A Christian Acquaintence, A Gender Class Friend, Birthday Parties, Music Box Museums

Of My Host Family and My Usual Tsuru Lifestyle

So I thought this time I'd do a bit of a catch up on my last two days spent with my host family; as well as a bit of detail on some of the other people I meet on a daily basis here in Tsuru. So this entry will be a general update on what my life is like in Tsuru now that I've been here a few months. I only have a little less than two months left here, so I'm trying to make the most of it.

My Usual Week

Monday: So on Mondays-Thursdays I have class. I attend a class on Japanese grammar, Japanese culture, and a Buddhist Reading Class on Mondays. I like Mondays; despite not liking grammar class, because I get a chance to concentrate on class; I have nothing but class on those days. I wake up a bit late; go to class, grab lunch in the cafeteria with the other girls here studying abroad. Usually a cheap bento lunch so I don't overstuff myself with the ramen or the overpriced chicken and rice they serve as the main meals. Tsuru only has about 1500 students (half of the 3000 that were in my high school) so we almost always run into other people at the cafeteria; whether its our Japanese tutors or friends from class, the Korean or Chinese study abroad students that we have Japanese class with, our club friends, etc. Monday's my day to relax, and get some homework done in the evenings...though I rarely do anyways. But this past Monday I met up with my friend Saki, whom oddly enough I met when she came to my apartment door telling people about Christianity and the Bible. The amount of Christians in Japan is very small compared to the U.S., but Tsuru University has a bible club and a Christian church nearby. Saki is a devout Christian, and is a sweet, cheerful, kind of quiet girl. She wanted me to go with her to Church but I declined, explaining I had complicated reasons for not going, but she still wanted to talk with me, so we became friends and often go over to each other's places just to talk. Oddly enough I never really think much about spirituality, but its nice to discuss it with Saki and learn more about Christianity in a foreign country. I'm not going to join a Church here, but I still love to go over to Saki's apartment to have curry with her for dinner and talk about our families and our futures.

Tuesday: I have my Contemporary Society and Gender class on Tuesday mornings; a class I chose to take to improve my Japanese skills, even though I'm not taking it for a grade and not getting credit for it. I met two other girls in that class; Futaba and Sachiko; two freshmen who sit in the middle row with me and laugh about the odd, 26 or so year old Ishida-sensei, the teacher of the class who's consistently late (takes a train from Tokyo to get there by 9am...he leaves his house at 5am every Tuesday morning) and who likes to joke around about his messy appearance and the failure of his published book to make him any money. I understand about 50% of what's said in class, but luckily I've got Futaba and Sachiko to help with the rest. Then I have Japanese conversational class, and the afternoon free until 4:30 when I have practice for the Koto club I've joined. Koto is a traditional Japanese harp instrument that I think has a beautiful sound, and despite having little or no musical talent/experience, me and Betsy (another one of the girls here from CA) decided to join. We're complete beginners, but the club members are kind and patient with us (all girls except for one male who plays the shamisen; Daichi. Poor Daichi...the unwilling pimp in his own traditional Japanese music club) and now we're learning Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (not kidding, its harder than you think) in preparation for a performance in July before we leave. Wish us luck. Practice is every Tues, Thurs, and Friday from 4:30 to 8:00, but me and Betsy only go Tues, Thurs.

Wednesday: We only have one class, another Japanese conversational class with Shima-sensei, so on Wednesdays we go to volunteer at the local elementary schools in the area and help to teach English. At first we were at a different school but another elementary school in the area requested that we help them as well, so now just me and Betsy go to a different elementary school: Tsuru's 2nd Star Elementary. I love teaching the elementary school children, every time it makes me reconsider not being an elementary school teacher. But you can really see the diminishing amount of children in Japan when you visit the elementary school. I teach all the fifth graders at that school together, and how many do you think there are total? 17. In the whole school. It feels like there are more teachers than students...

