I meet my host family – Sept 15th

I can’t remember how the day began, but today we not only find out which families we have been paired with, but also get to go home with them! Kazaoka-sensei put me with a new family that, aside from short stints with French students a couple years ago, had never hosted a student before. I’d have a host sister living at home, and a brother who has gotten married and moved to Kawasaki. Dad still works, and mom is a homemaker whose hobbies include “flower design,” not to be confused with ikebana, traditional flower arrangement.

After receiving our fates, we walked back to the hotel lobby where we’d await the arrival of our new families. Some of the other students were paired up with some interesting families. One host-mom owns a seven-eleven, while another father runs an udon shop, and actually asked for someone who could help out with the shop and be his drinking buddy. The commutes all vary, going all the way up to over an hour. My family would be close to 新井薬師駅 (arai-yakushi station), only three stops away from ‘baba on the seibu-shinjuku line. My commute involves more walking than train-riding, and I’m actually within biking distance if I decide to take that route.

As the host families came and the number of students began to dwindle, I got increasingly more nervous about my upcoming first-impression. Would I screw up my introduction? How did I look? What will they be like? With about 15 minutes before their scheduled arrival, Dr. Shek summoned me to the door. She’d already arrived! With barely any time for introductions, she was practically hugging me. With applause from the remaining students and a wink from Kazaoka-sensei (she asked me to keep her up to date). I was spirited out the door and into a taxi cab. We had a bit of small talk in the car, and arrived at the house in practically no time at all. My first impression of the house was that it was meticulously kept-up, and very well decorated. The house is surrounded by a variety of plants and flowers, and the interior is just as lively. Having only been to a handful of Japanese houses, I’d say this one falls on the more spacious end of the spectrum, but the use of space is exceptionally efficient. My room was surprisingly large, with a very high sloping ceiling, desk, bed, bookshelves, and plenty of storage space for my belongings. I’ll get a flickr account going soon, I promise.

Their TV is a large 40-something inch plasma, rivaled only by my grandfather’s 60 inch Samsung. The image quality is true HDTV; absolutely stellar. It turns out they watch a good deal of TV, and especially enjoy musicals! I sat at the dinner table with okaasan (mom) for almost four hours, getting to know each other and talking about all sorts of things (all in Japanese). Surprisingly, I was able to keep up with almost everything she said. I think she’s greatly relieved to be hosting a student she can communicate with. The others were late in getting home, so we ate dinner together. My host-sister has worked in the travel industry for a number of years, and just returned home from New Caledonia (google it) a couple months back. Due to a sudden decline in her health, she decided to quit her job and take it easy for a while, so she’d be around the house and willing to help me learn my way around. Fortunately for me, her English is excellent, and can serve as a translator when I run into something I can’t quite express. She arrived home around 9 or so, and we talked for a while. Dad got home around 10, and we spoke a bit, but I was completely exhausted from the marathon of Japanese, and was ready to crash. I presented my omiyage to them and made my way to the bathroom at their behest. I gave them three gifts: handsoap we could use together, chocolates we could eat together, and wine that we could drink together. They seemed delighted at my thoughtfulness. After a quick shower I dragged myself upstairs and promptly passed out, completely spent and satisfied that I made the best impression I could.