Monday and Tuesday went as usual, waking up in the morning, going to class, having a great time and learning lots of new things. After class I hung out with friends and did homework.
I also got my first weeks scores, with 3.8s across the board. That basically means that I’m doing as well as possible in my class, (because a 4.0 is perfect, and I am having a few problems with pronunciation and such.
However, Tuesday afternoon is when it started to get a little interesting. Right after class I headed upstairs to begin packing for my homestay. Once I had gotten a decent amount done, I headed out to take my bike to the train station so that it would be there for me the following morning. With a small map, I managed to make my way to the station, but due to my limited kanji knowledge I had to ask where the bike parking station was.
Once I got to the bike station I was met with some language barriers. I still don’t completely understand what they said, but I got the idea that I wasn’t able to pick up my bike later that day, only the day after. I took my bike to my section and dropped it off, then walked back out of the bike parking area to the train station, where I hung around for a few minutes finding various gates and grabbing a map of the train station. After that, I walked to the bus station (bus is in katakana, the symbols for foreign words, so I was able to read that fairly easily.)
I waited on the bench next to an elderly Japanese lady, and when the bus came, I let her get on first (which I would have done in America as well) then I got on, showed my JCMU I.D. to the driver and then grabbed a double seat next to the window to watch the light drizzle of rain fall from the sky and land on the bus windows.
Taking the bus was easy, as I knew that the station where I wanted to get off was the Hotel View, which is right next to JCMU. (In my first batch of pictures, it is the tall building next to the water.) The walk from Hotel View to JCMU is about five minutes, and I managed to get back into the building before the downpour really started.
I worked for the rest of the evening, cleaning up my room and packing up everything that I had left. The minute hand for four o’clock came and I hurried downstairs with my luggage. There, with one of the ladies from the JCMU administration was my host mother. We greeted each other, and then several of the other guys in the lobby helped me carry my bags to the small silver Toyota parked just up to the door. I got into the front seat (opposite side here in Japan) with my purse and my host mother got into the driver seats. We then left for my new home (for the next month and a half anyway) driving along Lake Biwa, passing a statue of Buddha, the Maibara train station, and a little shopping market on the side of the road.
In the car, my host mother told me that I could address her as “Okaasan” (mother) and my host father as “Otoosan” (father).
Japanese Culture Note: There are at least two different ways to represent family relations in Japanese. I would refer to my own mother as “haha” and my own father as “chichi”. However, if I were to talk about someone else’s parents “ryoushin”, I would say “Takeshi no okaasan” (Takeshi’s mother). Immediate relationships have different words compared to outside relationships. By calling my host mother “okaasan” I am referring to the idea that she is my “mother” for the time being, but she is not my official mother, therefore it would be awkward (and kind of rude to my mom) to call her “haha”. Some other family relationships are listed below. The personal form is first, followed by the general form.
Grandma: sobo, obaasan
Grandpa: sofu, ojiisan
Aunt: oba, obasan (notice the short “a” sound)
Uncle: oji, ojisan (short “I” sound)
Older brother: ani, oniisan
Older sister: ane oneesan
Younger brother: otooto, otootosan
Younger sister: imooto, imootosan
When we arrived at the house, I found it to be a very traditional Japanese house on the outside, and a little more modern on the inside. My room is very big (about the size of the entire apartment at JCMU, with a cot rather than a futon.
Note: Futons in Japan are very popular, but it isn’t what we call a futon in the United States. In Japan, a futon is a very thin mattress that can be rolled up every morning when it’s not in use. Blankets are used on top, as well as a small pillow. This is compared to the United States where we generally have couches that can be unfolded into a bed. My cot is a cross between a futon and a bed. While it is off the floor, it is still a very thin mattress with blankets. The other thing is that I don’t have to roll it up every morning. (I still make my bed though).
