Okay, I have some catching up to do, so again I'll try to condense the past couple weeks into something short enough to keep the few interested readers I might have left.
Here are the highlights (Once again, accompanying pictures are posted on facebook, linked at the bottom of the post):
Sunday 2/10:
Went to my first sento (public bathhouse) for a nice, communal, very naked bath! The first floor of my buddy Daichi's apartment is a sento, and so he invited us all to come and check it out. I think most of the other kids chickened out, because of the Americans it only ended up being me, the other guy, Preston, and this girl Natalie. In addition to Daichi, one female and one other male buddy joined us at the sento.
As you're completely naked when you go in, the bath is divided into a male and female section. Preston, Daichi, Ui (the other buddy), and I enter a locker room area, strip down, leave our bag with a change of clothes in the locker, and head over to the bath area. Before entering the bath, though, you have to thoroughly rinse your body, soap and everything, with these hand-held shower heads. I was kind of embarrassed so I took my time rinsing, but finally I worked up the courage and headed for the bath. It's funny to see how completely comfortable the japanese are with nudity (at least in this context) because of the cultural importance of communal bathing.
Anyway, I got in and boy was that water hot! I only lasted about ten minutes before I had to get out. The girls ended up doing a little better than we did hehe. That night after the bath, Ui and Preston headed home, and the rest of us headed to a ramen restaurant for some dinner.
Monday 2/11:
The day after the bath, I met my host mother! Each of us was assigned a host family, although we don't actually live with them. How often we see each other is up to their/our discretion. The tutors and the program staff had organized a lunch party in one of the building lounges on this day because it was a national holiday (Japan's birthday!) and everyone would be free.
Each of the exchange students sat at their own table across from their host family, and got a chance to get to know each other over some lunch. While all the other tables had pretty big, young looking families, mine had a single older looking woman, and a junior high school aged girl. My host mom, Asako (who I call Okaasan, mother in Japanese; here strangers are often referred to as Obaasan, Obasan, and Oneesan, grandmother, aunt, and sister, respectively, according to the persons age, but with host parents, it's usually custom to call them mother and father), is a 60 year old wife of a sailor, who's currently out at sea. I think because she didn't want to come alone, she brought Kanako, this girl who she had baby sat since she was a little kid. Anyway, Asako is a super sweet lady, and she's a seasoned host mother, so she's experienced with taking in strangers, and with Americans particularly (see, you don't have to worry mom, I've got someone watching over me here, too).
After the party, I went home with Asako and Kanako to Asako's home in Fujiyoshida, another small town that neighbors Tsuru and is super close to Mt. Fuji. Asako has a slightly more traditional Japanese home than my apartment. I spent the day there chatting with the two of them, stayed over for dinner, and road the train back alone for my first time since I'd left Narita airport.
Tuesday-thursday:
School, kanji (chinese characters) quizzes, homework, essays, some potluck dinners, and some partying.
Friday 2/15: After class, a second group of us (the first group had gone on wed.) went to an elementary school to teach a class! Each one of us was assigned to our own class, and, along with that classes regular teacher, gave instruction on proper english pronunciation. I was kind of nervous at first, but they ended up being far shyer than I was. Like most Tsuru school children, they were in awe of the hakujin (white person), stared, giggled, and told me I had a cool face. My class had one wise-ass kid who liked to crack jokes, but as I later learned, all the classes have that one kid who's louder than all the rest. It's okay, though, because I had a good time with him, too. As I was leaving, a few of the kids ran over and asked me to sign a paper for them. That's right, I'm a celebrity in Tsuru. I don't know when the next one is, but i think we're supposed to go to a different school twice a month. I'm looking forward to it. :)
After the elementary school, Fumi-san (one of the administrators in charge of our program, who is a veritable den mother to all of us), drove us to the city hall to pick up our alien registration cards we had applied for two weeks prior. I'm now eligible to get a cell phone. Yay!
That night we had a Valentine's day party in Krysta's (one of the other UC exchange students) room, although only a handful of the tutors were able to join us--the rest were bust with part time jobs or other plans. Ui, one of the tutors, brought some of his friends, though, so I was able to meet a few new people, too.
Saturday 2/16:
Took the train to the station in Fujiyoshida (about a 20 minute ride), where Asako picked me up and took me to her house. I was a little late, so she had already eaten, but she made me lunch, and then we headed out to explore the town a little. First she took me to this little artisan shop with all kinds of traditional japanese products from pottery, to kimonos, to ceramic statues and miniatures of multiple prominent gods, samurai, and other miscellaneous figures and settings. As we were leaving, one of the craftsmen pulled us into his work shack and gave me a small ceramic statue of a fat little samurai. It was a little cracked and he probably wouldn't have been able to sell it, but it was a generous gift nonetheless.
From there we headed to a sort of museum made of a pretty ancient looking, traditional japanese home. I posted some pictures of it on facebook. Close by was another historical site turned museum; this one was an old japanese ryokan (japanese inn), complete with tatami mats and sliding doors. Both sites had automatic recordings that went of when you entered, but because they were a little fast for me, Asako gave me the abridged, simplified version of what everything was.
It's tough, but I'm getting better and better at communicating. My conversations with Asako have proven both informative and educational, as they always end up being a lesson in vocabulary as well (I've always got my english-japanese dictionary in my pocket for whenever I need it...which is approx. every 4 and a half seconds).