This Wednesday was Sachiko (my Gender class friend)'s birthday, but since she's still new around here and a lot of people don't know about her birthday, I invited her over and she taught me to make Anko with Mochi, basically a Japanese dessert with adzuki red beans and mochi, which I at first hated but have since come to love since being in Japan. We looked up clips of her favorite Japanese boy band online and did our English/Japanese homework before going next door to Kiyoko's room for the party she was hosting for her Japanese tutor Guchi's birthday, which had been the previous day. We stuffed about 20 people into Kiyoko's tiny apartment and ate Mexican food and snacks that Kiyoko had prepared (Kiyoko is seriously one of the most amazing cooks...I can't believe she managed to make such amazing guacamole in Japan...) and watched Ben, another Berkeley student, perform Japanese puns he'd learned. I love our random parties. But usually on Wednesdays I have Badminton Club practice from 6:30 to 8:00. (skipped this week cuz of the birthdays). I joined with Betsy to get some exercise (why is there no swimming pool in Tsuru!!!) and we play casual badminton every Wed night. I hope I'm getting better.

Thursday: I usually have Takami-sensei's Japanese Literature Reading Class (we read short stories in Japanese) in the morning, followed by my independent study meeting with my advisor, Tanaka-sensei. I'm doing independent research on elderly care in Japan this semester so I can use it when I go back to the U.S. to write my graduation thesis on Japanese-American Elderly Care next year, so I've been paired up with a Sociology professor here named Tanaka who specializes in Italian NGO's and handicapped rights. I usually do private research in English and Japanese, and do interviews with local caregivers in the area, and then go over my progress with her. I thought it'd be much more difficult doing everything in Japanese, but Tanaka-sensei (who speaks/reads fluent English but refuses to do so with me so that I learn to use Japanese) is actually truly brilliant and has taught me a lot about fieldwork methodology that I never even learned from some of my Berkeley professors. I'm lucky to have her.

After that I have lunch, a class on Japanese Politics and Economy (one of the most boring lectures I have ever had to suffer through...) and then koto practice again at 4:30 until 8:00. This week we went and had a sushi and spaghetti dinner with Marisa (another CA student)'s Japanese friends. They taught Marisa to make sushi and Marisa taught them PB and J sandwiches and spaghetti. And the rest of us got to eat the results.

Fridays: I almost always have Friday mornings off, unless I have an interview appointment. All of us CA students have no class on Fridays, so we do our own stuff. I volunteer at IkiIki Plaza, a nearby elderly care day service center, from 1:00 to 4:30, though I have to walk to the train station, take the train a few stops, and then walk another 20 minutes to get there so in total it takes me most of the afternoon. I usually go in right after they've had lunch, participate in their exercises, games, and activities in the afternoon and then just talk with the elderly residents until they leave (its just a day service center) to go back home at around 4:30. When I get back home I take fieldwork notes and prepare for any upcoming interviews.

Saturdays/Sundays; These are always full. I either go out with my host family, my friend Mariko in Yokohama, my Japanese tutor Nana, on a trip with the other CA students, go to Tokyo to visit my old friends in ICU from last semester, or particpate in some cultural activity that Fumi-san, our program advisor, has planned for us, like tea ceremony or climbing Mt. Fuji (which we do next month! I'm so excited!). This weekend it'll be Yokohama with Mariko (I'm also going to interview her mom for my research since she works in a welfare office dealing with the elderly).

Sorry this is so long; but I want to keep these blogs for my own records too, and I wanted to write down what my daily life is like here. Its not at all what you'd picture a typical traditional Japanese lifestyle to be up in the mountains of Yamanashi Prefecture; its just a regular student's life with aspects of Japan in it, I suppose, or surrounding it. Don't get me wrong though; even though my school class load is light and not very strict here, I'm constantly busy here. Usually I'm more stressed out over social obligations and getting to see everyone here rather than school stuff, and that's what keeps my schedule busy. But that's a usual Japanese college student life; their college life is like our high school life; more centered on social activities. High school for them is the time to study and get into the good schools; and then once you've made it into college you're set.

Host Family Catch-Up

So this is in retrospect but I spent the last weekend with my host family for my host mother's birthday in Kawaguchiko and the weekend before that with her playing tennis and wanted to write briefly about it.

