Day 10, 11, 12: host family (part 3)

こんにちは皆さん、Which means hello everyone in Japanese. This is Andy and I would like to tell the readers of this blog about my weekend with my host family. Before even meeting my host family, I was very nervous to even meet them. Imagine living in a house with people you barley know and better yet, there is a tiny language barrier between you two. The thought of that idea just frightens me at first, but everything turned out way better than I have hoped for. Knowing that my host mother was very nervous about meeting me because her sons are very loud and obnoxious that seems to embarrass her the moment they open their mouths, however I find them quite adorable.

On the first night, when we first met, they drew me a very cute drawing of a diagram that included our schedule for the weekend as well as little profiles of each of the family members that showed their characteristics and what they look forward to do with me. It was very thorough and right away, we started our bond. The parents were so easy to talk to as they made quite an effort to communicate with me easily which was a relief. However, the kids were a bit quiet which was surprising for my first impression since the parents emailed me that the kids were very loud and obnoxious. But kids are kids, they are usually shy in first impression but once they sink in, they go wild as that is what I believe. Moving on, when we went down to the parking garage, I was relieved that they even had a car because I had such a big luggage that it would be too much of a hassle to even carry it around as we travel around Tokyo or the train station.

Our first plan was to have dinner at the Hard Rock Café in Roppongi, but there was construction so it had a temporary close down for the week which busted our whole plan. Therefore, we went to a nearby steak house that I thought was really good. After dinner, we went straight back home because it was getting late, and it takes about an hour drive back home from Tokyo. While we were going back home, we passed by Tokyo Disney Land and saw fireworks! I think I was the only one who saw it though because the dad had to keep his eyes on the road and the mom and kids were sleeping in the back because it passed their daily sleeping schedule. I just thought it was such a perfect way to start off the home stay visit. The moment we got home they gave me a tour around their house and the customs in their home. I thought their home was so cozy and cute. They live in a small town outside of Tokyo which was a big change for me because during my whole trip in Japan, I have only been in places that were really lively with people walking around the street, but in this town, there aren’t very many people who walk around in the streets. Also, there weren’t many or any tall buildings or convenience stores in every single corner you walk into. It was literally a small cute little town with many beautiful types of scenery.

The next day, I was the last one to be awake. Everyone was upstairs preparing breakfast for me. It was a bit awkward for me since everyone was awake and I was by myself in bed wondering what everyone was doing. They cooked me a normal breakfast meal that included eggs, toast, sausages, orange juice, and yogurt. Although they gave me small portions of each, it was very fulfilling. After that, we took a stroll around the neighborhood taking me to their favorite shops. According to them, this is neighborhood is the cheapest place to get goods. They weren’t kidding, when I went to a game store, I bought a game for about \3000 in Shibuya considering that was such a steal deal already, in the small town’s store, the game was ONLY \1900. I was furious, but what done is done. I bought games though, like Just Dance Japanese version which included J-POP as well as American songs which I thought was very cool since the American version didn’t have it and a game called Dynasty Warriors 6. After buying the games, we were playing UFO catcher and I actually won some plushies for the kids which was kind of fun. After, they took me to a really fancy Soba restaurant which was AMAZING! However, the portions was way too much for a small guy like me, and repeating in my head that Sensei said “Eat everything, it is rude not to. And NO ELBOWS ON THE TABLE” I tried to stuff my stomach full, but it was just way too much. However, they thought the same thing as I did so they said it was okay to not finish every last grain. I felt bad at first, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Moving on to the agenda, we didn’t have much time left to shop and sight see, but they took me to this one temple that caught my attention that was formed around the edo period which I thought was very interesting. A party was planned for me in the afternoon. My host mother is a teacher and she brought her students to her home and threw me a welcome party. I felt so blessed that they prepared this all just for me. They were shy at first but that barrier broke down. We played many ice breaker games that were very fun with a little dash of friendly competition where we divided the room into team red and blue. I was red, and won. The prize were fireworks which I questioned a bit because I was wondering whether it would be safe to even bring onto the plane or not, in the end, they decided to mail me the prize as well as the gifts the students each made for me. Haruka-Chan which was one of the students, her grandmother gave me this gift that was very touching to me. The other students made me this really cool Crane thing that looked like it took quite a while to make. And shodai-kun toyari-kun which were two sons of the family, made very cute arts and craft for me. With so much love coming at me at once, it was kind of hard to take in. They made me dance to AKB48 with the just dance game which gave them all a good laugh because it was such a funny idea to see me dance to a female idol group, but towards the end they just kept screaming KAWAII! In other words, they called me cute. In the end, we all took really funny pictures that just made all of us laugh our hearts out. We talked and bonded and exchanged contact information. It was a really sad moment for me that it had to end so quickly and they had to leave. We all cleaned up as a family and then I went to catch up a little bit on Facebook. I posted a picture of my and my host family and everyone commented on the picture saying “They look more like you than your actual family!” and mumbo jumbo like that, which gave us a good laugh.

The last day with my host family, the kids are super interested in wild life, so they took me to a pond near their house that had many animals like lobsters and small fishes. It was very cool and fun to see them so astonish from their site. Then as time moved on it was time to go right back onto schedule. We went sight seeing in Tokyo Disney Land and it was SUPER beautiful. Then we did a little shopping in the mall and saw a magician!. He was a dance teacher from sendai or the tohoku area so it was really inspiring for him to do such a thing. Then we ate at the Rainforest café．SUPER FUN. Running out of time now, sorry guys!!! We had to return back to NYC and it was our Last good byes.. it was SUPER sad.. but I am glad I got to meet them.. LOVE LOVE LOVE the experience.