After the site-seeing, we went home, chatted some more, and then began preparing dinner, because Asako's son Keita, and his wife, Kazumi, were joining us for dinner. Asako had me grating some radish while she prepared unagi (sea eel), yudofu (a tofu dish), and natto (a dish made from soybeans, i think, mixed in with this sticky stuff and veggies; it smells terrible and they were all really impressed that I ate it--it wasn't all that bad though).
Keita and Kazumi are such a cute couple. They were constantly cracking jokes with each other and appear to have a really great relationship. The dynamic was really nice, and helped fill in some of the silences I would have with Anako every now and then, as it had only been our second time together. After dinner, we had some ice cream for dessert, and then Keita and Kazumi drove me to the train station.
Sunday 2/17:
Trip to Tokyo! Natalie, Preston, (the same two I had gone to the sento with) and I, along with Natalie's tutor, Asana, headed out to tokyo. Natalie's a big anime/manga buff, so we went to Shinjuku to catch and early showing of L: Change the World, a live action movie based on and anime. It was entirely in Japanese...and I understood barely any of it. It was fun anyway, though.
After the movie we hopped onto another train to Akihabara, the technology capital of Japan. There, Natalie bought herself a denshi jisho (electronic dictionary) that recognizes and defines kanji that you write on the dictionary screen with a stylus. I wouldn't gotten one too, but I wasn't ready to dish out 300 bucks.
We wandered around Akihabara some more, tried to get into a "maid cafe" (a cafe where hostesses/waitresses dress in french maid outfits, and greet entering customers with a "welcome home, dear" in super formal japanese...it's pretty funny), but it was too crowded, and we ended up eating at a mcdonalds instead (hey, i had to see what it was like in japan). Saw some other people in cosplay (a term for the japanese fantasy dress-up culture), and then headed for Tokyo Tower.
By the time we made it to Tokyo Tower it had gotten dark, and we were all too tired (and too cheap) to ride up to the top, so we just took pictures at the foot of the tower. As we're taking pictures, I hear the unmistakable porteno accent of an Argentinean not 3 feet away from us. I look over at Natalie and Preston, start laughing and say, "that guy's Argentinean!" I look over at him and his friend, and ask "Son de Argenina?" We chatted for a good 15 minutes. Apparently the guy had been there for the past six months and had spent his 21st birthday in Japan. He had gone initially to visit his cousin, who is a japanese native of japanese descent on his mom's side and some other latin american country on his dad's (my argentinean friend's family weren't argentineans either...they came from some other country). Anyway, we parted, hopped on a few trains, and then made it home in time to do the homework we hadn't done and get ready for class the next day.
Monday 2/18:
Just a normal day in class. That night we had a big potluck in one of the apartments. I made Empadumplings (i made a corn cream sauce and stuffed it in gyoza dough used to make dumplings). Pretty damn good.
Wednesday 2/20:
So the week before we had to write a show and tell style speech, in which we discussed something about ourselves that we would later present with accompanying pictures or an object of some sort. Mine was about my native country, Argentina! So anway, earlier this week we got our corrected speeches back, which we had to memorize in preparation for this day. Instead of having class, our tutors and some of the program staff/administration were called in to watch us present our speeches. So scary! But in the end, it went really well and everyone seemed interested and asked questions (mostly about mate, and what it was made of...not easy to explain in a foreign language). If I get a chance, I'll translate the speech and post it on here, although it'll probably sound pretty stupid in english.
After the speeches, I hoped on a train to Fujiyoshida and got picked up by Asako. She had told me that I'd be learning to make miso this day with some of her family, and so I thought I'd be going to someone's house to learn to cook soup. To my surprise, when we arrived at our destination, she handed me a pair of rubber boots and told me to put them on. There I met her sister, Hiroko, and some of there friends with whom, about twice a year, they help a soy bean farmer turn his crop into the stuff the soup is made out of. They put me to work, and about two hours later, we had gone through the mass of beans. Pictures are online. It was a lot of fun.
Shortly thereafter, we headed back to Asako's, chatted at the house for a bit, and then got picked up by Hiroko. We stopped by another house and a few of the other people who had worked with us earlier that day hopped into hiroko's van. We rode over to a restaurant where we met a few more of our fellow miso-makers, and had a great celebratory dinner together. The guys sitting across from me kept serving all kinds of alcoholic drinks, but I think I ended up drinking them all under the table because I was the only one who wasn't trashed when we left. It was nice to let loose a little, and interesting to be drunk among a bunch of adults. Gotta love the japanese culture. Asako didn't drink, but she nevertheless enjoyed the dynamic and joked along with everybody. This time around, communication got only a tiny bit more difficult while drunk, which is a sign of improvement I think. Anyway, since it had gotten a bit late and I was a little tipsy, Hiroko, along with a few of the others, drove me home to Tsuru.
That's about all the excitement so far...haha although I think this is quite enough for now anyway. I think on Saturday the tutors and exchange students will be taking the train to Kawaguchi, another city further beyond Fujiyoshida, where there's supposed to be some kind of festival and fireworks show. I'll let you guys know how it goes. It's late, and I have class tomorrow, so I bid you adieu. Enjoy the pics!
