged by the legendary Masamune. It has his real name engraved on the blade as the maker. The hilt was gone, apparently rotted away, but the blade that remained was very impressive. I could clearly see the temper line, and the display said that there were traces of gold lines through it, but I couldn't see them. I would have taken a picture of it, but photography and video was prohibited on that floor.
And that concludes the tour of the Osaka Castle park. It was a busy, fun day. For dinner, we went to one of those sushi bars where the food goes around on conveyor belts and you pick up whatever you want. I had udon and a couple other not-really-sushi things.
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| Apartments on the way there. |
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| Some interesting architecture we drove by. I have no idea what this building is. |
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| Sadly, you'd never see playgrounds this dangerous in the US anymore. It looked like a lot of fun. |
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| Ranmaru had fun walking in the fountain. I didn't want to take my shoes off (and there were tons of people around) or I might have joined him. |
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| The fountain was going taller than he was. |
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| The area is basically a huge park. People were riding those skateboards that twist in the middle, and I saw a few people on some things I'd never seen before. Like a cross between roller skates and a skateboard: Two small boards with just two wheels on each, and you use one board per foot. It looked really hard to use. |
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| Interesting trees. I don't know what they're called. I asked Yukie and she didn't know either. |
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| Someone was bouncing down the path towards us in an astronaut costume. I have no idea why. |
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| Osaka Castle was first built in the 1500s, but has been damaged, burnt down, largely destroyed, and rebuilt several times since then. Still, some of the walls I was walking next to and climbing on were older than my country by a good century or two. That's something to think about. |
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| An impressive stone wall we were on. |
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| ...right next to a forest, right next to a cityscape. |
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| Ranmaru kept worrying everyone by getting just a little too close to the edge, but we were never in any real danger. Those grooves along the wall are presumably archer/crossbow slits. |
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| The plant life in that area was really different from anything else I've seen here. It was pretty cool. |
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| An ancient Buddhist temple, I believe. |
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| The wall that borders the moat. The moat actually only goes about 3/4 of the way around, with the rest of it just being a huge ditch. Apparently that's how it was originally, and no one knows why (I read that off a sign). |
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| More cool plants. |
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| The front gate of the castle courtyard. |
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| A torii opposite the main gate, outside, and right next to a modern refreshment stand. |
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| The stones that made up the wall were huge. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to roll those into place. |
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| Approaching the central manor. |
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| An ancient cannon, apparently. |
One of the coolest things I saw in there (at least I think so) is the blade of a short sword that was forged by the legendary Masamune. It has his real name engraved on the blade as the maker. The hilt was gone, apparently rotted away, but the blade that remained was very impressive. I could clearly see the temper line, and the display said that there were traces of gold lines through it, but I couldn't see them. I would have taken a picture of it, but photography and video was prohibited on that floor.
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| Yukie and myself after we left the manor. |
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| We all enjoyed some ice cream. |
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| Ranmaru, Hiroto, and I climbed up this wall. They did it the easy way and went up the stairs. I did it the hard way and climbed up the front. Really. (Only as high as Ranmaru is here) |
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| There were many steps and walls. It was most tranquil. |
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| Each of the stones on the right side had some symbol engraved in it, but I couldn't read the sign explaining what it was all about. They weren't Kanji, though. |
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| The ferocious wild Japanese Neko. There were many of them in the area. |
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| There was a group of girls dancing to American classic rock, from the 60s and before, while the guys stood around and listened to/played the music. You can't really see it here, but in addition to the girls wearing period-style clothing (mostly), several of the guys had their hair done up in classic Grease style. It was pretty amusing to see. |
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| Inko-san (Mr. Parakeet). He has a live bird on his hat in this picture. We later saw him riding his bicycle away, with the bird still on his hat. I have no idea how he did that. |
And that concludes the tour of the Osaka Castle park. It was a busy, fun day. For dinner, we went to one of those sushi bars where the food goes around on conveyor belts and you pick up whatever you want. I had udon and a couple other not-really-sushi things.
