ホームステイ｜Homestay

Back Row: 菅野｜Sugano --ミント|Minto (dog) -- 志保子｜Shihoko -- 博志｜Hiroshi
Front Row: クラランス｜(me) -- 篤｜Atsushi

The Homestay weekend started right after a very very long day of class. I had stayed up all night craming Kanji then stayed after class to take a 4 page test. After an already long sleepless week, waking up at 7am, by the time Sugano arrived to the classroom @ 3:30 I was beyond exhaustion but there was no time to rest yet. Sugano had a lot of questions and it was my first real chance to converse in Japanese with someone who was neither a classmate, a teacher, nor a bar/club acquaintance. The train ride was looong, and as much as I would have liked to just pass out that was not an option. Sugano kept me entertained by teaching me the names/kanji of the family members, their ages, showing me some pictures, and asking me about my studies. When we reached her stop it was raining a bit and she let me huddle underneath her umbrella with her, though honestly, I never carry an umbrella and really don't mind the rain much, but she insisted. One thing you learn quickly after about 2 or 3 days in Japan is that hospitality and courtesy are infinite. You'll find it difficult if not impossible to turn down an honest offer (i.e. usually if someone asks you if you'd like another drink, its considered polite to say "sure but eh only half" and the offerer will at that point not hesitate to fill your cup).

We reached the house and I stepped through the door and immediately took my shoes off and reversed them so the toes pointed towards the exit, good ol' Japanese etiquette. I was given a pair of slippers for the house and shown to the tatami room where'd I'd get to stay. Removing my house slippers, I stepped barefoot onto the tatami floor. I *love* tatami rooms. (this is a shot from a Ryokan tatami room I stayed at in Hokkaido):
1) They smell wonderful; tatami has such a good smell that you could probably put a dead animal in the room and it would still smell great. 2) Tatami rooms give you the feeling that you are getting a genuine exotic Japanese experience. If you get a chance, stay at a Japanese ryokan because you'll get similar treatment. 3) Real futons are not so bad; makes me wonder why we even bother with springs and mattresses and bed frames...
(Ryokan meal for two...= way too much food; a japanese dinner is usually included with the price)

I had a lot of time to settle in before the rest of the family got home from school/work. I got to meet Minto (Mint) right off the back. Minto is a papillon, which is French for butterfly and if you see one of these dogs, it becomes immediately apparent why...they've got ears that rival the size of their head. Minto was adorable and friendly. In the end I think I spent more time with Minto that weekend than anyone else.

I met Hiroshi next. Hiroshi is a 17yr old high school boy. He seems to be pretty smart, but doesn't really like school. His favorite subject was 体育｜"PE" . He was fairly quite and if he did speak, he spoke at a normal volume but without opening his mouth very much or annunciating clearly, which for me made him impossible to understand.

Soon Shihoko came home and showed me her school uniform after getting somewhat frustrated with my lack of understand the word for uniform. She laughed though and seemed at least amused with me but shy enough that after about 3min she quickly excused herself.

When Atsushi came home I felt very relieved for some reason. He seemed very laid back and looked a lot younger than he possibly could have been. He smiled more than anyone else in the family (well except for Minto), so he always seemed to put me at ease.

When dinner time came, we ate Tempura, Rice with salmon row, and a salad. The food was expectedly great. After dinner I retired to my room and hit up the weekend load of homework. The following day lunch ended up being Japanese fast food burgers (Atsushi said he really wanted to eat a burger, so burger's it was). That evening we went to a Kaiten sushi restaurant (revolving, conveyor belt sushi restaurant) which is always fun since you never know what you'll end up eating. Me and Hiroshi split plates to increase our variety. He was, as I expected, close to silent. If I didn't ask a yes/no question I usually didn't get much of a response, much less eye contact. I still don't understand him at all... then again, maybe he didn't get me? Between the two of us we ate about 50 pieces of sushi and a plate of Anago (similar to eel and taste just as good). The following "last meal" was my lunch of Unagi (eel, my favorite). Unagi like Anago has a kind of sweet taste and a tender texture. Its pretty expensive but if you get a chance don't pass it up. You won't regret it.

After lunch, on our way to the station, we headed out to 亀戸天神社｜Kamedoten Shrine; "Turtle's door to Heaven" Shrine (that's a very literal, debatable translation).

Above is what is called a 鳥居｜とりい｜torii, which is the traditional entrance to a Shinto shrine. The Kanji mean bird and to exist/reside. Doesn't make sense to me so I wouldn't worry about it to much. Below is a picture of the turtles that live in droves in the water that flows around the shrine (hence the 亀｜turtle in the shrine's name).
Sugano & Atsushi explained to me that students come to this shrine to make prayers/wishes regarding academics, i.e. to preform well on finals, to do well on their college entrance exams, etc. So they bought me a plaque in order for me to write my wish down and tie it to the shrine's fences that were already full of what I'd guess to be much more than 5,000 of these plaques.

Well I wished for my Japanese to become fluent one day. Pipe dreams....