Reminiscing
It was exactly a year ago today (in Japan time, or tomorrow in America time) that I met, and subsequently went home with, my host family. I remember being ridiculously nervous about meeting them. They were an hour late (which I later learned would be the norm for my host mother) and I had gotten there 30 minutes early as well, so I spent 1 1/2 hours in one of the upstairs classrooms watching My Neighbor Totoro without really watching it because every time the door opened I (and everyone one else in the room) looked over at the door waiting expectantly for my name to be called.
When they finally did call my name I almost didn't recognize it. The lady working for the school had horrible English pronunciation. The walk from one room to the other was in complete silence. Neither I nor the office lady nor Misa nor Okaasan said anything. The room was less than five feet away and yet it seemed like it took an hour to get there. Once we were all seated the a new lady came to the table to work as an intermediary, she went over the pre-arranged agreement in both English and Japanese and I just sat there and nodded dumbly so terrified of making a mistake that I probably freaked out Misa and Okaasan. They were prepared to have a exchange student that didn't speak a word of English. The last two exchange students they had had hadn't spoke a word of Japanese before coming to Japan. They had only spoken to Misa (who's English was phenomenal) to the point of completely ignoring Otousan (who didn't have a real friendly outlook on exchange students or Americans after that). Misa didn't want to be stuck being the only one the exchange kid talked to so she pretended that she didn't know any English while at the meeting (and realistically for the first three days I knew her).
After the meeting we went to pick up my stuff from the seminar house and then had a fourty minute drive. Okaasan and Misa talked very quickly in subdued tones of Kansai-ben. I was terrified, I didn't understand a word they were saying, despite having been in Japan for roughly a week by this point I really hadn't run into any Kansai-ben accent.The dorm mother and the office people at the school made it a point to use "normal" Japanese so as not to confuse the exchange students. I knew going into the whole deal that 1 and a half years of Japanese wasn't going to be enough, but I had no idea truly how bad off I was. It all turned out okay though, over the course of the semester I picked up more Japanese than I had in the previous year and a half. Even now in my classes I'm constantly amazed (this makes me sound incrediable egotistical but I don't intend for it to sound that way) answers will automatically pop into my head without even having to think about the question (this has gotten me into some trouble because my answers generally pop out overly kansai-ben accented and horribly quolocial and Niimi sensei doesn't like that). I'll know all sorts of slang and random words, I know cancer and Nazis in Japanese but I don't know rope, and it's simply because rope never came up in a conversation.
When Misa and Okaasan finally decided to directly talk to me (rather than -- I assume -- about me) it made me feel a little better because they asked simple question, every question in fact that the Japanese 1 book prompts you to learn. What Sports do you like? What are your hobbies? What foods do you like? What music? How many people are in your family? etc. I burned a years worth of Japanese classes in those last ten minutes of the car ride. It was like the universe had tilted back into an order I knew. I calmed down a little, but it was short lived.
When we got to the house I was expecting to meet Otousan. I was not expecting to meet Maki, Take or Kanta. I suddenly felt overwhelmed again. The house was small, and honestly kind of scary looking (I came to love it but my first impressions can be kind of harsh). There were four people sitting in the small living room/dinning room/family room. And the house was freezing accept for that room. There was only one seat open in the room. I was told to sit. Take watched me as if he was expecting me to suddenly jump up and do a little jig. Kanta was more preoccupied with Misa and Maki just smiled at me. Otousan stared. A very un-nerving stare, I was nervous already and I thought I was going to be killed. He didn't really blink and his stare stayed on me, unrelentingly, for the first two weeks that I stayed with them.
When it came time for dinner, Okasan came over and sat me down in the what came to be my seat. They had a fork and chopsticks out, they all watched me as I picked which utensil to use. I felt kind of like and attraction at the zoo ( "and on your left we have Blonde Gaijin. Blond Gaijin. Native to the...") they were all quite shocked when I picked the chopsticks. (Apparently none of their previous exchange students had been able to use chopsticks). The rest of the night passed uneventfully. Everyone talked very fastly in Kansai-ben and every so often I would get a question. Okasan being the first and the only one precocious enought to ask me the main three questions that I got from everyone.
The first week was really rough. I never quite felt at home always concious of potentially screwing up disasterously.
I didn't really get to know Take all that well. I think he worked as a chef and he was an interesting person. He was alwasy joking with Misa and Maki, but generally I didn't understand his jokes, wether it was a cultural knowledge based joke or I simply didn't understand the words he used I'll never know. But I wish I had talked to him more, I wish I had gotten more time to get to know him.
Eventually Otousan warmed up to me and we got a long great. He's quiet but he always had interesting things to say and he was always teasing Okaasan. She never realized that he was teasing her, but he would kinda smile at me and Misa when he was pulling a joke. He was very smart but like all Japanese men wasn't allowed in the kitchen really (although he made AMAZING takoyaki, he taught me how to make Takoyaki) and we had a couple of adventures where it was just him and me left on our own for lunch on a sunday. He didn't know how to use the oven and I couldn't read the directions or the buttons (more often than once we ended up eating out at the local mos burger or yakiniku place rather than even attempting to figure out how to cook the frozen pizza Okaasan left for us).