Days 3 and 4: 雨のち曇り (Cloudy after the rain)
Every day's classes start out easy, and stay fairly easy until the last hour before lunch. After lunch we have kanji, which isn't too bad overall, especially after switching to my easier book, and listening practice, which is practially impossible. It's not that I can't hear what they're saying in the recordings, but every conversation has at least five, often more, completely new words that I'll probably never see, hear, or use again. That also applies to the last hour before lunch. Additionally, as I've said before, the grammar they're teaching as a review is beyond what I ever learned. If I actually manage to get it all down, I'll have learned a year's worth of grammar in a week. Seriously.
Unfortunately, the majority of it is for super polite conversations. Things like "I'm so sorry, but I'm going to miss the appointed time for today's meeting. I got on the wrong train and will be about 30 minutes late." "Oh, I'll be busy then." "Can you please change the time (for poor little me [super humble form])?" Anyway, it's hard to explain without going into detail on Japanese. The important point is that this sort of speech is much harder than plain or polite, and I never learned it. However, one of my classmates who did take the higher classes just spent fifteen minutes going over a lot of the important stuff and explained it in a very simple and efficient manner, so I think it'll be at least a little easier from here on.
Regarding the weather yesterday, it started out sunny, and started getting cloudy and gray by late morning. Just after I bought my lunch it started drizzling and we all hurried back to the main building. There was a break as we went to the computer lab to do homework, then it started pouring while we were in the lab. Between the time of my first and second blog comment yesterday, it slowed to a drizzle, and by the time I got to my bike outside it had stopped. Very fortunate timing.
I came home to an empty house and a note on a towel by the front door. The note read (in Japanese hiragana) "Thayne - Did you get wet in the rain? Use this to dry off." I wasn't wet, but it was so considerate of my host family it made me feel both happy that they thought of it and sad that I didn't use it. I left a note on the reverse of the paper and put the towel away, then thanked them again when they got back.
For dinner last night, I had the first real exotic-seeming food of the trip. Every day has had new stuff, but it's mostly been at least within reasonable bounds from what I'm used to. So, dinner yesterday included tako (octopus), and natto (soybeans) with raw egg. The octopus was actually just fine. Better than the times I remember trying it in the US. I tried a bit of the natto, too, and while it wasn't all that bad, I didn't particularly care for the raw egg on top. It was very gooey and not exactly the best flavor. Ranmaru was all too pleased to finish my portion.
My family also pushed several Japanese snacks onto me last night, and I've decided to bring them to school to supplement my lunches. It's kind of hard to talk about the different foods when I don't even know what to call them, but so far the snacks have been pretty hit and miss. For my actual lunch today, I had croquette bread and some sort of spicy chicken on a stick. The chicken was pretty good, but the bread was so-so.
Sorry I don't have anything fantastic to report about the food; I know a lot of people are interested in that sort of stuff, but food has never really been my thing. It's generally either good enough to eat, or it isn't. So I've been sticking to buying whatever is cheap and looks relatively filling. I'm aiming to make it through the school portion of the trip spending less than 7,500 yen. Most of the real lunches are in the 450-600 yen range, so that means averaging well below that for the 20 days I'm here. So far, my lunches have been 110, 398, and 240 yen.
Anyway, I should get back to my host family. I'm still in the computer lab after working on homework, and I still have studying to do for tomorrow. Sorry about the lack of pictures. I'll try to get some more off my camera soon.
Unfortunately, the majority of it is for super polite conversations. Things like "I'm so sorry, but I'm going to miss the appointed time for today's meeting. I got on the wrong train and will be about 30 minutes late." "Oh, I'll be busy then." "Can you please change the time (for poor little me [super humble form])?" Anyway, it's hard to explain without going into detail on Japanese. The important point is that this sort of speech is much harder than plain or polite, and I never learned it. However, one of my classmates who did take the higher classes just spent fifteen minutes going over a lot of the important stuff and explained it in a very simple and efficient manner, so I think it'll be at least a little easier from here on.
Regarding the weather yesterday, it started out sunny, and started getting cloudy and gray by late morning. Just after I bought my lunch it started drizzling and we all hurried back to the main building. There was a break as we went to the computer lab to do homework, then it started pouring while we were in the lab. Between the time of my first and second blog comment yesterday, it slowed to a drizzle, and by the time I got to my bike outside it had stopped. Very fortunate timing.
