Homestay, Karaoke, and Japanese

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Friday, there was the opening ceremony and a luncheon afterwards.  I've include Mike's pictures of the event.
Saturday, I moved in with my homestay family. This was probably the part of the process that caused me the most anxiety. Fortunately, however, they are extremely nice. Japanese houses are small by American standards. They are very narrow, but tall. The stairs leading up to my room are incredibly steep. My room, however, is about the same size as my room at home, though slightly smaller, I think. The family with which I'm staying has hosted homestay students before, but they speak no real English, though they know a few words and phrases. I'm going to have to adjust to the different style of shower and bathroom, though. I'm also more accustomed to more space.

I bought a cell phone, which should be very useful, especially since I got lost yesterday. I took the wrong train, and, being confused, stayed on it for a while. In essence, I was lost somewhere in Japan. Fortunately, though, most people were very helpful. Several hundred yen and about a dozen trains later, I got back to my host family's house. Fortunately, I have a train pass now.

I know the way now. It takes me about 40 minutes to get to Kansai Gaidai. This includes a 5-minute walk to the train station, 20 minutes on two trains, and 10 minutes walking from the train station to the school. In Japan, trains are used to get almost anywhere. Driving, even in suburban areas, seems quite stressful. The streets are very narrow and, in general, everything is just very crowded.

My host family, to make the transition easier, made me an American breakfast for the first day. It consisted of pancakes, some pineapple, and orange juice. Now, however, I'll be eating the standard Japanese breakfast, which consists of rice and a type of soup, of which I forget the name. Both are good, even if, for me, it doesn't seem suited for breakfast. I'm also attempting to adjust to the Japanese way of eating. This includes using chopsticks correctly, and eating soup with chopsticks. I kid you not. One picks up the bowl, drinks the soup, and uses chopsticks to move the food in the soup toward the mouth. Japanese people also slurp. Some of the food I haven't liked very much, and I've tried to communicate that in the most cordial way possible. I can tell that they really want me to eat things that I can tolerate.

The first night, I had eel for the first time. It was actually quite good. A former homestay student of theirs came buy and ate with us. They have apparently hosted a number of them. He is quite fluent in Japanese. In general, the people in my host family -- and their friends -- are all very colorful and lively. I think that "soulful" is the word that comes to mind. They are just like people anywhere else in the world. They seem to spend more time with one another than people in the US typically do. This includes family and friends.

I went to karaoke with them Sunday night. That was interesting, and I actually sang some. I don't sing, but I may as well dive head first into Japanese culture, right? Keep in mind that I went to this with about 8 middle-aged to old women. All of the songs that they sand were sad. I however, sang a number of Michael Jackson songs to liven things up. It was fun. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of that. When I mentioned that I like Michael Jackson's music (maikeru jakuson), the others said, "monusutaa" (monster). I thought that they meant something else, but they were referring to the music video of "Thriller."

Living in the house is a bit frustrating, since no one speaks English. That's just more motivation for me to learn as much Japanese as fast as possible. Somehow, I placed into Japanese 4! Japanese 4? I keep thinking that it must be a mistake, but I'm going to try it out and see how it goes

(I've also included some of Mike's pictures from Kyoto.)

Now, I'm going to go eat some lunch. That's always an interesting event of experimentation.

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Photos

Opening Ceremony
Flags of the countries represented by international students

Luncheon
Japanese food. I tried octopus sushi. It wasn't bad.

Kyoto
A wishing well of sorts

View
Evening view from my room

Comments

[anonymous]

Soulful?? I like that. MJ- Heee,Heee Dan, Jr.