I've never had sisters but Misa and Maki truly did become my sisters. We would hang out and just sit around and chat. Every saturday we would watch Gokusen together and they never minded that I asked a million and one questions trying to understand what was going on (ironically enough all the Yakuza words I understood just fine). We talked about a lot of random things and normal things we had inside jokes. We made cookies together and threw pottery together. I wonder if this is what truly having sisters is like.
Okaasan was my closest Japanese friend. We had all sorts of strange conversations in both English and Japanese. It is throught conversations with her that I learned the words for Nazis and Cancer (apparently the Japanese Bible History aaccompaniment book teaches you some crazy things) He talked about Manzai, we talked about wars over water. We went to hotsprings together and watched volleyball games. We talked about religion. She taught me how to cook and got a laugh out of everytime I screwed up. She taught me how to flag down and ambulance and scared me on a weekly basis when her English didn't match up with what she was trying to say. She is the worst driver I have ever met in my live and I never got in the car with her if I could avoid it after the inital ride home. Anywhere we went she had to show me off like some kind of prize poodle and it made her extremely happy to be able to do that. She loved it when I called her Okaasan.
I miss the food, both store bought and home made. I miss the lounge, I miss the fishbowl effect, I miss stealing wireless signals, I miss the chairs, I miss my professors, I miss the friends I made there, I miss waiting at the station for hours, I miss kiddyland, I miss searching for hosts in Kyoto, I miss getting lost, I miss Book Off, I miss seeing the colonel dressed up in front of every KFC, I miss going to Tsutaya, I miss the gate guards, I miss the field trips, I miss the trips, I miss the trains, I miss the crazy questions, I miss the buses, I miss being able to evasedrop and knowing that they don't believe I know what they're talking about. I miss my Gaijin card, I miss the crazy Elvis man, I miss catching the late bus and the last train, I miss the preformers in the station at night. I miss the dance clubs practicing in any avaliable window. I miss the shopping, I miss the Tanukis, I miss watching crazy TV shows like Pressure and En no Kami Sama, I miss the random game shows, I miss crazy dinner conversations, I miss my frigid room, I miss the elementary kids asking me my name every morning when I passes them, I miss the view out my window, I miss my strawberry futon, I miss screaming over crazy spiders and having my family think I'm yelling about clouds, I miss giving English lessons, i miss Japan but most of all I miss my family.
I miss these crazy people.
Maki, Misa, Kanta, Otousan
So I could have a picture of him where he wasn't glaring
Okaasan, Maki, Misa, Kanta
I made Tacos my last night there. It took some time to explain that Tacos were not made of octopus (Octopus = Tako) but it seems like they enjoyed them despite my horrendous lack of cooking skills.
When they finally did call my name I almost didn't recognize it. The lady working for the school had horrible English pronunciation. The walk from one room to the other was in complete silence. Neither I nor the office lady nor Misa nor Okaasan said anything. The room was less than five feet away and yet it seemed like it took an hour to get there. Once we were all seated the a new lady came to the table to work as an intermediary, she went over the pre-arranged agreement in both English and Japanese and I just sat there and nodded dumbly so terrified of making a mistake that I probably freaked out Misa and Okaasan. They were prepared to have a exchange student that didn't speak a word of English. The last two exchange students they had had hadn't spoke a word of Japanese before coming to Japan. They had only spoken to Misa (who's English was phenomenal) to the point of completely ignoring Otousan (who didn't have a real friendly outlook on exchange students or Americans after that). Misa didn't want to be stuck being the only one the exchange kid talked to so she pretended that she didn't know any English while at the meeting (and realistically for the first three days I knew her).
After the meeting we went to pick up my stuff from the seminar house and then had a fourty minute drive. Okaasan and Misa talked very quickly in subdued tones of Kansai-ben. I was terrified, I didn't understand a word they were saying, despite having been in Japan for roughly a week by this point I really hadn't run into any Kansai-ben accent.The dorm mother and the office people at the school made it a point to use "normal" Japanese so as not to confuse the exchange students. I knew going into the whole deal that 1 and a half years of Japanese wasn't going to be enough, but I had no idea truly how bad off I was. It all turned out okay though, over the course of the semester I picked up more Japanese than I had in the previous year and a half. Even now in my classes I'm constantly amazed (this makes me sound incrediable egotistical but I don't intend for it to sound that way) answers will automatically pop into my head without even having to think about the question (this has gotten me into some trouble because my answers generally pop out overly kansai-ben accented and horribly quolocial and Niimi sensei doesn't like that). I'll know all sorts of slang and random words, I know cancer and Nazis in Japanese but I don't know rope, and it's simply because rope never came up in a conversation.
When Misa and Okaasan finally decided to directly talk to me (rather than -- I assume -- about me) it made me feel a little better because they asked simple question, every question in fact that the Japanese 1 book prompts you to learn. What Sports do you like? What are your hobbies? What foods do you like? What music? How many people are in your family? etc. I burned a years worth of Japanese classes in those last ten minutes of the car ride. It was like the universe had tilted back into an order I knew. I calmed down a little, but it was short lived.
