(no subject)
I'm updating from the boonies of Japan - Daito-cho, Shimane-Ken. It's pretty cool here. The people are quite a bit different from those you find in Tokyo. Well, at least my host-family here seems a lot different. For one thing, they don't say "ittadakimasu" before their meals. I suppose it's possible that my host-mother in Tokyo only says that for my benefit though.
My host-family here is made up of my host-mother, -father and -grandmother. When I first learned that I would be staying in a family that didn't have any kids, I was a little disappointed since I kinda would've liked a bit of a change from my Tokyo family (which also doesn't have any kids at home). But, I really like my family here. My host-father is really cool. Apparently he used to live in Malaysia for a few years doing some agricultural help there with rice and stuff. Then he came back here to Daito and worked as a city planner for like 30 years. So of course he knows practically everyone here since the town only have a population of about 14,000. But yeah, he speaks Malay, Chinese and quite a bit of English. I mean, he isn't fluent, but he speaks enough that we can have an in depth conversation about politics...maybe that is fluent, I don't know. He told me he studied English in college, but that's he forgotten most of it - but he's just being modest.
I also found out tonight that he was the guy who started the whole program that I'm here on. I mean, he didn't start the Japan Study program that brought me to Japan, but he started the program that brought the exchange students to Daito. He said that 21 years ago when he started the program, there were no foreigners in Daito at all, so people here didn't have the chance to meet anyone from outside of Japan. So he tried to think of a way to get some foreigners to come here. So that way there could be a sort of cultural exchange even in such a small town. He's really a pretty cool guy.
Apparently he also really doesn't like Koizumi. Like, Koizumi is only concerned about the big places and companies in Osaka and Tokyo. He was saying that everyone in Japan is the same, but as for what Koizumi thinks of people out in the country, "関係ない" - not related or they don't matter is the basic idea.
Another thing that kinda interesting about living out here in the country is that no one locks their doors. One time I forgot to lock the door in Tokyo and my host mother made sure I remembered the next, hehe. But here, it doesn't matter. It's so weird too...a couple of times today we've had some packages arrive in the mail and the delivery guy just opens the door to the genkan and says "sumimasen." And both of the guys say it fairly quietly too because the houses here or so open that you can here most everything in the house. Which also means it's really cold in the houses too.
When I got here I finally got to try out a kotatsu. I mean, I knew what they were and all that, but I had never gotten to use one. It basically a low table with a heating lamp under it and a blanket over the top of the table. And you sit with your legs underneath the table and get warm in the winter. They're really nice. I was like, "Oh man, I'm so going to get one of these when I go back to the US!" Of course, then I realized that would be stupid because we heat our entire house and a kotatsu would be pointless. So yeah.
Man, I was prepared to not have access to the internet at all out here. But my family here has wireless broadband as well a satellite tv. Unfortunately though, I can't connect to the wireless. Apparently one of the family's sons set up the wireless and since he doesn't live here, I can't get connected. I can't even see the network, so I assume he set it up so that only certain IPs are allowed to see it.
My host-family here is made up of my host-mother, -father and -grandmother. When I first learned that I would be staying in a family that didn't have any kids, I was a little disappointed since I kinda would've liked a bit of a change from my Tokyo family (which also doesn't have any kids at home). But, I really like my family here. My host-father is really cool. Apparently he used to live in Malaysia for a few years doing some agricultural help there with rice and stuff. Then he came back here to Daito and worked as a city planner for like 30 years. So of course he knows practically everyone here since the town only have a population of about 14,000. But yeah, he speaks Malay, Chinese and quite a bit of English. I mean, he isn't fluent, but he speaks enough that we can have an in depth conversation about politics...maybe that is fluent, I don't know. He told me he studied English in college, but that's he forgotten most of it - but he's just being modest.
I also found out tonight that he was the guy who started the whole program that I'm here on. I mean, he didn't start the Japan Study program that brought me to Japan, but he started the program that brought the exchange students to Daito. He said that 21 years ago when he started the program, there were no foreigners in Daito at all, so people here didn't have the chance to meet anyone from outside of Japan. So he tried to think of a way to get some foreigners to come here. So that way there could be a sort of cultural exchange even in such a small town. He's really a pretty cool guy.
Apparently he also really doesn't like Koizumi. Like, Koizumi is only concerned about the big places and companies in Osaka and Tokyo. He was saying that everyone in Japan is the same, but as for what Koizumi thinks of people out in the country, "関係ない" - not related or they don't matter is the basic idea.
Another thing that kinda interesting about living out here in the country is that no one locks their doors. One time I forgot to lock the door in Tokyo and my host mother made sure I remembered the next, hehe. But here, it doesn't matter. It's so weird too...a couple of times today we've had some packages arrive in the mail and the delivery guy just opens the door to the genkan and says "sumimasen." And both of the guys say it fairly quietly too because the houses here or so open that you can here most everything in the house. Which also means it's really cold in the houses too.
When I got here I finally got to try out a kotatsu. I mean, I knew what they were and all that, but I had never gotten to use one. It basically a low table with a heating lamp under it and a blanket over the top of the table. And you sit with your legs underneath the table and get warm in the winter. They're really nice. I was like, "Oh man, I'm so going to get one of these when I go back to the US!" Of course, then I realized that would be stupid because we heat our entire house and a kotatsu would be pointless. So yeah.
Man, I was prepared to not have access to the internet at all out here. But my family here has wireless broadband as well a satellite tv. Unfortunately though, I can't connect to the wireless. Apparently one of the family's sons set up the wireless and since he doesn't live here, I can't get connected. I can't even see the network, so I assume he set it up so that only certain IPs are allowed to see it.