I came home to an empty house and a note on a towel by the front door. The note read (in Japanese hiragana) "Thayne - Did you get wet in the rain? Use this to dry off." I wasn't wet, but it was so considerate of my host family it made me feel both happy that they thought of it and sad that I didn't use it. I left a note on the reverse of the paper and put the towel away, then thanked them again when they got back.
For dinner last night, I had the first real exotic-seeming food of the trip. Every day has had new stuff, but it's mostly been at least within reasonable bounds from what I'm used to. So, dinner yesterday included tako (octopus), and natto (soybeans) with raw egg. The octopus was actually just fine. Better than the times I remember trying it in the US. I tried a bit of the natto, too, and while it wasn't all that bad, I didn't particularly care for the raw egg on top. It was very gooey and not exactly the best flavor. Ranmaru was all too pleased to finish my portion.
My family also pushed several Japanese snacks onto me last night, and I've decided to bring them to school to supplement my lunches. It's kind of hard to talk about the different foods when I don't even know what to call them, but so far the snacks have been pretty hit and miss. For my actual lunch today, I had croquette bread and some sort of spicy chicken on a stick. The chicken was pretty good, but the bread was so-so.
Sorry I don't have anything fantastic to report about the food; I know a lot of people are interested in that sort of stuff, but food has never really been my thing. It's generally either good enough to eat, or it isn't. So I've been sticking to buying whatever is cheap and looks relatively filling. I'm aiming to make it through the school portion of the trip spending less than 7,500 yen. Most of the real lunches are in the 450-600 yen range, so that means averaging well below that for the 20 days I'm here. So far, my lunches have been 110, 398, and 240 yen.
Anyway, I should get back to my host family. I'm still in the computer lab after working on homework, and I still have studying to do for tomorrow. Sorry about the lack of pictures. I'll try to get some more off my camera soon.
Day 2: Introductions and learning my way around
I still don't really have access to the internet, except via the family's computer, but it should work out. It just means I can't post pictures or respond to messages easily until I'm at school, which starts tomorrow.
I woke up tired a little before 5:00 am, but forced myself to stay in bed until about 9:30, because I knew I'd need the sleep. Still, adjusting to the time difference has been surprisingly easy.
The first event of the day, after breakfast, was Ranmaru's softball game. He's 6, and was playing in his first match ever today. I met his grandparents, and we all went to a nearby middle school, which seemed to be having a sports day of some sort. There were lots of different teams for different games from different schools. I've never really been into sports, but it was fun to watch him play. His team won, but Ranmaru himself didn't really help. He did manage to hit the ball once, though, which is more than some of the other young children. I got a few curious looks at the game from some of the students, but not as much as I'd anticipated. At least, not that I saw.
After that, we had lunch and my host parents took me to the local church, where I met the bishop and arranged a ride with one of the members for the next three weeks. I had been writing down directions, but apparently I won't need them. We also went by bike to the school, so I've learned that route (I hope). It was probably about 20 minutes getting there, but they were riding pretty slowly. I'll probably do it in 10 or 12. Speaking of riding the bike, there are a lot of streets here that don't have any sidewalks or anything, and barely enough space for two (very small) cars to pass each other. It's kind of unnerving, riding my bike on the wrong side of the road, with traffic behind me curving just a few feet out of the way to not hit me. The main roads have sidewalks, though. It's just the smaller residential ones that are problematic.
I spent the evening playing piano and talking to my host family. The mom, Yukie, speaks English to some extent, but the dad, Hiroto, doesn't really speak much English at all. So far, we've managed to communicate the most important things, and we usually find some way to say what we want to. Almost all in Japanese, unless I can't understand something they say and they look up the English word online.
As for the piano, I started off with an American piece, then Korean, then basically all anime and games after that. Hiroto requested Final Fantasy music, particularly from 6, which I am fortunate enough to be able to play and have with me. They all liked my playing, and said I can play whenever I want, so I plan to do it frequently.
I should probably be heading to bed soon. Oh, before that, about the food: So far, everything has been pretty good. I'm eating everything they serve me, which is usually enough to push me well into "full" territory. I've had fairly normal meals, but something new each time. I've also managed to eat everything with the chopsticks so far, except for a little bit of the very first dinner last night, where they gave me a fork. I'm going to try to keep that up. Actually, they gave me my very own chopsticks before we ate. They have my name embossed in them near the top: セイン. It's kind of cool. I wasn't expecting that.
