Whole-Body Experience

The sun rises at approximately 5:20, possibly a bit before.  I know this because when I woke up to turn on the air conditioner this morning, it was just coming over the horizon, based upon the rays I could see coming from the other side of the giant gym next door.  This noted, I promptly returned to sleep for about an hour.

Today was the semi-formal day, so I pulled out a pair of nicer pants, a nicer top and heels.  Because heels make everything more classy.  I walked over with Arianna and we found seats for the homestay orientation meeting, which basically covered everything we'd already gotten adequate information for via the Internet with the added bonus of three girls who had previously homestayed.

They noted that one of the most challenging things was bath time and that showers in the morning are a no-no, which was apparently a shocker to everyone else in the room.  I'll be just fine in that department.  There's a lot of rules, but they aren't that much more restrictive than the dorm rules, so I don't know what people freak out over.  My biggest worry was how long and/or complicated the commute to campus would be.

Then we all flooded downstairs to our mailboxes to pick up information on our families!  Finally~

My family has three members: Otousan (Toshihiko, 58), Okaasan (Tsurue, 59) and Oneesan (Misa, 27).  They have no pets, at least one member who speaks English, hosted foreign students before, are Christians and don't smoke.  They'd like me to teach Misa English.  I get my own room (6 tatami), though I don't know if it's traditional or Western style yet.  The commute is approximately 30 minutes bus/walking.  I meet them at 3 p.m. on Sunday.

It gave a list of their hobbies as well.  Otousan plays drums, maybe taiko, so I have something we could possibly do together.  Okaasan likes swimming, reading and dancing.  Misa plays piano, so maybe I can learn to as well.

After that, I picked up chapstick from the convenience store on campus because I'd forgotten mine when I frantically changed pants this morning and encouraged Daniel through the McDonald's line.  I helped a student from Australia as well, as he knew no Japanese and was having trouble ordering.

Then on to Opening Ceremonies, where all the faculty and staff and students related to the international program were gathered to kick off the year.  A few people gave speeches, including the president of the university (who has to be in his 30s), a woman from the Australian-Osaka consulate, one of the faculty, one of the staff, a current study-abroad student and the head of the student government.  The staff who spoke was the only to give her speech entirely in Japanese (which I could mostly understand) and made many jokes, including one about her being part of the yazuka ("yakuza-sensei").

The toast and luncheon immediately followed, which was full of delicious foods of all varieties, from sushi to fondue to soups to ice cream.  Daniel wouldn't be adventurous, but I tried the green bread-looking thing with the white and pink squares in it (above right) as well as the little shrimp in a blanket deal (though Miho had to tell me how to eat it because I couldn't figure it out).  I also had some sushi and sashimi, strawberry and cake fondue and a matcha ice cream before heading to the CIE.

I hung out there for a couple hours before checking my mailbox... to find a notice that I needed to pay fees for the sumi-e class... which I hadn't signed up for, not even as alternates.  So I went in to straighten that out and discovered something had gone wrong in the registration and the sumi-e had bumped me out of the shinto class, which was the only real elective I'd picked and was excited for.  Of course it was already wait-listed, so I don't know if I'll have a full schedule or not.

Daniel and I stopped at cafe Istanbul on the way back to the seminar houses and had a plate of hummus with pita triangles and tiny brownies.  It's a hookah bar and one of the only establishments I've found so far where people are allowed to smoke indoors.  The table next to us had a hookah going and the smoke smelled... alright, but the guy at the bar started smoking so we had to cut our stay short.

I should get my classes tomorrow, right before the HUGE trip to Kyoto.  I swear, the entire international group is going, all 423 of us.