Okaasan then showed me around the house, which is three times larger than most Japanese houses. The stairs lead only to one room, which is mine, and then, when going down the stairs, one is led into the guest entrance as well as the entrance to the Art Gallery. My Otoosan is a retired teacher and painter, and now puts his works on display in the left section of the house.
Through a tiny hallway, one is led to a door that is slightly hidden by two white lace curtains hanging down. Through the curtains is the dining room as well as the living room. It is a small, somewhat cramped space, but it is the place where we spend most of our time. There is a low couch, a low table with lots of magazines and a mirror. Then, there is a high table, which we sit at to eat. (Traditional Japanese tables are low to the ground). There is a television adjacent to the table, which can be used to watch the news, weather forcast, sumo or samurai dramas.
Behind the dining table is a cabinet with many glasses, some old and some new. There is also another tiny hallway that leads to a very small kitchen, but it is obvious that the kitchen is used often.
The last third of the house is the traditional Japanese room. It is made almost completely of tatami mats (originally rice straw, but now made mostly of wood chip boards), and has several traditional Japanese items inside.
There is a Shinto (traditional Japanese religion) and a Buddhist shrine, as well as my Okaasan’s koto, which she played when she was a child. A koto is a stringed instrument and there is a similar instrument that was played in China. There are also pictures of my Otoosan’s parents and grandparents. Both his father and grandfather were teachers and interested in fine arts. My Okaasan told me that this means that the family would be known as an education family. In addition, she told me that the Emperor of Japan gave Otoosan’s grandfather an award. This would be prior to World War II when the Emperor was still seen as one of the highest people on Earth. Though the Emperor is still seen today as the connection to Heaven, prior to World War II this was taken much more seriously. You can compare this to Queen Elizabeth II today and the power of Queen Elizabeth I in the 16th century.
After I was shown the house, I went back upstairs to unpack all of my stuff. I put all of my clothes away and relished in the moment, looking at my room.
My room is about the size of my entire apartment back at JCMU. There is another section which can be sectioned off by a curtain so that the room can house two homestay students at once. At the moment, I am the only homestay student, therefore I have the entire room to myself. I have a closet, a shelf, a desk, one chair, one clock, three mirrors, one cot for a bed and a low table on a square tatami mat. The low table also comes with a cushion, which I can kneel on when I get ready in the morning.
Afterwards, I headed back downstairs for dinner at 5:30. Dinner consisted of an “obento”, which is usually used for lunches, but this one was bigger and more suited for dinner. Obentos are boxes with divisions in them to separate food. My dinner consisted of “nasu” (eggplant) “shiitake” (mushrooms) “ebi” (shrimp) “yasai” (vegetables) “gohan” (rice) “ochya” (tea) two slices of an orange, a piece of fish and onions. It was a very healthy dinner, and the portions for each food was small, so at the end of the meal I felt very relaxed and healthy.
After dinner, I got my “shukudai” (homework) from my backpack upstairs and did my homework on the table while Otoosan watched the news on the television and Okaasan worked on finances. I finished it all fairly quickly with no major problems and then I watched the TV for a little bit. I understood various words that were being said and the grammar context, but I didn’t understand most of the newscast. They did have subtitle underneath though, (in Japanese, not English) so I tried reading as well, but I found my lack of kanji knowledge to be particularly frustrating.
And so, I went to bed that evening very happy. Already I feel a small change in my Japanese language capabilities. It will be interesting to see what happens at the end of the summer.
I apologize for the lateness of my blog entries. I’ll try to catch up as much as possible this weekend. As you will read and find out, my entire week has been busy and full of fun opportunities. More tomorrow, it’s about 12 am Japan time and 11:02 in the morning in Maryland.
In addition, some people wanted to know my address at JCMU. The address is
JCMU
1435-86 Ajiroguchi
Matsubara-cho
Hikone, Shiga 522-0002
JAPAN
If you are going to send me something, please put my name on the front as that will be the only way that they can tell who the mail goes to.
Thank you again!
ありがとうございました！
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