August 7th

Hey guysss.

Well first, a bit of an introduction. I don’t have Internet at the moment and am unsure when I will. However, when I go get my cell phone (whenever that may be) I’ll try getting an air card for Internet. Again, that’s tentative, but then again, by the time you read this, it’ll probably have already worked out.

Which brings me to my next point: since I don’t have Internet, I’ll be writing this on Word, and when I get the chance, I’ll throw it on the net. Which, yes, means at least for now, my posts will continue to be long. Sorry, guys. Hopefully some pictures will make up for it. =]

So alright, it’s the night of August the 7^th. Hachigatsu nanoka. My second night at the Yamamoto’s - “the base of the mountain.” For those whose computers can read Japanese characters, that would be 山本 . Anyhow, let’s start…well…where else but the beginning?

Man, I love saying that XP.

So alright, I left you guys at Kansai Airport. Next morning I got up, checked out and everything. It was incredibly easy. Got on the plane (which had the most ridiculous leg room I have ever seen.) I was sitting next to this business man looking guy. Actually, it was incredibly awesome because after that what did he pull out, but a Nintendo DS. Yeah, I forgot to mention that, but here EVERYONE has a DS. It’s ridiculous. I saw an old man who must’ve been in his 60s or 70s with one. And on TV there’s tons of commercials for Nintendo (like they need advertisement here in Japan). They really should show those in the US…crazy. But it’s cool I’ll admit. Oh, and just a side note here. Just writing “here in Japan” a few lines up just sent shivers down my spine.

This is so awesome.

Anyhow, the airport, right. My stuff came out quickly, and I left the security checkpoint to find….a party?!?! What theeeee….the Sister Cities Committee here really outdid themselves. There were like 15-20 people, ranging anywhere from my school’s vice principal, to a classmate at my school, to an English teacher of another school. And of course, my host parents and many members of the Committee themselves. The guy from my school insisted he carry just about all my stuff, and I tried to argue but he wouldn’t budge, and I was really tired anyway, so I let him for now. I’ll make it up to him in school. Anyhow, we got into this conference room and everyone went around introducing themselves and saying incredibly nice things about me, and I was incredibly honored. Oh wait, that’s right, they were speaking Japanese. Thank God for Mrs. Takasugi. She’s a member of the Committee who has incredible English. Like you wouldn’t know she was Japanese if you talked on the phone. So it was cool. She sat by me and translated everything. THANK YOUU. Haha. And then I had to say something, and I can’t remember what I said, but I do know it was incredibly ineloquent. Whatever. I’m not one for improvised speeches.

Anyhow, my parents. They drove me home, which was like a 40 minute ride, that, yeah, was awkward. Their English is pretty much nonexistent, and my Japanese isn’t much better. But I managed to express some basic ideas, such as: HOLY CRAP, MOUNTAINS. Yeah, Illinois is like a pancake, and here it’s like I’m in the Himalayas. Okay, not quite, the entire city is pretty flat. But surrounding it are these huge, majestic mountains. Quite a sight to see.

Oh, and quick thing on the driving part: they drive on the “wrong” side. I don’t know how I’m going to get used to seeing the cars drive on the left (and the steering wheel being on the right).

Anyhow, my house. It’s a, well, small-ish sized house (I mean, non-American-sized). But it’s very nice here. I love it. There’s the l

ittle room at the entrance to take off your shoes, and then there’s the living room (with a plasma TV), and then a TATAMI ROOM (more on that later), and a kitchen. My room’s upstairs, and it’s pretty much the size of my American room. I’m verrry impressed. It’s probably the biggest room in the house XP. But I appreciate it a lot. I’ve got a wardrobe, a bed, and a desk (my favorite part). It’s pretty bland, but I got out some stuff that I brought from the US to put on the shelves, and it already looks a lot nicer. Oh, and I’ve got a balcony.

I love this place.

But okay, tatami mat room. Man, that thing is COOL. Just picture the most stereotypical Japanese room you can… you know with those calligraphy scrolls and Mount Fuji paintings, and little shrines and everything….and multiply it threefold. It’s really awesome. I like just sitting there and looking around.

And then the bathroom. The toilet, as you may or may not know, is in a separate room. Actually the entire Japanese bathroom is pretty different. If you’re up for it, google it, see what you get. It’s pretty interesting. But then again, if you’re not, here’s the rundown. The bath/ shower. Ofuro. The idea is that you shower and wash yourself entirely (kinda like in the US) and then you soak in this bath of hot water and relax. You wash yourself thoroughly first because everyone uses the same water in the bath.

As of now, I have yet to figure out how to heat the water in the bath and everything, so I haven’t done that part yet (don’t worry though, I have showered.) You’d think it couldn’t be that hard, but trust me, it can. I don’t understand any of the freakin kanji written on the buttons and the little voice that tells me what it’s doing might as well be speaking Arabic (no comment, Mudrekh.)