A couple of weekends ago, me and Betsy (who's been adopted by my host family too) went to play tennis with Akiko-san and her tennis club; mainly a bunch of people my host-parent's age who play tennis together. It was their first meeting of the year (they usually only play around summer/spring time) so we had a big barbeque and all the members brought their kids. Miho and Kana were probably the oldest kids there; it was mainly toddlers and primary school kids who'd been born in the last few years. Me and Betsy became babysitters for the first few hours; running around the tennis courts doing races, piggyback rides, and playing soft tennis (softer ball) with the little kids. We divided them up into teams; my team was the apple team and Betsy's was the strawberry team. But halfway through one of my team members (Kana) betrayed me and left me for the other team. Sad but true. But the next weekend she was back on my side so who's counting...

After being thorougly used and abused by these adorable, unrelenting kids for a few hours, Akiko-san and a friend of hers offered to play a doubles game with me and Betsy. Akiko-san and her friend were insanely good...and even with Betsy's crazy talent from playing since high school we still sucked compared to them. I managed to warm up a bit to it by the evening, but still it was difficult. I haven't been that exhausted in a long time; running around with the kids all morning and playing tennis all afternoon until it got dark. But it felt really good to be out in the cool air with Mt. Fuji in the background, playing with the kids and then just to stretch out and use my muscles for a while. It was an awesome day.

This past weekend we hung out again with my host family; this time to a free market in the morning and made friendship bracelets with Kana and Miho before having lunch. We went from there to play Tennis...before realizing it was raining, and then giving up on the idea and instead going to a monkey show...(not kidding...it was a performing monkey acrobatics show. interesting) near Lake Kawaguchiko. Miho and Kana had already been, but wanted to go with us.

Then we went to the Kawaguchiko Music Box Forest, a European-Garden designed museum in Japan dedicated to music boxes. Don't ask why, Japan loves museums, even little ones that seem to have little purpose. To be honest I love them too; their quirky obsession with random things. And it was amazing to see all those different types of music boxes from around the world; though even more amazing was how beautiful the place was, despite the rain that day. A beautiful little garden area right near the water of the lake, and on a regular day you can see Mt. Fuji from the hillside its on. (But everytime I go to Fuji-Yoshida its bound to be cloudy so I rarely get to see the mountain itself, unfortunately. I'm what you'd call a kumoi-onna in Japanese; a cloudy woman. Everytime I go out, its cloudy. Not sure what that means).

It was Akiko-san's birthday so we went out to dinner afterwards (Hideki-san, my host dad, treated us all day and wouldn't let us pay for anything. He even bought us tiny music box souvenirs from the museum to remember the day by. So sweet. Though he still makes me call him Tom Cruise). We ordered big plates of pasta and spaghetti (Miho had curry, of course. She eats nothing but curry, always. Though apparently the curry there wasn't up to her standards and wasn't very good. She could be a professional curry food critic.) and giant parfaits to end the day. Not bad, huh?

Oh, and on a last note; over Golden Week (since my last entry) I went back to the United States as well. I'm not going to put much in here about that because this is my Japan blog and not my U.S. blog, but I went back for four days to go and see my mother graduate. She's been trying to go back to school since I was born, and for her to finally get her architecture degree that she's been aiming for her entire life was truly amazing and I'm so unbelievably proud of her! I'm truly inspired by her. So despite the paranoia in Japan right now about travelers bringing in the Swine Flu from other countries, I decided to go anyways, wearing a medical mask the entire flight there and back just in case. I was able to safely enter the country again, luckily, when I got back; though I had to endure a two-hour health inspection of our plane by men in thick quarantine suits and masks, and for 10 days after I arrived back in Japan, I had to call the health center at the airport to report my body temperature and any health symptoms every night and morning. But I passed and was able to return healthily (knock on wood) without spreading it to anyone here. But then, ironically, about a day after I returned some Japanese students brought it back to Japan with them after a trip to Canada, and by the time I'm writing this blog there are already 292 cases of swine flu in Japan. See Japan, even you can't avoid it. So stop making me paranoid about getting through the airport. Let's hope I don't catch it when I go on my small three day trip to Korea next weekend with the other CA girls. Wish me luck!

Okay enough catch up. Enjoy the pictures!

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