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.