9月12日, 木
Guess what I did today? I went and visited my first homestay, the Kitagawa family! I went to go have dinner with them and spend the night. At first I was worried I forgot how to get to the town they live in, but it all came back the minute I walked into Kaihinmakuhari Eki; board Keiyou sen train bound to soga, switch to Sotobo sen at Soga and get off at Toke Eki, try to find okaasan amongst the throng of high schoolers and salary men.
My family lives in a small town called Asumigaoka, inaka (country as they put it). Everything was so natsukashii, I couldn't even. I chatted with okaasan for a while, something I struggled with last year (read as could not do). No matter how bad I feel my Japanese is, I do need to accept I did improve a lot. Okaasan and I were the first one's back; she's cooking dinner ( I can't cook washoku so I am kind of useless to her), so I'm watching this word game/charades type of show as Cookie (the doggie) alternates between asking for pets, grooming, and sleeping. And Cookie remembered me! That made me happy, good dog. Sadly, Cookie is quite old, so her health is warukunatteiru-ing. Apparently she wasn't able to walk for a while, but she's doing much better now (as in she can walk again...sorta...carefully)
I feel like old sweat; I hope I don't smell how I feel (probably do). oh, and i got a blister from my shoes, which makes sense since I didn't break them in) but no regrets. Anyway, Otousan and Yukina are both commuting, so they both get in a little late. We kept Otousan out of the loop that I was coming because we wanted him to be surprised; he was, haha. (We had to tell Okaasan because she was the only one home at the time, we told her I was here days after Yukina and I started planning my visit). Yukina arrives not long after Otousan, and it is good times. Everyone is quite surprised (pleased) that my Japanese is so much better than last year; we were able to chat, and I actually sounded like a semi articulate person and understood basically everything they said, vs last year when I understood basically nothing. You know, if level 3 means I can understand and talk to my family over here, I'll take it.
Kitagawa Cookie is cuter than you. Sorry.
9月13日, 金
So cue Friday morning, and we have to get some bonding in before I go back to KUIS for health exam (vaguely described in aforementioned post). Otousan is gone I believe (doing fun stuff I think, I can't remember if he has Saturday off), so Okaasan, Yukina, and I kind of derp around (well, I derp around, Yukina gets to sleep in because she has a real person cool job and a long commute every day), and Okaasan is doing chores and whatnot so the house doesn't turn into a cesspool of regret (I don't think that would ever happen though); we depart around 10 o'clock and drive to a nearby mall full of restaurants and stores. We amble around for a while, because they want to take me to a restaurant, but it's not open yet. We end up looking at clothes (Yukina needs more work clothes), but mostly take a bunch of 試食 (shishyoku; free samples) from stores, all of which were really good and quite generously sized. And, once again, Kitagawa family for the win: yesterday I told Okaasan how I was struggling to grocery shop (it's not that easy when you don't know what all the signs, labels mean), and how I couldn't find salt/pepper in the grocery close to my home, so we went to a grocery store in the mall and they helped me find seasonings, instant miso (they had miso paste at the store near my dorm, which means I would need to buy dashi and toppings separately...yeah, no #poorstudentlyfe). Yep, everything was great until she paid for my stuff (it wasn't that much, but I was not aware she would buy it for me. Nice, sneaky nihonjin; is this because I brought them omiyage)?
So, once we were done eating free things/buying me spices so I can cook better and not starve, we went to the restuarant, which was a natural food buffet (almost literal translation, I forgot the actual name) which was awesome! I didn't eat too much, because they were going to weigh us for our health check and I am vain; also, my sleep schedule is back in order now (I think), but my appetite is still not as strong as it used to be; not sure if it's because of the heat or jet lag anymore to be honest. And I ate well at dinner last night (it was tempura! yum) so I wasn't too worried. It was a fun time, because we got to chat more, and we ended up having a bilingualish conversation about health in Japan and America, and the prevalence of high fructose corn syrup in American food, particularly cheap unhealthy food. I think I've already had more complex conversations in this past week, then I did in two months last year? Of course, in true "I'm a mom and I do what I want" fashion, Okaasan paid again, but I am resigned to this. I at least promised to visit again, and cook for them one day; before the restaurant, we were eating shishyoku in a specialty type food store that had foreign/trendy foods (they had cream soda! (my great-grandma used to love cream soda <3) and oatmeal is apparently becoming quite trendy, but that store was so expensive, waa). Well anyway, they had these tiny, expensive cans of coconut milk in the store, and I mentioned about how I make it at home sometimes, so basically I'm going to cook them food one day. Gotta make it good, they're a crowd used to good food. They are also quite skeptical of cooking rice in a pot vs a rice cooker, haha. So, I departed from them, but I will be back. The Kitagawa saga will gain more chapters.Also, we ended up taking a family photo, but it's on Okaasan's nikon (she's so cool) once Yukina figured how to set the timer and we ended up propping it up with every book in the house. So, once again, no picture. We're an attractive bunch though, so you can imagine
So, we depart from the restaurant around 12:35 and make a quick drive to Kamatori Eki, where me and Yukina get in a train; I have to go for my health exam (hehehe), and Yukina is going to the dentist (頑張ってね） I already wrote about the health exam, so after that Hannah and I hang out around Kaihimmakuhari Eki because we're off to visit one of her old host families from last year! We were supposed to meet Noah (a Dartmouth first year, well, second year now, doing an exchange at Keio), but turned out he couldn't meet us at Kaihim so we ended up eating shishyoku and eventually buying food at a new bread shop/convenience store/supermarket hybrid of wonder that had just opened; it was really good! After that, we went to Shim-Matsudo to go to the Indian Restaurant owned and run by Hannah's family (whose name I forget....hehe). Noah came about an hour after us, just in time for dinner. We have good times, basically. Dinner was great; another highlight of Friday was sending strange pictures of our faces to Kazuki and Masahiro as we waited for our transfer train.
dinner at Hannah's homestay family's restaurant, Babu
me and Hannah being attractive at Nishi Funabashi
Kazuki responding in kind to our lovely photo
9月15日、日
I accompanied Hannah to visit her other homestay family from last year, the Watanabes! They are so cute, I can't even. (I was supposed to go to a bbq turned into indoor party with Masahiro today, but because of the typhoon and the fact that I am feeling quite broke after paying my dorm fee, I had to cancel). We had lunch with them, and chatted about various things for a few hours before departing. Well, by departing, I mean they took us to another department store where we bought rain ponchos for the impending typhoon (on the first day of classes of course), and bento boxes and whatnot; of course, they tricked us and payed for it. Nihonjin paying for stuff seems to be a trend; I should have known something was up when they had us put our things in the basked Hannah's Otousan was holding. At least everything was only 100 yen; that actually doesn't' make anything better.In conclusionSo, uh, yeah, the last few days have been good. I need to stop writing now because I may be slightly tipsy and want to go to sleep. Don't judge me; I'm of age in both Japan and the USA.
Oyasumi!
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