Alright, that's enough for today. I'm sure I'll have more tomorrow. Oyasuminasai.
I woke up tired a little before 5:00 am, but forced myself to stay in bed until about 9:30, because I knew I'd need the sleep. Still, adjusting to the time difference has been surprisingly easy.
The first event of the day, after breakfast, was Ranmaru's softball game. He's 6, and was playing in his first match ever today. I met his grandparents, and we all went to a nearby middle school, which seemed to be having a sports day of some sort. There were lots of different teams for different games from different schools. I've never really been into sports, but it was fun to watch him play. His team won, but Ranmaru himself didn't really help. He did manage to hit the ball once, though, which is more than some of the other young children. I got a few curious looks at the game from some of the students, but not as much as I'd anticipated. At least, not that I saw.
After that, we had lunch and my host parents took me to the local church, where I met the bishop and arranged a ride with one of the members for the next three weeks. I had been writing down directions, but apparently I won't need them. We also went by bike to the school, so I've learned that route (I hope). It was probably about 20 minutes getting there, but they were riding pretty slowly. I'll probably do it in 10 or 12. Speaking of riding the bike, there are a lot of streets here that don't have any sidewalks or anything, and barely enough space for two (very small) cars to pass each other. It's kind of unnerving, riding my bike on the wrong side of the road, with traffic behind me curving just a few feet out of the way to not hit me. The main roads have sidewalks, though. It's just the smaller residential ones that are problematic.
I spent the evening playing piano and talking to my host family. The mom, Yukie, speaks English to some extent, but the dad, Hiroto, doesn't really speak much English at all. So far, we've managed to communicate the most important things, and we usually find some way to say what we want to. Almost all in Japanese, unless I can't understand something they say and they look up the English word online.
As for the piano, I started off with an American piece, then Korean, then basically all anime and games after that. Hiroto requested Final Fantasy music, particularly from 6, which I am fortunate enough to be able to play and have with me. They all liked my playing, and said I can play whenever I want, so I plan to do it frequently.
I should probably be heading to bed soon. Oh, before that, about the food: So far, everything has been pretty good. I'm eating everything they serve me, which is usually enough to push me well into "full" territory. I've had fairly normal meals, but something new each time. I've also managed to eat everything with the chopsticks so far, except for a little bit of the very first dinner last night, where they gave me a fork. I'm going to try to keep that up. Actually, they gave me my very own chopsticks before we ate. They have my name embossed in them near the top: セイン. It's kind of cool. I wasn't expecting that.
Alright, that's enough for today. I'm sure I'll have more tomorrow. Oyasuminasai.
I'm here
So, I've arrived in Japan, safe and sound after a 23 hour trip, plus the two or three hours between landing in the airport and reaching my host family's house. I managed probably about 4 hours of sleep split across my three flights (mostly the 2nd and 3rd). Somehow, I've actually not felt tired until just a few minutes ago when I sat down to write this.
Getting through customs was a lot faster and easier than I thought it would be. After they took our papers, we got fingerprinted and sent through, picked up our bags, gave some other people other papers that said our bags didn't have anything illegal, and went on our way. They didn't even check anything, which really surprised me.
I do have some pictures, but I'm using my host family's computer tonight, because for some reason mine can't connect to their internet here. They don't have wireless, either. I'll upload the pictures when I'm on campus sometime.
It didn't really start to feel like I was in a foreign country until I met my family here. The construction is remarkably similar, and the plant life is only slightly different. The farther we got from the airport, the more different things became, though.
My family's son is very cute, and somehow both shy and invasive. It's interesting. It seems like half of what he says is "Thayne," just to call me over to look at something. The surprising thing is that he actually says the "th" correctly. So far, no one else has been able to. I didn't even have to teach him; he just did it.
The parents are both very nice, but it's really hard communicating anything complex. I can understand their instructions on how things work, and I can answer most of their simple questions, but anything requiring an explanation is beyond me. The two winning questions for today (translated from Japanese, of course): "Why doesn't your church let you drink tea (or coffee or alcohol)," and "Why do you (or people in general) have a middle name?" For the first, no matter how I try, I can't seem to find any words that would work to explain yet. I'll try to come up with something before I leave, though. For the second... I have no idea how to explain why people have a middle name. I mean, they just help to distinguish people further. It never occurred to me that it would be so strange to them. My answer so far was barely more than "That's a good question."
