Welcome to Japan!

Well...I'm here! In Japan, in my new home, in my new room, sitting at my new desk, and feeling the excitement of exchange run through me. I've only been here for five days, but it feels like such a long time! I think that's because I've done so much here already. That means I have much to tell, so let's start at the beginning, shall we?

So, I left Boston Saturday morning, had one long, boring flight to Atlanta, and then from there, an even longer, and more boring flight to Tokyo Narita. It took awhile to get through customs, because I needed to get something called a resident's card, and the official that was checking me was a trainee, and didn't know what to do. After being bounced around several customs officials, I finally got my card, and headed off to get my luggage.

First view of Tokyo- Tokyo Skytree

As soon as I wheeled my cart, stacked with my two gigantic suitcases and my carry-on, through the door to the pick-up area, I was greeted a bunch of college-age Japanese people, wielding flags, and "Rotary district 2580" signs (the ROTEX, apparently). Also there were my counselor, Kanai-san, and my club president, Sonobe-san. Once photos, and introductions were out of the way, my host family arrived, we loaded up the car, and made our way to my new home.

My new room!

One of the Rotex, Miki-san, accompanied us back to the house, and acted sort of as my translator, because I couldn't understand a word anyone was saying. However, she left in the middle of dinner, and I had to fend for myself for the rest of the night! There was alot of smiling and nodding and "Gomennasai, wakarimasen" (Sorry, I don't understand). But it's gotten better, since now I don't go anywhere without my pocket dictionary and my iTouch, which has a dictionary app on it. I've become notorious for whipping them out, pretty much whenever I say something, or when someone asks me a question. Mama thinks it's hilarious. 

So, speaking of Mama, I think it's time to introduce my first host family to all you readers. The Hotta family goes a little something like this...

 Papa (Yasuhiko Hotta), somewhere in his late 60s. Manages the restaurant next-door (which apparently has been in his family since 1880). He's very nice, but he's always kind of awkward when he talks to me, because he can never seem to decide whether he wants to speak to me in Japanese or English (and his English isn't great), so there's lots of long pauses in between his sentences. I always try to answer him in Japanese, though.

Mama (Masumi), also in her late 60s. Co-manages the restaurant with Papa. She's super sweet and friendly, and very motherly. She's always talking to me (although she knows I don't understand most of it) and teaching me different words and attempting to familiarize me with the city.

Obaa-san, my host granny. She's 93 years old, but she's still got all her personality and is super sweet. She talks to me alot too. I hang out with her alot because she's always in front of the TV, and the TV room is where I usually go, because I don't know where everyone else is...

Reiko-san, my 35-year old host sister. She's a traditional Japanese dancer (not sure if that's a job or a hobby, though). She's usually the one I can understand the best.

Yoko-san, my 33-year old host sister. She only lives in the house sometimes. Her birthday was yesterday! She speaks very good English, and likes to use it with me, even when I don't need it. She also does Japanese dance.

Extended family (They are always around the house, so I thought I'd include them):

Kenji-san, my host parents' son. He works in Papa and Mama's restaurant. He's the joker of the family and likes to tease his nieces and nephews. He's also my baseball-watching buddy.

Yuki-san, (at least I think that's her name...) another of my host parents' daughters. She works at the restaurant as well. She's really nice, and sometimes I'll eat dinner with her and her four kids when Papa and Mama have to work late.

Yuzu (Yu-chan), Yuki's oldest daughter (13). I met her my second day here, and haven't seen her since my third day.

Mutsumi (Mu-chan), Yuki second daughter (12). She's the most like a host sibling. She went with me and Mama on our shrine tour and I went with her to her traditional Japanese dance lesson. She also talks to me alot, but slowly and clearly, so most of the time I can understand. She's also very adept with the electronic translator.

Hikari (Hi-chan), Yuki's youngest daughter (9). She's absolutely adorable, and really hyper. She also a very talented Japanese dancer.

Konosuke (Ko-chan), Yuki's youngest (6). He's also really cute and really hyper. He likes to crash around the house on his Hello Kitty car, and play with Uncle Kenji.

Also around the house are Helper-san's 1 and 2 (Obaa-san's helpers) and Papa's cousin, and Mama's cousin.

The house is a traditional style japanese house, with sliding doors and tatami mats. It's really exciting! It's also pretty big for a Japanese house, and it's arranged like a maze, so I get lost daily.  

Well, now that that's done with, let's move on to day two, shall we?

Yabusoba- the family restaurant

Day two was actually pretty boring. The only exciting part was getting to eat in the family restaurant (Yabusoba), where I shocked the family with my chopstick skills! Actually, they were just surprised that I could use chopsticks at all. I also amazed them by eating all of my soup, including the weird chewy fish meat.
Wednesday was more exciting. Mama, Mu-chan, and I went on a little walk around Chiyoda. They took me some shrine that I forget the name of, which was very pretty. And I got to pray Japanese style (throw in a coin, clap, bow, pray, bow...or something like that). I actually have a little story about that: So, before we prayed we went to wash/cleanse ourselves in this fountain. And what you're supposed to do is take the dipper, and pour water over your hands. Then, Mama demonstrated what looked like cleaning your face. So, I preceded to pour some water into my hands and splash it onto my face. Apparently, that was the wrong thing to do, because Mama and Mu-chan burst into laughter, while I stood there staring, with water dripping down my face. Oh well, I guess that was stupid-gaijin moment number 1.

We also went to a Confucius shrine.

After that we visited a very pretty Russian Orthodox church, which surprised me, because I didn't expect there to be any pretty churches in Japan.

On Wednesday, I registered for school, and got my uniform. I also found out that school doesn't start until September 3, so I still have a month of vacation to go!

School uniform!

So I discovered that my route to school includes walking through Akihabara, the center of Japanese anime and manga. It's definitely an...interesting place. Definitely not boring, I can say that much! I'll try and get some good pictures later.
That evening, I accompanied Mu-chan and Hi-chan to their traditional Japanese dance class. It was really fun to watch and they're really good! I actually might get a chance to try it later!

This is from a video of Reiko and Yoko dancing. Yoko is in blue, and Reiko is in pink. 

Then, that night was Yoko's birthday dinner and my (surprise) welcome party! Actually, I don't think it was meant to be a surprise, but I can't understand much, so it came as a surprise to me :) We ate at a fancy Chinese restaurant. And I mean real Chinese food, not the American kind, in all it's strangeness, including some gross meat that was only described to me as "river fish."

The first course (and yes, that is a shrimp head that you see in the middle).

The room also had a really great view of Tokyo that kept me occupied for quite awhile as Uncle Kenji pointed out every single moderately famous sight of Toyko that he could find.

The dome in the top right corner is Tokyo dome where the Giants play (baseball).

Apparently Shinjuku is somewhere in here :P

Me and host mom #3

Me and current host mama

Today I went to my first Rotary meeting. I had to give a short speech, that Mama helped me write, which I think went pretty well. I also met all of my host families (I'll have four, in total). They all seem very nice, and very excited to stay with them all (although, unfortunately, I will have to wait until host family #4 for siblings). Interestingly enough, the meeting was mostly taken up by a speech by one of the members about the differences between Korean and Japanese pop culture, specifically pop music and dramas. I just thought it was a funny topic for a serious-looking older man to be discussing.

So that's all for now! Tomorrow I'm off to language camp for two weeks, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to blog, but you'll here plenty about it when I get back!

じゃあね！