Giving Thanks

Thursday was a good day. It was a really good day. Thanksgiving was awesome. I had an apple for lunch so I would be extra hungry for dinner. Usually dinner starts around 4:00 or earlier, but Japan didn’t have the day off. So right after school I left for the Stahmann’s house. They’re a Lutheran missionary family living in Tsuchiura. The priest’s wife and I are in the same Thursday night Japanese class and she invited me to dinner a few weeks ago. I arrived at their house with Coke a few minutes about 4:45. Originally they planned to start dinner around five but lots of other people were late so we didn’t sit down to eat until almost six. This was fine with me as it gave me time to talk with everyone. There were the Stahmanns with their four girls, the Wordells, another missionary family in Tokyo with five children, a Japanese-American couple whose names I don't remember, Becky the Stahmann’s schoolteacher, Katrina a college student in Chiba who’s friends with Becky, Katrina’s Japanese friend, and me. The whole house was lively with conversation and laughter. I chatted with Mr. Wordell for a while before dinner. We talked about Japan in general, then about my experiences here. After speaking with him the Stahmann’s two youngest girls asked me to read to them from Ranger Rick magazine. That was cute.

Dinner was absolutely delicious. I didn’t know turkey was available in Japan. Apparently the Costco an hour away sells them. Plenty of food and conversation in English. Japanese is fun and I like speaking. The struggle to communicate is what makes it interesting, but sometimes I just want to have a real conversation. My Japanese is getting better but my topics are still pretty limited to physical things. It’s hard to get into a philosophical or abstract conversation the way I can and do in English. So it was a relief to be able to say what came to my mind without having to translate it first. I wouldn’t want English all the time that defeats the purpose of being here, but once in a while is great. I sat next to Katrina and we hit it off really well. She’s an exchange student in Chiba city, about 20 minutes away from Tsuchiura by train. We talked about adjusting in Japan, language difficulties, and things we miss about America. Halfway through dinner she asks, “So how has it been making friends?” I told her surprising difficult. “I know right? They’re afraid of us.” It was comforting to find someone else in the same boat. She promised to facebook me and says she’ll introduce me to friends that she’s made at college. Sweet. Sweet like the pie that finished off dinner. I love pumpkin pie.

Friday turned out well too. I went to see Red Cliff, a movie about ancient Chinese war with some friends. My host mother gave me 5 ticket vouchers on Wednesday. Movies are expensive here, like $18 a pop. So I jumped at the chance to treat someone to a movie. I asked Hazuki if he wanted to go. He said, “I’d love to but I’m meeting three people tonight.” So I brought them all along. That was fun. Plus spending the evening chatting in Japanese with friends from school balanced the evening of English on Thursday. Red Cliff was interesting but too long. It was also in Chinese, with Japanese subtitles. I understood even less than if it had been in straight Japanese. But the fight scenes were really really cool so that made up for it. The popcorn at the theater was awful. And it came from a dispenser. The Japanese don’t seem to be very big on snacks in movies. Or movies in general. The theater was not what I expected for a town of 100,000. Maybe it’s cause they’re so expensive.

Today I had track. It was beautiful running weather, although fairly cold. It was colder in the track room because there was no sun. Despite that, we still spent several hours there after practice. I napped and read manga. When I returned home I found the house full of children. Daichi and Ryohei had friends over and were playing. Playing, on a Saturday. This is unprecedented. My host mother was trying to practice violin and kept shouting at them to quiet down, so I volunteered to take them to the riverbank to play Frisbee. I was planning on playing basketball or something outside anyway, and tossing a disk around was great. Granted they were in elementary school but it was nice. We played Frisbee, then tag, then baseball when a few other friends showed up with equipment. I taught them how to make a reed out of grass.

Overall, three good days in a row. But I’ve also felt sad sometimes this weekend. I think I had it in my mind that missing home and having fun were mutually exclusive. But I’m never going to stop missing home, no one here can replace the family and friends I have in U.S. So I’m enjoying myself, but the loneliness is still there sometimes. It’s not nearly as powerful as it used to be and I am having fun regardless, but it’s still there. Maybe this is a good thing. I know that when I do go back I’ll be happy about it. And I’m already through one third of my stay here. That’s crazy.