Karaoke

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And life is good again.

A few hours ago, I went for some karaoke with my host mom and sisters. You can't imagine how wonderful it is to go shake off some stress in high Japanese style. This time, we spent two hours in karaoke, and before that, my host mom showed me a local closing sale, where I managed to buy some more souvenirs for family at home, and an omiyage for my host father, a cute yellow necktie with chickens and eggs printed on it. I doubt he'll ever wear it, but I want to show that I'm trying to adapt to Japanese culture, including the gift-giving aspect of Japanese life.

I managed to impress my host mother with my English, on accident. When we were at the karaoke bar, I found the English section of the selections, and decided I wanted to sing Bohemian Rhapsody, by Queen, to show my family how crazy of a song it was. My host mom recognized it once the more well-known lines came up, but it was funny that afterward she told me that she was surprised at how good my English was. I mean, of course its good, its my first language and the only language, really, that I'm good at (I'm getting better at Japanese every day, but...), but because I only speak Japanese at home, she was surprised to actually hear me speaking and singing English. Most of the other songs I sang were Japanese, of course, because I didn't want to alienate my host family, but that also surprises them, that I know Japanese songs and can read the subtitles to sing along with ones I'm not very familiar with. I really really enjoy spending time with my host family. Every day I come home exhausted from a long and boring day in class, to be welcomed by my cute little host sisters who just want to play, and my host mom, with whom I love to talk about anything and everything.

I don't get very many chances to give back to my host family, and every chance I get, I take full advantage of. The last really special occasion I was able to share with my host family was the Kamakura trip, thanks to which I was able to bring my host mother to places she had never been before, and together we saw things that neither of us had ever seen before, like the traditional Japanese weddings. Today, again, I was able to give back in a small way. During karaoke, I found a very nostalgic song, the opening theme for the first anime I ever watched in full, and instead of having some random video, like most of the songs, the karaoke machine had actual clippings from the anime, so I had to explain that this anime was one of my first exposures to Japan in a way that got me interested in coming. And now, since I bought the series in Japanese here, for reading practice, and because I'll always love the series, no matter what, I was able to lend it to her, and share a little of what we see of Japan over in America.

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