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Hirakata, Osaka: September 22, Monday My first day in my new Japanese class. Although I have nobody to talk to, I'm already so much happier! The content is not only easier, and the explanations in English (some of them, anyway), but the topics are more interesting and useful in day-to-day life! On a typical day, I'm not going to need to talk about climate and geography, or the education system of Japan! But social networking systems (Facebook, MySpace, Mixi)? Topics about public transportation like cell the prohibition of phone use, and how annoying some people are? Yeah, those are totally more common topics. My other classes were fine. Not much to say here for school. The highlight of the day was that I got a package in the mail. I collected the package from Kipsuko and when I got home, I opened it. For utility, it had my power cable for my computer, and a dictionary for my Nintendo DS, so that was fabulous. But more significantly, for comfort, it had a blanket. I knew there was a blanket because it said so on the box. But the blanket, which is five black and red panels, has two cute cat heads down the center panel, AND Kitsuko knitted it herself! Oh. My. God. Naturally, I was psyched. It was such an unbelievably sweet gesture! If I'd gotten it a week ago, I'm sure the sight of it would have made me cry, because I was so unhappy at my homestay, and was almost regretting coming to Japan. Well, as I got used to life here, my emotions stabilized some. (Having my computer and DS functional help. A LOT.) So I didn't cry. But man, it made me happy. It's not just that it's a blanket, or a piece of home. It's that she made it, herself! The time and effort that would have gone into it! And that it's black and red-- my colours-- and has cats on it-- it's just so perfect in every way! So I sleep curled up in it. I lay my light, white comfortor on top of it, but I sleep with the blanket itself directly wound around me. On the plus side, it's amazingly comfortable, and very warm. On the downside, it seems to make me sleep in. ^_^; I've been super prompt about getting up since getting to Japan, waking up MUCH more readily than in the U.S., but this seems to make me sleep. Kobe + Kyoto: September 23, Tuesday So, like I just mentioned at the end of Monday, I slept in. Curled up in my kitty blanket, I hit the alarm and went back to sleep. But only by a little bit-- I got up fifteen or twenty minutes later. I was getting ready to hurry to Huey's place for the "play" (which turned out not to be a play at all, just a museum exhibit-- but it was still pretty) when Okaasan cut me off to say that we were going to her friend's café for breakfast. O_o I tried protesting, as I had just enough time to get to the train station at a comfortable pace, but she wouldn't hear any of it. She must really, really not want me in the kitchen. This Friday/Saturday, she's going to visit a friend so she was going to make dinner before leaving, and I would just eat my usual breakfast. Or make something by myself. But instead, she decided to pay her friend to make me breakfast. >_> So I have to go to her friend's café prior to going to Kiyomizudera with Huey. Which is problematic because we were planning on leaving pretty early. Gosh darn dangnabbit. In any case, how is this relevant? It was to that café that Okaasan was taking me to for breakfast, so I could meet her friend. So I could only protest for so long, since I would be in this person's care this Saturday. Quite against my will, but nevertheless. I went to the café (which is overpriced, by the way, but it tasted fine). I scarfed my food down as Okaasan laughed at me, since she found it funny that I was stuffing my face (while being as polite and reserved as possible) even though she was the reason I was having to hurry. I HATE it when one person inconveniences everybody else. I refuse to be the one to inconvenience Huey's host family and make us late because Okaasan (as Huey puts it) "got a maggot in her brain" to make me go to a café when she KNEW my plans, and KNEW I'd be on a time crunch. In any case, I got there on time by running half the way to the train station. I caught the train JUST as it was arriving, so I managed to be precisely on time, where Huey's host mom, youngest two host siblings (Wataru and Hikaru), and some family friends (a mother and her two daughters Hikari and Momo) were waiting. But then Masayuki (Huey's 20 year old host brother) ran late taking a shower, so it was another half hour or so before we left anyway. Sigh. We went to the exhibit in Kobe, which was interesting enough. Then we went to Chinatown for lunch, where everything is overpriced. Otousan chose where we ate-- a buffet for about $10, so it wasn't too bad of a price for a tasty buffet. (And it was quite tasty.) But then what floored me was that Huey and I had to pay our own. Okay, I can understand me, but Huey? This is her host family-- they're being paid to feed her! Did she have to pay because of me? But that's not how it seemed, since Huey was getting money out to pay without ever being asked. So what the heck? Blame my Korean upbringing, but you don't bring people to a restaurant where they have no say, especially if they're supposed to be in your care, and accept money from them for something like lunch at a restaurant they had no choice in. It's not that I wanted them to pay. Like I said, I'd be fine if I were the only one to pay, as I'm the outsider. I'm more comfortable paying my own way anyway, rather than being in their debt. But it's the principle of things-- the obligation of being the caretaker. Anyway. After lunch, we took a walk down to the bay, where I found a SUPER tasty drink for a buck. (Or rather, for 100 yen.) We took some photos, then headed home. Huey and I would have liked to stay longer, and even Masayuki was going to stay with us, but both of Huey's host parents had had some beer with their lunch so he had to drive everyone. Sigh. The drive back was much more interesting than the drive to Kyoto, though. For one thing, Hikari was sitting back with us, so Huey and I were chatting with her a bit. (She's... 11?) Then, we got on the topic of Pokémon because I'd been playing the Pearl version on my DS earlier, and then to horror movies. It turns out both Hikari and Huey HATE horror movies because they're too scary. I'm scared of them, too, but I love them anyway because they can get such a reaction. Then Hikari made the comment that she thinks DeathNote is scary, too. What?! DeathNote?! That's not scary in the slightest! What the heck! So we ended up on the topic of anime. While trying to explain to Huey what Misa looked like, I