When we got to the house I was expecting to meet Otousan. I was not expecting to meet Maki, Take or Kanta. I suddenly felt overwhelmed again. The house was small, and honestly kind of scary looking (I came to love it but my first impressions can be kind of harsh). There were four people sitting in the small living room/dinning room/family room. And the house was freezing accept for that room. There was only one seat open in the room. I was told to sit. Take watched me as if he was expecting me to suddenly jump up and do a little jig. Kanta was more preoccupied with Misa and Maki just smiled at me. Otousan stared. A very un-nerving stare, I was nervous already and I thought I was going to be killed. He didn't really blink and his stare stayed on me, unrelentingly, for the first two weeks that I stayed with them.
When it came time for dinner, Okasan came over and sat me down in the what came to be my seat. They had a fork and chopsticks out, they all watched me as I picked which utensil to use. I felt kind of like and attraction at the zoo ( "and on your left we have Blonde Gaijin. Blond Gaijin. Native to the...") they were all quite shocked when I picked the chopsticks. (Apparently none of their previous exchange students had been able to use chopsticks). The rest of the night passed uneventfully. Everyone talked very fastly in Kansai-ben and every so often I would get a question. Okasan being the first and the only one precocious enought to ask me the main three questions that I got from everyone.
- Do you own a gun?
- Do you know Ichiro?
- Can you use Chopsticks (well she didn't actually ask me this one, but she had seen me use them by that point)
The first week was really rough. I never quite felt at home always concious of potentially screwing up disasterously.
I didn't really get to know Take all that well. I think he worked as a chef and he was an interesting person. He was alwasy joking with Misa and Maki, but generally I didn't understand his jokes, wether it was a cultural knowledge based joke or I simply didn't understand the words he used I'll never know. But I wish I had talked to him more, I wish I had gotten more time to get to know him.
Eventually Otousan warmed up to me and we got a long great. He's quiet but he always had interesting things to say and he was always teasing Okaasan. She never realized that he was teasing her, but he would kinda smile at me and Misa when he was pulling a joke. He was very smart but like all Japanese men wasn't allowed in the kitchen really (although he made AMAZING takoyaki, he taught me how to make Takoyaki) and we had a couple of adventures where it was just him and me left on our own for lunch on a sunday. He didn't know how to use the oven and I couldn't read the directions or the buttons (more often than once we ended up eating out at the local mos burger or yakiniku place rather than even attempting to figure out how to cook the frozen pizza Okaasan left for us).
I've never had sisters but Misa and Maki truly did become my sisters. We would hang out and just sit around and chat. Every saturday we would watch Gokusen together and they never minded that I asked a million and one questions trying to understand what was going on (ironically enough all the Yakuza words I understood just fine). We talked about a lot of random things and normal things we had inside jokes. We made cookies together and threw pottery together. I wonder if this is what truly having sisters is like.
Okaasan was my closest Japanese friend. We had all sorts of strange conversations in both English and Japanese. It is throught conversations with her that I learned the words for Nazis and Cancer (apparently the Japanese Bible History aaccompaniment book teaches you some crazy things) He talked about Manzai, we talked about wars over water. We went to hotsprings together and watched volleyball games. We talked about religion. She taught me how to cook and got a laugh out of everytime I screwed up. She taught me how to flag down and ambulance and scared me on a weekly basis when her English didn't match up with what she was trying to say. She is the worst driver I have ever met in my live and I never got in the car with her if I could avoid it after the inital ride home. Anywhere we went she had to show me off like some kind of prize poodle and it made her extremely happy to be able to do that. She loved it when I called her Okaasan.
I miss the food, both store bought and home made. I miss the lounge, I miss the fishbowl effect, I miss stealing wireless signals, I miss the chairs, I miss my professors, I miss the friends I made there, I miss waiting at the station for hours, I miss kiddyland, I miss searching for hosts in Kyoto, I miss getting lost, I miss Book Off, I miss seeing the colonel dressed up in front of every KFC, I miss going to Tsutaya, I miss the gate guards, I miss the field trips, I miss the trips, I miss the trains, I miss the crazy questions, I miss the buses, I miss being able to evasedrop and knowing that they don't believe I know what they're talking about. I miss my Gaijin card, I miss the crazy Elvis man, I miss catching the late bus and the last train, I miss the preformers in the station at night. I miss the dance clubs practicing in any avaliable window. I miss the shopping, I miss the Tanukis, I miss watching crazy TV shows like Pressure and En no Kami Sama, I miss the random game shows, I miss crazy dinner conversations, I miss my frigid room, I miss the elementary kids asking me my name every morning when I passes them, I miss the view out my window, I miss my strawberry futon, I miss screaming over crazy spiders and having my family think I'm yelling about clouds, I miss giving English lessons, i miss Japan but most of all I miss my family.
I miss these crazy people.
Maki, Misa, Kanta, Otousan
So I could have a picture of him where he wasn't glaring
Okaasan, Maki, Misa, Kanta
I made Tacos my last night there. It took some time to explain that Tacos were not made of octopus (Octopus = Tako) but it seems like they enjoyed them despite my horrendous lack of cooking skills.