When I first arrived in Japan, my host family consisted of just my sister and parents. My brother had his own wife and kid in Kawasaki, and soon after I met them, I found out that they were expcting their second child. After some time, I came to find out about the custom of 産前産後, where pregnant women go to their parents home for the last month of their pregnancy, and for another month after birth in order to support her with as little stress as possible. Yumi's parents live all the way in Ibaraki prefecture, and Yusuke wouldn't be able to commute that far. We live a 15 minute train ride from his office in Shinjuku, and we have plenty of room, so it seemed like a no-brainer. And just like that, my family doubled in size.
For over two months, I got to experience raising children by proxy. Their two-year old, Haruto, is a delight and a terror. The times I spent with him were always enlightening and entertaining. When I first met him he barely spoke at all, but he's made so much progress, he's speaking full sentences and really it's a challenge to get him to shut up! On more than one occasion I got to spend some quality time watching him for Yumi. He just entered the terrible twos, but I think he's better behaved than most children I see running pell-mell over their parents back home. I feel a little confused though, because now that I've seen children raised in Japanese, I have no idea how I would do it in English! Regardless, it's been a priceless experience, just long enough to enjoy, but just short enough to not become a hassle. Being here for the whole process is a pretty rare experience for an exchange student, so I feel that I really lucked out.
So why am I writing all this? Because today was the end of their stay with us. Ayano is now big enough to leave the house, and Yumi has also recovered from giving birth for the most part. I had work this afternoon, so I wasn't able to see them off, but I got up early enough to have breakfast with everyone (usually I don't get up too early, but today was special), and play a bit with Haruto before I had to get into my monkey suit and get to stepping. Before I left, I held Ayano for the first time (to be honest, I'm scared of babies), and posed with Haruto for a photo. Afterwards, I had to go off to work, and it was at that point that Haruto realized that he wasn't going to see me again for a while. He started to wail, and he apparently cried all the way back to Kawasaki. I reassured him that I'd see him again, but he could not be consoled. It was kind of sweet that we had built such a bond in such little time. When we first met, he totally shied away from me, but now, he was shedding tears when I left. Maybe it was just that he realized that he wasn't going to see Yukiko or Okaasan either for a while, but it was touching that I was the catalyst for his little outpour. I look forward to the next time they come over to play.
When I first arrived in Japan, my host family consisted of just my sister and parents. My brother had his own wife and kid in Kawasaki, and soon after I met them, I found out that they were expcting their second child. After some time, I came to find out about the custom of 産前産後, where pregnant women go to their parents home for the last month of their pregnancy, and for another month after birth in order to support her with as little stress as possible. Yumi's parents live all the way in Ibaraki prefecture, and Yusuke wouldn't be able to commute that far. We live a 15 minute train ride from his office in Shinjuku, and we have plenty of room, so it seemed like a no-brainer. And just like that, my family doubled in size.
For over two months, I got to experience raising children by proxy. Their two-year old, Haruto, is a delight and a terror. The times I spent with him were always enlightening and entertaining. When I first met him he barely spoke at all, but he's made so much progress, he's speaking full sentences and really it's a challenge to get him to shut up! On more than one occasion I got to spend some quality time watching him for Yumi. He just entered the terrible twos, but I think he's better behaved than most children I see running pell-mell over their parents back home. I feel a little confused though, because now that I've seen children raised in Japanese, I have no idea how I would do it in English! Regardless, it's been a priceless experience, just long enough to enjoy, but just short enough to not become a hassle. Being here for the whole process is a pretty rare experience for an exchange student, so I feel that I really lucked out.
So why am I writing all this? Because today was the end of their stay with us. Ayano is now big enough to leave the house, and Yumi has also recovered from giving birth for the most part. I had work this afternoon, so I wasn't able to see them off, but I got up early enough to have breakfast with everyone (usually I don't get up too early, but today was special), and play a bit with Haruto before I had to get into my monkey suit and get to stepping. Before I left, I held Ayano for the first time (to be honest, I'm scared of babies), and posed with Haruto for a photo. Afterwards, I had to go off to work, and it was at that point that Haruto realized that he wasn't going to see me again for a while. He started to wail, and he apparently cried all the way back to Kawasaki. I reassured him that I'd see him again, but he could not be consoled. It was kind of sweet that we had built such a bond in such little time. When we first met, he totally shied away from me, but now, he was shedding tears when I left. Maybe it was just that he realized that he wasn't going to see Yukiko or Okaasan either for a while, but it was touching that I was the catalyst for his little outpour. I look forward to the next time they come over to play.
8 comments:
It looks like you've really grown very close to your host family. Each person was different on the Waseda group on how close they became. I expect it will not be easy to go back in many ways. Hopefully you will get many more chances to visit them.
野球チーム？＜３
Baseball team... Yea verily, I hath LOLed.
I think that any man who isn't a father, and isn't terrified of babies is horribly naïve. *grin* There's some acute sense that, when you hold a newborn, that you have in between your hands an unlimited amount of potential, encased in a fragile container that soils itself regularly.
If that isn't terrifying, I don't know what is.
David! Too much ikki not enough nikki!
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