Long time waiting...
Dang it's been a while since the last update, but figured I should finish my recount of the trip after all this time!
So after we left tokyo, we took a shinkansen (express bullet train) to kyoto prefecture, then a train to Joyo city to meet our host families.
We arrived at the Joyo station and it was empty! Big change compared to Tokyo...you could tell that the town wasn't exactly bustling, but it was all good. The manager guy of the exchange company (JIEE) that arranged our homestays greeted us at the station and helped us make our way to the meeting room where everyone was at. And by everyone, I mean our host families and... I think that's it.
So we get there and everyone claps for us as we enter the room, woo! There is a table in the middle of the room, and our families are seated in a circle along the walls. There is tea on the table and we are told to get some, so we do, although I didn't like it (not a tea guy) so I set it aside :P.
My family was an older couple in their 60's. Seko Yaeko and....the dad guy, I forget his name! They also had one of their grandchildren with them who ended up staying at their house for the next 2 days, his name was Shinya. I glance over at my friend Kobe's host family, which consisted of a couple in their 30's or 40's, with a teenage daughter still in her school uniform. :O
Anyways, our Japanese teacher and the JIEE guy both make speeches we can't really understand, but it was kinda cool to see our teacher talk in her native language about serious stuff for an extended period of time. Then we chat as a group a bit, and my own host dad goes "i've heard about Vancouver once, it looks nice, like the rest of Canada" (or something like that). Even in Japan, Vancouver, WA gets no love! He is politely reminded that it's the Vancouver in WA state, and not Washington DC either!
So then we say goodbye to our classmates for the next 3 days and get driven/walk to our host family houses. Shinya was pretty dang shy around me at first.
My host house was a sort of small 2-story house. As I walked in, the living room was there, and the stairs to the 2nd floor immediately to my left. the stairs were narrow! The living room had a couple cushions on the ground around a small table and kotatsu (underground heater thing), a laptop near the wall on a desk, and a bookshelf thing with a small TV on it. Past the living room was the small kitchen and a nearly empty tatami room, great for relaxing!
Upstairs was the 2 bedrooms, mine was on the right in the small hallway. Inside was a tatami floor, buddhist/shinto altars, a fan, AC machine, and my futon bed on the ground already made! All of the doors in this house are of the sliding type.
The first order of business was a little get-to-know-you chat in the living room. It was hard explaining my family tree due to my parent's divorce and mom's death which is a little uncommon in Japan, but eventually with the aid of pictures I succeeded :)
Then it was decided that it was time for me to experience a public bath (sentou). So we drove to the border of Joyo where there was a sort of replica of fort vancouver there (Joyo is the sister city of Vancouver, WA). Behind that replica was a playground of sorts (!). Anyways, near that was the public bath. Basically the bath's are split by gender (duh), so we go inside, strip (the dad and shinya were not embarrassed in the least, luckily there was no one else there until the end), and relax. There is another authentic shower thing there (where you sit down on a stool and wash yourself off with a hand-held sprayer, a hot tub, a colder pool, and a sauna, with real burning rocks or whatever inside :).
After the public bath, we went home and talked some more before having my first real dinner in Japan. Tempura! There was sooooooooooooo much to eat, and Yaeko said they bought extra milk and juice because they figured I would eat/drink a lot (which I did, I think i surprised them with how much milk I drank!). There were a few strange foods like eggplant, but once I tempura-ized them it wasn't so bad. I can't stress enough the variety and quantity of the food! But it was good! After dinner it was almost time for sleep, and they gave me a little article about Buddhism and stuff and said I could read it if i wanted to before I went to bed. I did and it was pretty interesting.
I had an interesting time sleeping...It was still so hot and humid, I couldn't get the AC to work right even with the remote, so i opted to use the fan next to my futon, but it automatically shut off every 60 minutes or so...so i woke up a few times that night, but overall, a good sleep.
to be continued...
So after we left tokyo, we took a shinkansen (express bullet train) to kyoto prefecture, then a train to Joyo city to meet our host families.
We arrived at the Joyo station and it was empty! Big change compared to Tokyo...you could tell that the town wasn't exactly bustling, but it was all good. The manager guy of the exchange company (JIEE) that arranged our homestays greeted us at the station and helped us make our way to the meeting room where everyone was at. And by everyone, I mean our host families and... I think that's it.
So we get there and everyone claps for us as we enter the room, woo! There is a table in the middle of the room, and our families are seated in a circle along the walls. There is tea on the table and we are told to get some, so we do, although I didn't like it (not a tea guy) so I set it aside :P.
My family was an older couple in their 60's. Seko Yaeko and....the dad guy, I forget his name! They also had one of their grandchildren with them who ended up staying at their house for the next 2 days, his name was Shinya. I glance over at my friend Kobe's host family, which consisted of a couple in their 30's or 40's, with a teenage daughter still in her school uniform. :O
Anyways, our Japanese teacher and the JIEE guy both make speeches we can't really understand, but it was kinda cool to see our teacher talk in her native language about serious stuff for an extended period of time. Then we chat as a group a bit, and my own host dad goes "i've heard about Vancouver once, it looks nice, like the rest of Canada" (or something like that). Even in Japan, Vancouver, WA gets no love! He is politely reminded that it's the Vancouver in WA state, and not Washington DC either!
So then we say goodbye to our classmates for the next 3 days and get driven/walk to our host family houses. Shinya was pretty dang shy around me at first.
My host house was a sort of small 2-story house. As I walked in, the living room was there, and the stairs to the 2nd floor immediately to my left. the stairs were narrow! The living room had a couple cushions on the ground around a small table and kotatsu (underground heater thing), a laptop near the wall on a desk, and a bookshelf thing with a small TV on it. Past the living room was the small kitchen and a nearly empty tatami room, great for relaxing!
Upstairs was the 2 bedrooms, mine was on the right in the small hallway. Inside was a tatami floor, buddhist/shinto altars, a fan, AC machine, and my futon bed on the ground already made! All of the doors in this house are of the sliding type.
The first order of business was a little get-to-know-you chat in the living room. It was hard explaining my family tree due to my parent's divorce and mom's death which is a little uncommon in Japan, but eventually with the aid of pictures I succeeded :)
Then it was decided that it was time for me to experience a public bath (sentou). So we drove to the border of Joyo where there was a sort of replica of fort vancouver there (Joyo is the sister city of Vancouver, WA). Behind that replica was a playground of sorts (!). Anyways, near that was the public bath. Basically the bath's are split by gender (duh), so we go inside, strip (the dad and shinya were not embarrassed in the least, luckily there was no one else there until the end), and relax. There is another authentic shower thing there (where you sit down on a stool and wash yourself off with a hand-held sprayer, a hot tub, a colder pool, and a sauna, with real burning rocks or whatever inside :).
After the public bath, we went home and talked some more before having my first real dinner in Japan. Tempura! There was sooooooooooooo much to eat, and Yaeko said they bought extra milk and juice because they figured I would eat/drink a lot (which I did, I think i surprised them with how much milk I drank!). There were a few strange foods like eggplant, but once I tempura-ized them it wasn't so bad. I can't stress enough the variety and quantity of the food! But it was good! After dinner it was almost time for sleep, and they gave me a little article about Buddhism and stuff and said I could read it if i wanted to before I went to bed. I did and it was pretty interesting.
I had an interesting time sleeping...It was still so hot and humid, I couldn't get the AC to work right even with the remote, so i opted to use the fan next to my futon, but it automatically shut off every 60 minutes or so...so i woke up a few times that night, but overall, a good sleep.
to be continued...