drew her. And instantly, Hikari was like, "Wah! E ga umaaai!" Which caught four or five year old Wataru's attention, and made him crawl over the seats back to us. So I ended up drawing a couple more things ( Eventually, everyone quieted down and most people fell asleep. I think everybody but Masayuki and I slept at some point. Huey's head kept rolling to lean against my shoulder, which doesn't bother me at all-- I'm used to it. But sleeping Hikari had slid to one side to make room for Wataru when he curled up in her lap, thus resulting in my arm inadvertently being her pillow. So I spent the rest of the car ride at a really awkward angle that got painful. (On the way back to Osaka, we drove through a small, dusty town that had a random shop that said "YAOI" in big, bold letters at the top. For those of you who know what that means... ahahaha. That was NOT where I'd expect to see a yaoi shop.) We got home, and then I headed back. Huey actually went back with me to Yawata-shi, then turned back around and went home. Okaasan and I had a small heart-to-heart, I guess. She came to my room and seemed kind of out of it. I had my computer on, and she seemed curious about some photos I was renaming on there, so I offered to let her see. I showed her some pictures, and she asked if I was homesick, and I said no. (Because I'm not. There's things I miss, of course, but in the sense that I look back and think, That was nice/convenient/fun or whatever, or I miss certain people.) Okaasan told me about how having these host daughters is like having children all around the world. But then she said it was... what was it... I forgot the phrase, but it means once-in-a-lifetime encounters. (Not in the sense of "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!" but more of a "You'll only ever know her once, and then she'll disappear from your life" connotation.) Then she told me about how she still hasn't heard back from Jenny, her first host daughter. She was musing that she thinks Jenny may have died... because she's normally very prompt about responding to e-mails (and by "e-mail" I mean cell phone mail), but she still hasn't, and it's been over a week. I tried suggesting that Jenny might just be on a trip without internet, or her computer broke, or something, but she seemed pessimistic. She said that she knew she shouldn't jump to such dramatic conclusions, but Jenny had stomach cancer. She had surgery before coming to Japan, then surgery while in Japan, and apparently had surgery again after she went back to the States. So Okaasan thinks that she may have died from that. Depressing, right? But being the cold person I am, I just thought, "Okay, for one... I'm not your other host daughters! I'm my own person!" (Because both of my host parents have a tendency to talk about their previous host daughters, and always in a way where they're comparing and contrasting it against me. To some extent, I can understand-- after all, being foreign exchange students in a row, naturally comparisons will happen.) "And for another... what am I supposed to say to something like that?!" Anyway. While I did feel sorry for her, it was uncomfortable because I didn't know what sort of response Okaasan wanted from me. After some of this, Coco (their dog) came into the room, so Okaasan picked her up and went to bed. Hirakata, Osaka: September 24, Wednesday I got up a little late, but only by a few minutes. Class didn't start until 11 anyway, so it didn't matter that I got to school at 9:15 instead of 9. (To use the internet.) I went to Japanese class, and got a surprise: I'd studied the wrong lesson for our quiz. So our first vocabulary quiz, and I scored a 7/10. -.- Even that's only because we had a review before the test, so I got to look at the words for the first time. Sigh. I suck. Then I went to the computer lab to prepare for Popular Culture. I went to Popular Culture, then went to the computer lab to prepare for Visual Anthropology; I went to Visual Anthropology, then went home. Ate dinner. Played Pokémon. Went to bed. The most striking part of the day was that in Visual Anthropology, we discussed Takarazuka a bit, and got to watch a ten minute sequence of a Takarazuka show. I've been wanting to see Takarazuka since I was 18, so this just made those pangs that much worse. Fedorowicz (my professor for Visual Anthropology) suggested that I talk to Jeffry Hester regarding how to acquire tickets to see Takarazuka, so I did. We had a very brief chat (I love his office, by the way-- there was a Paprika poster up, and a bunch of magazines with various pop culture items open and miscellaneous items strewn about, but it was an organized clutter), and he's apparently taking a class to see Takarazuka on October 5th! So he said he'd keep me posted if any students neglect to pay, and a space opens up. I don't care how much I have to pay-- I want to go. If I can't go with them, I'll go by myself. I don't care. I want to gooo. Hirakata, Osaka: September 25, Thursday I woke up late again, curled up in my blanket. This time, I was half an hour late. x_x; So I rushed out after scarfing down a smaller breakfast than usual, and made it to class just barely in time. Japanese class was okay. I had a long break in between Japanese (which was at 9 AM today) and Cross-Cultural Psychology. During that break, I went to McDonald (how Japanese, right? But I was craving burgers, even if it's McD burgers) and ran into Ann and Robbie there. Robbie's from Newcastle, England, and he's a friend of both Ann and Huey, but I'd never talked with him much. We chatted for a time and seemed to get along, so that's cool. Eventually, both of them left for class so I took my time eating and playing some more Pokémon before I, too, had to go to class. After Cross-Cultural Psychology, I met up with Hiroko because she said she wanted to give me something. It was manjuu and a little tourist-trap figure of Tokyo Tower~ because she was there until late yesterday for a SMAP concert. Yaaay~! (Manjuu is apparently an anko dango.) So that was cool. Cooler was that I got to meet two of her friends, Nami and Yuka. We stood about chatting for an hour, then went on our merry ways. I came to the computer lab, Hiroko went to meet up with another friend, Yuka I think went to go see her boyfriend, and I have no clue what Nami went to do. But it was fun. A couple of awkward silences at times, but pretty fun nonetheless. I'm so not good with meeting new people. T_T; In a minute or two, I'll be rushing off to a Manga Union meeting, which I'm sure will be boring, and get done early, and I'll go home. But oh, well. Cheers! Post a comment in response: |
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