Family

Sunday was packing and moving out day.  I got up and finished stuffing things in my bags.  I folded up my futon and put it in the common room as directed.  I ate, bummed around the Internet, ate more, bummed more, brought my luggage downstairs, dropped off my key and signed out.  Then it was off to campus.

There were 73 spiders.

Arianna and I sat in the lounge waiting for our time.  I poked around the Internet, looked at pictures and tried to read some Ulysses, but Murphy's Law meant everyone signed on when I was going to ignore the computer.  Then it was time to go upstairs.

They had me fill out a sheet with my classes so my family would know.  They were playing Nausicaa in the waiting room, but I was only there a few minutes.  I was taller than both of them, as expected.  They looked very somber at first, but the repeated gender errors made things better (okaasan was introduced as otousan and vice versa).  We went over the homestay agreement; it's all pretty lax except I'm required to constantly wash my hands with soap and cannot have any male friends over.  At all.

Then we left.  They drove to the seminar house to pick up my bags (in an American style BMW, no less) and then on to their home.  It's huge; two stories on a corner.  I gave them the box of See's and they enjoyed them while we talked.  Okaasan explained various parts of the house (well water--don't drink from the sink, here's how the air conditioner works, put dirty clothes here, hang towels there, make sure to close your door when you leave to keep the muggy out,etc.) and then let me unpack.

I watched some TV with Misa and her elder sister (whose name I can't recall) while waiting for otousan and okaasan to return with ingredients for dinner.  We had yakitori (mix grill) and it was delicious.  Misa's sister has a 2 or 3 year-old son, Konta, and I met his father Takeshi last night.

They got me to sing karaoke for them on their home TV, four or five songs, including okaasan's request for My Heart Will Go On, before heading to bed.  I woke up in the middle of the night because it was too hot but slept well otherwise.

Breakfast was salad and a pancake with juice.  Okaasan helped me fill out my bus pass and alien registration applications and then we headed out.  She showed me how to get to the appropriate bus stops.  We went to an ATM and I withdrew 26,000 yen to pay for the bus pass.  We got the pass and turned in the alien registration and then she showed me which stop would give me a bus to campus.

Daniel hasn't been enjoying his family and ranted for a bit.  It seems like he's just having trouble adjusting and isn't putting forth the effort to encourage compromise and whatnot with his host mother and the rules she keeps.  Hopefully he'll be able to work that out and be happy where he is.  He needs a PMA (which I've explained to him on several occasions; Positive Mental Attitude)!

Lunch was pork cutlet and then killing time before my first class: Visual Anthropology of Japan.

...we watched the Sushi video.  Among other things.  I'm glad I decided to take this course anyhow, despite Dave deciding it doesn't count for Journalism's photography requirement.  There will be another blog I'll be keeping, specifically for that class; I'll link it when it's running.

Now I get to hop on my buses home (hopefully I remember the right ones to get on).