Anyhow, that’s the house. And then my family. I actually haven’t understood too much about them, but here’s what I know.

My dad, otoosan, is called Katsuyoshi Yamamoto. He’s 66, and he wears glasses. He just recently retired. His signature “thing” is pulling out a huge magnifying glass to read things (namely, the dictionary I’ve been cracking open every three seconds). He’s a nice man, but I don’t like how he smokes. He’s got the courtesy to only do it outside though, and it’s HIS freaking house and he could smoke wherever the heck he pleases, so I appreciate it.

My mom, okaasan, is Fumiko Yamamoto. I’m not sure how old she is, but I would guess not much different than my host dad. Well, she looks younger, but don’t women always? Just today I gathered that she sews, like that’s her job. She said she was making a dress when I asked her today. Cool! I asked her what she did, if she sold them or what, but I didn’t understand the answer. XD. Her signature “thing” is constantly cooking, sewing, working, of some kind (unlike my dad here, who occasionally takes a nap :-P).

[Side note here: it’s currently the 11^th, and I’m just looking back on old notes. I actually have never, ever seen my mom sleep. When I go to bed she’s up, when I get up, she’s already downstairs making some kind of food. It’s crazy.]

Onto food. Mudrekh, you’d be proud of me. The first thing I ate here was….you betcha: ramen. We went out to eat at this little ramen place. I had to choose which one I wanted, but couldn’t understand anything, so I just chose the one with the familiar name: Miso. Bean something. It was pretty awesome really. And it was kind of nice, just eating, not worrying about what was in it. Ohh, and chopsticks. Hashi. I’ve gotten pretty good at it, actually. I think you guys would be impressed. My host mom has made sure I always have a fork available at every meal, but most of the time, I’ve stuck with chopsticks (unless I get really frustrated with them). They work pretty well for Japanese food.

[This is me looking back again and I remembered that I never mentioned that we have a typical Japanese low table here; everyone eats sitting on the floor. It’s kinda cool. I haven’t sat in an actual chair to eat since I got here. I got used to it pretty quick actually.]

Oh, and my mom’s cooking…it’s so good! Actually, I’ve found that, at least during the holiday break, we don’t have the “three meal a day” thing. More like 5, but they consist of small portions each time. I kind of like it. I mean, since getting here, I have not yet been hungry…not even once. So it’s cool. Mostly we’ve been having either noodles with ham, and egg, and sauce, and whatever else in it….or rice with some type of meat. Always really, really good. I wish I could emphasize that to her without just saying oishii (delicious) every single meal. So yeah, food has been alright. =]

The tough part so far has been communicating. We’re relying a lot on gestures and dictionaries. As well as the all-purpose-word daijoubu, meaning “everything’s fine,” or “that’s okay,” or “not to worry.” Handy word.

Oh, and katakana. For those who don’t know, katakana is one of Japan’s two phonetic alphabets (the other one being hiragana). Katakana deals strictly with foreign words. Like, hamu (ham), chiizu (cheese), etc. So it’s verrryyyy convenient, especially since 90% of the time the borrowed word is from English.

Ohh, but Jan, you’ll like this. The Japanese word for “part time job” is arubaito. Now, I know you don’t speak German anymore, so I’ll remind you that “arbeiten” is the German verb for “to work.” XD So that’s pretty cool, eh?

So yeah. We’ve been getting by. I mean, when I meant to say my mom was a housewife, shufu, I called her a saifu, wallet, instead. Whatever. XD

[This being said, I’m going to take a quick minute here to explain the sounds in Japanese (that are very, very easy) so that you can at least read the words that I write in it.

When you see ‘a’, always think of the ‘a’ in ‘father.’

When you see ‘I’, think of the ‘I’ in ‘machine.’

For ‘u’, think of the American pronunciation of ‘uber.’ (Don’t get fancy on me, German speakers XD)

The real best equivalent for ‘e’ is our group’s ‘mehhh.’

And ‘o’ is like a short ‘oh.’

The rest is simple: the only consonants are k, g, s, z, t, d, n, h, b, p, m, y, and r. And those should be simple enough.]

Today, my host dad and I went biking around the neighborhood to check out the bus stop and local park and stuff. Very neat. And I like how you can get to places with a bike, where as in the US: no way.

Oh, and today was some equivalent of Halloween for some reason. Well, at the very least, kids were biking around the neighborhood, stopping at all the houses, ringing the doorbell. When we answered it, they started singing and we were supposed to give them candy. I can only think of Halloween. Ah well. It was fun.

So yeah. I’m psyched to see the Olympics tomorrow. I hope you guys all watch it too! Anyhow, I’m tired. Trying to think in Japanese wears me out. I’m going to bed, and hopefully I can post this before kingdom come.

Night, guys.

Oyasumi