Host Family

I met my host family today. They're awesome. The whole family is very friendly and inviting. They've made me feel very much at home already. It is awkward much of the time because I'm meeting new people and small talk is really hard in Japanese. But I can feel myself getting better at Japanese already.

I took a train (alone) from our hotel in Tokyo to the Tsuchiura station where my host mother met me. We drove from the station to their house where I met my host father. We talked for a while and they showed me on a map where my house is in relation to the train station. Not so far away, an easy bike ride, which is good because that is the first step in getting to school. Then I went upstairs to my room to unpack. I got about a third of the way through unpacking when my host mother called for lunch. Ramen. After lunch I didn't want to dash upstairs again so I sat with them and talked and looked over the map until about 12:30 when we went to the cell phone store. To get a cell phone here in Japan I have to get permission from my host family, natural family, CIEE office in Japan, and CIEE office in America. For what I don't know why. So we just went to look so I could plan how much money I need to spend.

From the store we went to their sons' basketball game. They have two sons. Both are very good at basketball for 3rd and 4th graders. I was super impressed. Although it was kind of humerous to see so many Japanese boys playing baksetball. There are Japanese people everywhere over here. I know that sounds silly but it's weird. There's hardly any foreingers. In America you see Black, Asian, Middle Easter, Hispanic, and white every day. I only see Japanse with a few white people speckled about.

After the basketball game I went home with my host father while the kids stayed with the mother to help clean up. I took at nap back at home because I get tired here really fast. Then I went to exploring with my host father. We drove to the boys' elementary school to pick them up with my host mother. Along the way he took me to Kijo Park, which, despite the lack of grass, looks like a good place to toss a frisbee. It used to be a castle with a whole ton of moats, 7 or 8.

Back at the house I went for a walk with the boys along the river by the house. There's a nice paved running path there and the boys brought their basketballs and dribbled along. We played for a while, me stealing a ball and then keeping it away until they got it back. We had a lot of fun. Then we went back to the house, only to go out again to the supermarket three blocks away. Then back to the house for dinner, and then my host mother's friend came by with her three daughters. I chatted in broken Japanese, conversing the best I could. But then the kids started to play hide and go seek and I joined in. Fun game.

Then its bath and bed. I'm having much more fun in my host family already than I did in orientation.