I should really get some sleep before tomorrow. It's going to be a busy day. I should be able to post from this computer again at least.
Getting through customs was a lot faster and easier than I thought it would be. After they took our papers, we got fingerprinted and sent through, picked up our bags, gave some other people other papers that said our bags didn't have anything illegal, and went on our way. They didn't even check anything, which really surprised me.
I do have some pictures, but I'm using my host family's computer tonight, because for some reason mine can't connect to their internet here. They don't have wireless, either. I'll upload the pictures when I'm on campus sometime.
It didn't really start to feel like I was in a foreign country until I met my family here. The construction is remarkably similar, and the plant life is only slightly different. The farther we got from the airport, the more different things became, though.
My family's son is very cute, and somehow both shy and invasive. It's interesting. It seems like half of what he says is "Thayne," just to call me over to look at something. The surprising thing is that he actually says the "th" correctly. So far, no one else has been able to. I didn't even have to teach him; he just did it.
The parents are both very nice, but it's really hard communicating anything complex. I can understand their instructions on how things work, and I can answer most of their simple questions, but anything requiring an explanation is beyond me. The two winning questions for today (translated from Japanese, of course): "Why doesn't your church let you drink tea (or coffee or alcohol)," and "Why do you (or people in general) have a middle name?" For the first, no matter how I try, I can't seem to find any words that would work to explain yet. I'll try to come up with something before I leave, though. For the second... I have no idea how to explain why people have a middle name. I mean, they just help to distinguish people further. It never occurred to me that it would be so strange to them. My answer so far was barely more than "That's a good question."
I should really get some sleep before tomorrow. It's going to be a busy day. I should be able to post from this computer again at least.
Host family information GET!
With less than 2 days left before I leave, I finally got my host family's information. It looks like I'm going to be having a fun time with them. :) It's a young couple (early-mid 30s) and their small son. He should be especially fun. I always like little kids (provided they aren't constantly yelling and screaming. At me. Occasionally is fine).
They put down two things as their "interests/favorite activities:" Piano and reading. Now I definitely have to bring a lot of my sheet music to play while I'm there. They must have matched us up because I also listed both of those as my interests, piano first. They also say they have a dog, parakeet, and blowfish (?). Not sure why you'd have one of those, but okay. Almost the whole self-introduction sheet is in Japanese, so there are a few things I can't read, but most of it I can manage. Mine was almost all in English, so I wonder how well they could read mine.
Apparently, I'm supposed to bike 20 minutes to school each day. Hopefully they'll be providing the bike and helmet. <_< I'd half hoped I would be taking the train, just to get to experience that whole thing, but biking is fine, too, and should be a lot easier to get used to. I just hope it's not a hard ride, or I'll end up sweaty and tired every morning before I even start classes, and that definitely won't be fun. On the plus side, it's free, and I don't have to worry about train schedules.
Alright, so now I need to be sure to pick up some sort of small toy for the kid. I plan to do most of my packing today, and go out shopping tomorrow for some omiyage. I'm getting so excited! I haven't been able to calm down for a week!
They put down two things as their "interests/favorite activities:" Piano and reading. Now I definitely have to bring a lot of my sheet music to play while I'm there. They must have matched us up because I also listed both of those as my interests, piano first. They also say they have a dog, parakeet, and blowfish (?). Not sure why you'd have one of those, but okay. Almost the whole self-introduction sheet is in Japanese, so there are a few things I can't read, but most of it I can manage. Mine was almost all in English, so I wonder how well they could read mine.
Apparently, I'm supposed to bike 20 minutes to school each day. Hopefully they'll be providing the bike and helmet. <_< I'd half hoped I would be taking the train, just to get to experience that whole thing, but biking is fine, too, and should be a lot easier to get used to. I just hope it's not a hard ride, or I'll end up sweaty and tired every morning before I even start classes, and that definitely won't be fun. On the plus side, it's free, and I don't have to worry about train schedules.
Alright, so now I need to be sure to pick up some sort of small toy for the kid. I plan to do most of my packing today, and go out shopping tomorrow for some omiyage. I'm getting so excited! I haven't been able to calm down for a week!
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