Ushita

It's only been two days but so much has already happened. I just moved in with my host family yesterday and today, went to hang out with the whole family. Never have I experienced such change in culture and surroundings so quick. So now would be a good time for me to slow down and tell you guys how my home stay has been so far!

As soon as I got home (or my host family's home), I was lead to my room. See above? Yeap. Totally how I pictured it. Complete with Fusumas and a Futon. I started cursing because maybe I've just watched too many Japanese horrom films to keep my imagination going. Nonetheless, the feeling of astonishment took over more than enough to block those thoughts away.

We then had dinner with a friend of Okaa-san. There was a kid, Yuto-chan who reminded me a lot of my nephew just because he talked a lot. However, I have to say that despite all my struggles to tell them stories in Japanese, Yuto and I perfectly understood the language of Final Fantasy. Re-ba-ya-tan? Sure! Ik-sha-yon? U-huh. Shin? Who knew! He was also a fan of an anime called Naruto so the word "Rasengan" sounded like home.

The next day, today, was much longer - in a good way. It started out with a walk around the neighborhood, followed by a pottery class. We enjoyed some Enka and O-cha after I crafted my cup.



Totally shamed my Ceramics professor because I sucked at hand molding so bad. The most basic technique in pottery which I should have already learned has been completely flushed out. A lot of it had to do with all the directions Onee-san giving me was in Japanese. Or not.

Right after lunch, I attened an open forum/debate for students with Otoo-san. Despite the fact that I have only been here for 2 days, I decided to just go for it. It helped that they were talking about learning English so at least it's something I was familiar with. Then Otoo-san had to make some copies so the kids and I just hung out in the mall. It's called the Pacela.



Nice, huh. Well wait till you see the map to get around and the garden at the top floor. I have to go for now because it's already 11:38 and I'm already feeling rude staying up late while everybody's asleep. So, oyasumi for now!

Yookoso!

Here it is guys! My new home for the next 6 weeks. I'm still pretty dragged after our very long trip... REALLY long trip (too lazy to talk about it now) but just letting you all know that I am here.

This morning we had a tour of the campus. Everyone was pretty shocked as to how much we actually stood out (even me, regardless of my Asian looks). The stares were pretty intimidating. I'll show you guys the other places as I actually spend time in there. The place is really nice. It shames ASU just by the fact that it's surrounded by trees (and some rice fields).

We're waiting for Foard Sensei to finish all her stuff then we'll have our second part of the orientation in about 20 minutes. Then off to our host families later tonight so I won't be able to go long on again till Sunday afternoon.

Ja ne!

Hajimete!

And so it begins! I'm not supposed to be busy but I am. As spring comes to an end, a load of crap fills my room. That is after unpacking everything that I packed last Wednesday when I moved out of the dorms. Shopping has been taken care of, laundry in progress, all packed... no. Definitely no sleep for me tonight either. But if there is anything I'd be damned to forget, it's those thing above!

So am I excited? Mochiron! I'm not the person to blog around, take time to sit my ass and care if the framing of my yen, airplane tickets, rail pass and international (!) student ID looks good. But I did. So good for me.

If this ever turns out to be my first and last blog post, it means that I have passed on to the next life, unable to set my foot on the land of avant-garde (some say junk) fashion: Japan. Almost 7 weeks of my life. Or maybe I'll just get stranded somewhere in the middle of the Pacific?

Give me until this Monday to see if I am able to make it or not, possibly earlier if the Nippon cyberspace doesn't give me a hard time.