Chillin' with Otousan and Okaasan

Hey guys, sorry for not updating in awhile. Either I have been too busy, tired, or just had nothing interesting to say. Actually, this last week has been pretty crazy. For our business class we visited the Panasonic building in Tokyo for a bull-shit tour of the facility and what they are doing. I say bull-shit because, originally, we thought we were going to talk with some business men that are high up in the company and tell us cool stuff. Instead, we went on a standard tour which, in summary, was just a PR front to get people to feel good about buying Panasonic products. In retrospect, I shouldn't be too surprised, but for the four and a half hours we spent going there, getting toured, and heading back, it wasn't worth it because I NEED SOME TIME TO CHILL AND NOT BE HERDED AROUND LIKE A SHEEP.

Hahaha, OK, I'm done venting . The next day, we participated in a traditional tea ceremony for our cultural class.  Unlike the field trip the day before, this one was actually worth it!

And then, the weekend came, which is when I did my homestay. I met my host father first, and together we made our way to the train station, went two stops south, and walked to his apartment. Before the homestay, I was extremely nervous, because I can barely hold a conversation for ten minutes, and now I was going to be with a family for two days. We arrived at his apartment a full hour before his wife and son, who were returning from swimming. I asked him (in Japanese, of course) if he could speak any English.

I will never forget this moment. After I asked him, he was silent for a moment, and then looked at me and said , impeccably, "Yes, I do speak English. In fact, it is not too bad, either. However, because my wife and son do not speak English, we will speak in Japanese for the weekend." Yeah, it got pretty real for me after that.

There place was real small, but I still had my own room. Essentially, it was part of the living room, but with a sliding door to separate it from the area with the TV. As I was scanning the room and talking with my Otousan (father), I asked if he listened to any music. He said no, but he showed me some of the CD's they have. We listened to a Beatles album, something else, and I noticed they had a CD of ballets transcribed for piano. I asked to listen to it, and while listening to it, I told him I really loved the CD.

Then, my Okaasan (mother) and Tomoki (their son) arrived. After introducing myself, she started making dinner (it was around six in the evening at this point). Now, one thing I was not expecting about doing a homestay with a family that has a ten-year old son is that there is a damn good chance they will have a video game system.

Tomoki and I played Brawl like there was no tomorrow! Then, we had dinner (WHICH WAS WONDERFUL), and we just stayed up and chilled. Apparently, my Otousan and Tomoki both play recorder, and they were playing me their music that night!

The next day, Tomoki and I were playin' Brawl and Kirby's Epic Yarn. Afterwards, we came back to Mukogaoka-yuen (my train station) to go the the town hall, which was having some sort of community cultural exhibition of some kind. Anyways, every room had paintings, shodo exhibition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_calligraphy), pictures, and lastly we went to the auditorium to listen to the various groups performing traditional Japanese music. Many of these groups consisted of people singing, playing shamisen, and shakuhachi. After that, the dance portion began. Because the auditorium was hotter than hell's kitchen (Japan is conserving electricity), we left and returned back to their apartment, where we played a Pokemon version of Life, had dinner, and perhaps gave me a little too much wine ;) The next day (Sunday), we visited a shrine near their home, which is always a good experience (about the third time now for me). For the entire weekend, I could basically only speak Japanese, with every now and again saying just one word in English to my Otousan when I didn't know the word in Japanese.

The homestay was a wonderful experience. Since last weekend, I can't stop thinking about my host parents and Tomoki, and how interesting it is to see a Japanese family from within. I went in with the notion that all Japanese families are super strict, and possibly characterless. However, underneath my Otousan's Salaryman exterior, he was indeed an extremely loving father. It's so weird seeing their family unit function compared with what I'm used to. I am used to having both parents who work, and families that have divorced parents. However, their family (which is the norm in Japan) is something that does not really exist anymore in our country, where the father works and the mother raises the child and does housework (ie housewife). Before we left for our homestay, on almost all of our sheets with our family's information, they said "Father: Company Worker. Wife: Housewife".

Time for bed, too tired to write anymore. PEACE